Secret Wife

by Mia Carson

  “Who?”

  “Who do you think, Hannah?”

  “All right, you don’t have to be so testy.” She hummed under her breath, and Jaylyn tried not to picture him walking around her restaurant with that woman on his arm instead of her. Her stomach ached, remembering how warm and perfect it was to have his arm around her, and imagining that arm around Georgette. She didn’t even know the real Walker. None of them did.

  “Are you sure he’s here?” she said, but her voice was higher pitched than normal and Frankie muttered something in the background.

  “Hannah, I love you, but don’t lie to me.”

  She mumbled something Jaylyn didn’t catch and suddenly, Frankie’s voice came through. “He’s here and he’s with that Tindal woman.”

  “And do they look like they’re having a good time?”

  “He’s smiling, but it’s fake. I can tell that from a mile away. Why do you care so much if they’re happy?” he asked sharply. “Is there something you need to tell us?”

  “Nope, nothing at all.”

  “Uh huh. Right, keep telling yourself that,” Frankie muttered. There were muffled sounds and then Hannah was back on the line.

  “Do you want me to be obnoxious?”

  “No. As long as the restaurant’s doing well, that’s all I care about.”

  Hannah sighed. “Yes, it’s doing great. Are you going to be all right? Do you want me to stop by sometime?”

  “No, just have a fun date night with Frankie. I’ll talk to you guys later.” She hung up and forced herself to sit down in the living room to watch a movie, but the only ones available that night were romantic comedies. “You’ve got to be kidding me.”

  She grunted and tossed the remote aside, giving up trying to find something that had nothing to do with two people falling in love. That wasn’t what happened with her and Walker. She was not in love with him. They spent two incredible days together, but thankfully, reality came knocking that morning and she was reminded why it could never happen. He was back with Georgette and she would have to accept it. Her focus needed to be on her dad and the restaurant, not having the happily ever after playing on the TV.

  Walker set his empty glass on the bar and checked his watch.

  “Is there somewhere you need to be?” Georgette asked, sitting beside him at the bar.

  “If you’re about to scold me for being distracted, I could get onto you for the same thing,” he pointed out, nodding to her cell in her hand. “That thing’s been going off all night. If you need to leave, please feel free to go.”

  She tucked her cell in her purse, her fingers tapping anxiously on the bar. “No, I don’t need to leave.”

  Walker frowned. “Who keeps texting you?”

  “It’s none of your business.”

  “Look, if we’re supposed to get along and potentially marry one day, it might be good if we actually started talking like we like each other, as friends if nothing else.”

  She hung her head. “It’s my ex-boyfriend. He…uh, he broke up with me a few months before all of this started. He couldn’t exactly stand my family so he dumped me and now he keeps texting, saying he wishes he never had.”

  Walker ordered two more drinks for them. “Do you want him back?” he asked quietly.

  She sighed heavily, and for the first time since meeting Georgette, he felt like he stared at who she really was and not the face she put on every time they got together. “Sometimes, but I can’t exactly change my family, you know?”

  “Oh, I know.”

  “I’m sorry, that was wrong. I shouldn’t tell you that.”

  “No, I would like us to be friends and be honest with each other.”

  She tilted her head as she studied his face. “There’s someone you wish you could be with, isn’t there?” she stated. “I knew it. You’ve changed recently, and I knew it had to be a woman.”

  He tried not to smile but couldn’t help it, thinking of Jaylyn. “It is, but I’m in the same boat you are. It’s quite complicated and she has quite a bit on her plate at the moment, too, so I don’t think it will work out the way I hope.”

  She patted his arm and lifted her glass. “To the loves we can’t have, eh?”

  He clinked his glass against hers. “To the ones we wish we could be with.” He shot back his drink and set the glass down on the bar. His mind racing with the knowledge that Georgette was trapped in the exact same situation as he was, he wondered if he could use that to his advantage somewhere down the line. One thing he did realize after this night was if he had to marry any of these three women, it would be Georgette. Tonight changed how he saw her and he realized they could be friends if nothing else.

  The evening wore on and Georgette told him she was heading out for the night. She kissed his cheek warmly, as a friend would, and left him at the bar. His father had left a half hour before, so there was no reason for Walker to stick around. He waved to the bartender and checked in with the kitchen to let John know he did a great job for the opening and he’d be by to see them all in the morning. The drive home was better than the drive there as Walker’s mind shifted from one idea to the next on how to make Jaylyn see they could be together and that Georgette might be the key to it all. He parked his truck in the garage and hurried inside, where he heard steps flying down the stairs. Worried something was wrong, he rushed through the kitchen and ran into Jaylyn struggling to pull a sweater on and hold her purse at the same time.

  “Shit!” she yelled when they collided and he caught her before she fell. “Sorry, I have to go.”

  “Go where? It’s after nine.”

  “Dad—he’s in the hospital,” she sputtered and ran past him out the back door.

  Walker followed and watched, confused, as she climbed into her truck. “Your truck doesn’t work.”

  “I don’t have any other vehicle. If it doesn’t start, I’ll call a cab.”

  “No, you won’t. Get in my truck. I’ll drive you.”

  She didn’t argue like he expected and hopped out of the truck to follow him to the garage. He asked which hospital and she told him as he backed down the long drive, turned around, and hit the road. Jaylyn’s leg bounced and she held her head in her hand, glaring out the window.

  “What happened?” Walker asked ten minutes into the drive when she still hadn’t spoken.

  “I don’t know. Mom texted and said she was rushing him there.”

  “He’ll be all right,” he said and reached over for her hand, holding it firmly. He expected her to pull away, but she squeezed it back and fell silent again. He drove faster and cursed mentally as his plans for him and Jaylyn would have to be put on hold again. But her father was more important. They made it to the hospital forty-five minutes later, and he followed her inside, headed up two floors, and found a woman who looked remarkably like Jaylyn except older pacing the hall.

  “Mom!”

  “Oh, Lyn!” The woman ran to meet her daughter, and they clung to each other as she mumbled to Jaylyn what had happened. “He collapsed. He couldn’t breathe. I don’t know what’s happening.”

  “Have they said anything?” Jaylyn asked.

  “He’ll make it through the night, but they have to take new images to see how far the cancer spread. That stupid ass man. This is what happens when he doesn’t get treatment like he’s supposed to.”

  Walker shoved his hands in his pocket and hung back, not wanting to interrupt. Jaylyn turned, wiping tears from her eyes. “Mom, this is Walker Allard. He was nice enough to give me a ride.”

  The woman held out her hand. “Mariah Wilson. Jaylyn’s told me great things about you.”

  Walker didn’t take her hand; he wrapped her in a hug and she hugged him back. “If you need anything at all—I’ve told Jaylyn, but I want you to know too—anything, please let me know. It’s the least I can do for you and your family.”

  “Thank you,” Mariah told him. “We appreciate it, we do.” She smiled softly as she patted his cheek. “You are
certainly nothing like your father.”

  “So I’ve been told. Jaylyn? Mind if I talk to you for a moment?”

  She walked down the hall with him. “Thank you for getting me here.”

  “Listen, your mom needs you right now and so does your dad,” he said. “I want you to take some time off and stay with them. Just until you see how your dad’s doing.”

  She shook her head. “No, I need to be at the house. What about your dates? And the restaurant. I have to be around in case anything goes wrong and they need help. Or you need help.”

  He laid his hands on her shoulders and bent so their faces were level. “Your parents need you more. I’ll survive for a few weeks.” She shoved her thumbnail into her palm, but he caught her hands quickly to stop her. “Take as much time as you need. The job will be yours and you will still get paid. Think of it as paid vacation,” he told her. “All right?”

  “Mom would be happy to have me around to help,” she admitted, giving in.

  “Good. I’ll have Douglas bring you some clothes tomorrow and you take your time, as much time as you need. I’ll check in with you.” He wanted to kiss her, wanted to take her in his arms and promise everything would be all right and he had a plan to work their complicated lives out, but he had no plan. And kissing her now might make matters worse. She might say what they had was no better than a fling, but they both new the truth. Now was not the time and place to push the issue.

  She hugged him and kissed his cheek. “Thank you, Walker.”

  He wanted to keep holding her, but he had to let her go. She hustled back to Mariah’s side, and he forced his feet to turn around and take him back to his truck. He didn’t want to go back to an empty house, and even the dogs seemed sad as he climbed upstairs to bed. They stopped at Jaylyn’s door, wagging their tails and waiting for her to appear.

  “She’s not coming back today, boys,” he said and whistled. “Come along.”

  But the dogs didn’t move. Walker gave them each a scratch behind the ears and gave in, opening the bedroom door. They charged in and jumped on her bed, sniffing madly and looking for her in every corner of the room. When they came back to him with no Jaylyn found, Strider barked.

  “What? I can’t help it,” he told the dog.

  Strider barked again and growled at him, his tail wagging and ears up.

  “I know, boy. I’m going to miss her, too. But she’ll be back, you’ll see.”

  The dogs finally joined him in his room and curled up in his bed with him. He closed his eyes, his hand resting on the furry body of one of the dogs, and ignored the growing worry in the back of his mind that he had lost his chance with Jaylyn and she might never come back.

  13

  Jaylyn flipped through the cooking magazine, jotting down notes on the post-its in her lap and sticking them to certain pages. The hospital chair made her ass go numb, but her mom was asleep on the small cot by the window and she didn’t want to leave Darien’s side. For three weeks, she’d been in and out of the hospital, taking shifts with Mariah and forcing her to go home at least for a few hours every now and then.

  Darien was stable again but the doctors weren’t willing to release him, so for three weeks, this had been Jaylyn’s home. She missed the dogs greeting her in the morning. She missed the massive kitchen she got to cook in, but worst of all, she missed hearing Walker’s laugh. She missed talking to him in the kitchen. She missed their casual dinners together and she missed having him in her life. He texted her and she texted back, but neither seemed to have the guts to call the other.

  “You’re thinking too hard,” Darien rasped from the bed.

  Jaylyn lowered her magazine and smiled. “Nice to see you too, Dad.”

  He tried to sit up but was weak. She stood to help prop him up. “You spend too much time here, just like your mother.”

  “We’re keeping you company. Do you not want us to keep you company? Save you from endless hours of boredom stuck in this white-walled room?”

  A nurse came in to check on Darien and smiled at Jaylyn. She asked Darien a few questions about how he was feeling while she checked his IV and the monitors. Jaylyn was fine with waiting until she left, but clearly her father was not and picked up the conversation where they left off.

  “I’m not going anywhere in the next few days, kiddo.”

  “So?”

  “So, get your ass out of this hospital and get back to your life,” he argued firmly.

  Jaylyn crossed her arms. “You are part of my life.”

  “You know damn well what I mean. That Walker man. Your mother told me all about him, and I can tell by the way you’re fidgeting you want to be with him. So go be with him.”

  “It’s not that simple.” The last time she saw her dad this heated over anything, it was when they’d lost the restaurant. “And I don’t think it would work out anyway.”

  “Why the fuck not?’

  “Dad!”

  “What? Gertie has been my nurse every day. She knows I have a mouth.”

  Gertie laughed as she made some marks on his chart. “Oh, don’t I know it, Mr. Wilson.”

  “See? So then tell your old man why you aren’t willing to give him a chance. You like him, don’t you?”

  Jaylyn turned away from him. “Maybe, but we’re friends. We’re good friends. I don’t want to ruin that, and he has duties and the restaurant is on the line.”

  “Your life is far more important than a restaurant. Your happiness is more important.”

  Confused, she turned back to stare at him. “But Jaybird’s is your dream. It’s what you and Mom worked so hard for. If I don’t get it back, what kind of daughter does that make me? I can’t let you lose your dream.”

  He held out his hand. “Lyn, come here.”

  She sagged but moved to his side and held his hand. “What?”

  He chuckled and dragged her to sit on the edge of his bed. “I’m going to be very honest with you, hon. I’m sick and I’m only getting sicker.”

  “Dad, you’re supposed to stay positive.”

  “Listen to me,” he said sternly. “What matters most is not restaurants, or businesses, or anything else. It’s about the people you want in your life, and I do not want you throwing away your chance to be happy for a damn building.”

  Tears pricked her eyes, but she couldn’t wipe them away. He was telling her to give up the restaurant so she could be with Walker, but it couldn’t happen like that. Without the restaurant, she had nothing, and if he didn’t marry floozy one, two, or three, he would lose everything he had to his name. How could she drag him down like that?

  “I want you out of this hospital and back at Walker’s by the end of the day.”

  “I can’t walk away from you.”

  He hugged her and kissed her forehead. “You’re not walking away from me. You’re fighting for a life of your own, and there is nothing wrong with that. I love you, kiddo, but you can’t hang around all day waiting for me to die.”

  Jaylyn bristled at his blunt tone, but he was right. She hugged him hard, fearing if she let go he would vanish, but he pulled his arms back and gave her a gentle shove off the bed.

  “Get your ass out of here.”

  She brushed the tears from her eyes, picked up her tote filled with a spare change of clothes and several magazines, and did as her dad said. She looked a mess, but she wanted to see Walker face to face. She could freshen up when she got back to the house. She called for a cab and debated on the whole drive whether he was still interested in her as she was in him. What if she walked in and he was making out with Georgette? Or in bed with Helena? Her thumbnail dug so hard into her palm, she winced and tried to rub away the crescent-shaped dent in her skin. If he moved on, she would, too, and she would focus on the restaurant.

  And if not…if not, she would take back her words of it only being a fling. She didn’t want a fling. She wanted Walker. The cab parked at the end of the long drive. She paid and headed up to the house. She was more nerv
ous than she’d been on the day of her interview, but the second she stepped into the kitchen and the jingling sound of dog collars exploded through the house, she was home. She crouched down and let the dogs knock her to the floor, smothering her with kisses and wagging tails. Laughing felt so good after the tension of the last three weeks sitting on pins and needles about her dad’s health.

  “Jaylyn?”

  She managed to see Walker through the furry bodies. “Hey, I hoped you were home.”

  “How’s your dad doing?” he asked and offered her a hand to pull her to her feet. He didn’t let go and neither did she.

  “Better. He…uh, in no uncertain words, told me to get my ass out of the hospital.”

  “He’s still there?”

  “Still there, but stable, so I’m trying to stay positive.” She glanced around the kitchen, but everything appeared to be in good shape. “How have things been here?”

  “Quiet but not terrible. The kitchen hasn’t caught fire yet.”

  “With you or Douglas cooking?”

  “Both, actually.”

  “You cooked?” she asked, surprised, as he reached down and picked up her tote.

  “I did.” He offered her his arm and they made their way upstairs to her room. “You would be very proud of me.”

  “I’m sure I would be.”

  The tension between them grew, but all her plans of tackling him the second she saw him disappeared as her nerves took over. He said nothing about the other women, but he did have her hand tucked in his arm.

  “We’re glad to have you back,” he said firmly when they stepped into her room. “It’s been quiet without you around.”

  “It’s nice being back. I’ll get right back into the swing of things.”