Magic Ball: the Billionaire in Ranch

26 Two Different Weddings

There were flowers scattered on the red carpet lining the pathway toward the church’s altar. The bride began walking, and Noah observed his little brother growing stiff beside me. His shoulders tensed, a sweat falling at the back of his neck. 

“Calm down,” Noah whispered, his hands in front of him. He inwardly thought that weddings must have been this nerve-wracking. “This marks your entire life,” he made it clear to him just in case he thinks of backing-out at the last minute. 

Noah gave his little brother a gentle pat at his back. Elijah tilted his body toward him and gave his hand a firm squeeze. “I feel like I would s**t my pants or something.” The music from the piano got louder as the bride smiled at the people she passed on every row of chairs.

“I’m sure you do.” Noah affirmed. He understood his little brother. It’s an entire lifetime they’re risking here.

He was diverting his little brother’s attention. He tilted his head toward their mother. She sat at the front row, a handkerchief dabbed on her damp cheeks.

“Just look at our mother. She’s sobbing like crazy and you’re here telling me that you’re going to s**t your pants? Hell no, man.” He followed Elijah’s stare as it landed on their mother, whose tears overflowed down her chin. Noah noted the way Mary’s mouth moved. It said something like we paid for that make-up, and you’re wasting foundation. They both laughed afterward, the background music growing more climatic.

The side-eye Elijah gave to Noah made him remember the times they fought about who would play first in the monitor their dad bought for them to share. It meant he knew why Noah told him such things, such as that they told Elijah that their mom knew he was using the PC for playing instead of making assignments. That night, Noah had warned him, but he didn’t listen. Now, Noah told him the truth. And there was a shimmer in Elijah’s eyes that told him he heard it this time.

When the bride finally fell in step with where they were standing, Elijah’s eyes lit like fireworks during New Year’s. Noah assumed he felt multiple emotions all at the same time. But above everything else, Noah’s sure his little brother looked the happiest he will ever be in this lifetime. His smile made him look five years younger than he originally is.

Sweeping the bride’s veil away from the stairs, Noah watched from his seat how Elijah cried during their vows, and how his face turned like the glorious sun when he kissed her gently in front of the people who would forever be a witness to their union.

The wedding reception was held at an Italian-inspired garden that had a grape yard behind it. It was wine, grapes, cheese, and pasta.

Elijah and his new bride rented the entire place and had given the guests their baskets. They had them harvest their grapes as souvenirs. He wasn’t biased about his little brother’s wedding, but it was the worthiest souvenir Noah had in every wedding he attended. He couldn’t help but compare his brother’s marriage to the previous wedding of a co-worker he was forced to participate in.

The co-worker gave them a figurine of him and his wife, and Noah thought hard as to what he would do with it after the wedding. He was too guilty to throw it, so had it displayed in his house. In the end, Mik knocked the figurine off his cabinet. It smashed into a thousand pieces, and Noah didn’t even know why he felt guilty sweeping it.

He spent more time with his family, and of course, with the new addition to who would carry the Martins’ last name: Elijah’s wife.

Noah’s father and mother were the ones who dropped him off the airport. Mary was fetched by her boyfriend, while Elijah and his wife went straight ahead to the Maldives. Noah had sponsored their airplane ticket as a wedding gift. He teased his little brother that he needed nieces and nephews when they come back.

Noah’s parents enclosed him in a bear hug. He gave his mother a kiss on the cheek. Noah told her he would be back for her birthday in a couple of months.

“You better not get married,” she said sniffling. “I don’t think I can handle any of my babies leaving me.” Tears pooled at the end of her eyes.

His father rolled his eyes, “Don’t be ridiculous. Eventually, all three of them would settle somewhere far away from us.”

Laughing, Noah clasped his mother’s hand, “Don’t worry, Ma. If that happens, I’ll have you and Dad fly at Maple city. You can live close to my Stream Ranch.”

“Horses?” his father inquired, his face looking curious. “I would like that, actually.”

Noah blinked. It was the first time his father ever expressed what he liked in front of him. He would usually beat around the bush when he wants something. He guesses that fascination with horses had been going on in the family ever since.

“Yeah, Dad.” Noah adjusted the strap of his backpack, “I recently bought a Friesian horse.”

His dad’s eyes had a glint that meant he was interested in the said topic.

“Pure black?” he asked, a hand on his chin.

“Never fades.” Noah added. “He’s two years old now. Come by and I’ll show him to you.”

“So, it’s a stallion?” there was excitement in his tone, “Is he—is he fit for riding?”

“Riding, yes.” Taking his luggage, Noah smiled at him. He thought inwardly that it turns out the apple doesn’t fall far from the tree. “I trained him for riding. Very intelligent guy. But they’re not fit for racing.”

“Are you planning on buying a racing horse?”

Nodding, Noah added, “In the future. For sure.”

Giving them individual hugs, Noah proceeded inside the airport. He looked back and waved one last time before he boarded the plane.

“I’m Noah,” he introduced himself in front of an audience he was eight percent unsure of who they are—most he hadn’t met, except for the idiots that kept grinning at him from the stage he was standing at.

Brice didn’t inform him at hand that he was going to do a speech at his wedding reception. He almost s**t his pants when the groom suddenly called his name from the bar counter and easily dragged him next to the host who had been looking amused at their bantering about what was happening.

“I didn’t expect I’d be called in front and have my little speech. It’s like I’m reciting oral recitation,” Laughter erupted from the crowd. “You see, I was busy refilling my drinks when this guy called Brice came up to me and dragged me on stage to talk about how he loved Angela in the six years they’ve been together.”

Brice yelled something between the lines of getting on with it, as Michael chuckled, a cigarette in his hand. Nick looked as embarrassed as he was, and Noah’s glad to have someone to share it with.

“No kidding,” he added as he fumbled with the wine glass he unintentionally carried all the way up to the stage. “I even have the glass with me.”

“Don’t embarrass me!” Brice bellowed from his seat across from the stage.

“See that? He thinks I’m embarrassing him, when in fact, I’m the victim here.” Smirking, he raised the glass in the air. “Kidding aside, I just want to tell you all how nice of a guy friend Brice had been. We have met in college, and he hadn’t even told me once that he was dating Angela for years now. With his talkative demeanor, I never thought Brice would be this secretive about someone.”

Dragging his stare back at Brice, he smiled. “But that just means that he values his and Angela’s privacy. It isn’t a bad thing, but it was one thing to love a human being for six straight years. This guy had been with me through thick and thin when I was still starting out in America, and I can only wish him nothing but getting through the day, and end-up being happy no matter what obstacles come his way.”

Angela, whose hair she decided to be curled in beach waves, fanned her face. Tears slowly fell down her cheeks. Brice wrapped an arm around her shoulder, whispering something in her ear that made her blush.

“I’m not someone who knows a lot about romance, but if I was Brice and I loved one person for my entire life, never getting tired of her every waking day in our house, seeing her face first thing in the morning, and being able to hug her when she’s feeling sad—then that must have been the happiest feeling in the world.”

Raising his wine glass in the air, people had their utensils lightly tapping on the glass, the ringing sound it produced echoed in the entire corners of their reception venue.

“I wish you nothing but happiness at the end of every sad day.”

Both weddings ended successfully, and life inside the farmyard had been easier than before. Noah had been mowing hay, training the animals, and grooming them as well.

Nearby ranch owners would sometimes pay a visit to his lands. In turn, Noah had held a monthly visit to his farmhouse. These ranch owners are small businesses scattered within the town that Noah decided to invest in. He held shares on their profits, but not too much that they wouldn’t benefit from it. In return, Noah had shared some spaces of his land to them. He invites them to have tea in the mornings, and beer at night in his farmhouse so that they could ask him anything they wanted to know such as how things work around inside the Stream Ranch.

Noah had been open about their suggestions as to how he could improve in certain aspects that he lacks as a farmer.

They brought with them their animals. Noah entertained them without asking anything in return. These ranches had, after all, been very generous with their support when the demand lessens drastically. This is where he met a man named Taylor. He was stocky and stood a few inches below Noah’s shoulders.

“Good morning, Noah!” he called from behind the round pen he kept renovating because Bean and his other high-functioning animals kept ruining the lock on the gate several times when no one is keeping an eye at them.

Noah swore he would put motion detector there if any of them would attempt another breaking out of the round pen when they are having their daily exercises of running back and forth the stables and farms.

“I swear to God, Bean!” Noah shouted as Bean stuck his tongue out at a fuming Noah. He slammed the bucket down. Taylor slowly went to his side.

“What’s happening, lad?” he asked his hands on his hips.

“Well,” Noah started, an exasperated sigh coming out of his mouth, “this big fellow’s been ruining the damn lock of the gate.”

Taylor arched an eyebrow, “He does?” Pointing his index finger at the horse who stared flatly at him, “Hey, you! You think you can just do that to anyone?”

Bean neighed at him, causing his hat to fall out of his face. The horse shook his head at the sight of his shinning, bald head.

A sound the imitated a laugh came out from Bean’s mouth.

“Bean! That’s rude!” he reminded the young stallion who rubbed his feet on the ground.

“You think this is funny?” Taylor challenged. He readied his hands like he was about to challenge the horse into a ring fight.

If horses could conjure a smirk, Bean would have done it by now.

“What? You think I can’t?”

“Uhm, Taylor?”

He looked behind him, and found Noah leaning at the barn’s arch, his brow creased. “What? I can’t let this horse’s attitude get unnoticed. It’s getting out of hand!”

Taylor continued saying anything that comes out of his mouth to an entertained Bean.

It was Noah’s first time seeing him all riled up like this, and he must have been a devil to think that Taylor was funnier than he thought he is.