by Liz Isaacson
“Can we have a family prayer real quick?” Gideon asked, and everyone nodded.
Baby Camila got passed back to Mal, who cradled her against her chest. They took hands or put their hands on one another’s shoulders, and Gideon closed his eyes. Mal’s burned as she closed hers too, though her tears had come from only the happiest of things.
“Dear Lord,” Gideon said, his voice unlike anything Mal had heard before. He did not continue, and she wasn’t the only one in the room crying.
“We thank Thee for family,” Gideon finally said. “Bless Micah, who is not here with us. We are grateful for the land where we live. We love Texas, and the ranches Thou hast provided for us. We love our spouses and our children and our grandchildren, and are especially grateful for Camila, this new addition to our family. Bless us not to take each other for granted, and bless us to forgive one another if we do wrong. Bless any here with exactly what they need, if it be Thy will. Amen.”
“Amen,” over a dozen voices said, and Mal opened her eyes and smiled. Gideon pressed a kiss to her forehead, his dark eyes absolutely glittering with emotion.
“Okay,” Skyler said. Camila jerked, her face crumpling as she started to cry.
“You woke her up,” someone said.
“Good job, Dad,” another brother teased.
“Everyone out,” Skyler said. “Mal’s tired, and you’ve all seen her now.”
Mal shushed the baby back to sleep while everyone left, and when she looked up at Skyler again, she could only smile and sigh.
“Love you, Mal,” he whispered.
“And I love you.” Mal didn’t know how many children she’d be blessed with, but in that moment, her life felt absolutely complete with just her, Sky, and Camila.
Her last thought before she drifted to sleep was, Thank you, Lord. Thank you.
Chapter Thirty-Three
Micah lowered the saw, the feel of it in his hand as familiar as breathing. He loved working with wood. Measuring it, marking it, envisioning what he could sculpt out of it. He loved the smell of it, the way it got caught in his hair and eyelashes, the taste of it on his tongue though he wore a mask over his nose and mouth.
Wood didn’t give him any trouble, as it seemed to want to be transformed under his careful and talented hands, and he’d made great progress on Dwayne’s house. The paint looked amazing with the floors going in that day, and most importantly, Dwayne and Felicity were happy.
Micah worked outside in the yard, under a tent he’d set up. He’d finished the mantel a few days ago, and it was ready to install once the flooring was finished. He’d kept the original fireplace for a sense of home and heart and nostalgia, but the modern mantel would be a centerpiece all its own.
He’d finished the new doors for the new pantry, and he’d pieced together the countertop for the island in the kitchen. That slab wasn’t quite done yet, as he had to sand it and sculpt it and stain it.
Sand, sculpt, stain. Micah loved doing those things with his whole soul, and Simone’s words swirled around in his mind. You don’t have to work at all.
No, he didn’t. But he was only thirty-four years old. What was he supposed to do with his life? He didn’t think God would want him to sit idle all the time, and Micah knew he’d go nuts within a week.
He hadn’t even started Simone’s workshop, and guilt tugged at the edges of his conscience. He probably shouldn’t have signed Mary and Amy Thompson and their abandoned, poorly poured foundation.
He should’ve rented an excavator and dug the foundation for his wife’s she-shed. He should’ve called the cement mixers and scheduled a time for them to come pour that foundation.
He should’ve been working on the foundation of his marriage. He should’ve been home on time for dinner when he’d said he would be. He shouldn’t have missed dinner with his parents. His mother had told him congratulations about his baby—his first-born child—via text.
Micah frowned, though the work was going well. His thoughts moved to Jeremiah, and how his brother had started working on things again. He’d hired Orion as the ranch foreman, and he’d gone back to therapy. Micah knew, because he owned part of the ranch, and Jeremiah had called an owner’s meeting to discuss hiring a foreman.
He wanted to be more present in his family’s life, and Micah hadn’t even realized he’d stepped back from the life he and Simone were building. Should’ve been building.
He’d called her every day since he’d left Three Rivers, and she hadn’t picked up once. He’d been in a situation like this with her before, and it was as miserable now as it had been then. He also knew the stakes were higher. They were married, with a baby on the way. He couldn’t just walk away, meet another woman at church, and start dating her.
At the same time, he couldn’t abandon the responsibilities he’d committed to. He saw no way out of his situation, other than time. So after he finished this cabinet, he’d call Simone again and beg her for more time.
Just a little more time.
He wouldn’t take another client. He’d finish what he’d started, and he’d put his focus where it should’ve been all these months.
The frame of the cabinet went together nicely, and Micah sculpted the door from a piece of wood he’d planed yesterday. The trim came next, and Micah ran the wood through a molding machine he’d customized to ensure that Dwayne and Felicity’s cabinets were unlike any others. The special molding would go around the top of this piece of cabinet, as it would sit atop the pantry and connect to the ceiling.
With that done, he stepped away from the machines. He’d kept them going from as early in the morning as he dared to as late as he dared. Tonight, he had enough pieces to glue and nail as the last of the sunshine seeped away into darkness.
With four more cabinets built, he took them into the house and set them on the plastic that had been spread across the new floor. The blessed air conditioning made him sigh, and he swiped the face mask off his nose and mouth to look at what had been accomplished inside today while he’d been outside, crafting, cutting, and cabinet-making.
The light gray paint on the walls looked fresh and inviting. The baseboards had been taken out to be sprayed, but they were back in today, making the house feel more complete. At least where the floor had gone in. Dwayne had chosen a dark, rich wood that had a lot of brown and black in it, and it contrasted nicely with the walls.
As Micah walked forward, he could see there was still a section of the floor that hadn’t been finished. “Tomorrow,” he said, his voice echoing a bit in the house. Where the floor had been done, the baseboards had been put back. The interior designer would be here tomorrow, and Micah would start putting in the cabinets he had built in the afternoon and evening. Then it was just more of the same. Build the cabinets. Hang the cabinets. The last thing he’d do was paint or stain them. Dwayne and Felicity hadn’t decided on that yet, as they were waiting to meet with Hailey.
But all in all, the house was coming together nicely, and Micah was right on schedule. He went upstairs, where he was staying in one of the spare bedrooms, and showered the sawdust out of his hair and off his skin. When he couldn’t put off calling Simone any longer, he sat on the bed and picked up his phone.
Before he could even take a breath, it rang. His heart leapt into the back of his throat in the split second before Dwayne’s name came up on the screen. He sighed, because he wanted to hear Simone’s voice so badly.
He didn’t want to talk, but he swiped on the call anyway, reminding himself that Dwayne had paid him a lot of money to answer his phone when he called. “Hey,” he said.
“Just wondering if you’ve had dinner,” he said.
“I had a protein bar,” Micah said, though his stomach growled as if it had ears.
“Well, we’ve got pizza over here,” he said. “And you’re welcome to it. We’d love an update on the house too, if you’re not too tired.”
Micah was, and he wasn’t. “Sure,” he said. “I’ll be over in a few minutes, okay?
”
“Take your time. The boys are out tonight, and we have to wait up for them anyway.” The call ended, and Micah let his phone drop back to his lap. He’d been eating with Dwayne’s family for a few nights now, and it wouldn’t be awkward in the generational house. And he’d leave with a full stomach.
But he didn’t want to talk to Dwayne and Felicity. He wanted to talk to Simone.
First, though, he slid off the bed, twisting to face it as he landed on his knees. He pressed his forehead to the comforter, trying to find the right words to beg the Lord for help. Such desperation flowed through him that Micah felt like the very gates of Hell were only moments behind him, about to claim him as theirs.
In the end, he said nothing. The panic and vibrating fear left him, and Micah drew in a long, calming breath.
He got to his feet, and he went downstairs, past all the construction, and out the back door. The generational house sat down a sidewalk in the back corner of the yard, and Micah reached it in only seconds.
He knocked, and Dwayne opened the door as if he’d been standing right beside it. He wore a grin the size of Texas, and Micah sensed something was off. He tried to see past Dwayne, but he’d filled the doorway with those shoulders and that smile.
“C’mon in,” he boomed, and Micah hesitated.
“Are you okay?” he asked.
Felicity arrived, and she glared at her husband. “He’s acting weird, isn’t he?”
“A little,” Micah admitted, glad he wasn’t the only one who could see it. He didn’t know Dwayne all that well, but he’d never seen him smile like that. He’d never seen anyone smile like that.
Felicity pushed against Dwayne’s chest, backing him into the house. “Come in, Micah.”
He wasn’t so sure he wanted to anymore, but he stepped up to enter the house. The scent of marinara mixed with something else. Something inedible but that he liked a whole lot. Something he’d smelled before.
Felicity finally succeeded in getting Dwayne into the living room off to the right of the door, and Micah looked back toward the kitchen, which sat against the far wall of the house.
Everything froze, from his feet to his heartbeat.
“Simone,” fell from his lips as he drank in the beautiful, dark-haired woman standing near the corner of the kitchen table.
In the next moment, his grin felt like it was the size of Texas and he was moving fast toward his wife. He reached her, barely noticing her smile as he swept her off her feet. “You’re here,” he said, taking a deep breath of her. “Oh, I love you, and I’m so sorry, and—” He set her down and stepped back. “Why are you here?”
Everything seemed to be happening so fast, his heart beating double-time, and the seconds racing by.
Simone giggled and tucked her hair, which had grown out a lot in the last year or so. “I think that was the perfect reaction.” She turned her attention to Felicity and Dwayne. “Don’t you?”
Felicity had one palm pressed to her chest. “Absolutely perfect,” she agreed.
“What’s—?” Micah started to ask, but Simone turned to him and entered his personal space at the same time. Her mouth touched his, silencing his question as she kissed him.
Micah’s desperation and worry, his fear and panic, his exhaustion and need to please vanished. Simone possessed magic that made him whole in a way nothing else ever had and ever could.
She didn’t kiss him long, and Micah looked at her. Those bright, shining eyes the color of midnight. That mouth. Oh, that mouth. “What are you doing here?” he asked, easily settling his hand on her hip. “Are you okay?” He leaned closer to her and lowered his voice. “Is the baby okay?”
He shouldn’t have come to Grape Seed Falls. Why had he come? How was this job more important than his pregnant wife and child?
“I’m okay,” she said, alleviating some of his fears. “The baby’s fine.”
She wasn’t saying enough, and Micah’s frustration grew.
“I wanted to see you,” she said. “I thought if I could see your reaction to seeing me, I’d know how you felt.” She smiled and took both of his hands. “And I did. I do.”
“I love you,” he said simply, still trying to process what was going on. Behind her, he saw Dwayne and Felicity leave the house, carefully and quietly bringing the door closed behind them.
“And I love you,” she said. “I’m sorry I didn’t take your calls. It took me some time to forgive you.”
“I’m sorry I left. I hope you understand. I’ve been begging God to help you understand.”
“I do,” she said. “And Dwayne and Felicity are wonderful people.”
Micah nodded, wanting to tell her everything he’d been thinking the past few days. “I’m not going to take any more jobs for a while,” he said. “I’m going to be home on time. I’m going to finish your workshop for you.”
“Mal had the baby,” she said.
Micah blinked at the topic change. “Yeah, Skyler’s been texting me. He sent pictures.” He cocked his head at her. “Did you hear what I said?”
“Yeah,” she said, smiling, inching closer. “You said I love you. And that encompasses everything else.”
“You don’t care if I don’t make it home for dinner?”
“Oh, if you’re late again, you’ll be sleeping outside.” She tipped her head back and laughed, but Micah wasn’t sure she was kidding.
He took her fully into his arms, holding her close to his body, just where he wanted her. “I’m not going to be late.” He looked at her as she sobered. Right down deep into her eyes. “I hate that I didn’t make you my top priority.”
“I know why you didn’t,” she said, wrapping her hands around the back of his neck. He leaned down and touched his forehead to hers as they swayed.
“Yeah? Why didn’t I?”
“Because it takes a lot of time and energy to make dreams come true,” she whispered, her lips dangerously close to his. “And you’re making your dreams come true, and Dwayne’s and Felicity’s.”
His eyes drifted closed, which heightened every other sense. “Yeah,” he said. “But baby, I want your dreams to come true.”
“They are,” she said. “With you, Micah Walker, my husband, they are.”
He kissed her, really taking his time to commit the feel of this amazing woman in his arms. He wanted her forever, and he promised himself—and God—that he would not let anything come between them again.
Simone broke the kiss several long seconds later. “Now,” she said, stepping back and lacing her fingers through his. “Come show me this house you’ve dreamed up. And show me where I’m sleeping.” She smiled at him, and Micah’s pulse pounced in his chest.
He knew where she was sleeping—within the safety of his arms—and he couldn’t wait to show her what he’d been doing here for the past four days.
Chapter Thirty-Four
Jeremiah brushed down the pale, cream-colored horse. Peony’s light brown eyes with the long, light lashes, closed in bliss, and he smiled at her. “You like that, don’t you?” he asked her. “Don’t get too comfortable. Daddy’s going to try to ride you today.”
He glanced over to his father, who was working with a tall, dark mare named Red Velvet. And in the stall past him, Wyatt shared all his secrets with Mountain High, a brown and white horse that made Jeremiah smile every time he saw him.
He, his father, and his brother didn’t need to learn to take care of the horses, but Pete Marshall said it was part of the therapy, even for experienced horsemen. Jeremiah had been annoyed at first, but he now enjoyed the slower start to the riding sessions. He liked taking time to connect with the horse—and with himself.
He’d been coming out to Courage Reins for a couple of months now. He’d just moved to visiting with Dr. Wagstaff every other week instead of every week. He’d passed a lot of responsibility around the ranch to Orion and Wallace, and he’d actually gone with Whitney and the kids to the Fall Festival, watched them paint pumpkins, shared a pum
pkin spice funnel cake with them, and strolled through the glimmering pumpkin walk after dark, all the candles throwing light into the night in the spookiest of ways.
JJ hadn’t liked that much, and when Jeremiah had asked him what he’d liked best that day, he’d said riding the ponies. He was still too young to really start to ride with Jeremiah, but once the New Year came, Jeremiah was going to buy the boy a saddle and find him a calm, quiet horse like Peony to learn to ride with.
Rhett had already started with Conrad, and Jeremiah loved watching Rhett tie the two horses together and go riding with his son.
“All right, boys,” someone said, and Jeremiah looked away from Peony. “We’re riding today, so lead your horses out to the arena. We’ll help anyone who needs help getting on.”
Jeremiah switched places with Daddy, so he could take Peony, and they followed Wyatt and two others out to the arena. Jeremiah didn’t need help mounting a horse, and he swung into the saddle like he’d been born to do it. He was, but so was Wyatt and so was Daddy, and they both needed help.
Wyatt exhaled heavily, and Jeremiah wondered if he had any pain in his body. He didn’t want to ask though. He wouldn’t want Wyatt to bug him about his back. Wyatt was a grown man, and he knew what he could handle and what he couldn’t.
His brother shifted in the saddle and then twisted. “All right, Jeremiah?”
“All right.”
Wyatt brought Mountain High around, and Jeremiah turned to watch Daddy get in the saddle. His right leg had been injured pretty badly in the accident almost sixteen months ago, and to Jeremiah’s knowledge, he had not been in the saddle since.
“I’m gonna have to try the other side,” Daddy said, a frown etched between his eyes. Jeremiah’s heart squeezed watching his father try to do something that had come naturally to him for so many years of his life. “This leg just isn’t strong enough to get me up there.”
“We’ve got a stool, if that would help,” one of the cowboys said. Karl, Jeremiah thought his name was.