Wyatt suddenly had the feeling he’d been conned. “She said—”
“What did I tell you, Amber? What did I say?”
Her daughter mumbled something even Wyatt couldn’t hear.
Susannah didn’t relent. “I can’t hear you.”
This answer was clearer. “Not to bother Mr. Wyatt.”
“Why?”
“Because you didn’t want me to jump.”
Moving to the wall, Wyatt set the little girl on her feet on top. “It’s okay. We won’t do it again.”
“That is not the point.” Susannah bent over to look Amber directly in the face. “You did exactly what I told you not to. And you lied to Mr. Wyatt. I am very disappointed in you, Amber Bradley.” She started to deflate the water wings on Amber’s arms.
“No, Mommy, don’t! I want to swim.”
Susannah shook her head. “You’re done for the day.” Removing the wings, she took Amber by the hand and led her to a chair in the shade of the deck awning. Making his way to the steps in the shallow water, Wyatt couldn’t hear her words, but he got the general idea when Amber burst into tears.
He was picking up his shirt when Susannah marched up to him. “Sorry about that,” he said. “I didn’t—”
“Why didn’t you ask me?” she demanded, arms crossed over her chest. “You should have checked with me before taking her into the pool.”
“She told me—”
“She’s five. She’ll say whatever it takes to get her way.”
“Right. I didn’t think.” He figured the safest way out of this was to just agree with what she said.
But Susannah wasn’t finished. “She could have been hurt.”
He tried to reassure her. “I wasn’t going to let that happen.”
“You might have been hurt. You have a broken back, remember? What if you’d had a sudden pain and couldn’t hold her?”
“I didn’t. My back is fine. I wouldn’t have—”
“I’ll believe that when the doctor says so,” she said sharply. “Until then, you shouldn’t take such risks, especially with Amber.”
So much for making peace. “I understand.” Now he was glaring, too. The noise around them had died away.
“I hope so. Now I have to go deal with my daughter before she ruins the party for everyone else.” Turning on her heel, she went over to Amber, who was still wailing from her chair on the deck.
From the other side of the pool, Garrett broke the uneasy silence among the kids. “Hey, guys, we’ve got snacks set out. Dry off and come get some food.”
Wyatt headed away from the stampede, toward the chair he’d occupied before this fiasco had started. He pulled his shirt over his head and then sat down.
Ford leaned forward, mouth open to say something.
“Don’t start.” He held up a hand. “Just let it be.” They weren’t too far from Amber to hear her sniffles and the quiet murmur of Susannah’s voice.
“You don’t tangle with Mama Bear,” his brother said anyway.
“I’ll remember that,” Wyatt snapped. “Believe me, I’ll remember.”
Chapter Five
Amber fell asleep in the van on the return to the ranch. Dylan, who had napped on a lounge chair during most of the party, carried her into the house and set her down on the bed in his former bedroom. “Swimming wears me out, too,” he commented.
Susannah knew it was the tears that had made her girl sleepy. “I’ll wake her up in a little while. Or else she’ll be up till midnight.”
“I’ll take your word for that,” he said with a grin. “A mom knows.”
With her clothes changed and her hair dried, she went into the kitchen to start dinner. She found a new pot of coffee steaming in the machine but no sign of the maker. It must have been Wyatt. He’d poured his coffee and then gone away, avoiding her.
Susannah was planning to apologize. He was her employer, after all. You didn’t yell at your boss if you wanted to keep your job.
More important, he was a friend. Someone she cared about, someone she didn’t want to hurt. Especially when she’d overreacted. She’d have to find him and explain.
“Hey, Susannah.” Caroline stepped into the kitchen, followed by Ford. “Do you have a few minutes?”
“Of course. What can I do for you? Would you like some coffee?” She poured each of them a cup and they sat down around the kitchen table. “This looks serious,” she joked...sort of. Had Wyatt sent them to fire her?
“I wanted to talk with you about your plans.” Ford held his mug in both hands, his elbows propped on the table. “The order of protection we filed will expire soon. Have you decided what to do about that? How you want to proceed?”
“I want a divorce,” she told him. “I can’t live with Travis again.”
Caroline nodded. “I think that’s the right choice, for your safety as well as Nate and Amber’s.”
“I can handle that for you,” Ford said. “There shouldn’t be a problem, even if he contests it.”
“Does it make a difference if I’ve already filed?” She explained what had set Travis off that night. “I haven’t pursued it—I wasn’t sure what to do. Or maybe—” she took a deep breath “—maybe I was just avoiding the whole issue.” She’d felt safe this summer, with Wyatt, with the Marshall brothers and Caroline. Ignoring the reason she was there had been too easy.
“Well.” Frowning, Ford gazed into his drink. “I’ll have to check on the status of your file, find out where the paperwork is in the process. I must say, you’re better off having an attorney to represent you, since you have children to consider. From what I’ve seen, Bradley is likely to contest the divorce. Filing for yourself only works if there’s no contest.”
“I was desperate,” she told him. “But I can’t afford—”
He waved off her objection. “We’ll work something out. I’ll be at the courthouse tomorrow and can chase down your petition.” Getting to his feet, he took Caroline’s cup and his own to the dishwasher. “I mentioned to Wyatt this afternoon that I’m surprised Bradley hasn’t shown up this summer, trying to see you or the kids. He didn’t seem the type to give up so easily. Of course, that would be a good thing...” Turning around, he saw the blush she could feel heating up her face. “Or has he been here?”
Susannah nodded.
“You should have called the sheriff’s department. How did you get him to leave?”
“Wyatt—”
She didn’t have to explain further. Ford glanced at Caroline and nodded. “Too bad. Having that violation documented could have been useful in the divorce proceedings. Now it’s just she-said, he-said. Wyatt should have realized that.”
“I asked him not to report it. Travis gets so angry. I was worried about what he would do.”
Caroline put a hand over hers on the table. “That’s understandable. Is it too late?” she asked Ford. “He wouldn’t have waited around for the sheriff anyway.”
“We can always try.” Coming back to the table, Ford put a hand on Susannah’s shoulder. “We’ll work this out and secure your divorce. You deserve to live a life without fear.”
“More than that,” Caroline said, “you deserve the life you want. We’ll help you any way we can.”
“Thank you so much.” She blotted the tears on the sleeve of her shirt. “I just want my children to be safe and happy.”
“But what about you?” Caroline asked, after Ford left. “What do you want for yourself?”
Standing at the counter, Susannah paused, her knife poised over a cucumber. “I...” She frowned. “I’m not sure.”
Caroline took a sip of coffee. “What were you planning, in high school? What were your interests?”
Frowning, she tried to remember those days as a teenager before Travis s
auntered down the hallway at school and took her breath away. She must have had some sort of goals, some vision of the future. “My parents wanted me to go to college and then teach, like they did. I remember I thought that sounded dull.” She chuckled. “I know better now, after two children.”
“You still could,” Caroline said. “Wyoming can always use good teachers.”
Susannah nodded. “I’ve started studying for my GED. At this rate, though, it will take me a long time to finish. Meanwhile, I suspect I’ll be working somewhere that doesn’t require a diploma—as a cashier in a store, maybe, or a server in a restaurant. But I’ll look for something more permanent as soon as I can.”
And that was the answer, she decided after Caroline had gone and she moved around the kitchen getting dinner together. More than anything else, what she wanted for her children and for herself was stability. For so long, they’d been at the mercy of Travis’s whims, his mistakes and his carelessness. She wanted to build a life they could count on, day after day—the same home, the same school, the same job. A neighborhood they were familiar with, a playground or ball field where they could get to know people. A church where they could feel loved.
The kind of life she’d had growing up.
Maybe even including...grandparents? If she worked hard enough, proved herself, would her parents let her—and her children—into their lives?
Susannah knew she had to make that happen. Even with a divorce, Travis would always be a factor in their lives. But, despite him, she would find a way to give Nathan and Amber the sense of well-being she recalled from her own childhood, the confidence that everything would be alright. As their mother, she owed them that much. She owed it to herself.
With dinner almost ready, she woke Amber and coaxed her into the shower to wash the chlorine out of her hair. Then they had a long talk. At seven, clean and neatly dressed, they were sitting in the dining room when Wyatt’s footsteps sounded in the hall.
He stopped in the doorway, frowning. “What’s going on? Am I late?”
Eyebrows raised, Susannah looked at her daughter, who heaved a sigh and slid out of her chair.
Standing in front of Wyatt, she gazed up into his face. “I’m sorry I told you a lie, Mr. Wyatt. That’s not a nice thing to do, ’specially not to a friend. I won’t do it again. I want you to be my friend.”
His face softened. “Thanks for the apology, Amber. I want to be your friend.” He held out his hand. “Let’s shake on it.”
Amber took his hand and pumped it enthusiastically. Then she looked at Susannah. “Can we eat now?”
“Get into your chair.” To Wyatt, she said, “Would you help me bring in the food?” She didn’t usually make that request, so she wasn’t surprised at his puzzled expression. But he followed her into the kitchen.
Only a few steps in, she turned to face him. “I want to apologize, as well.”
He was closer than she’d anticipated, an arm’s length away. His frown was back.
“You should have checked with me before letting Amber jump into the pool, but I shouldn’t have yelled at you.”
After a long silence, he said, “I thought you trusted me.”
“I do.” More than anyone she’d ever known. “But...” She drew a deep breath. “I can’t swim. I’m not afraid of the water, exactly, but my mother was, so I never learned. Nate has taken lessons, and Amber will, too. I haven’t let her jump in before because there was no one to catch her, so it made me nervous when I saw what was happening. I took that out on you. And I’m sorry.”
“It’s okay.” Out came the smile she loved. “You should learn to swim, too. Take some lessons.”
She held up her hands, laughing. “Let me get my GED first, why don’t you? I can only take in so much at one time.”
“Oh, I think you underestimate yourself.” Wyatt was laughing, too. Maybe, as she was, out of relief that they weren’t at odds anymore?
Their laughter died away, but their gazes held, smiling yet intent. Susannah found herself holding her breath, not sure what was happening. To her surprise, Wyatt’s hand came to her cheek, lightly resting against her skin.
“You’re so beautiful when you laugh,” he said, his voice low.
Without thinking, she leaned her head into his palm. He drew a quick breath.
The screen door slammed. “Mom! Hey, Mom!”
In an instant, they stood yards apart.
But even if they hadn’t moved, Nathan had only one thing on his mind.
“Is the ice cream ready yet?”
* * *
THAT NIGHT—FOR ONCE—Lizzie didn’t complain to Becky about coming inside at bedtime.
“A dance. Can you believe it?” She whirled around and then fell spread-eagle backward onto the double bed. “We’re going to have a dance!”
Lena went to stare in the mirror over the dresser, finger combing her long, straight black hair. “Mr. Garrett told me we would, when I went to the hospital. He said I could teach him to salsa.”
As excited as her friends, Becky sat on the corner of their bed that Lizzie left free. “Who gets to choose the music?”
“We do, of course,” Lizzie said. “I’ve got it all in my phone. Hours and hours.”
Becky thought about Nate. “The boys might want to pick some of the songs, too.”
Lizzie waved that idea away. “They don’t care. Anyway, we’ll have to make them dance.”
“Not Justino,” Lena said. “He loves to dance.” She grinned. “With me, of course.”
On the bed, Lizzie was now doing leg lifts, barely missing hitting Becky in the head. “It’ll be so cool—a dance floor outside, with lights strung up around it. What other decorations could we do?”
“Balloons?” Becky said. “Helium-filled, so they float.”
“Balloons,” Lizzie said, “are for babies.”
Becky stuck her tongue out but was ignored.
Lena began brushing her hair. She did a hundred strokes every night. “I like balloons. Red and black ones would be sophisticated.”
“Invisible in the dark” was Lizzie’s verdict. “I guess we could do glow-in-the-dark balloons,” she conceded. “I wish we could have a disco ball.”
“How would you hang it—from the sky?” Becky asked. “And how are you going to make Thomas and Marco dance? They’ll probably just stand around eating.”
“What are we going to eat?” Lena asked. “Do we have to do the cooking?” Food was Lena’s favorite subject these days because she was always hungry and had to watch what she ate.
“Cupcakes,” Lizzie said. “Chips and salsa. Pizza for the main course.”
“I’m not supposed to eat any of that,” Lena complained. “Think about somebody besides yourself for a change.”
Lizzie rolled her eyes. “Well, what do you want to eat? Celery and broiled chicken?”
“Maybe we need a theme,” Becky said in desperation. “To help us make plans.”
“That’s right. A theme.” Lizzie considered for a few seconds. “I’ve got it. We could have a beach party.”
Now Lena rolled her eyes. “You’re always about the beach. And you’ve never even been there.”
“Neither have you,” Lizzie shot back.
“So we don’t know anything about beaches,” Lena said, still brushing. “What are we gonna do? Throw sand everywhere?”
Lizzie sat up, flipping her hair behind her shoulders in the way she did when she was mad. “We could have everybody wear flip-flops and shorts. And decorate with beach balls. Beach chairs. Inflatable palm trees. There’s lots of stuff that would be fun.”
“Lame,” Lena said.
“We’re on a ranch,” Becky suggested quickly. “We could do a barn dance theme. Then we’d have the right clothes to wear—jeans and boots.”
<
br /> “Boring. We’ve been doing that all summer.”
Lena shimmied out of her jeans and into her pajama bottoms. “Fiesta would be a fun theme. We could have a piñata. Tacos and nachos to eat and virgin margaritas to drink. Lots of salsa music.”
“That’s a cool idea.” Becky turned to Lizzie, hoping for a truce. “The guys would like hitting a piñata.”
Not a chance. “The point is dancing,” Lizzie said, “not beating some stupid puppet with a stick. Who wants to chase after a bunch of candy, anyway? I’d rather have cupcakes.”
Lena threw up her hands. “You just want to have everything your way. You never consider anybody but yourself.” She pulled her T-shirt over her head. “I’m sick and tired of it.”
“You’re the one who throws temper tantrums about food,” Lizzie told her. “Thanks to you, we hardly ever get cookies or ice cream anymore.”
“Come on,” Becky pleaded. “Nobody has to get mad. Let’s just—”
“I don’t care what you do about the stupid dance,” Lena shouted. “Justino and I won’t even be there. We’ll find something else to do that night.” She got into bed, pulled up the covers and turned her back to the room.
“Well, I’m not planning it,” Lizzie countered. “You all think my ideas are stupid and I don’t want to work that hard anyway. I’ll just show up and have a good time without doing anything to help.” She grabbed her pajamas out from under her pillow and stomped off to the bathroom, where she slammed the door.
“Great.” Becky changed into her pajamas and got into bed, though she’d have to get up again when Lizzie finally came out of the bathroom.
In the meantime, she tried to figure out what to do about the dance. Ms. Caroline had said it was up to them to plan the food, though Nate’s mom would help with the cooking, if needed. But who was going to decide what kind of food to have, if Lizzie and Lena didn’t? What about decorations? Were they necessary? She fell asleep before Lizzie came out of the bathroom and before she had the answers to her questions. She awoke in the morning with dirty teeth and only one idea about the party. Ask Nate.
Their team was cooking breakfast, so she didn’t get a chance to talk to him until after the eggs were scrambled, the bacon broiled and the toast buttered. Luckily, there was an empty chair beside him when she’d served her plate.
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