Wyatt shoveled a fork full of the mashed potatoes smothered in rich gravy into his mouth to keep from responding.
“At least, you had the good sense not to marry Vanessa.” His mother forked some green beans into her mouth.
Marrying Vanessa would have been the biggest mistake of his life. When she confronted him about marriage for the last time, she gave him an ultimatum--he had to either marry her or breakup with her. He walked away and never looked back.
“You need to find a local girl,” his mother said.
“Amen to that.” His father took a bite of the roast. “Jeannie, this is one damned good roast.”
“Thank you, Marlin.” His mother actually blushed. “It’s your momma’s secret recipe.”
How could a recipe be secret if his mother knew it? He didn’t know, but he was glad the talk of grandkids was dropped.
“Lance and I have good news,” Audrey said.
“What’s that, sweetheart?” His mother took one of her homemade rolls out of the basket beside her. “Rachel, dear, could you please pass the butter.”
Lance and Audrey exchanged a secret smile, and Wyatt had the feeling of sinking in quicksand as he shoved another bite of potatoes into his mouth.
“I’m having a baby!”
Wyatt choked on the potatoes and stared across the table at his sister and the man sitting next to her. His stomach twisted and flopped over. So much for the topic of kids being over.
He jerked his gaze to Rachel when her fork clattered on the china plate in front of her. Her shoulders curved inward, and she folded her hands in her lap so tightly her knuckles were white. Wyatt could have wrung his twin sister’s neck right then and there. Goddamn, didn’t she have any idea what this was doing to their baby sister?
As his mother jumped out of her chair at the far end, she dropped her butter knife. It clanged against her plate and fell to the oak floor with a soft thud. Ignoring the utensil, leaving a grease stain on the ancient braided rug, his mother rounded the table. Audrey stood and hugged her mother.
“Oh, God, that’s fantastic news, sweetheart!” His mother moved from his sister’s embrace and into Lance’s arms. She kissed his cheek. “I’m so happy for you both.” She took Audrey’s hand. “When are you due?”
“April tenth.” Audrey laid her free hand over the flared blouse covering her belly. Her smile was bright enough to short out a power plant. “We waited until we were sure things were okay before saying anything. I had a doctor appointment on Friday, and he’s convinced this pregnancy is healthy and perfect. I couldn’t wait to tell you, Momma.”
“The funny thing is we found out she was pregnant during our appointment with the fertility specialist last month.” Lance chuckled, wrapped his arm around Audrey’s waist, and pulled her close. “Shocked the hell out of us both,” he drawled, in that deep Texas cowboy twang he’d seemed to have perfected despite the law degree hanging in his Dallas office and his thousand-dollar designer suits.
“Congratulations, Tinkerbell.” His father kissed Audrey on her forehead and chuckled as he shook Lance’s hand. “About time you get the job done right, buddy.”
His parents were thrilled, but Rachel shook as if cold, as if she were only holding herself together by the thin stitches of her pride. She grabbed her cane from the back of her chair and teetered to her feet.
Wyatt stood, taking her freezing hand. “Where’re you going?”
“I’m not feeling well.” She pulled her cold fingers from his hand as she looked up at him. The pain in her eyes broke his heart.
With the cane for balance, she turned and set her prosthetic foot on the floor before her. She moved her good foot forward, then the fake one. The going was slow, but the result was the same. She was running away. And that scared him. Rachel had been running away for most of her life.
Audrey moved away from her husband and parents and easily caught their sister at the door. “Rachel?”
She jumped at her sister’s soft touch on her shoulder. She’d been so intent on running she must not have heard Audrey behind her.
“Are you okay?”
Wyatt couldn’t see Audrey’s face, but the concern in her voice seemed genuine.
Rachel sucked in a breath so deep her shoulders moved up, then down as she exhaled.
Audrey pushed her long sandy blond hair behind her ears. “I guess I should have been thinking when we made the announcement. It’s just that after so many years of trying… and Dad’s talk… I’m so sorry.”
“No, you should be happy. Congratulations. But now I need to lie down.” She limped out of the dining room.
Wyatt stared after Rachel until the closing of her bedroom door sounded like a thunderclap in the quiet room.
He whirled on Audrey with the fury of a tornado brewing inside him. “Are you really this much of a heartless bitch? Or are you blind to what has happened to our baby sister?”
“Whoa, buddy. Audrey might be your sister”--Lance stepped up beside Audrey and put his arm around her shoulders--”but she’s my wife, and I won’t let anyone, including you, talk to her that way.”
Audrey swallowed again, blinked her eyes, and wrapped her arms around herself. The silence was deafening as he stared at his sister. “Is that what you think of me?” Her voice cracked.
“No.” Wyatt took a deep breath and ran his hands through his hair. “I’m sorry… But damn it. This is killing her. Don’t you see it? You and Lance, and what you did, is not making any of this easier on her.”
Audrey closed her eyes and shook her head. “I’ll admit I was wrong all those years ago. Dear God, I know I shouldn’t have done what I did to her. But she’s the one who’s been pining after my husband for twelve years.”
“I’ve never pined after Lance.”
Wyatt turned to Rachel, standing in the doorway. His parents went to her side, but she stepped away from them.
“Then what do you call not ever coming home? Never once even acknowledging me? You were home in May and didn’t speak to me or Lance even once.” Audrey lowered her arms to her sides.
Rachel moved into the room and winced as her father helped her into a chair.
“Are you sure you don’t want to go to your room?” Dad asked.
Rachel shook her head. “No, Daddy. This has to come out. This needs to be said.” She tucked her cane in beside her, and he moved away.
Wyatt glanced at the stricken faces of his parents, standing next to each other in the doorway between the kitchen and the dining room.
Rachel wiped over her mouth with her left hand. For the first time, Wyatt noticed the diamond ring. She must have gone to her room to get it. “At first, I hated you both.” She looked at Lance, and he squared his shoulders. “Yes, I loved you. But soon, I realized you were not the only goldfish in the bowl. In fact, you were a tadpole to my Alex’s whale.”
“Who’s Alex?” their mother asked.
Rachel bowed her head and fisted her left hand. “Alex and I met four years ago in Afghanistan after the Battle of Wanat. I flew into his MASH in the belly of a helicopter with three wounded soldiers on board, one of them critical. He was only a private. Right out of basic and hadn’t a clue. He was shot in the leg. Here.” She rubbed her upper thigh over her jeans and her eyes looked beyond them, as if she were back there in the battle. “The bullet severed his femoral artery, and he was bleeding out. I couldn’t apply a tourniquet on the battlefield because it was too close to his groin. All that was keeping that boy alive was the hemostat I’d clamped on the heart side of the artery and the pressure I held on the wound.” She shook her head again and swallowed.
Her mother put her hands on her shoulders. “Rachel, sweetheart, you don’t have to do this.”
Rachel tilted her head to look at her mother. “Yes, Momma, I do. Or y’all will continue thinking I’ve spent my life as some pathetic, jilted old maid because my older sister stole my boyfriend.” She pushed her mother’s hands a
way and stood.
When she wobbled, Wyatt rushed forward and caught her before she fell.
Rachel glared at him, but she didn’t push him away. She held onto him as she faced their sister and brother-in-law. “As the other two wounded were helped out by the medics, Alex climbed into the Hewie, and together we saved that boy’s life. The kid had long ago passed out, so we did what we had to. Once we got him inside for surgery, we cleaned the wound, removed the bullet, and repaired the artery.”
She lifted her left hand. “Alex Webster and I saved that kid’s life. We found out later he’d named his daughter after me and his baby boy is named after Alex.” She smiled, but the tears on her cheeks spoke of the pain the memory brought her. “But for me and Alex, the real joy was that we’d met. We hit it off immediately, and I think we both fell in love saving that private’s life. But we had to keep our romantic relationship between us. Alex outranked me, but we’d never served in the same unit, so it was easy to keep things secret.” She sniffed and wiped at the tears on her face. “Then we got our assignments for this last deployment and had the shock of our lives. He and I were not only serving in the same unit, but he was my commander.”
Wyatt wanted to stop her, to keep her from her pain, but Rachel needed this. They all did. Then maybe, she could finally grieve in open, and his family would at long last understand her.
Lance narrowed his eyes and pointed to the large diamond on Rachel’s ring finger. “This Alex. He gave you the ring?”
She met his gaze and nodded. “He asked me to marry him last Christmas. That’s why I didn’t come home. I went to Maine to meet his family.” She laughed but it came out choppy. “His dad made fun of my saying y’all, and I joked about his hard Rs. They’re great people. Alex asked me to marry him after we’d gone skiing two days before Christmas.” She choked out that jerky laugh again. “He was so nervous he dropped the ring in the snow.” She broke down and dropped onto the chair. As she covered her face and sobbed, she whispered, “God, I loved him. Why did that bastard have to kill him?”
Wyatt didn’t know what to do. Her secret was out, but his heart broke for her all over again.
Lance stepped forward, kneeled before her, and gently brushed her hair from her face. As his fingers lingered on her pale, wet cheek, she turned her gaze on him. “I’m sorry, Rach, for all you’ve gone through.” His voice vibrated deep and raw.
Wyatt rubbed his jaw line. Was Lance talking about the loss of her Alex, or everything he’d put her through when he’d slept with her sister all those years ago?
“Let’s get you to bed. Okay?” Lance said.
When she sniffled, Lance reached into his back pocket and pulled out a folded white handkerchief. She stared at it when he held it out to her. “It’s not used, I promise.”
“You still carry a handkerchief with you?”
“I seem to remember you always ended up crying all over me at the movies. Carrying one became a habit I never broke.”
She wiped her nose and a ghost of a smile tilted the corners of her pale lips. “You always took me to sad movies.”
“I had my reasons.” He stood and held out his palm. She stared at it for a moment before placing her shaky hand into his.
Lance surprised Wyatt, and probably everyone else, when he helped her to her feet, swung her up into his arms, and carried her out of the room.
Wyatt turned to face the rest of his family. His father had pulled his sobbing mother into his arms, while Audrey stared out the door Lance had carried their sister through with an expression on her tear streaked face he’d never seen before.
* * * *
Whistling softly between her teeth, Dawn slowed her F-150 to take in the view in front of her. “Sweet mercy, isn’t that the sexiest thing on two legs.”
Wyatt pushed his vintage Harley on the side of the dusty country road, the action showing off his muscular shoulders and forearms below his rolled up sleeves. His light blue shirttails fluttered on either side of him indicating his shirt was open. His jeans hugged his ass and legs like a good pair of Levis should. The late afternoon sun glowed through his chestnut hair, setting the red highlights on fire. A black helmet hung from the handlebar, and a black leather jacket was folded over the worn leather seat of the bike.
He glanced over his shoulder as she approached and slowed. She wasn’t ready for the lusty clenching in her lower belly at the memories of Wyatt driving her crazy when they’d made love.
She bit the inside of her lip and tightened her grip on the steering wheel as primal need raked through her.
A pair of Aviator sunglasses covered his eyes. She pulled the truck off the side of the road next to one of the CW Ranch pastures. Massive Santa Gertrudis cattle munched on the fall grasses. One of the cows lifted her head from the grass and seemed to eye the truck curiously, as she chewed a wad of grass.
Dawn had never understood what Zack and Lance Cartwright saw in the big, ugly animals. She preferred the sleek sturdiness of a Herford or an Angus to the more exotic breeds.
Wyatt propped the bike on its kickstand and ambled to the driver’s side window. Dust covered his boots and the bottoms of his jeans as if he’d been walking a great distance. But then, out here, where miles and miles could separate one ranch house from another, and the only living things around were cattle and horses, getting stranded and hoofing it for miles before a person came along wasn’t uncommon.
“Aren’t you a sight for a weary man?” Wyatt smiled as he lifted his sunglasses to the top of his head and revealed eyes as blue as the endless October sky above them.
Her heart sputtered a beat. She pulled her gaze away from his and looked out the windshield at the old motorcycle sitting in front of her truck. He’d had the thing since graduating from college. They’d spent many warm days racing along the country roads north of Dallas when they'd dated, and she'd tormented him relentlessly because she'd always beat him. “What’s wrong with the hunk of junk?”
A corner of his lips kicked up in a lopsided smirk. “Carburetor. I think. It stalled in the intersection at Gambler’s Folly and Cattle Trail, and I couldn’t get it started again.” He rubbed his forehead with the back of his hand, and squinted toward the west.
She had a hard time keeping her eyes off him. The undershirt stretched over his muscular chest under his open shirt.
“I figured it was a tossup between heading for Paul Cartwright’s house or the Kennedy place.”
Why hadn’t he gone back to Highway Six? Hell, why hadn’t he called someone? But Dawn didn’t ask. “Want to load up the bike, and I’ll take you home?”
He drummed his fingers on the edge of the door near the open window. His nails were trimmed, and his fingers were long and slender on strong hands. She knew how skillful they’d been at playing her body, and sucked in a breath. He turned his gaze on her.
“I don’t want to go home.” His husky voice washed over her, and the familiar fire in his eyes heated her insides. “That’s why I didn’t call Dad. I was heading for my ranch when the bike broke down.”
She wouldn’t give into the lust boiling between them. Too much water passed under that bridge, and she’d burned the damned thing down. Wyatt McPherson would always hold the particles of her heart--one he’d shattered to a million-zillion pieces, then trampled to dust when he walked out of her life. She wasn’t stupid enough to give him another chance.
Damn the need coursing through her body.
She cleared her throat and got her raging hormones under control. “Okay. I’ll take you back to my place. I have to feed my horses and let my dog out. If you’d like, I might even have a spare carburetor lying around.”
He chuckled. “Thought those new hogs didn’t need any maintenance?”
She smiled and shrugged.
“You still have Taco?”
The beagle had hated Wyatt. “Yeah, so I suggest you don’t try anything.”
He stepped away from the door as she opene
d it. “Wouldn’t think of it.”
Together they wrestled the Harley onto the back of the truck and secured it with some twine and a bungee cord. Wyatt got into the passenger side and ran his hand through his hair, which curled around his ears and fell over his tan forehead.
She turned the key in the ignition. “Missing your hat?”
He laughed and rested his hands on top of his black helmet. “Yeah. Since becoming a Ranger, I've gotten used to wearing it again.”
The heat of his gaze warmed her.
“You look good with your hair down,” he said.
She sucked in a breath and concentrated on driving into the evening sun rather than reading too much into the compliment. “Thanks. I hate wearing it up all the time for work, but I can’t bear the thought of ever cutting it.”
“Don’t…”
She glanced at him when he cut himself off.
He rubbed his mouth as if he hoped it would stuff the word back in.
“Don’t what?”
He didn’t look at her. “Nothing.”
Her stomach flipped over. Wyatt had spent hours playing with it after they’d made love.
Clearing her throat, she stared at the road ahead of them. “So, you’re moving in tomorrow?”
“That’s the plan.”
Not knowing what to say when he grew quiet, she tuned into the song playing on the classic rock station. As Lynyrd Synyrd sang about their being a free bird, she wished she could turn it up to fill the void between them with something other than the growing tension.
They passed the gate to the Kennedy spread, then the first gate to the CW, which led to Paul and Winnie Cartwright’s home. Dear God, they had another fifteen minutes of this deafening silence before…
“Audrey’s pregnant.”
His quiet voice had her risking a glance at him. “Wow. When did Audrey announce that news?”
He huffed. “The worse possible moment today at the dinner table. But it got Rachel to finally open up.”
“I just visited Rachel yesterday afternoon. I had no idea what to say to her.”
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