WILDER: The Mountain Man's Babies

by Frankie Love

  I didn’t tell him. But I took a step forward and called him. His voice on the phone sounded distant and detached.

  Part of me understood why he would sound that way. I had offered him nothing when he was willing to give me everything. Of course, he was protecting his heart. I haven’t exactly shown him he could trust me with it.

  But now, as I drive up and see him here, not expecting it at all, everything within me flip-flops.

  What are the odds of me coming to his house like this? I know the names of the people I am designing for. Buck and Rosie. Those aren’t names that you could forget. And their names were on all the paperwork when I was placing orders and reading questionnaires.

  Dean Wilder was never mentioned.

  This entire thing is an insane coincidence. Is it crazy to believe it might be destiny?

  I open the door, knowing I can’t just sit in here, and really, I don’t want to. I want to see Wilder.

  My feet are on the ground. I close my eyes, open them. There’s no going back. Shutting the car door behind me, I turn to face the father of my children.

  “Holy fucking Christ.”

  I shake my head, Wilder is not pulling any punches. He is as shocked as I am.

  “What in the world?” he asks, trying to figure out what’s going on as cameras swarm around us.

  The producer said I was to arrive and get a tour of the property with one of the cast members of the show.

  Wilder looks at me, his mouth set in a tight line. “I’m supposed to give the designer a tour. That you?” His eyes narrow in on me, his arms crossed.

  “I’m the designer, but I had no idea... Wilder... You... Here? I’m so confused.”

  The camera comes closer still and I turn so my back faces it, not exactly wanting this footage to be on television. Maybe Anna was right–being on a reality TV show was all about concocting a staged surprise.

  “Can you get that away from us,” I ask the cameraman.

  He shakes his head, dropping the camera from the shoulder. “Producers orders, I’m supposed to get everything you to say.”

  “Do they know about me? Did you know about this?” I ask Wilder. Did he set me up? There’s no way. Is there?

  “I had no idea you were coming here. No idea you were even working on a TV show. Shit, Stella. The last thing I want is you to be caught up in this circus if you don’t want to be.”

  “Buck and Rosie, are they your friends or are you on the show as just a crew member?” I ask, trying to get my head around what he is doing here.

  “They’re my friends, closest people I know. This is the reason I was in Seattle the night we met. I was checking out the contract, meeting producers. Making sure they would be a good fit to bring into our mountain.”

  “And you must have decided it was.”

  “Yeah, Rosie and Buck, and all their babies–they need a house.”

  “All their babies?”

  His eyebrows raise. “Seems the men here know how to get their women pregnant. Jaxon and Harper, they had triplets, then another baby. My brother had twins. Buck has twins plus a baby girl. It’s kind of joke, but also the hook for the show.”

  “Twins? Triplets.” I feel faint. That’s a lot of babies. I put my hand to my belly protectively. And now there are going to be even more.

  Wilder exhales, then asks, “Baby, I never even asked. Are you tired? Need something to drink?” He rests his hand on the small of my back and begins leading me toward the house.

  “I’m fine, a little tired, but that’s nothing new.” I stop walking, not really wanting to keep anything from this man. The man whose patience seems unending. “Wilder, we need to talk.”

  “We sure do. I have plenty of things I need to tell you.”

  “No, Wilder I need to tell you things first.” I look around and the camera is still on us. I don’t want everything I say to Wilder to be caught on tape.

  “Later,” I say, retracting. “I can’t talk with all these cameras around.”

  I look for help, the cameraman still running his film, Janice walking away from us, and I clench my jaw, having a few choice words for her if she is behind this.

  “I’ll get you somewhere safe,” Wilder promises. “Don’t you worry.”

  He wraps his arms tight around me and leads me away from the film crew.

  Chapter Fifteen

  She looks stunned. Shocked. Scared.

  It’s one thing to have a film crew capture Jax, Buck, and me as we hammer nails into two by fours. It’s another thing for them to witness the moment I tell Stella there’s no way in hell she’s leaving me again.

  By the look of fear in her eyes, she doesn’t want them to capture that moment either.

  “We need to talk to Janice,” I tell her. “If she set us up for this, she’ll be sorry. Sure, we agreed to be on their show, but I did not agree to be in their circus.”

  Stella shakes her head. “Maybe they didn’t know that we... I mean, how could they?”

  I think back to the words Rosie said on the day of our photo shoot. She had been so exhausted and the kids were wearing her down. She let Stella’s name slip, but instantly realizing her mistake.

  I remember Janice pouncing on it then. Asking Rosie to elaborate. But Rosie had shaken her head and refused.

  Still, Janice had gotten Stella’s name. She knew Stella Saint Claire was on the fucking payroll. She is smart enough to put things together.

  “Well, they knew your name,” I tell her. “Of course I told my friends about you, that we were having a baby. Everybody’s been dying to meet you.”

  “It’s fine that they know, they’re your people. But Janice had no right to intrude this way. I need to go find her. She tried to set us up and catch us off guard.” Stella wipes the tears from her face and grabs a tissue from her purse to blow her nose.

  I don’t blame her one bit for being upset. This is way over the line of acceptable.

  Stella takes a step back from me, her face now covered in tears. “This is not how I wanted this meeting to go.”

  Understanding what she needs, I turn to the cameraman and growl, “You need to get the producer here now. Go find Janice.” My fists are clenched, my blood boiling–no one messes with my woman. “And turn that fucking camera off. Do you understand me?”

  He must have gotten a clue because he scampers off without another word.

  Stella looks up at me stunned. Blinking back tears she says, “Thank you Wilder, for going all cave-man for me. Thank you.”

  ...

  Janice marches towards us, lips pursed.

  I’m not having any of it.

  “Calm down, calm down, you two.” She motions with her hands for us to settle down like we’re fucking toddlers. Or cattle. “You both agreed to the terms of service. You’re on a television show. A reality television show. Things are getting real here.”

  “No,” I snort. “They aren’t getting real.”

  We must be getting loud because Buck and Jaxon cross the driveway toward us, trying to sort out whatever’s going on.

  “You need any help, brother?” Jax hollers.

  “Yeah, you need to find a new person for your crew. Because I’m not working with this woman anymore.”

  Buck raises his hands gesturing for us to calm down.

  Just then Rosie’s Sprinter van pulls up. Harper’s in the passenger seat and they get out, eyes wide.

  “What’s going on?” Rosie asks walking toward us. The town car is still here and the film crew is capturing everything.

  Janice just smugly watches this montage unfold.

  “The producer set me up,” I shout. “Stella’s the designer. For the fucking show.”

  Harper’s eyebrows raise in alarm, stepping closer. “Stella? I don’t follow.”

  But everyone else seems to follow. Because their eyes land on Stella’s stomach. Her much larger than last time stomach. Her clearly pregnant stomach.

  “Stella?” Harper asks. “You’re Stella? Yo
u’re Wilder’s Stella?”

  Stella doesn’t answer, she just shakes her head, looking distraught–completely overwhelmed.

  But quick enough she finds her words and lashes out at Janice. “How did this even happen? I’ve been working on the show for the last month. This whole time, you knew I would show up here and Wilder would be....” Her sentence peters out because what do you even say?

  “We didn’t know the whole time. But a few weeks ago Rosie let it slip and it seemed like a producer’s wet dream. What more could I ask for?” Janice shakes her head in amazement. “My interior designer is pregnant with the show’s star and it’s some unrequited love scenario? You can’t write that shit.”

  “Yeah and you can’t use that shit either,” I shout. “Get the cameras off us. This is my life. This is my woman. And this is our baby.”

  Stella trembles. “Wilder, not just your baby.”

  “I know that. It’s your baby too. And it can be our life, Stella. That’s why we need to get away from these fucking cameras so we can have an actual conversation.”

  “No, you don’t understand. It’s not just a baby. It’s two babies. Wilder, I’m pregnant with twins.”

  The cameraman swings his lens to me. I can only imagine what he captures. The mountain man who had a long day of work, caught by surprise, suddenly the father of not one baby, not two.

  Suddenly the father of four.

  Chapter Sixteen

  The scene unfolds dramatically just like Janice wanted. Everyone is upset with her, but in some ways I’m relieved.

  I wanted to get the truth out in the open, I was so tired of holding onto it, holding it from Wilder. And standing here with him, I couldn’t keep it back for a second longer. I should have told him the moment I knew.

  I never want to keep anything from him again.

  And the truth is, part of me wanted to tell him when he wasn’t expecting it. So I could see his true reaction.

  Wilder shakes his head in disbelief. “And you didn’t tell me? Stella, you can’t keep things like this from me.”

  I try to answer, but I just start sobbing, unable to rein in my emotions. The truth is, I’m caught off guard too.

  “Stella, talk to me baby,” he tries, but I can’t talk. I need to get away from the cameras and cry in peace.

  The woman, Harper, wraps her arms around me and leads me to her van. “Hey, sweetie, we’re gonna drive you home now, okay?”

  “The men can meet us there after they’ve finished explaining things to Janice,” Rosie says.

  I sit, stunned, as she puts the key in the ignition and begins driving her big van down the mountain.

  It’s only then that I look behind me and realize I’m not alone in this van.

  “All of these are your kids?” I ask, counting four kids buckled up in car seats.

  “No,” Rosie says looking over her shoulder at me in the back. “Harper's in-laws have some back at their place. That’s where we’re headed now. They have a trailer up on their property so they can stay there half of the year.”

  “We all pitch in like that,” Harper says. “One big happy family. Only getting bigger.”

  “Something like that.” Rosie laughs. “Is there something you’re not telling me? Are you pregnant again?”

  Harper blushes but shakes her head. “No. Right now, I think one of us being pregnant is plenty.”

  I look up at Rosie, and her eyes are already on me in the rearview mirror. “I’m talking about you, Stella.”

  Me? It’s like they count me as one of their own.

  “I cannot believe what just happened back there. Do you think the guys are gonna call the whole show off?” Harper asks.

  Rosie turns off the main road and starts up a winding road to a beautiful log cabin nestled in the woods.

  “I wouldn’t be surprised,” Rosie says. “Wilder was pissed off. With reason. I cannot believe Janice did that. I’m so sorry, Stella. I can’t even imagine what you’re thinking right now.”

  What I’m thinking? That this is surreal. This it’s like I swallowed a massive serving of fate. That the connection I felt with Wilder the moment we met was real.

  Wasn’t forced. Wasn’t fake. We are supposed to be together, because how else do you explain it?

  I don’t say any of those things, instead, I just follow the women out of the van and watch as they unbuckle babies and pass them to one another.

  “This is your house?” I ask Harper, seeing a trailer in the driveway.

  “Yep, Jax built it for me.” Her long blonde hair frames her face and she looks like an angel. Her eyes are large and wide, so sweet and tender.

  Taking a good look at Rosie, she just looks happy. Plain and simple.

  I think about the mountain men up there at that cabin that is being built. The three of them look so rough-and-tumble, tattoos and beards and dirty jeans and boots. Like, real men.

  Real men who know how to take care of their women.

  Maybe that’s why Rosie and Harper look so dang content right now. They are.

  Inside the house an older woman stands at the kitchen island chopping vegetables. Harper introduces us to her as Barbara, her mother-in-law.

  “I didn’t expect to see you so soon. Your husbands call it a day?” Barbara asks.

  “Something like that,” Harper says setting the babies in her arm down and picking up a toddler who comes running toward her. He plants kisses all over her face and she laughs. “Cedar, you’re a kissing monster today.” She sets him back down on the floor and he runs away to a gaggle of children, and all three women laugh knowingly.

  A laugh I don’t quite understand.

  Rosie fills Barbara in on the drama that unfolded at the cabin. I watch as Barbara takes me in, her eyes soft with concern.

  “Oh, my word, Stella, it’s so good to meet you, darling.” Barbara wraps her arms around me in a big hug. She squeezes me tight, then pulling away and pressing both of her hands on my belly.

  I’d feel like she’s in my personal space, but Barbara is so motherly that I can’t help but lean into her confidence.

  “It’s good to meet you too, I just feel really... really...” That’s when I started to cry again.

  “Oh sweetheart,” Harper says patting my shoulder. “Wilder will be here soon to take care of you.”

  “Do you want to meet his twins?” Rosie asks. “Would that make you feel better? Like... I don’t know, maybe seeing them would make this feel more concrete. More real.”

  “I don’t know if Wilder would want me to meet them without him here.”

  Rosie’s eyes look past me and I follow her gaze. A set of twins, a boy and a girl with matching clothes, jump up and down in plastic contraptions.

  “Regardless, you’re here. And so are they.” Rosie says taking my hand and leading me toward the babies.

  “This is Briar,” Harper says pointing to the little girl. “And this is Finn. Briar’s the bigger handful. Constantly demanding. But I think we can all relate to that, being women and all.”

  The ladies laugh, and I wipe the tears from my cheeks, looking at these two perfect people that Wilder has been taking care of all on his own.

  “How has he done this, taking on so much?” I kneel down on the floor with Rosie and Harper. Briar reaches for my hand and when I offer it to her, she wraps her tiny finger tightly around mine. Not letting go.

  And somehow, in that split second, I can’t imagine letting go either.

  “He didn’t really have a choice, did he?” Rosie says quietly. “I know the way you got pregnant, and with twins at that… it probably wasn’t what you planned. But sometimes beauty is in the unexpected.”

  “Is that how it was for you and Buck?” I ask her, already feeling safe with these women.

  Rosie unbuckles Finn from his bouncy chair and hands him to me. I draw him close, instinctively. He smiles up at me, babbling with a toothy grin, and my heart melts. Through my tears, I can’t help but grin back.

&nb
sp; “Was it unexpected or did you plan on having a baby?” I ask Rosie.

  “We did not plan on a baby, and certainly not twins. Nor do we plan on the newborn. But….” Rosie shrugs. “It’s never felt like a bad thing. Of course, it’s hard some days, but there’s so much joy in creating a life with another person. Making a life with someone who loves you.”

  Harper nods as if she knows exactly what Rosie is saying. “I didn’t plan to have triplets either. Jaxon and I weren’t exactly a couple when I got pregnant.”

  Her cheeks redden and she tucks a loose strand of hair behind her ear not wanting to meet my eyes. “But whether or not we were a couple didn’t really matter. We were meant for one another. So what started as something reckless, quickly turned into something real. A snowstorm brought me to Jaxon’s house, but love is what kept me there.”

  Something in my chest tightens, maybe I’m jealous of Rosie and Harper’s complete assuredness about their lives. They have no doubt, no questions. They know absolutely, 100%, who they are and what they have.

  “I don’t have that,” I admit. “I mean, Wilder and I aren’t in love. We’ve never said those words to one another. We only spent a few days together, hardly even that. And I think that is what scares me.

  Harper shushes me. “Sweetie, slow down, deep breaths. It’s okay.”

  “I think you can fall in love in the space of one afternoon,” Rosie says solemnly. “I think you can fall in love in the space of one minute. One second. Maybe some people have love stories that take years to unfold, but other people,” she says licking her lips and looking at Harper and me. “Other people’s stories are written in a single moment in time. And those people ... us... we are the lucky ones.”

  Rosie’s eyes brim with tears and she brushes them away, as Harper brushes away her own.

  And then I’m crying again.

  Because what she says about love feels like what I want to believe about Wilder and me. About our life together.

  I could never say something like that to my sister because she wouldn’t understand falling in love in the blink of an eye.