Scarlett Rose's Arc

Chapter 37 of 57

The morning after she signed the deed, Scarlett sat at the kitchen table with the sealed envelope in front of her. Clayton's name was written across the front in her steady hand. The ceremony was in two days. Rose had already driven into town for the flowers. Maya was coming by at ten to run through the order of service one last time. Scarlett stared at the envelope and understood the problem she hadn't let herself see yesterday. She couldn't carry it up the aisle herself. She couldn't leave it in the binder on a chair. If it slipped out, if Clayton saw it early, if a guest opened it thinking it was a program, the gift was ruined. She couldn't give it to Rose. Rose would be walking her down the aisle with both hands full of Scarlett. She couldn't give it to Clayton's mother without the news traveling to Clayton before sundown. Aunt Lorraine would cry and forget where she put it. That left one name. Maya came through the door at ten with her braid over one shoulder and a coffee in each hand. She set one down in front of Scarlett and looked at the envelope. "That the thing you were whispering about on the phone yesterday?" "That's it." Scarlett slid it across. "It's the deed to twelve acres along the fence line. In his name. It's his wedding gift and he can't know until after the vows." Maya didn't pick it up right away. She read the front. She looked at Scarlett. "You want me to hold it." "I need you to hold it. From now until you pronounce us. Then you hand it to him." Maya sat down. She put her coffee beside the envelope. "Scarlett. I'm the officiant. I'll have the book, the rings, the vows, and a microphone clipped to my collar. If I set this down on the pulpit and a breeze catches it, your brother-in-law is reading a legal document in the third row." "Then don't set it down." Maya looked at her a long second. Then she reached into her jacket and pulled out a flat leather folio she used for the ceremony order. She opened it. She slid the envelope inside the back flap, behind the last page, and snapped the folio closed. "It doesn't leave my hand from Saturday morning until I hand it to him," she said. "I sleep with it under my pillow Friday night. I walk in with it. I walk out with it if I have to." "Swear." "I swear." Maya tapped the folio. "He gets it after I say husband and wife. Not before." Scarlett let out the breath she'd been holding since dawn. Two days. The gift was safe. Clayton came in from the barn at noon and asked what Maya had wanted. Scarlett said they were going over the vows. Maya sipped her coffee and didn't look up.