by Liz Isaacson
“Yeah,” Skyler said. “He said it went well.”
“What does that mean?”
“I have no idea,” Skyler said. “I’ve been trying not to worry about it. Whatever happens will happen, but I believe they’re going to decide our marriage is one-hundred-percent real.” He looked at her fully then. “Because it is.”
Mal smiled at him, so glad she wasn’t his wanna-be wife. She loved being a Walker, and a rush of affection for Skyler’s parents filled her. She knew a lot of the unity in the family came from them, and she’d happily taken her shift at the hospital with Gideon. Everyone had, as Mal hadn’t heard a word of complaint.
“Here we go,” Skyler said, pulling into the hospital. They walked inside hand-in-hand, and went to the intensive care unit. Of course, nearly the whole family was there, and Mal wondered if they ever got tired of having family reunions in hallways.
“They’re only letting back two people at a time,” Rhett said. “You’re next if you want to go.”
“You’ve all gone?” Skyler asked.
Rhett shook his head. “Just me and Evvy. Wyatt’s back there right now. Jeremiah’s not here yet.”
“We’re fine to wait,” Liam said. “Ginger is almost asleep, and then we can pass her off.”
Mal looked at Ivory and Tripp. “You guys don’t want to go back?”
Ivory had her son pressed to her chest while he cried. “We need a few minutes,” she said, smiling. “Ollie’s a little emotional.”
So Skyler and Mal went back when Wyatt and Marcy came out several minutes later. Wyatt wore a huge smile along with his signature cowboy hat. “He looks good, you guys.”
Light filled Mal’s soul as she walked with Skyler, but his hand just got tighter and tighter in hers. Penny stood at the door, and she hugged them both.
“Momma,” Skyler said. “When Daddy gets out of the hospital, we want the two of you to come stay with us.”
“Oh, I’m—”
“I’m really good at nursing someone back to health,” Skyler said. “And he’ll need a lot of help.”
Penny looked at Mal, who just nodded. Her own emotions had formed a lump in the back of her throat she couldn’t swallow back.
“I don’t know….” Penny said.
Mal stepped up to her and took both of her hands. “You won’t be putting us out. We want to help you. Please.” She leaned into Skyler as he slipped his arm around her waist, and they both smiled at his mother.
Hope filled Mal, and she knew the moment Penny would say yes. She blinked, and her gaze softened. “You two are so good for each other.”
“I know,” Skyler said, planting a kiss on Mal’s cheek. “So what do you say, Momma?”
“All right,” she said. “I suppose it’s the right thing to do. Daddy’s horses are out there already.”
“That’s right.” Skyler kissed his mother on the cheek too as he moved past her, already saying, “Hey, Daddy,” as he went inside.
“Are you sure we won’t be any trouble?” Penny asked. It was so very like her to be worried about such a thing when her husband had been in a coma for almost five weeks.
“Not at all,” Mal said. “And we have main floor living, Penny. You belong there.” She went into Gideon’s hospital room with Penny, and she couldn’t push against the wave of emotion for the man who had become her family. She marveled that these people had accepted her so readily, and her gratitude swelled as she bent down and kissed Gideon on the cheek.
She’d realized that Skyler might think he didn’t fit with his family, but the truth was, he hadn’t fallen far from the tree. He’d do anything for his family, and Mal admired his sense of loyalty and the way he loved them through thick and thin. It was a special kind of love that she enjoyed from him too, and she smiled warmly at him while he started asking his dad what he wanted to eat first when he got out of the hospital.
“Mal’s chimichangas, of course,” Gideon said, and that caused everyone to laugh.
Once the nurse had shooed them out of the room, Mal took Skyler’s hand again, and they walked back to the waiting room. Only Rhett remained, and Skyler said they weren’t going to stay either.
They walked back to his truck, and he drove them back to their house. They both paused in the doorway of the bedroom across the hall from theirs, and Mal said, “I’ll order a bed. A king-sized will fit, I think.”
“It will,” Skyler murmured. “Micah showed me the plans.”
“Are you okay? You want them to come stay, right?” He’d been adamant about it. What had changed in the past hour?
“Yes,” he said. “I want them to come stay here.” He turned toward her. “And I want you, Miss Mallery.”
“Oh, okay.” She giggled as he took her into his arms and kissed her. His touch had always been welcome, and he walked her backward into their bedroom. “Now, let’s go start this morning off on the right foot.” He closed the door behind them, and Mal smiled at this handsome cowboy husband of hers.
“I love you,” she said.
“And I love you.” Skyler didn’t let a day go by without telling her he loved her, and as he made love to her, Mal had never felt more cherished, more needed, and more loved in her life.
Chapter Thirty-Two
Micah sat in his truck, his nerves running through him like a runaway train. The community theater didn’t have the nicest building in the world to meet in. In fact, according to his online research, the theater only used part of the charter school, which met in a building that used to be used to store apples.
Plenty of cars sat in the parking lot, and the school had invested in some serious street lamps, so Micah felt safe being there. It was when he’d have to go face Simone that made his heart pulse too hard.
“She’s not going to like this,” he muttered. But he found himself getting out of the truck anyway. Walking toward the door. Once inside, he took a deep breath and glanced around. The hallway smelled like rubber and sweat, like the wrestling room had when Micah had tried a brief stint on the school wrestling team.
He’d found that he’d rather work on his grandfather’s farm than try to pin someone to the ground, and that was when Micah had truly become a cowboy. The year after that, he’d taken a woodworking workshop for one of his Boy Scout badges, and that had been when sawdust had started flowing in his blood.
“Are you here to audition?” a man asked, and Micah blinked his way out of the past.
“Yes, sir,” he said.
The man smiled at him. “We’re down in room one-seventeen. There will be a brief orientation meeting, and then we’ll head into the auditorium.”
“Okay,” Micah said, his stomach quaking with every slap of his cowboy boot against the tiled floor. Dozens of people waited in room one-seventeen, and the man who had brought Micah with him seemed to disappear the moment he entered.
Micah paused on the threshold of the room, trying to take in everything—and everyone—at once. His first instinct told him to turn right on around and go right on home. Growing up, his parents had taught him to listen to those instincts and obey them. Then he wouldn’t find himself somewhere he shouldn’t be, with people he didn’t want to be with.
But now, he fought against that flight instinct, remembering something his father had said to him just last night.
Just go in there and do it, son. What’s the worst that could happen?
Micah had thought a lot about his question in the past few days. He’d never prayed as hard as he had the past few months as he begged God for his father’s well-being and recovery. Daddy had woken up a month ago, but he still wasn’t strong enough to leave the hospital. He’d had another surgery on his back, and he was walking around the hospital with one crutch now. The family continued to use a rotation to go visit him, and Micah had given him a hug last night and promised to call after tonight’s audition.
So he couldn’t leave.
And the worst that could happen was currently happening, as Simone Foster had seen him and was currently
making a beeline straight for him. And she did not look happy.
“You cut your hair,” he said. Why he’d chosen that to comment on, he wasn’t sure.
She paused a few feet from him, one hand going up to pat said hair. “Yeah, a few days ago.”
“Did you color it?” he asked. “It looks darker.”
She folded her arms and cocked her head, her now-chin length hair bobbing with the motion. “What are you doing here?”
He lifted the sheets of paper he’d printed off the Internet. “I’m auditioning for West Side Story.”
“No,” she said. “You’re not.”
Annoyance sang through Micah’s bloodstream. “Are you the director?”
She didn’t answer, which meant no.
“It’s an open audition,” he said. “Says so right online. Says anyone can come audition, for any part.” He started to move past her, though he had no end goal in sight.
“Who are you auditioning for?”
“Officer Krupke,” he said over his shoulder. He found a seat in the back, frustrated that how he thought Simone would react had come to fruition. His fantasies were always so different from reality.
“All right,” a man said a few minutes later. “I’m David Gonzalez, and I’m going to be directing the show. Welcome.” He beamed out at the crowd, and the energy in the room could’ve fed Micah for days. David proceeded to give instructions for how auditions would go that night, when call-backs would be, and the rehearsal schedule.
“Lana will pass those out now,” he said. “Everyone with any date conflicts must fill out a card tonight. If it’s not on this card, and you’re cast, you can’t miss.” He waved a stiff index card in his hand. “I understand emergencies happen, but folks, a birthday party isn’t an emergency.”
A few people twittered, but Micah decided the man was serious. Someone had tried to use a birthday party to get out of rehearsal. He took one of the schedules and looked at it. He didn’t travel much, and he currently only had two clients for his general contracting business. He couldn’t fathom a reason why he wouldn’t be able to make it to evening and weekend rehearsals, especially since there was nothing scheduled over the holidays.
He looked up again when David started calling out parts and handing out music and lines. Micah had no idea how auditions went, as this was his first. But when David called for the detective and the officer, Micah took both of those parts. He wasn’t a bad singer, but he wasn’t great either. Tripp and Liam were definitely better than him, and the most musically inclined in the family.
He scanned the music and didn’t find anything that would give him too much trouble. Besides, the parts he wanted weren’t even singing parts. He wasn’t sure why he’d need to sing at all.
“Who are you auditioning for, Simone?” Simone asked as she sat next to him in the previously empty seat. Their eyes met, and some of her earlier vitriol had fled.
A smile touched his heart, but he did not let it infect his mouth. “Who are you auditioning for, Simone?” he asked, repeating her question the way she wanted him to.
“Maria, of course,” she said. “I don’t quite have the range for her, but if I audition for the lead, I might be cast somewhere close to that.”
“I see.” Micah focused on his music again, because looking at Simone for too long got him a little too hot. “Who do you really want to be?”
“Maria,” she said.
Micah looked at her again. “No, really.”
She blinked, but she couldn’t hide very much from Micah. “Anita,” she said. “Or Consuelo or Rosalia. I’d like to be any of them.”
He nodded and lifted the music. “My parts don’t even sing. Do you think I’ll really have to sing tonight?”
“You should go for Tony,” she said.
“I’m not a tenor,” Micah said.
“Oh, well, then, Bernardo.”
“Nah, I’m going to stick to the detective or the officer. They don’t have to sing or dance.”
“It’s a musical.” Simone smiled. “You thought you’d come audition for literally a singing, dancing show when you don’t want to sing or dance?”
Micah simply looked at her. Surely she knew why he was really here. Didn’t she? She reached up to tuck her hair, but the shorter locks just sprang right back out from behind her ear.
“Simone, I came to audition because—”
“All right, people,” David called. “We’re moving to the auditorium, and I want all the females first. Ladies, to the stage!”
Excitement rose into the air as everyone stood up and started surging toward the door.
“Gentlemen,” David called above the chaos. “To the seats. You’ll be up next.”
Neither Simone nor Micah moved with the rest of the crowd. She watched them mostly leave, and then she looked at him again. “Why did you come to audition?”
He started to shake his head, and then he remembered the way she’d shown up on his doorstep, months ago. He’d never gone to get those cookies. She couldn’t shake the thought of stopping to see him, and he hadn’t been able to shake this idea of auditioning to be in the same play as her.
It wasn’t rocket science.
“I couldn’t shake the idea,” he said evenly. He took a deep breath. “And Ophelia broke up with me.”
Shock covered her face as she pulled in a breath. “She did? When?”
“Ages ago,” he said. “I’m surprised you didn’t know.”
“I don’t get to town much.”
“Is it that surprising?” he teased, reaching out to touch her chin. “You look like a codfish.”
She snapped her mouth closed. “It’s a little shocking, yeah.”
“Why’s that?”
“Why would she break up with you? You guys were so cute together, and you’d been seeing her for a long time.” She looked like she genuinely wanted to know.
Micah once again thought about just shrugging. Instead, he said, “She knew…well, my family is big and loud, and I think they freaked her out.”
“Oh, well, that’s just ridiculous.” Simone gazed at Micah, and she couldn’t have given a more perfect response. Before he’d even realized it, Micah leaned toward her, and he might’ve been hallucinating, but she leaned toward him too….
“Simone,” David called from the doorway. “Are you two coming? I thought you wanted Maria.”
“Yes,” she said, flying to her feet. “We’re coming.” She walked away from Micah, though, leaving him to get up himself and follow her out of the room.
“Do you know Simone?” David asked as Micah passed him.
“Yeah, sure,” Micah said. “She’s my neighbor.”
“Did she tell you to come audition?”
“Kind of,” Micah said with a smile. He went into the auditorium while Simone continued down the hall and made a left turn.
“All right, ladies and gentlemen,” David said, his voice echoing throughout the huge auditorium. “We’re going to start at the top and work our way down. If you’re auditioning for Maria or Anita, line up on stage right, please.”
Micah took a seat near the other men, his eyes hooked onto Simone. She looked like she’d been born to be on the stage, without a single tremor of fear or anxiety. When it was her turn to step into the spotlight and sing, she did so with a smile affixed to that beautiful face.
And when she opened her mouth…no wonder Micah hadn’t been able to move past her. She sang with the voice of an angel, and she projected confidence from the stage to the very last row in the theater.
He sat there breathless as she walked off and another woman took her place. And Micah was so glad he hadn’t been able to shake the idea of coming to audition for her play. Even if he got cast as the water boy, he’d do it just to be near her.
And he wasn’t leaving here without asking her out—again.
His heart balked at that idea, but he sternly told himself that this time was going to be different.
It will, he reass
ured himself. He and Simone were going to make the fourth time the charm. Oh, yes, they were.
Chapter Thirty-Three
Skyler stepped out of his front door and looked up at the top of it. “It’ll fit, Mal.” He reached for the wreath they’d bought that morning. It was shaped like a horse’s head, the pine boughs folded and contained in a wire frame. The horse wore a Texas flag around its neck, and Skyler had loved it upon first sight.
Convincing Mal that it was Christmasy enough had taken some serious argument on his part, and he thought he should’ve become a lawyer with how well he’d presented his case.
“I can’t believe we’re hanging up a horse-head wreath.” She moved out to stand on the porch and watch him while he stuck the wreath hook to the door. “Can you imagine what our former friends in Amarillo would say?”
Skyler snorted as he pictured that. “I would’ve never.” With the hook in place, he took the wreath from where she’d set it on the ground and positioned it so it hung straight. “How does it look?”
“Ridiculous.” Her voice carried a playful tone though, and Skyler simply grinned.
“I like it.” He stepped back and put his arm around her waist. “It’s awesome, Mal. Exactly what a cowboy would have on his front door.” There was a reason the department store had horse-head wreaths, right?
She leaned into his side, and Skyler kneaded her closer. “I suppose,” she said.
“All right.” He looked at the oak tree several yards away. “Since Tripp is gone, Liam’s family is going to decorate the tree. Our lights are up, and the wreath really completes things.”
“The tree is up inside,” she said. “Wyatt said something about having two at the homestead?”
“Yeah.” Skyler didn’t want to set up another tree. If he could avoid that job, he would. “Here at Casa Sky-Walker, we’re just doing one tree.”
“Skywalker.” Mal giggled.
He’d had to name his house something, because everyone called the house where Jeremiah lived “the homestead.” But Skyler had a homestead now too. So he’d started dubbing it Casa Skywalker, and the name had stuck. He didn’t know much about Star Wars, but his house was a lot newer than the homestead, with a lot more upgrades, kind of like the spaceships in the science fiction movies.