Wanted--Texas Daddy

by Cathy Gillen Thacker

  Chapter Sixteen

  “For someone who just had a son, you’re looking awfully blue,” his older sister Erin said from the other side of the Triple Canyon ranch house kitchen. She set out glasses, ice and cold beverages for the Welcome to Our Two Families party for little Shane. Then paused to watch Nick set up the party-sized coffeemaker and hot water dispensers for tea and cocoa.

  Her expression worried, she checked on the potluck casseroles warming in the oven. “And Sage doesn’t look as happy as I would expect her to be, either.”

  Glad she was upstairs nursing the baby, and not privy to any of this—it was hard enough for him to hear it—Nick set out the platters of ham, brisket and chicken. “Shane was up most of both nights that they were in the hospital.”

  “You were there, too,” Erin challenged. “Walking the floor with him.”

  Life was not as simple as his sisters sometimes thought. Nick swallowed. “Yes, I’ve lost sleep.” Over the mess our life is suddenly in. “But Sage is the one who is nursing so I think it’s harder on her.”

  Erin paused sympathetically. “What else is going on?”

  Together, they set out the silverware and napkins. “I need to ask you something and I don’t want you to get offended.”

  She grinned in amusement. “Well, that’s a great start for a heart-to-heart.”

  “I’m serious.” What he was about to broach was delicate, to say the least.

  She sobered, too. Knowing they wouldn’t have too much time before the rest of both clans started arriving, she touched his arm and encouraged softly, “Fire away. After all, what are big sisters for?”

  Nick drew a breath, aware having one woman in the family disappointed in him was more than enough. He lounged against the counter, hands braced on either side of him. “Mac’s made some jokes about the fact that when you had the twins, your hormones were way out of whack.”

  Erin laughed and rolled her eyes. “Ah...yeah. I cried at the drop of a hat.”

  Nick remembered.

  Yet no one had seemed to think anything of it. It had all seemed so normal. What was happening between him and Sage wasn’t. At least as far as he could figure, thus far. “Did that affect how you felt about things?”

  Erin looked at him with perceptive eyes. “Like what, exactly?”

  He swallowed around the tight knot in his throat. Pushed on resolutely. “Your marriage. Or what you wanted in the future or even the present.”

  “No. I know Mac is the one for me.”

  Pushing into more difficult territory, Nick presumed, “And that’s different from your first marriage?”

  “Yes. That was a mistake,” Erin reflected candidly. “I mean, I can’t regret it, because that union gave me Sammie and Stevie and Angelica, but I also know even if Angelica hadn’t been diagnosed with leukemia, and our relationship hadn’t been strained by her long illness and death, that our marriage never would have lasted.”

  Nick had been in middle school when they’d divorced. “How come?”

  “We wanted different things. He needed his freedom. I needed someone I could count on to be there through thick and thin.” Erin set out the appetizer trays. “Are you and Sage having problems?”

  Nick shrugged. “I want things that she doesn’t want.” He’d thought time would fix it, allow them to finally get on the same page. But it hadn’t. And now they seemed to have come full circle. To the strangers they had initially been to each other. With so much still out of reach. And he didn’t know what in the hell to do about any of it. All he knew was that he didn’t want to hurt Sage. Never had. Never would. And if that meant putting his own needs and desires on the back burner once again...

  Erin’s gaze narrowed speculatively. “Can you compromise?”

  “I’m not sure,” Nick admitted.

  Abruptly, the sister who had raised him from age ten on looked as sad and concerned as he felt, deep down. “It’s that serious?”

  Reluctantly, Nick nodded.

  Silence fell.

  Finally, he said, “She still wants to raise Shane together and so do I.”

  “But not be married?” Erin guessed, her lips twisting in a troubled moue.

  Nick went back to setting out the buffet. “We haven’t spoken about divorce.”

  “But,” Erin said, “you’re worried that talk is coming.”

  Nick nodded stiffly.

  Doing his best to pull it together, he said, “On the other hand, the two of us have both been through a lot the past few days. Heck, make that the last five months. And as you’ve confirmed, her hormones are out of whack.” Although his gut told him, not that out of whack...

  “You want my advice?”

  Not trusting himself to speak, he looked Erin in the eye.

  “You’ve never been afraid to take risks in business. Or encourage me to do the same. It’s why I spun off my boot-making business and moved with Mac to the Panhandle so he could continue taking Wind Energy to that part of the state, without having to be away from us all the time. Yes, I worried that all the change would be hard for us, but in the end our love for each other and our children saw us through.”

  And they were happy, Nick knew. Blissfully so. He forced the words out. “You’re saying Sage and I have the same potential.”

  Erin clasped his shoulders. “If you take a good hard look at what’s really going on with the two of you. And then take the kind of risks in your personal life that you’re all too willing to take in business. Yeah, little brother, I really do.”

  * * *

  “HOW MUCH IS Nick going to be traveling now?” Lucille asked as Sage finished nursing.

  Sage handed Little One to her mother for burping. “I’m not sure.” She walked into the adjacent bath to remove her robe and put on her party clothes.

  Lucille paced, Shane on her shoulder. “You haven’t discussed it?”

  Sage slipped on a pair of white capris and walked out, still buttoning a sleeveless buttercup yellow blouse. Aware she needed her mother more than ever, she replied, “Not recently. But initially, Nick wanted to take six weeks paternity leave, and then travel sporadically after that.”

  Her mom drew back and looked her in the eye. “And the venture capital company underwriting Upscale Outfitters?”

  She wandered over to the mirror and frowned at the shadows beneath her eyes. “They want him back on the road by the end of the week.” In Denver, no less!

  “What do you want?”

  Sage applied concealer beneath her eyes. Aware her mother was still awaiting an answer, she said, “I don’t want to be the ‘ball and chain’ holding Nick back.”

  Lucille watched Sage put on foundation and blush. “Isn’t there some compromise?”

  “I wondered the same thing, but when I broached it on the way back from Dallas, Nick didn’t want to talk about it.” She frowned. “To me, anyway.” After applying lipstick, then mascara, she spun back to her mom, who was in seventh heaven cuddling baby Shane.

  “Has he talked to anyone?” Lucille asked.

  Sage jerked in a breath. “He spent several hours yesterday afternoon at Metro Equity Partners office, meeting with MR and the team while Shane and I remained in the hospital, recuperating from the birth.”

  “And...?”

  Sad and confused, she related how shut out she’d felt. Then and now. “Nick didn’t want to talk about what was said then, either.”

  Her mother arched a brow in surprise.

  “All I know for certain is that papers are being sent out this afternoon, for signature. Apparently, they couldn’t get it all ready before he left Dallas.”

  Aware Shane had fallen fast asleep, her mother settled him in the beautiful wooden cradle that had been in Nick’s family for generations.

  Fin
ished, Lucille straightened. “You think they gave him an ultimatum?”

  Sage sat down to put on her shoes. “MR told me, in the hospital, he was going to have to be fully committed to being the spokesperson for Upscale Outfitters. Or else.”

  “That’s why you did the local news interviews,” Lucille ascertained.

  While still in her hospital gown and robe, looking like heck. Sage forced herself not to grimace at the memory of being pressured by Nick’s business associates. “The publicity was too good to pass up,” she fibbed.

  Her mom scowled. “Your father and I might have felt that way, in our heyday, but not you and Nick.”

  Sage edged closer, working to keep her voice low. “What are you saying?” she asked a great deal more casually than she felt.

  “That maybe the real problem is, you’re not being true to yourself. Or him, honey.”

  Tears pricked her eyes. “I don’t want to pressure him,” she admitted miserably. Which would certainly happen if she spilled everything. “He’s been through enough recently, seeing the dream he had for expanding the legacy of Monroe’s turn into something else entirely.”

  Lucille handed her a tissue. “I thought the grand opening of the new Dallas store went very well.”

  Sage dabbed the corners of her eyes. “In terms of sales, the reports were outstanding.” Her throat clogged with suppressed emotion. “In terms of making Nick feel proud or triumphant?” she whispered hoarsely. “Not so much.”

  Lucille took Sage’s arm and drew her over to sit side by side on the bed. “So you’re walking on eggshells around him.”

  “I want to support him, Mom, but not back him into a corner.”

  Lucille patted her hand. “The way the venture capital group is.”

  Sage nodded. “I’m afraid if I don’t give him the room he needs to make all his professional dreams come true, he’ll end up feeling trapped, and walk away from me, too.” Just like Terrence had.

  Her mother stood, thinking, and began to pace. “You’re right,” she said softly, turning back around. “It is a very tenuous situation. It won’t, however, be the first and only crisis the two of you face as a married couple.”

  Sage looked at her mom uncomprehendingly.

  “For everything that brings you and Nick together, there will be someone or something else just as powerful threatening to tear you apart.”

  Like MR and her partners. The relentless demands. The fact that I’m still afraid to tell Nick how I really feel.

  Sage knotted her hands together on her lap. “If that’s the case, what should I do?”

  Lucille sat down beside her once again, and gently advised, “You have to have ask yourself, just how committed are you?”

  More than he could ever—or maybe will ever—know, Sage thought.

  “How much are you willing to let outside factors wedge distance between you and Nick?”

  Not willing at all!

  “Now for the most important question of all...” As usual, Lucille saved the biggest zinger for last. “Are you going to open up your heart—the way I’ve yet to see you do, honey—and really go after what you want?”

  Which was Nick.

  To be all hers.

  All the time.

  Sage thought about what her mom had said while she finished dressing for the party. She was just about to go downstairs and join the gathering of the Monroe and Lockhart clans, when she saw an unfamiliar sports car coming up the drive. It stopped behind the long rows of family vehicles. Everett emerged, thick yellow envelope in hand.

  Realizing this was her opportunity to get started on her Rescue Our Marriage project, Sage slipped out the back and came around the side of the ranch house to intercept MR’s assistant. Before she made a final decision on exactly how she was going to proceed next, there were a few things she had to know. She sensed he could help her.

  She motioned the smartly dressed assistant over to where she was standing, out of view of the front windows. Brow arched curiously, he approached.

  “I want to ask you something.”

  “Okay.”

  “That comment you made to me, the morning after Nick and I got married. When you told me that I hadn’t gained a husband, and had instead lost my best friend.” She searched his face. “What prompted you to say that?” What had MR’s assistant known then, that she might still not?

  A beat of silence fell. Finally, Everett held the envelope against his chest and allowed, “Look, I probably shouldn’t have butted in that way. But I felt sorry for you.”

  Sage struggled to understand. “Because I had been ill?”

  Grimacing, he corrected, “Because you were being played.”

  So maybe her intuition that MR wanted her out of the way had not been so off-kilter, after all. “In what way?”

  “MR has a way of taking over people’s realms without them ever knowing it. I’m a case in point. I haven’t had a life since I started working for her.”

  “Then why continue?”

  Everett let the package fall to his side. “She’s going places. I want that kind of success, too. Being her sidekick is the fastest, surest way for me to climb the ladder myself.”

  Sage studied him closely.

  “You really think MR’s that single-minded?” In the hospital, although the venture capitalist had manipulated Sage to help her get what she and her partners wanted, she’d also seemed concerned about Nick’s long-term happiness and future.

  A terse nod. “Whatever she does is always for her own gain. If someone else benefits along the way, great.” He shrugged. “If not, doesn’t matter.”

  In retrospect, Sage could see that, too. “And I come in where...?”

  For a moment, Everett seemed to battle with himself. Finally, he allowed, “You were the one thing standing in the way of Nick’s triumph at Upscale Outfitters.”

  Were, Sage thought, focusing on the past tense of the statement. Not are... Her chest tightened. “So your boss was out to split us up from the get-go?”

  He briefly inclined his head. “Let’s just say she had her ways of making sure things did not go smoothly for the two of you, starting with the honeymoon.”

  “The shrimp that was ordered,” Sage guessed.

  Everett lifted a staying hand. “I don’t know anything for sure. All I can assert is that she is the one who spoke to the hotel management. Every time.”

  Sage blinked. “But I thought the hotel took responsibility for the mistake.”

  “Of course they did.”

  Because the customer was always right, never more so than in a five-star hotel.

  What Everett was intimating all made sense. And yet... “MR was the one who insisted Nick and I get married before he ever officially made a deal with Metro Equity Partners. Why do that,” Sage continued curiously, “if she didn’t want me around?”

  “Because, as she said, a deadbeat dad would not have made a good spokesperson, and she didn’t want a PR nightmare.” Everett exhaled. “And because she also knew that the moment Nick had a ring on his finger, he would feel...”

  “Trapped,” Sage guessed.

  He nodded. “Whereas if he hadn’t made an honest woman of you, he would have felt guilty, and then been even more tied to you, trying to prove to everyone that he was a good guy.”

  “But, on the other hand, if he married me...” Sage said.

  “Even briefly,” Everett added.

  “His being a good person would be assumed.”

  Everett continued, “Since he had done the honorable thing and had been responsible for you and the baby.”

  “MR told you all this?”

  “She called it a teachable moment.”

  “So she wanted Nick for herself,” she stated.

  He exh
aled. “She knew the two of you’d divorce if it eventually didn’t work out due to Nick’s heavy travel and work schedule.”

  Which MR had machinated every step of the way, Sage thought indignantly.

  Everett continued with a poker face, “By then, of course, Nick would be filthy rich as half owner of six luxury stores, and she could step in, reap the benefits. Go from being his boss/partner to boss/partner/wife.”

  Sage stared at him, amazed at the depth of the duplicity. “She said that, too?”

  “Of course not, but I know how her mind works. I saw the way she pored over the publicity photos of Nick. I’ve seen her work with other clients. With Nick it was different.” Everett paused to reflect. “But in the end, I guess I was really the one who was naive to think my giving you a heads-up would make a difference in the way things eventually worked out.”

  It had, and it hadn’t, Sage thought, aware things weren’t necessarily as “over” as Everett—and perhaps MR—thought. “Would you mind if I took the papers to Nick?” she asked, suddenly ready to do battle herself.

  The door opened before Everett could reply and Nick stepped outside to join them.

  “Not necessary. I’m here.” He took the envelope from Everett. “Got a pen?”

  Sage began to panic. Nick looked so determined. So grim. So ready to put it all behind him. Which was the last thing she wanted! “I really think you and I should talk,” she said hurriedly.

  Avoiding her eyes, Nick shook his head and said heavily, “Not about this, we don’t.”

  * * *

  SAGE STOOD WITH NICK, watching Everett drive away, hastily signed documents in hand. “Is Shane still doing okay?”

  Nick nodded. “He’s still sleeping but I brought him downstairs, so everyone can quietly admire him. Your mom said she’d text us if he wakes and needs to be fed, but in the meantime, how about you and I take a walk?”

  “Sounds good,” Sage said softly. She wanted the privacy. The chance to get everything back on the right track.