by Arlene James
“We could split the corner bedroom into two private baths, one for each of the remaining bedrooms, and use the current bathroom to enlarge the kitchen. The footprint would have to be changed a bit, but it could be done. Couldn’t it?”
“That way everyone gets his or her own bedroom, and you’ll have four rooms to rent—two in the house, two in the bunkhouse.”
“I think it’s the best solution all around.”
“Maybe Ryder and I should take the bunkhouse, let Frankie and Jake take rooms in the main house.”
“Or maybe Jake and Frankie would like to have their own place in the bunkhouse,” Tina suggested casually. “We can work this out any number of ways.”
Smiling down at her, Wyatt nodded his approval. “I’ll talk it over with Jake and Ryder, and let you know.”
Tina turned toward the house again and felt Wyatt’s hand settle in the small of her back. Together, they casually strolled toward the door.
Feeling that she’d done the right thing, Tina had never enjoyed a simple walk more.
* * *
Tyler’s presence made it difficult for Wyatt to tell Tina what he’d learned from Rex that day about interstate custody fights. He noticed that when Tina suggested Tyler fetch his crayons and a coloring book and keep her company while she started supper, the boy readily agreed. He noticed, too, how pleased Tina was by Tyler’s instant agreement. Things seemed to be improving there. Taking advantage of the moment, Wyatt stepped close to Tina.
“Can we talk later? After Tyler goes to bed?”
She blinked at that, but nodded. “Sure. What about?”
“I’d rather not get into it now.” He didn’t want to include Tyler in what should be an adult conversation, and if she was going to fuss and fume about Wyatt’s high-handedness, he’d rather she did it in private. “Besides, I need to get on the computer.”
“Okay.”
“By the way, I’ve arranged for the moving truck to arrive in a couple weeks. We’ve cleaned out a suitable space in the barn to store what we can’t use right now.”
“All right.”
He smiled and said, “You know, we’ve got two refrigerators, and neither of them are going to fit in the bunkhouse.”
Looking at the ancient little fridge at the end of the cabinet, she retorted dryly, “I guess we’ll just have to find a place for them.” They both laughed.
Tyler returned then, a heap of coloring books under one arm and a shoebox-sized tin of crayons in the other. Wyatt took himself off to Dodd’s office and got busy. Listening idly to Tina and Tyler in the kitchen, Wyatt set up his laptop. He’d previously cleared away the stacks of papers littering the old desk, using a pair of boxes as filing drawers.
Dodd hadn’t been much for filing. He’d left a box labeled Tax that contained receipts and such, and another filled with unopened bank statements, which Wyatt had been gradually working through. Nothing in either box told Wyatt anything about Dodd’s intention with the fenced acres of sowed grass, but they did tell another story.
Dodd’s financial situation had been alarmingly precarious. He’d had less than a thousand dollars in the ranch account. He’d used his Social Security to pay the utilities and buy groceries. He could’ve hung on for another year, at least, and then he could have sold acreage to pay taxes. No one would have blamed him.
Wyatt could only imagine that Dodd had been experimenting with varieties of grass that wouldn’t host worms, in the hope of somehow being able to restock. Maybe the veterinarian, Stark Burns, knew something about that. Wyatt had made an appointment for Stark to inspect the range after Dean finished the spraying. He would ask Stark what he knew then.
Meanwhile, Rex had told Wyatt where to download software to help track everything from expenses to well-animal treatments and veterinary visits. Rex had talked a lot about ranch-fed beef, too. He made a good case for raising one’s own fodder rather than buying manufactured feeds or using feed lots. For Loco Man, those were decisions for the coming year, not this one.
Tina showed up in the open doorway to say that supper was ready. He lost no time in closing out the program he’d set up and heading for the kitchen, where he found Tyler setting plates on the table. Frankie followed him, placing forks next to each plate. Jake reached over them to set glasses of tea on the table.
“You’ve got a couple of good helpers here,” Wyatt told Tina, winking at the boys. Ty beamed at him. “I’m not sure about the tall one, though.”
“He stinks,” Frankie stated matter-of-factly, and everyone but Jake laughed.
“All right, all right. I’ll go clean up,” Jake grumbled, scowling despite the mirth glinting in his eyes.
“Wait,” Tina said, waving Jake and everyone else to the table. “All of you. You’re fine, and I won’t be happy if you let this meal get cold.”
Jake eagerly pulled out a chair. Ryder came in and went to wash up in the bathroom. Wyatt pulled out a chair for Tina, then went to wash up at the kitchen sink. Tina sat so Jake would. He lifted Frankie onto his boosted seat and pulled the chair close to the table.
They enjoyed a fine meal. Afterward, Wyatt and Ryder helped Tina clean up the dishes while Jake got the boys ready for bed. Then the boys played in Tyler’s room with Ryder and Jake tried out the new cable TV. Wyatt caught Tina’s eye and nodded toward the front of the house. The two of them slipped out onto the porch.
“What did you want to talk about?” she asked as soon as he pulled the door closed behind them.
Wyatt took a deep breath. “Now, don’t bite my head off, but I spoke to Rex about what’s involved in a custody battle like yours.”
To his relief, Tina merely nodded. “And?”
“And it could be a very expensive proposition for both parties.”
Tina wandered across the porch to sit on the steps. The days were getting longer, and it wasn’t dark enough for more than a bit of moon and a few stars to show through the gloaming. Wyatt walked over and sat down next to her.
“I know that’s not what you want to hear.”
She shook her head, studying her fingernails. “I told you before. Layne is heir to a large family fortune. He can do as he pleases.”
“And you’ve got just what you’re investing in this place,” Wyatt surmised gently.
“That’s about it.”
He balanced his forearms against his thighs, hands linked. “I’m sorry, Tina.”
“Not your fault.”
“I’ll help any way I can.”
A wan smile quirked her pretty lips, but she didn’t look at him. “Thanks, but I don’t know what you could do.”
“I can pray, at least.”
In a strained voice, she said, “I hope your prayers have more power than mine.” Suddenly, she wiped tears from her eyes. “I can’t tell you how many times I’ve prayed for God’s intervention, only to be disappointed.”
Reaching for her hand, he stayed silent, letting her talk.
“Every time my mother married, I prayed it would be the last time. That my new stepfather would want me as a daughter as much as he wanted her as a wife, but that never happened with anyone but Dodd, and she left him. She just couldn’t stay interested in any one man. She had five husbands. Five.”
“You don’t need serial marriages to make you happy,” Wyatt said softly. “Just one. The right one.”
“Maybe. But I obviously got her judgment genes. Look who I picked.”
“You must’ve been young when you married him.”
“Twenty-one. Just barely.”
“It’s easy to be swept off your feet that young.”
“I was in my junior year of college, but I really hadn’t dated much.” She shrugged. “I didn’t want to make a mistake, but when this handsome, successful artist who’d lectured in one of my classes asked me out, I thought he was the answer to my prayers
. A few months later, my mother died. I—I had no one and nowhere to go. I hadn’t seen my father since I was ten. When Layne asked me to marry him, I—I thought God was telling me he was the one.”
“Why are you so certain He wasn’t?” Wyatt asked. “What’s best for us isn’t something we can easily decide for ourselves. We have to trust that God knows best.”
“You think Layne was best for me?” she asked incredulously.
“Maybe at the time. Without him, you wouldn’t have had Tyler.”
“That’s true,” she admitted.
“Without a doubt, you had to be what was best for Layne,” Wyatt said evenly.
She cocked her head, looking at him with intense interest. “What do you mean by that?”
“You were Layne’s chance to be the man he should be. It’s not your fault he didn’t take advantage of the opportunity. It’s your fault if you don’t take advantage of the opportunities God gives you.”
Wyatt could tell by the look on her face that she had never considered such a possibility.
Gradually, her features softened, her big, coppery eyes filling with sadness for what might have been.
She squeezed Wyatt’s hand, warming his heart with that simple gesture.
“Thank you.”
He knew then that he wanted more from Tina than simple friendship or a business partnership. He didn’t know why he hadn’t seen it from the beginning, but that didn’t matter now. She did.
Without a clue as to how it had happened, he knew that she mattered now.
Very much.
Chapter Ten
For a long moment, Wyatt couldn’t seem to break eye contact with Tina. He had completely misjudged her in the beginning. She wasn’t selfish and entitled. Her prickliness was a result of her hesitancy to trust, and who could blame her, given what she’d been through? They had both lost their mothers at a young age, but he’d had fifteen years of calm, loving, wise support to prepare him for the loss. Tina had had only disappointment and instability. Yet, as a mother herself, she was a calm, loving, wise support for her son and doing her best to give him the stability that she had lacked.
It saddened Wyatt to realize that everyone she’d ever trusted had betrayed her in some way, even Dodd to a degree. What had that old man been thinking to leave her his house while seeing to it that his nephews owned the very ground it sat on? Given her situation, she must have been horrified. Yet, she had cooperated in every possible way, even if unhappily at first. She had to be as puzzled by Dodd’s actions as Wyatt and his brothers.
Dodd had always had a funny way of reasoning, but he usually had figured out what was needed. Wyatt couldn’t for the life of him understand what the old man had been trying to accomplish with this will situation. Had he simply wanted to remember Tina in some way? Had he expected Wyatt and his brothers to buy her out? Or was something else going on here?
An odd thought struck him. Had Dodd been matchmaking? He’d rambled on and on about Walker, but Wyatt hadn’t paid much attention. In his mind, Walker had been a mere acquaintance of Dodd’s, not someone Dodd had loved. Eventually, she’d become just another name associated with the ranch, like Delgado. Wyatt hadn’t given her much more thought than that. Now he wondered if Dodd had hoped that one of his nephews would realize what a special lady this beautiful woman truly was.
She suddenly laughed gently, rolling her eyes.
“What? What’s so funny?”
“I was just thinking of Frankie offering you to Tyler as a substitute father. Out of the mouths of babes, right?” She shook her head. “If only it were that easy. If only I could say, ‘We’ll take this one instead.’ It would be so simple if there was a father store. ‘This one comes with good sense, authority and genuine concern. This one is a good provider, a hard worker, kind.’ Wonder if I could get a money-back guarantee?”
“Maybe you could upgrade every time a new version came out, like cell phones,” Wyatt teased, but she shook her head, her eyes suddenly wide.
“Uh, no. That was my mother’s approach.”
Wyatt spread his hands, trying to get the conversation back on track and away from the source of her fears. “I was actually pleased that Frankie came up with that. He was pretty attached to me when Jake came home. I think it hurt Jake a lot. Maybe it was just losing Jolene, but there were times when Frankie reached for me instead of his father, and Jake’s pain was tangible. I felt like I was walking a tightrope, trying to comfort and care for Frankie and subtly shift his dependence to Jake at the same time.”
“While you love them both.”
“Of course. That’s the bottom line, isn’t it? There are no perfect dad stores, no perfect uncles, either. There’s just love to cover all the inadequacies.”
“I loved Layne,” she whispered. “It wasn’t enough.”
“It takes two to keep that kind of love alive, two people willing to work and forgive and make each other a priority. My folks used to say that they were a single unit and they had to work to keep their connection healthy and whole. Then together they put God first and their children second. As individuals, they put themselves at the bottom of the list. It’s an imperfect analogy, but they made it work. Their relationship was so solid that my dad was never the same after he lost her, but he wouldn’t have had it any other way. He loved her without end, and I know she loved him the same way.”
“That’s beautiful,” Tina said, her eyes shining.
“You’re beautiful,” Wyatt heard himself say to her.
She blinked those big, glittering eyes at him. He wanted to kiss her. Obeying the impulse, he lifted his hand to the back of her head. He felt the sleek, clean strands of her short hair and the warmth of her skin beneath as he captured her mouth with his.
She stiffened for an instant, and then she melted into his arms.
Mine, he thought. This is what it’s all about.
Excitement flooded his veins, bolstered by a soaring hope. That kiss became something precious and momentous. His future seemed to be taking shape before his mind’s eye. Then suddenly Tina shoved against him, and before he knew what was happening, she stood halfway across the porch.
“No!” she exclaimed, trembling. “No. I—I won’t go from man to man. I’m not...”
Not her mother. She didn’t have to say it.
Wyatt rose to his feet, twisting around to face her. He kept his movements slow and easy, his tone gentle and even. “Tina. Sweetheart. You’re not—” the next instant, he was talking to air “—anything like her.” The door closed between them before the words were hardly out of his mouth.
He ran his hands over his face. Well, he couldn’t have blown that any worse with dynamite.
* * *
“You want to come out to the bunkhouse and see what we’ve done with the furniture you sent there?”
Wyatt stood just outside Ryder’s bedroom door in the upstairs hallway, his expression guarded. Shaking her head, Tina turned her attention back to the bed she was making up. The Smith goods had arrived and been dispersed as she had designated. The old fridge had gone to the bunkhouse. Two new stainless steel versions replaced it: one in the kitchen, the other in the laundry room. With electricity and new appliances, they were starting to live in the twenty-first century once again.
While something of a mishmash, all the furniture was of good quality and comfortable, and just having the things in the house made the whole place feel more like home. She had reluctantly let go of the rickety antiques and filled the parlor with comfy, overstuffed leather couches. The boys were thrilled with the huge flat-screen television now hanging on the wall, especially with the cable working. Plus, they had real beds and fresh linens for all the bedrooms, not to mention dressers for storage and even a lovely cheval glass that had belonged to Frances Smith. Tina had set aside Dodd’s old kitchen table to use as a desk and replaced it with Wyatt�
�s long, rectangular wrought-iron one. She loved its terracotta tile top, which had fired her imagination for remodeling the kitchen. Jake’s warm oak dining set, with its spacious buffet, now occupied the dining room, though the inexpensive drapes she’d hung in there no longer felt appropriate.
In so many ways, the old house had come to life. Tyler certainly seemed better satisfied. Still, she had more important things to do just now than worry about furniture placement.
“I’ll worry about that later. Just be sure you don’t damage anything with the painting and finish work. When I’m done here, I need to start calling contractors. Ryder can’t go much further until the roof is repaired, and we have rain in the forecast again. I need to bring in a professional ASAP. There’s the plumbing and bathroom fixtures to be installed, too.” She stopped smoothing and tucking the sheets and straightened, lifting the back of her hand to her forehead, her mind whirling. “I won’t know how much money I’ll have for decorating until the essential work is done, so there’s no point in worrying about the bunkhouse now.”
Behind her, she heard Wyatt’s feet shift on the hardwood floor. That reminded her she needed the floors refinished, too. So much to do. Yet, she knew she was mainly looking for ways to avoid Wyatt.
All they’d done for nearly two weeks now was avoid each other. Ever since that kiss on the front porch. The one she couldn’t seem to forget. Giving the sheet one more tug, she placed her other hand on her hip. Avoidance was surprisingly hard work, especially when she wasn’t sleeping well.
Lately, no matter how hard she worked during the daytime, she tossed and turned at night. Maybe if she didn’t dream during her brief moments of sleep, she’d have more energy. That kiss wouldn’t leave her mind, though. She remembered all too well the rise of joy in her heart, the warmth of his embrace.
She dreamed of that kiss. She dreamed of his strong arms cradling her against him as if she was the most precious thing in his world. Then suddenly Wyatt would turn into Layne; Layne’s arms holding her, Layne’s expensive cologne overwhelming her. In her dreams, she could not get away. She struggled frantically, only to wake twisted in the bed covers, her chest heaving in panic. Alone was better than trapped with a selfish, abusive, hateful man.