Alberta

Chapter Eleven: Together

We have been sitting around a fire pit doing S'mores in the larger of the cabins front aspect, a large fire pit surrounded with the cast of five thousand, or so it felt with my large family. There was a hot tub that the kids had been in and out of and now that it was getting darker, the adults too. Everyone is joyful and content to be together. Morgan has enjoyed getting introduced to everyone, and she had asked me after the weird introduction to Allie if we could hold off on telling them what our exact relationship was until the last day, because in her words "what if they all look at me like your best friend did when I introduced myself....Willa it looked like I had flung mud at her or something... she was so shocked"

Morgan wanted to get to know them first, so that perhaps when they found out we were actually a couple, the sting would be less so. Unfortunately Morgan didn't realise it would never be her that they disliked, it wasn't anything to do with her gorgeous personality or her beauty, it would be because she was a girl and they still hoped I would return to the church. I understood Morgan's hesitancy to reveal our exact relationship in this setting, but I really wish we had just ripped off the band aid, because now it feels like I'm hiding myself again.

Ben passed by where I was sat at the fire pit and I reached for his arm "Where is Allie" I ask concerned. She hadn't come down for the dinner and now was missing the s'mores which she loved. Her absence had been noted by my mom and Charlotte also, but Ben hadn't explained, only said she wasn't feeling well.
I didn't believe him.

"She's feeling unwell" he replies again and moves over to sit beside Harper so that he can help her with her s'more, pulling her onto his lap.

"Willa you want a drink" Byron asks me as he stands from his camp chair.

"No but thanks for the offer" I return.

He glances at Morgan who is sat in a deep discussion with my brother Brigham, or Brig as we affectionately call him, about baseball. Brig was also a baseball coach at the local college, he and Morgan had a lot in common. "Morgan a drink" Byron asks and she nods and thanks him in advance.

I look around at everyone chatting and laughing and I feel happy to be with them but Allies absence is glaring to me, and only me from what I can tell. I turn to Morgan and tell her "I will be back" and she smiles politely and watches me walk away amongst the trees.

"Willa" my mom almost chastises as she walks from Brigham's cabin with baby Luca in her arms "where are you going too" she asks as she rocks him back and forth. My mom is only about five foot two, she still has blonde hair, cut short just shy her shoulders, but she lets the flecks of white shine through when it appears. For a woman with six children, one being newly forty, my mom looked youthful still, and had a spring in her step at all times. Saying that though, my mom had been a typical young bride, marrying my father fresh out of school, and so she was only eighteen years older than Charlotte which was pretty near my age gap with Charlotte. Which said a-lot about the way my sister treated me like a child.

"I just want to check in with Allie. It's not like her to miss s'mores is it" I remark.

My mom looks over to Ben and Allies cabin, shroud in darkness.

"It is a little strange... she's usually the one out front and centre giving out the marshmallows and the crackers... I've hardly seen her since we all did the birthday cake for Charlotte this afternoon"

I thought back to that moment. She had been there but had been with Harper the entire time. I hadn't said a word to her as I hadn't got the chance, she seemed to purposefully avoid me.

"I'm sure she's fine but what are best friends for" I say.

My mom smiles and places her hand on my arm "you two have always had the most wonderful bond... right from the start. It makes me happy to see you both together... talking of together is there something you want to tell me about Morgan" she asks with a raised eyebrow.