The Cowboy's Family

by Brenda Minton

  Wyatt pulled up the drive to his house. The girls were sleeping in the backseat of the truck. Rachel hadn’t said much on the drive home. He hadn’t pushed her. After last night it seemed like a good idea to keep quiet.

  Breakfast had been a quiet affair on the balcony of their hotel. The girls had eaten cereal from room service, Rachel had eaten fruit and yogurt. He’d felt pretty guilty eating biscuits and gravy. They’d had lunch at the hospital cafeteria.

  The twins were doing great. Amelia was breathing on her own now. Wyatt breathed a sigh of relief over that situation. At least that, if only that, was going right. He, on the other hand, had a big mess to clean up. He had a woman sitting next to him and he didn’t have a clue what to say to her or how to fix things.

  How did a man move on when, until eighteen months ago, he’d planned on spending his life with one woman, raising their children, growing old, serving God? And then it had all changed. Yeah, move on. That’s what people were telling him. Time to move on, Wyatt.

  He stopped the truck and just sat there. Rachel opened her door but she didn’t get out. He shot her a look and she didn’t smile. Of course she didn’t. He hadn’t given her a lot to smile about. He really wanted her to smile.

  He really wanted to explain to her how it felt to try this moving on stuff. It hurt like crazy, deep-down hurt. It hurt the way it had when people had tried to tell Wendy to just get over it, take a shower, go for a walk. And she hadn’t been able to do those things.

  He sat there for a second, thinking. Maybe it didn’t hurt as much as he’d thought it should? The thought hit like a ton of bricks, the knowledge that getting over his pain could hurt, too. He sure hadn’t planned on that.

  “I’ll carry the girls in for you.” She stepped out of the truck and looked back in at him.

  Oh, no way was she doing this.

  “I can take the girls in, Rachel.” He got out and opened the back door to reach for Molly. She woke up enough to crawl into his arms. “Come on, kiddo, you can take a nap inside.”

  “I want a pink cake for my birthday,” she whispered close to his ear.

  “A strawberry cake?” He held her close, his ribs hurting like crazy.

  “No, just pink. A pink cake.” He carried her up the back steps. Rachel followed with Kat.

  “Well, then, we’ll find you a pink cake.”

  “I can make her a cake.” Rachel had opened the other door and reached in for Kat. “If you want.”

  “I think she’d like that. We usually buy one from the store.”

  Last year they hadn’t had much of a party. It had been the three of them and a store-bought cake. Her third birthday and he’d put candles on her cake and later, after the girls had gone to bed, he’d stood outside and bawled like a baby. He’d had a fight with God, then he’d shifted his anger to Wendy.

  The dog ran around the side of the house, wagging his tail, glad to see his people home. Wyatt carried Molly up the back steps and into the house. Rachel was behind him with Kat. He opened the door and nodded for her to enter first.

  “Do you want me to fix something for dinner?” Rachel asked as she carried Kat through the house to the living room.

  “No, I’ll take the girls to the Mad Cow. Why don’t you go on home? I’m sure you have a life that doesn’t include us.”

  She shifted her arms and placed his daughter on one end of the sofa. When she turned, her smile was vague. He placed Molly on the other end of the sofa. Her eyes opened and she smiled.

  “I’m not tired, Daddy.”

  “You don’t have to sleep, honey.” He turned and Rachel had found an afghan and was covering Kat with it. “Seriously, though, if you have things to do…”

  “I actually do. My mom needs help with some things.”

  “They’re lucky to have you.”

  “I’m lucky to have them. They’ve always been there for me. Now it’s my turn to be there for them.”

  She picked up her purse and he walked out with her. They’d left her car in the carport, but it was still covered with green pollen. He waited while she dug through her purse for her keys. When she found them, he opened the car door for her.

  “Rachel, if you need a couple of days off to get other things done, I understand.”

  “I might. There’s something…” She sighed. “Never mind. I’ll see you tomorrow.”

  “Are you sure?”

  She got in the car and he rested his arm on the vinyl top and looked in.

  “I’m sure. I’ll see you tomorrow. We have a lot to do before Molly’s birthday Saturday.”

  “Okay, I’ll talk to you later.” He closed the door and backed away from her car. As she backed out of the carport, he waved and she smiled.

  It seemed normal enough, but it didn’t sit right. Whatever she had started to tell him mattered and he wanted to know what it was.

  Chapter Fifteen

  Boxes lined the walls of the living room and Rachel didn’t want to empty the contents of the room into the brown cardboard. She sat down on the footstool and stared at the bookcases, the curio cabinet and the pictures on the walls. She loved this room with its pine-paneled walls. She loved the hardwood floors and the big windows.

  She loved this house.

  “The boxes won’t pack themselves.”

  She turned and smiled at her mother. It was a good week. Maybe the excitement of the move had given Gloria Waters the extra energy. Or maybe her immune system was in check. Either way she had accomplished a lot in the two days since Rachel had been gone.

  Twenty-nine years old, Rachel shouldn’t be having this conversation, about moving, about starting over with her parents. She pulled a few books off the shelves and held them. Her mom walked into the room and sat in the rocking chair across from her.

  “Rachel, don’t go. Stay here.”

  “That’s out of the question.” Rachel stacked the books in the bottom of a box. “I’m not going to stay here when the two of you are going to Tulsa.”

  “Are you afraid?”

  Afraid? Rachel looked out the window. Across the road the neighbors were mulching their garden. Down the street a new neighbor had moved in. Her dad had already invited them to church. A church that would soon lose its pastor. She thought about that church, her teen girls, her Sunday school class and the nursery.

  Rachel always became involved in her dad’s ministry. The new church was larger, had quite a few paid staff, he’d told her. She didn’t know what that meant for her. But the real reason she would go would be to help her parents. She cooked when her mother didn’t feel up to it. She kept the house clean.

  Afraid?

  “Afraid to jump out there, find someone and fall in love. Are you afraid? I know that Tanner hurt you, but it was a long time ago.”

  Rachel didn’t know how to process what her mother had just said. Tanner. She hadn’t really thought about him in years. They had dated when she was twenty.

  “It isn’t about Tanner.” About a man who had dated her for a year and then decided he couldn’t handle her faith.

  “I wonder sometimes. I know he hurt you.”

  Rachel smiled at that. “It hasn’t hurt in a long time, Mom. I’m here because I want to be here, to help you and Dad. And I guess because I haven’t found anyone to spend my life with.”

  “You will, honey.”

  “Will I?” She shrugged. “I don’t know if I will. If I don’t, it’s okay.”

  “What about Wyatt Johnson?” Her mom smiled that secretive smile.

  “Mom, I’m not fifteen and I haven’t been doodling his name in my notebook. I love his girls and I’m glad I could help out, but that’s as far as it goes.”

  Heat worked its way up her cheeks and she reached for another stack of books. Now if only her mom would walk away and let it alone. Instead, Gloria Waters laughed a little.

  “I think it’s far more than caring about his girls.”

  Rachel grabbed more books and stacked them in the box.

&
nbsp; “Mom, Wyatt Johnson is a nice guy who still loves the wife he lost.”

  “He might always love her, Rachel. That doesn’t mean he can’t love someone else.”

  Rachel finished packing the shelf and her mom continued to rock in the rocking chair. When the bookcase was empty, Rachel turned to face her mother.

  “Mom, he might love someone else someday. I’m not going to push myself into that position. It doesn’t work that way.”

  She knew from experience.

  “Does he know that we’re moving?”

  “No, I haven’t told him. I started to, but I know that Dad is going to make an announcement this Sunday and I didn’t want it to get out before Dad could tell people.”

  “Well, I think you ought to tell Wyatt. He’s going to need someone to take your place, or a chance to talk you into staying. The more time you give him, the better.”

  Someone to take her place. The words ached in her heart. That meant someone else taking care of Molly and Kat, someone else coloring with them and helping them draw pictures of flowers and kittens. She had only been in their lives since last fall when Wyatt came back to town. The idea of leaving them shouldn’t create an empty space in her heart.

  But it did. All of the years of holding back and not getting attached and two little girls had changed everything. Two little girls and their dad, his smile, his eyes, his sweetness. She looked up, caught her mom watching her.

  “You shouldn’t let this go, honey.”

  “You’re not giving up, are you?” Rachel smiled and folded down the flaps of the box.

  “Not on your life.”

  At least someone had hope for her love life. Rachel had given up a long time ago. True, Wyatt made her want to have hope again, but common sense told her to go slow and not act impulsively.

  What if she put her heart on the line, even stayed in Dawson, only to find out that he would never be ready to move on? Or when he was ready, what if it was with someone else?

  Either could happen. Rachel smiled at her mom.

  “I’m fine.”

  Her mom touched her shoulder and left the room.

  Rachel opened another box and went for the curio cabinet. She packed porcelain dolls, a tiny vase and her heart. All the breakables went together in a box labeled “Fragile.”

  The horse lunged in a slow circle at the end of the rope Wyatt held. The doctor had told him to stay off horses for a couple of weeks. That was fine and dandy, but he couldn’t stop working. A few years ago he would have ignored the doctor and went ahead with whatever he needed to do.

  Now he had the girls to think about. He glanced behind him. They were on the swing, not going very high but jabbering nonstop. He started to turn back to the horse but caught a flash of red on the road. Rachel.

  She’d taken yesterday off. The girls had missed her, moping around the house because he had fed them some kind of casserole he thought would be an easy fix. He’d been pretty wrong about that. His cooking skills, with or without Etta’s cookbooks, were not improving.

  The red car eased up his driveway. He hadn’t expected her today either. There were a lot of things he hadn’t expected but he didn’t want to dwell on them. The girls jumped off the swings and started across the yard. He would have yelled for them to stop, but they paused a good distance from the driveway and the car that was pulling up.

  He gave a quiet command and the horse stopped, waiting for him to walk up to it. He left the rope on the ground and the horse remained steady in the spot where he’d come to a halt. Ears forward, the animal turned its head toward him.

  “Good job, boy. Real good.” He unsnapped the lunge line and replaced it with a lead rope. “Let’s get you out to pasture and see what’s going on.”

  He led the horse to the gate and turned him loose. The animal went off at a fast trot, shaking his head. After a few minutes he burst into a full run, bucking his back end into the air. Wyatt turned and walked back toward the house and the girls. And Rachel.

  “What are you doing here?” He opened the gate that led to the yard.

  “Thought I’d stop and check on the girls and find out if you’ve heard anything about the twins.”

  “The twins will probably be home by the first of next week.” He picked up Kat, wincing a little at the catch in his ribs. “Sis, you’re getting heavy.”

  Kat shook her head no and rested her chin on his shoulder.

  Rachel smiled at the girls and not at him.

  “So, what’s really up?” He put Kat on the ground. “You girls run and play.”

  Kat and Molly started to protest, but he shook his head. They ran for the swings, forgetting to be upset. He smiled as he watched Molly help Kat onto the lower swing.

  Rachel stopped walking. She watched the girls, her eyes a little misty. “I came over to bake the cake for Molly’s party tomorrow. But before the party and before church Sunday, I want you to know something. I want you to hear it from me.”

  “Okay.” He pulled off his hat and waited.

  “My dad is taking a church in Tulsa. My mom needs to be closer to the doctors there. They want to be closer because they’re getting older and they feel like it will be better for them.”

  “I hate for the church to lose your dad.” He waited, wanting to hear that she wouldn’t leave. He glanced in the direction of the girls, wanting it to be about them. “Rachel, the girls love having you here.”

  “I know. I love them.”

  Unsettled shifted to anger. “You’re trying to tell me that you’re going, too, right?”

  “I am.” She continued to watch the girls play, but her eyes filled with tears. He watched one slide down her cheek and then the next.

  “I’d like for you to stay. We could work something out if you wanted to work for me full-time.”

  “I can’t.” She wiped the tears away, one finger across her cheek. “My brother and sister live so far away. I’m the only one here to help my parents.”

  “I see.” He rubbed the back of his neck and couldn’t think of a thing to say that didn’t sound crazy.

  He didn’t want to hire another housekeeper. Joint cream and therapeutic socks were no longer appealing. He kind of liked butterflies, country music and the smell of wildflowers.

  The thoughts were pretty dangerous and he didn’t want to go there. He’d taken his ring off. Now he was contemplating how to keep Rachel Waters in his life. No, in his girls’ lives.

  That’s why he needed Rachel. She made Kat and Molly smile again. She made them happy. And that made his life a lot easier.

  “Would you think about it? Just consider it. If you don’t want to leave, the job is yours.”

  “Thank you. And I will think about it.” She smiled and the gesture trembled on wild cherry lips. He was about as confused as a man could get.

  “Well, I guess you have to make this decision. I need to feed the girls lunch.”

  “I can help.”

  He brushed his hand through his hair and settled his hat back on his head. “If you have things to do, I can handle it.”

  “I came over because you need help. I’m going to fix lunch and then I’ll get something in the oven for dinner.”

  “Right, that works.” He leaned against her car and he couldn’t look at her. “Man, this is rough.”

  “I’ll be around for the next month. I can even help you find someone.”

  “No, I don’t want to do this again.” He managed a smile. “Maybe you can teach me to cook before you leave.”

  “I can do that. And for the next couple of days, we have a lot to do to get ready for Molly’s party.”

  “Yeah, her birthday. She’s counting on you for that. I can’t braid hair and I sure can’t decorate for a little girl’s birthday.”

  “I’m not going to miss her birthday, Wyatt. I’ll go ahead and bake the cake today. I’ll decorate the cake and the house tomorrow before her guests arrive.”

  “Thanks, that’ll be great.”

  She
nodded, her smile still soft and trembling. “I’m sorry. I love the girls. I don’t want them to be hurt.”

  “Yeah, but they will be. I know you have to go. I get that. But the girls are my priority.”

  “That’s the way it should be.”

  “Well, I have to get back to work.”

  “I’ll take the girls inside to help me with the cake.”

  He nodded and walked away.

  This wasn’t the way he’d expected his day to go. He’d almost prefer to get kicked by a horse. At least with a horse he knew what to expect.

  Some things in life were honest and easy, always what you thought they’d be. And sometimes one choice changed everything. Jackson Cooper’s words wormed their way into his mind. Rachel had definitely gotten under his skin.

  But worse, she’d made Kat and Molly pretty happy. For the first time in a long time they’d felt whole, the way a family should feel. Because of her.

  And now they were back to square one.

  The cake baked in the oven, making the kitchen smell like strawberry. Rachel had explained to Molly that pink cakes sometimes had flavors and since they were using a mix, pink happened to be strawberry. The little girl had stopped being offended after a small taste of batter confirmed that pink was not only a pretty color, it tasted good, too.

  “What now?” Rachel leaned on the counter across from the two girls who sat on stools sharing a plate of cookies.

  “We should draw pictures,” Molly informed her, dipping a cookie in her cup of milk.

  “Or play with frogs.” Kat nodded her head, milk dripping down her chin and a circle of chocolate around her mouth.

  The back door slammed shut. Rachel straightened and waited for Wyatt to join them. She heard him in the laundry room and then he was there, tall and lean, his jeans faded. He must have hung his hat in the laundry room because the crown of his hair was flattened from having worn it all day.

  “How about the Mad Cow, girls?” His smile didn’t include her. Rachel didn’t blame him.

  “Rachel is making omelets.” Molly picked up her cup to drink her milk. “Because eggs are good and we have stuff to do.”