Mirror Image Bride (Love Inspired)

by Barbara McMahon

  “I’ll go check on Darcy and talk to Jose,” Ty said as he set his empty glass down on the counter.

  “I’m here if you need me.”

  He paused a second by the door, then nodded. “Thanks, Maddie.”

  * * *

  Ty tilted back on the legs of the chair and studied the star-studded sky. This was his favorite time of day. Work was done. He was pleasantly tired, yet not quite ready for bed. Darcy was asleep and Maddie had returned to the main house. He had the night to himself. He thought about Maddie’s comment earlier that Darcy had so many changes in her life, in such a short time. He did, too. Finding out he had a daughter was the most amazing thing that had ever happened to him.

  Anger still irritated him that Brittany had kept it from him. Darcy was as much his as hers. His daughter deserved to know him, to learn his values and lifestyle. City living wasn’t the only way. He’d known his wife was slightly spoiled when he married her. But he’d truly believed they could make a go of it. That she’d mature enough to see what they had was good, if not as lavish as the lifestyle her parents enjoyed.

  More fool, he. She hadn’t taken to it at all.

  But Maddie did.

  He frowned. He liked Maddie. Okay, maybe more than liked her. But this was all a vacation to her. Once the novelty wore off, she’d want her gourmet coffee shops, more shopping than Grasslands offered, and the kind of nightlife that could be found into the wee small hours instead of rolling up the sidewalks at six.

  For a moment, he almost let himself think of the way things might go if she’d been born and raised on a ranch like Violet. Well, raised on one at least. Violet apparently had been born in Fort Worth, same as Maddie.

  Before he could begin to speculate on the Colby family dynamics, he heard a cry.

  The front legs of the chair clashed on the deck as he was up and inside in a heartbeat. Darcy was crying. He flipped on the hall light and dashed into her room, leaving the door open so he’d have some light.

  She was having a nightmare, thrashing around and crying out.

  “Hey, honey, it’s okay,” he said, scooping her up and sitting on the edge of her bed with her in his lap. “Darcy, wake up, honey. You’re okay.”

  She hiccuped and looked up at him in bewilderment, tears streaking her cheeks.

  “You had a bad dream, honey. You’re all right,” he murmured, rubbing her back gently.

  “I dreamed of Mommy. I miss her. I want my mommy,” she bawled.

  “I know you do. If there was anything I could do to bring her back to you I would, you know that.” He rocked her, tightening his arms around her, wishing he could ease her pain. Of course she missed her mother. She was the only parent Darcy had known all her life.

  Endless moments crept by and she cried and cried. He tried soothing her the best he knew how, but it didn’t seem to help. He prayed for wisdom to know how to deal with her and wished Maddie was close enough to hear if he yelled. What could he do to ease his daughter’s heartache? Only time would heal the wound. And maybe never completely. Darcy would miss her mother all her life.

  “Oh, honey, I’m so sorry she’s gone.” And in that instant, Ty knew he was sorry Brittany was dead. His anger vanished. Brittany had probably done the best she knew how. Her ways weren’t his. He knew he would have handled things differently, but in the end, the one who suffered most was Darcy. Had Brittany ever had an inkling she wouldn’t be around to see her daughter grown, he knew she would have made arrangements. As he would do if Darcy stayed with him.

  “You only get one mother, and I’m sorry she’s gone. You know she would have stayed with you if she could have,” he said softly, rocking her back and forth.

  “I miss her,” Darcy said sadly, her sobs slowing.

  “It’s okay to miss her.”

  “Do you miss her?”

  “I hadn’t seen her in a long time, as long as you’ve been born. But I miss what we had. She was someone I loved very much.” Once upon a time.

  Could he let himself fall in love again? Her leaving had left a gash in his heart he thought would never heal. Yet as the years had passed, he had found the will to go on. And when he accepted Christ as his Savior, life took on a joy he hadn’t expected. This was just a stepping-stone to the next stage of life. One he hoped to enjoy with Darcy.

  “Where did you know her?” Darcy asked.

  “Oh, we followed the rodeo circuit for a while. Then got married. When I got hurt, she was right there until I was better.”

  “How did you get hurt?”

  “Thrown from a bull.”

  Darcy pulled back and stared at him. “You rode a bull?”

  He nodded.

  “That’s scary.”

  “Yeah, it was, actually. And dangerous.” He didn’t need to go into all the reasons he’d wanted the big money winning bull-riding events brought. He still had most of it in investments, since he’d never bought that ranch he’d talked about. Another dream that had died when Brittany left.

  “Did you and Mommy have a big wedding in the church in Grasslands?” she asked, her tears forgotten.

  “No, we had a ceremony in Austin, and your grandmother and grandfather came and friends of your mother and me.” It was the first time he’d realized how far apart their worlds had been.

  “My grandparents are on a trip to Africa,” she said sadly. “I miss them, too.”

  “They’re home now, honey.”

  Her eyes lit up. “Are they coming to visit?”

  Now what? Explain the custody issue? Let her think they couldn’t get here for a while? Try to stall?

  He took a breath. The truth was the only way. “They want you to come live with them. But I want you to live here. So we’re still sorting through things. Once that’s decided, they can come to visit.” He hoped it would be decided in his favor.

  “Where will they sleep? We only have two bedrooms.”

  Ty clutched at the we. Maybe she wouldn’t mind staying with him.

  “We’ll find room. You and I can bunk in the barn if we need to.”

  She giggled. “With the horses?”

  “Sure, well, not exactly with the horses. We’d sleep up in the hay loft. Would you like that?”

  “Can Nipper come?” she asked, referring to Jack’s dog.

  “We’ll have to ask Jack, but I’d bet he’d love to camp out in the barn.”

  She giggled again and Ty hugged her, delighting in her laughter.

  “How about we get some hot chocolate before going back to bed?” he asked, lifting her as he stood.

  “Okay, can I have marshmallows in mine? Maddie always fixes them that way.”

  “Sure, if that’s the way Maddie does it, we’ll do it, too.”

  She grinned. Her face was blotchy, her eyes puffy, but her grin tugged at his heart. He couldn’t lose his little girl.

  It was more than an hour later before Ty let himself breathe a sigh of relief. Darcy was sound asleep. He’d checked on her several times after she went back to bed. Their midnight raid on the kitchen had been fun, though he still wished she hadn’t had that nightmare.

  “Lord, keep her safe,” he said softly as he gazed on her from her bedroom doorway. “Let everything work out as You have planned.”

  Tomorrow he’d ask Jack about being guardian to Darcy if anything happened to him. He needed to know he’d done all he could for his daughter.

  He’d known Jack for years. The man was solid, reliable and strong. He’d do his best for Darcy.

  If he’d known Maddie longer, if she had a steady job and resources, he might have considered asking her—she and Darcy had definitely bonded.

  His prayer was that he’d live a long life and enjoy all the stages of hers. For a moment he even thought about being a grandfather.

  “Your ways are wondrous, Lord,” he murmured.

  * * *

  Maddie arrived early the next morning. She was surprised to find the kitchen empty. Usually both Ty and Darcy were both present
. Checking her watch she saw it was after six. The coffee wasn’t even started.

  Preparing breakfast, she wondered if she was going to have to keep it warm for them. Just before the biscuits were done, Ty walked in. She turned to smile at him, her heart catching slightly when she saw him. He looked so strong and self-assured. He was a good man. Surely that would count a lot when the judge was deciding custody.

  “Good morning,” she said brightly.

  “Morning,” he replied, heading straight for the coffee she’d made.

  “Darcy not up yet?”

  “We had a bit of a problem last night. I expect she’ll sleep in a bit longer,” he said, pouring a cup and then taking a sip of the hot brew.

  “What happened?” she asked, pausing as she was about to break an egg into a bowl to make omelets.

  He leaned against the counter and looked at the bowl, then glanced at Maddie. “She had a nightmare. About her mother.”

  “Oh, poor baby,” Maddie said with sympathy. “It has to be so hard for her.”

  “I know. Maybe she would be better off with her grandparents. She cried and cried. I didn’t know what to do.”

  “What did you do?”

  “Held her, rocked her, tried to calm her down.”

  “That’s probably the best thing you could have done,” Maddie said, wishing she could have been here, too, to help. “I’m a bit surprised she hasn’t talked more about her mother. She has to miss her.”

  He looked at his boots. “I know. We ended up having hot chocolate together and talking about Brittany.” It hadn’t been as hard as he’d thought, remembering the good times he and Brittany had had. If he could forgive her for leaving him, forgive her for keeping all knowledge of his daughter from him, his memories of the woman he’d once loved would be happy ones.

  “Even better. The hardest thing when someone dies is if no one talks about them. I remember Rachel encouraged us to talk about our mother. She had pictures of Mom everywhere and would ask us special memories at every major holiday or birthday. She made it possible for us all to remember her with love.” She sighed. “It wasn’t always easy. We really missed her for the first few years after her death, but it did get easier.”

  “You said I should have a picture of Brittany for her. Seems like social services is having her parents clear out her apartment, so all those pictures will go to them. Maybe they’ll give some to Darcy. I have a few. I forgot I had them until last night. I’ll hunt them up later and give them to Darcy.” He never wanted his baby girl to be so sad as she had been last night. If seeing pictures of her mother gave her comfort, he was all for it.

  “I’m glad you were there for her last night,” Maddie said gently.

  He shook his head. “This parenting gig isn’t as easy as it looks.”

  She smiled with amusement. “I don’t think it’s supposed to be easy. And it’s doubly hard when there’s only one parent. But with the Lord’s help, you can make it.”

  “Yeah, we’ll see. I’m going to talk to Jack today about being her guardian if anything happens to me. I know Brittany didn’t expect to die so young. If I die, Darcy will be alone, except for her grandparents, of course. But they aren’t all that young. I want someone I respect and trust to watch out for her.”

  “That’s wise. Plan for emergencies and then live like they’ll never happen,” she replied.

  He looked at her. “That movie’s still playing in town. Would you like to go out on Friday night?”

  Maddie stared at him in surprise.

  He wondered what she was thinking. He shouldn’t have blurted it out like that. If he had a bit more finesse—

  “I’d love to. Thank you for inviting me—again. We had lunch with Sadie yesterday, and I told her we’d call if we needed her to watch Darcy.”

  “Great. Then it’ll just be you and me. Want to eat dinner before the show, save you making it?”

  “I’d like that.”

  “Good.” He drained his coffee cup.

  “I’ll check on Darcy before we eat. If she’s stirring, we can wait, but if she’s still out like a light, she’ll have to eat later,” he said.

  Maddie listened to his footsteps as he went back to the bedroom. Ty had asked her out again. Or did it count as a continuation of the first invitation? She couldn’t help smiling. Just the two of them. Not that she didn’t love Darcy, but it would be wonderful to spend some time with Ty alone.

  Well, not completely alone, with other customers at the restaurant and all those attending the movie. She wasn’t going to let that stop her enjoyment. She was going on a date with the most fascinating and intriguing man she knew.

  Ty left immediately after he ate, saying he had a lot to do. Maddie cleaned the kitchen, keeping an ear out for Darcy. When she finished, she poured another cup of coffee and went to see if Darcy was still asleep. She was.

  Taking her coffee and cell phone out on the front porch, Maddie called Rachel. The longtime housekeeper had always been more than a mere housekeeper. She’d been a surrogate mother to the three motherless children. When Carter had left home, and their dad had chosen full-time mission work, Rachel had declared it was time to retire and she’d moved to Galveston, always wanting to live near the sea. She and Maddie kept in touch by phone and Skype and rarely did a week go by without them catching each other up to date.

  “Hello?” she answered right away.

  Maddie felt the comfort of her familiar voice. “Hi, Rachel, it’s Maddie.”

  “Hi, honey, how’re you doing?”

  “I’m doing better than I would have expected, actually, with all things considered.”

  “Did you and Violet and Jack figure things out?”

  “Not yet. In fact, we have a further complication.” She told Rachel about going to the old family house in Fort Worth and the accusations the neighbor had made. “Neither Violet nor Jack can believe such a thing about their mother, but with her unable to tell us anything, it just adds to the questions, as you can imagine.”

  “What does your father say about all this?”

  “I still haven’t reached him or Grayson.” When she thought about her brother, she couldn’t believe all she’d learned in the last seven weeks that he was totally unaware of. The revelations would rock his world as it had hers.

  “All in the Lord’s time, I’m sure,” Rachel said. “How’s that little girl you’re watching?”

  “Another complication,” Maddie said. “Her grandparents have returned and they are seeking custody. Ty wants her to live with him. So I guess it’ll become a court battle with Darcy right in the middle.”

  “What’s a court battle?” Darcy asked from the screen door.

  “Oh, oh,” Maddie said, looking at the little girl. Her heart sank that she’d inadvertently spilled the beans. “Listen, Rachel, I have to go. Darcy’s awake and needs breakfast.” And an explanation that could explode everything. Ty was not going to be happy with her.

  “Well, this was not enough time to talk. Call me back tonight after your duties are over, however late. In the meantime, I’ll pray for you and the whole situation.”

  Maddie bid her goodbye and shut off the phone, smiling at Darcy as she rose. “Hungry?”

  “A little. Did Daddy tell you we had hot chocolate last night?”

  Maddie caught her breath when Darcy called Ty Daddy. Maybe last night had been a bigger blessing than he knew.

  “He did, and that you had a bad nightmare. I’m glad he was there to be with you when you woke up.”

  “I miss my mommy, but he told me all about her when they were married. And he has some pictures he’s gonna show me. And he says it’s okay to miss someone when they’re gone, and always remember them with love.”

  “That’s exactly right,” Maddie said, entering the house and heading for the kitchen.

  Darcy was partway through her breakfast before she returned to her question. “What’s a court battle?”

  “It’s slang for a situation being deci
ded in court,” Maddie said, hoping she didn’t want details.

  “And who fights the battle?”

  “Mostly attorneys. Men and women who have studied the law for years and know all the rules. They present their cases to a judge and then he decides.”

  “Is he like a referee?”

  Darcy took a sip of juice. “Sort of. What he says goes.”

  “Where are my grandparents?”

  Oh, boy, now the fat would be in the fire.

  “They’re home in Houston. They came home a couple of days ago,” Maddie said, not knowing exactly when they returned, but too soon for Ty and his daughter to completely bond. Given the choice of residences, Maddie expected Darcy would choose the familiar.

  “When they come to visit me here, Daddy and I are sleeping in the barn.”

  Maddie blinked. “Come again?”

  Darcy giggled and then resumed eating. “We don’t have enough bedrooms, so they can have ours and we’ll sleep in the barn—with the horses!”

  “Wow, that sounds exciting.”

  Darcy nodded. “I can’t wait! Do you want to come sleep in the barn when we do?” she asked.

  “We’ll see.” She smiled at the child. “Today we need to go up to the main house and talk to Violet. Our mother is being moved to a nursing home closer to us so we can visit her more often.”

  “I thought your mom was dead,” Darcy said, looking puzzled.

  “The woman I thought was my mom died when I was little. But then I found out that Belle Colby is my mother. It’s hard to get used to.”

  Darcy studied her face. “Do you have two mothers?”

  Maddie sighed. “Apparently so.”

  “Can I have two mothers?”

  “If your dad marries someone, she’d be your new mother, so then you’d have two. But you’ll always remember your real mom.” At least Maddie hoped she did. She herself had no memories of Belle as her mother. When had the family split? She had to have been an infant—maybe shortly after the picture was taken that Violet had. Grayson didn’t remember any other mother beside Sharla.

  Once again, the frustration of not knowing what happened rose.

  Lord, I’m turning this all over to You. I pray for patience. All will be revealed in Your timing and I need to know that You have everything under control. Please let Dad contact me soon. And keep Belle healing, that she may awaken before long and tell us all we need to know.