Chapter 38---The latest chapter of this fanfiction. Thanks for reading and I hope you enjoy it. Thanks for the comments.
Downtown Silver Lode bustled with a lot of activity as the sun set behind the markets. Groups of men went to the local watering hole to attend a strategizing session about defending their way of life and groups of women attended Rhonda's bachelorette party just down the street.
Sydney supposed that she should have done some reporting time at the men's event because she had been told by her editor that it was beginning to appear as if the ranchers fight against the developers might just be a large enough story to send out on the national wires. Sydney however, felt drawn towards covering the bachelorette party, because she wanted to include it for her on-line coverage of the upcoming Jonathan and Rhonda nuptials. There were just so many compelling stories about one of the town's finest young men returning back home a success in the governmental sector. The fact that he no longer worked for the federal government mattered little. He was still the local boy who made good and he had come home to be married, bringing joy to the valley but breaking a few hearts in the process. Not to mention the fact that both herself and the maid of honor herself had prior relationships with the groom, with all that history intermingling in interesting ways, who knew what could happen on the actual day of the wedding?
So it wasn't much of a decision as far as Sydney was concerned and as she and C.J. walked into the diner to attend Rhonda's party, they didn't pay much attention to what else was going on, choosing to lose themselves in the act of spending several hours with other women kicking their feet up or just kicking back.
About a dozen women had arrived at the party, all in excitement. Chris did get her wish of having spa treatments be included in the festivities as the town's local manicurist set to work on her nails, while she sat back dipping pretzels in her chocolate mint ice cream. Several women sat back and mixed various and in some cases exotic ingredients together to make facials. Rhonda nixed having one done wanting to focus on downing some shots of vodka while she and several other women played a racier version of pin the tail on the donkey. Several of them hit close to the target and so they went to take a closer look.
"Wait a minute," Donna, the town notary said, "Mine clearly was in the right place."
"Darling," Suzy, the town post mistress said, "If that's the way it's supposed to look then this poor man has some kind of disease."
Donna scoffed.
"Maybe it's just more… flexible," she said.
"Not even my Ed's can move in that many directions," Suzy said.
Rhonda broke up the argument.
"Girls," she said, "Why don't you try the nice cake that Bonnie made special for this?"
She led them both to the magnificently chocolate fudge marbled version of Michelangelo's David which served as the center piece on the table. Some women had tried to touch it earlier to get a taste and Bonnie had slapped some hands.
"Not until later," she said.
"So where's the stripper," Libby the town librarian asked.
"He's getting ready back stage," Rhonda said, "but I promise you, he will definitely be worth the wait."
"I hope it's not some local yokel," she said, "Hopefully, he's at least from as far away as Denver."
Rhonda looked at C.J. who just shrugged her shoulders.
"Your party seems to be going well," C.J. admitted as they walked to the refreshment table.
"I'm going to refresh my drink and sit down," Rhonda said, "All this planning's kind of gotten to me."
They each poured themselves a scotch and sat in the corner, with Bonnie who had been handing out some exotic chocolates that she had ordered to the women, who found them delicious.
"There's something in there that's supposed to you know…make you a bit randy," Bonnie confided.
Rhonda's eyes widened.
"Are you sure that it's going to be safe to send these women home when the party's over?"
Bonnie laughed.
"There's a warning on the label," she said, "to imbibe carefully."
"I'm thinking of their poor husbands and boyfriends," Rhonda said.
Matt and Jed spent an hour meeting with the other ranchers to set up new shifts to guard the Wyatt and Flynn properties from further trespassing on them.
"How are the mustangs been doing," Jed asked.
"They've been coming around in their usual groups," one rancher said, sipping his beer, "We've been keeping a closer eye on them to make sure they're not bothered."
Jed nodded.
"That's great," he said, "We're going to have to keep doing that until we can get some feds down here to help enforce that injunction."
Another rancher stood up.
"When that's going to happen," he said, "Why aren't they down here?"
"That's a good question Shane," Jed said, "In fact, Matt here and I have been working very hard trying to hold the feds accountable."
"But they seem more intent on leaving you ranchers out in the cold," Matt finished.
"Maybe not for long," a man said as he entered the bar.
The other ranchers turned around at the sound of the familiar voice.
Jonathan stood at the doorway and everyone got up to welcome him back home.
Chris finished up the marble ice cream and pretzel mix that she had concocted. Other women had walked by and looked at her curiously but a couple brave souls had tried some and declared it if not exactly delicious, at least palatable.
Chris watched them leave, shaking her head.
"How could they pass up such a tasty treat," she asked.
C.J. laughed.
"Maybe it's more of an acquired taste," she said, diplomatically.
Chris waved a pretzel at her friend.
"Oh just you wait when it's your turn and you start eating unbelievably bizarre things," she said, "And I bet they'll be even stranger than mine."
Rhonda overheard her and sat down suddenly, covering her forehead.
"Chris dear, must we bring up that "p" word at my party," she said, waving her hand near her face.
C.J. looked at her friend.
"Don't tell me…"
Rhonda shook her head vigorously.
"No I'm not," she said, "but well, I didn't tell you everything there was to say about this marriage proposal thing."
That piqued C.J. and Chris' curiosity.
"Do tell us," Chris said.
Rhonda hesitated.
"Well, when we were biking through Kentucky, we got a little…frisky and it broke."
Chris and C.J. just looked at her, confused.
"It broke, you know," she said, "You mean I'm the only one who practices safer sex?"
"Oh, I see," Chris said, nodding, "so what did you do?"
Rhonda played with her hands.
"Well, we had a long discussion about what would happen if I did get pregnant," she said, "and I think that by the time we got that done, that's when we both knew that we really did want to stick it out together."
Chris nodded.
"That's kind of romantic actually," she said, "in its own way."
Rhonda harrumphed.
"When did I ever say I was a traditional Hallmark kind of girl?"
C.J. smiled.
"That's one way to test your commitment between each other," she said, "and it turned out to be a positive thing, I see."
Rhonda nodded.
"We really do love each other underneath it all," she said, "Imagine that."
"Jonathan's a great guy," C.J. said, "Take good care of him."
"Oh don't worry about that," Rhonda said, "What would you have done in our shoes, you and your boyfriend?"
"I can't even imagine being in that kind of situation," C.J. said, "I mean I want children but I've got a lot to do first and I know that things are different now, but I'd like to be married."
Chris pressed her.
"So what would you do," she said.
C.J. gave it some thought, then smiled.
"I'd have the baby of course," she said, "after all, I love the father and I think some small part of me always wanted to have a bit of him running in my children's veins."
"Now that's romantic," Rhonda said, "but what about marriage?"
Chris laughed.
"If anything, Matt would want to run not walk to the altar," she said, "I think he's very traditional that way."
"How would you feel about that C.J.," Rhonda asked.
C.J. shook her head, not wanting to go down this road any further. She wanted to enjoy her relationship which still felt like it was in its embryonic stage rather than think too far ahead.
"I thought we were talking about your real wedding," she said, "not my hypothetical one."
"So Jonathan, how do you feel about getting married," Matt asked him after buying him his first drink, which was a Vodka on the rocks.
"I feel ready," he said, "as ready as I'll ever be. There will never be a dull moment. That's for sure," he said, shaking his head.
"Yeah, your future bride is hosting her party just on down the street," Matt said.
Jonathan nodded.
"She really loves to have fun and kick up her heels," he said, "and it's good for her to see her friends again."
"So how's the job market?"
Jonathan shrugged.
"I'm looking at a couple different offers," he said, "including a couple with the federal government."
Matt raised his brows.
"I never thought I'd hear you say that you'd consider going back."
Jonathan sipped his Vodka and swallowed it slowly.
"I never thought I would either," he said, "but I guess that I'd been bitten harder than I thought."
"You could always take your talents into the private sector," Matt said.
Jonathan laughed.
"You hiring?"
Matt's face grew serious.
"If you were interested, I'd hire you on," he said, "I'm thinking of starting a new venture in Houston when we're done here."
Jonathan looked surprised.
"What about your agency out in L.A.?"
Matt took a long sip from his beer.
"I was thinking of handing it off to my partners and maintaining a controlling interest," he said, "but my life's in Texas now."
Jonathan nodded.
"Because that's where C.J. is now?"
Matt's smile was his only answer.
Nick and his men stood outside the diner, near where they had parked their vehicles.
"It's just a bunch of the women folk having a party," one of his men said, "One of those ladies-only affairs."
Nick nodded.
"Where the men," he asked.
"They're in the bar having some type of meeting," the man said.
Nick walked back to his truck.
"Well, I've got something to
"Wait, does Kilroy know what you're doing?"
Nick turned to face his men.
"He gave me explicit orders to do whatever I needed to do to stop these people from interfering with our project," he said, "He didn't give me any restrictions for my methods."
"What are you planning to do," the man asked.
Nick smiled.
"You'll see."
Rhonda looked at the group of women who were growing restless. Chris walked up to her.
"Don't you think It's time to bring Joe on out to do his thing?"
Sydney walked up to Rhonda.
"I've got some great footage of this party," she said, "How's Joe doing?"
"I'm going off to find him," Rhonda said, "He's backstage somewhere right."
Sydney shrugged.
"Last I saw he was back there getting ready."
"I'll go find him," Rhonda said.
C.J. started to walk to get some more refreshments when she felt her phone vibrate. She picked it up and heard a voice on the other end.
"You have approximately five minutes to evacuate from that building," the unknown voice said.
C.J. stared at her phone in shock.
"What are you talking about," she said, "Who is this?"
The speaker ignored her questions.
"There's a device that's set to detonate in less than five minutes," the voice said, "You need to get out of there."
The person hung up the phone. C.J. looked around the room at all the women, talking amongst themselves and getting more refreshments from Bonnie's table. She looked towards every closet, every cupboard, drawer, every nook and cranny where a bomb could be hidden.
"Hey everyone," C.J. yelled, waving her arms, "I need your attention."
Everyone stopped what they were doing and looked up at her puzzled.
"What is it C.J.," Rhonda said.
"I just got a phone call that says there's a bomb inside here and we have several minutes to get out of here," she said.
"You have got to be kidding me," Rhonda said.
C.J. shook her head.
"I don't think this is a joke," she said, "I think we need to leave."
Everyone started running out of the diner in different directions, trying to find the way out. Rhonda and C.J. left to where Joe was waiting back stage dressed in his outfit.
"Is it time for me to go on stage," he asked.
Rhonda shook her head and grabbed his arm.
"No it's time to get out of here," she said, "C.J. just got a warning that the place is going up in less than five minutes."
His eyes widened and he grabbed some things and followed them out. While running through the banquet room, they noticed that the refreshment table including the Michelangelo's David cake had been knocked to the floor.
"Why the hell would anyone warn us," Rhonda asked as she and C.J. left the building after making sure it was empty.
"I don't know," C.J. said, "Whoever's responsible obviously didn't attend to kill anyone."
Rhonda frowned.
"Maybe just to break up my party."
Sydney wandered around followed by her cameramen who stuck his video camera in people's faces to get their reaction to the bomb threat. They all stood around waiting for the place to go up.
Matt sat up and listened. Jonathan and Jed looked at him.
"What is it," Jed asked.
"I'm hearing a lot of commotion outside," he said, "I wonder what that's all about."
They went to the doorway to look out towards the street.
"It's the women who went to Rhonda's party," Jed said, incredulously.
C.J. waited for the explosion to happen as the clock ticked down but after it ticked down past five minutes, only silence and an empty building met them. She sighed wondering if they'd been duped by some mysterious party when suddenly, a thunderous boom struck the air and shook the ground. C.J. looked up and saw that the bar where the ranchers had held their meeting had been badly damaged and was burning. She and some of the other women went running towards the inferno.