Layers of Us (Second Generation Book 2)

Chapter 8

EMBER

“Are you sure you didn’t miss the turn?” Stef grumbles, in a manner that was not helping, from the passenger’s seat as she looks at the map on her phone.

“The GPS told me to turn back there and that clearly wasn’t right. Where am I supposed to turn off? You’re looking at the map?”

“I don’t know. Give me a second.”

Finally, we find the correct turn-off and make our way down the long dirt and gravel road. Bev said that we’d pass a big house and then three barns, those were all working barns finally we’d get to the reception hall. I could see the barn and how the opening looked very different from the other barns. “This might be it,” I said as I pulled in between a few trucks.

Stef and I got out of the car and made our way into the barn where everything was being set up for Harlow and Lyle’s nuptials. I see Bev in the very front talking to somebody and I wave in her direction.

“Ember! You’re here!” She comes up to me and gives me a giant hug and then does the same with Stef. “Good to see you two again, did you find the place okay?”

“Um, it took a few extra turns, but we found it.”

“You followed the GPS huh? We’ve been meaning to tell people not to follow that for years, but you’re here now and that is all that matters. What do you think?” She gestures around and I take one big spin around and take it all in.

“The magazine pictures just don’t do it justice. I cannot wait to see it all decorated. This place is stunning.”

“Thank you, I love it here. I did a few events in Chicago and I still prefer this place to all of them.”

“We do a lot of places at hotel reception halls,” Stef comments, “they don’t hold a match to what you have here.”

“Seriously, you two are amazing. Let me show you where you’ll be set up these next couple of days. Now I want to preface this by saying we haven’t had people in these cabins forever, so if there is anything wonky, please let one of us know.”

“You didn’t have to do this anyway, we could have gotten a motel room in town.”

“I know, but, hey, this way you get the full Port Ranch experience, yeah?”

“That’s true. I guess you don’t have to ask us twice.”

Bev walks with us to my car and we grab our luggage which she proceeds to load into a golf cart. We don’t have much as far as clothing goes and she said once we get settled into the cabin she’ll show up the kitchen space we can use. As we drive down the way I can’t help but take in the entire place. It is almost a dream come true. The area is beyond beautiful. Some wildflowers are beginning to bloom and the sun just brights up the entire place. I am almost list in fault when we pull up to a row of cute little cabins.

“We’re here! We cleaned up two of them in case you each want your own space, but the couches pull out to full size beds so in theory two can sleep comfortably in one cabin.” Bev puts the golf cart in park and we follow her into the first cabin.

“This is literally from a magazine, Bev.” Stef drops her bags and starts to snoop around. The cabin is a large open space with a small kitchenette in the center. I can see through the bedroom door to see a queen size bed in the back. The couch she is talking about being a pull out actually looks pretty comfortable and the place looks more spacious than you’d expect from the outside.

“Thank you, Stef. We used to have a lot of visitors here and my mom always did this huge continental breakfasts and what not, but as she got older, it was just harder to keep them up and running, you know?”