Her mother pulled herself so upright that she did, indeed, look like a tough old bird with her neck stretched like that. "Obviously! I knew we'd have to talk some sense into you, but I didn't realize we'd have to pry you out of some cowboy's arms to do it!"
Biting back the venomous retort she wanted to let fly, Charlie simply smiled as well as she could and said calmly, "I'm marrying this particular cowboy, Mother. I'm sure you remember him. Luken Langston. Luke, you remember my parents, Norma and Dr. Evans. And their trusty sidekick, Elroy."
Charlie was absolutely proud of Luke when he smiled confidently as well and stepped forward to shake their hands. "Doctor and Mrs. Evans. It's so good of you to drop by. And Elroy. Good of you to come and celebrate our engagement. I respect that. Welcome to Montana."
Covering her near strangulation from his greeting with a cough, Charlie said sweetly, "Uh, darling. I hadn't actually mentioned to them that I was engaged. They must have heard it from Fo and decided to come and celebrate." She turned back to her parents. "That was so kind of you guys. I actually thought that you'd be a little mad. Can you stay here at the ranch with us or are you getting a hotel in town?"
Her mother may have decided to have an infarction anyway. The veins began to stick out on her elongated neck and her face turned a fiery red. Thankfully, her husband put a soothing hand on her arm and said, "Norma, calm down. We need to talk this out." He turned to Charlie, "We don't expect the Langstons to put us up, Charlie. We have rooms in town. We can talk about things there over a late dinner. Come along."
When he went to take Charlie's arm, Luke neatly pulled her against him and said, "I'm sorry Dr. Evans, but Charlie and I have a prior engagement this evening. We won't be able to come into town tonight. Would tomorrow work? Say lunch at eleven thirty or so? It'll be my treat."
Her dad didn't skip a beat. "No. We have a plane to catch at ten in the morning. We'll talk to Charlie tonight after your prior engagement." He turned to Charlie. "Elroy will bring you when you're ready."
With that, the three of them turned and headed for the bunkhouse door, only pausing as Elroy turned around and said, "We'll see you later then. It was good to see you again, Fo and Logan. Take care now."
As the door shut behind them, Charlie sighed and Luke smiled as Fo mimicked, "Take care now, Logan."
Charlie began to pace the length of the bunkhouse as Luke sprawled onto the couch. Fo brought Oreos and milk but even that didn't get Charlie to stop fuming at the allpowerfuls.
Finally, she threw herself onto the couch beside Luke and Fo with a laugh. "I'm sorry. I know I'm acting crazy, because I truly am fit to be tied, but you were so dang funny, Luke! How could you even keep a straight face when you thanked Elroy for coming to celebrate our engagement? I had no idea you were such a great actor. You should be in Hollywood! And prior engagement?"
Luke dipped another Oreo and said blandly, "I wasn’t acting. You mean he didn't come to celebrate with us? But he was so enthusiastic about it all. And we had the most literal prior engagement on the planet. You said yes, by the way. I’m holding you to that. And I must say, you are an excellent kisser!"
Charlie shook her head and laughed until her eyes started to tear. She reached for an Oreo. "If this wasn't so dang awful, it'd be hysterical." She only made it through half an Oreo before she got up to pace again. Finally, she said, "I gotta go. I'm going to go for a run to get my head together before I have to go talk to them."
"Charlie, no!" Luke lunged off the couch to catch her. "We'll go with you. You can't go running alone in the dark until Tyree is put away. Remember?"
Fo choked on his Oreo and then said something to Luke that neither of the others could understand through his mouthful. Finally, he swallowed and said, "Are you crazy? We can't run with her. We'd die! She's not a jogger, Luke. She's a machine. A long distance machine. A fast, long distance machine. You might be able to keep up with her, but I'd lie down and kick the bucket in half a mile."
Luke grinned at Charlie. "Really? You're a fast, long distance machine?"
"No, but I have run him under the table the couple of times he's come with me. Never mind. I'd forgotten all about Tyree. I'll just go meet them now and get it over with. Otherwise, I'll only worry until I do."
Luke shook his head. "Charlie, Charlie, Charlie. You're not going to go meet them now.
You're
not going to go meet them at all. We are going to go meet them. And we're not going to go do it for about another four and a half hours. That'll make it what? One-thirty Montana time. Three-thirty Connecticut time. I'll honor your parents' demands to a point, but we're not going to play their all powerful games. And I know I'm being domineering to say this, but we're not going at all unless you give me your word that if it gets out of hand, we're walking out."
Fo whistled and said, “It’s about time you started fighting for her, big guy. Way to be possessive finally!”
Charlie sighed. "Do you truly think this is going to work, Luke? It might be awful."
He came to her and put his arms around her. "Of course it's going to work. Losing you isn't even an option. Do you truly question me? Would you honestly be willing to have someone force you to go somewhere you don't want to go and be with someone you don't choose to be with?"
"No." She shook her head. "You're right. But they're tough. They're really tough."
"Charlie, it's our future they want to take. They have no right to force anyone. God himself wouldn't force someone, even if it was for their good.” He smiled. “I’m going to force you to try to remember that, okay?"
She gave him a tenuous smile and nodded. "Okay."
Nudging her chin up so he could look into her eyes, he said, "Good. Because on a serious note, I can't live without you." He gave her that long look again and leaned down and kissed her gently. Fo cleared his throat.
"So, hey, what am I missing? Last night, she was sobbing her eyes out and moving in the morning and you were bitter and depressed and downright surly. What in the heck is going on here tonight?"
Charlie looked at Luke. "You didn't tell him about the pantry?"
"No. Didn't you?"
"I didn't tell him."
"Neither did I." Luke came close to her, smiled and kissed her. "Should we tell him?"
Charlie laughed and kissed him back. "I don't know, what d'you think?"
"Maybe in a minute." At that, Luke proceeded to kiss her in earnest and it almost scared her. It was fun to tease Fo, but facing reality after their charade was going to be tricky.
Fo made a sound of complete disgust and said, "All right, you two. I wanted you to get together, but do you have to do this here?"
Luke pulled away and laughed. "He's right. We should go to the pantry again."
He took her hand and headed for the door, but Fo called after them, "Oh, no you don't. Don't you two dare leave until you tell me why you're so much happier tonight. I have a right to know, you know. I'm the one who has had to listen to both of you blubber. Out with it."
Charlie laughed as they turned around and said, "In all honesty, Fo, I haven't a clue what happened. One minute, I was tearfully telling Richard that I had to go and the next, I was stranded high and dry in the pantry with your cousin here and he was absolutely out of his head. He's still that way. I just hope he stays this way long enough to get rid of my parents."
"Yeah." Luke sat down on the couch and pulled her down beside him. "I've been out of my head since about four months ago when this strikingly beautiful blonde surprised me just out of the shower right over there. Fo knows what a mess I've been, so he isn't going to be surprised. But he could have told me that you had decided you didn't want to go to law school."
Fo put up both hands defensively. "Hey. Just like I told both of you already. This relationship was far too important for me to get in the middle of and screw up. I told you both that. I was caught in the meat grinder between you. So what happened in the pantry?"
Luke pulled Charlie against his side and smiled at Fo. "We can't tell you. A true gentleman—or true gentlewoman—true gentle people never kiss and tell. So we can't tell."
"Well, I figured that, Valentino. Why were you kissing was the question?"
Luke looked down at Charlie and gave her a look that made her stomach go into instant butterflies before he glanced at Fo with a grin and said, "Because it's really fun?"
"Gee, that was informative."
Charlie smacked Luke. "Quit hassling him. I don't know about you, but he truly has gone far beyond the call of duty with me. Just tell him what you told me. Maybe I'll understand it better this time as well."
"I only told her that trying not to pressure her to forego law school and stay here was killing me by degrees. When I heard her tell my dad she'd decided she wasn't going to go to law school after all and that she loved Montana and was going to come back, I couldn't help myself. I had to haul her into the pantry and fall onto my knees and beg her to accept my hand in marriage and live happily ever after."
Fo turned to her. "Please tell me he's joking."
"Well, yes and no. The pantry is too small for any form of kneeage, but the rest is pretty accurate."
"Holy peanut butter! What did you do?"
Dryly, Luke answered for her. "Felt my forehead and asked me if I was having a stroke. It was very deflating actually."
Fo shook his head and laughed. "Somehow, I don't truly have to ask if you're being serious. I can just see her doing that."
Charlie chipped in, "He failed to mention the other six, yes, six people who were involved in the pantry scene. The only one who didn't try to come in with us was Richard. He just stood outside and chuckled at us."
Mimicking Charlie's response from a few nights before, Fo said, "Sounds too romantical for me."
Charlie chuckled. "Yeah, buddy."
"So did you get yourselves all ironed out so you truly can live happily ever after?"
Both of them hesitated and then Charlie said, "Sort of."
Luke added, "We're working on it."
Fo looked dubiously from one to the other. "So then what's the problem?"
They looked at each other for a second, and then Luke smiled and said, "Charlie's a chicken."
"Huh!" She nudged him with her elbow. "He asked me to marry him like thirteen seconds after he'd been shunning me for forever! What did he expect?"
Fo spun to look at Charlie in disgusted amazement. "You turned him down? You've been blubbering for weeks and you turned him down?" Fo got up and came toward Charlie and she screamed as Fo said, "That is it! You are getting a swirly!"
Charlie latched onto Luke's shirt with a death grip and buried herself into his side. "Luke, no, save me! I had to do it, Fo! Luke! Help me!"
Luke obviously had no idea what to do here. He finally put his arm around Charlie and Fo backed off as Luke asked, "What, may I ask is a swirly?"
Shaking her head, Charlie said, "Oh. You don't even want to know. He never actually does it, but he almost does and it's awful!"
Fo rolled his eyes. "Yeah, please! I've threatened like twice and she's absolutely as strong as me and almost kicked the stuffins out of me the last time. I only have to resort to that when she does something one hundred percent brain dead!" This last he directed loudly at Charlie. "Like turning him down! Man, Charlie. I thought I'd raised you better than this! This is your all time dumbest stunt ever!"
Charlie giggled. "No, it's not. Remember that time when we were in Mrs. Michaelis' class and we were learning to sew together and I accidentally sewed my pant leg to yours and then stood up?"
Fo began to laugh uncontrollably and then collapsed into a heap on the couch beside them again. "Oho, yes I do."
He laughed so hard he fell right off and kept on laughing and finally Luke asked, "Did what I think you're saying, happen?"
Fo tried to catch his breath. "Not only did she pull her pants nearly off in front of our whole third grade class, but she ripped them as well. I remember it clearly. She was wearing polka dot underwear."
"Forest Eldridge! He did not need to know that! You're probably making it up anyway."
"True story. I remember thinking I was so glad boys didn't have to wear stupid looking derwear like that. I had absolutely no sense of adventure then."
"Keep it up, buddy and you'll get a sense of adventure." She turned to Luke. "So, if we're not leaving for another four hours, what are we going to do to keep me from stewing the whole time?"
Luke gave her a wicked grin. "We could go back to the pantry."
"Luke."
"Okay, never mind. We can kiss right here too."
Fo laughed, but then he said, "No, you can't. True gentle people never kiss on the same couch as their roommate. How about a cut throat game of Monopoly. I should be just about whipping up on bof of y'all at about one-thirty."
"In your dreams, Fo." Charlie got up to go get the box out of the trunk in the corner and put it on the coffee table in front of the couch. "You always end up in jail while he and I snap up all the properties."
"Well, then you fall asleep and he always wins you anyway."
"You have a point there. I want to be the hat. What do you want to be, Luke?"
"I still want to be the guy in the pantry."
"Pantry. Now is that by Park Place? Here, be the boot."
"See that, Fo? Just goes to show you can't trust a woman in a top hat. We've only been engaged forty minutes and she just gave me the boot."
"Hey, that was a pretty good one, cuz." Fo and Luke touched fists like a high five.
Charlie handed Fo the box to choose his game piece. "It could have been worse. I could have given you the thimble or the iron. Heck, I could have killed you with the lead pipe in the conservatory. Count your blessings."
"Yeah, I guess getting the boot is better than being killed with a pipe. Do we dare trust Fo to be the banker?"
"Oh, heavens yes. Just make sure you keep him in an office. It's that manual labor you have to worry about with him."