Sympathy Pains

by Sharon Sala

  “You bitch!” Marilee muttered, and threw the papers in Judith’s face. “What did you hope to gain by doing this? There isn’t anything in here that I don’t know, and I damn sure haven’t been trying to hide it.”

  “You said your parents were dead,” Judith said with a sneer.

  Marilee resisted the urge to roll her eyes. “Well, yes, actually they are. My mother bled to death from the gunshot wound my father inflicted and the state of Texas fried his butt for the murder. How much deader can they get?”

  Judith blanched. She’d expected denial, not this blatant acceptance of such sordid facts.

  “But my son... We’ve never had such... Our family isn’t accustomed to...”

  “Neither were we, until it happened,” Marilee said. “And you know something? You win. I’m going, but not in the way you expected. I’m not raising my baby around someone as selfish and bitter as you. You don’t deserve to be a grandmother.”

  Without giving Judith time to react, she grabbed the cell phone from the table and punched in a series of numbers, knowing that Justin would answer before the second ring.

  “What are you doing?” Judith cried.

  “Surely you didn’t think I would slink away like some tramp in the night? I’m calling my husband,” Marilee screamed. “I’m telling him what you’ve done and where I’m going and if he—”

  * * *

  The phone in Justin’s truck began to ring just as he finished banding a newborn bull calf. Within a few days, the tiny testicles would drop off and the animal would continue to flourish as a steer. It was simpler and less painful than waiting until the animal was half-grown and then castrating it with a knife.

  Satisfied that the calf was okay, he let it go and then took off his gloves as he headed for the truck to answer the phone.

  But his feeling of contentment died the moment he answered the call. Before he could say hello, he heard the sound of women screaming and his heart dropped. Something was wrong with Marilee. He started to shout just to make himself heard.

  “Hello? Hello? Someone tell me what the hell is going on?”

  Marilee had forgotten she’d made the call and stared at the phone in her hand as if it were a snake. Then she heard Justin’s voice and took a deep breath.

  “Justin, it’s me. I can’t take this anymore and I’m not raising our child in this kind of hate. If you want anything more to do with me or this baby, then you’d better get home because I’m packing.”

  Before he could answer, she’d hung up in his ear.

  “Son of a bitch,” Justin muttered. Seconds later he was flying across the pasture in the truck, leaving a rooster tail of dust in his passing.

  * * *

  Gavin entered the house just as Marilee was yelling into the phone. He heard just enough to know that Judith had done something bad—and from the sound of Marilee’s voice, it wasn’t something an apology could fix. He started running toward the noise, but was too late. All he saw of Marilee was her backside as she bolted down the hall. He turned, glaring at his wife as she came inside.

  “What the hell have you done?” he asked, and then snatched the papers she was holding. Seconds later he looked up in disbelief. “You had her investigated?”

  “I had to save Justin from—”

  “You’re the one he needs saving from!” Gavin roared. Then he flung the papers in her face as he headed for Marilee’s bedroom. Someone had to stop her until Justin returned.

  Judith was caught between disbelief and panic. This hadn’t gone at all like she’d expected. Not only had Marilee refused to leave quietly, but she’d raised more hell than she would have believed to be possible.

  “You’re crazy, Gavin Wheeler! She’s made all of you crazy!” Judith screamed, then stormed into the library and grabbed Gavin’s cut-glass decanter of Kentucky sipping whiskey. “I need a drink!” she announced as Maria entered the room.

  “I will pray for your soul,” Maria muttered.

  “I don’t need prayers! I just need that woman out of my house!” Judith screeched.

  “It is not your house, it is Señor Justin’s,” Maria said as she laid the morning mail down on Justin’s desk.

  “You’re fired!” Judith screamed.

  “You can’t fire me because I don’t work for you, I work for Señor Justin,” Maria said, and then walked out of the room.

  “Savages! They’re all savages!” Judith muttered, and tossed back the first shot, gasping for breath as the whiskey burned all the way down her throat. Then she poured another, drinking it as if it were medicine.

  Down the hall, Gavin was pulling clothes out of Marilee’s suitcase as quickly as she threw them in.

  “Stop it!” Marilee sobbed. “You don’t understand. I’ve got to get out of here. This constant bickering is making me sick.”

  “You can’t leave, honey. Justin loves you. I love you.”

  But Marilee was deaf to everything but the need for peace. And there was a part of her that wasn’t so sure how Justin would feel about her past when he did know the truth. Her father had murdered and he’d been executed. It was a sad, but ugly, fact that Judith Wheeler would obviously hold over her head for the rest of her life. No matter how much she loved Justin, she couldn’t live that way.

  She stuffed another handful of her underwear into the suitcase just as Gavin pulled it out. Before she could tell him to stop, Justin burst into the room, his face pale from shock. He took one look at Marilee and took her into his arms.

  “What the hell happened?”

  Marilee started crying all over again. “Your mother...”

  “Oh, hell, I should have known.” He looked at his dad. “What has she done now?”

  Gavin shrugged. “Ask Marilee. I came in on the tail end of the fight.”

  Marilee started to sob even harder. “She had me investigated and then threatened me with the information. She told me to get out of her house and that when the baby was born she was demanding a DNA test to prove it wasn’t yours and she—”

  “That does it!” Justin muttered. “She’s gone too far.”

  “Wait,” Marilee said. “There’s something about my past that I didn’t tell you.”

  “I don’t give a damn about things that happened before I met you. I wasn’t any angel, myself. You’re my wife and that’s all that matters.” He took out a handkerchief and starting wiping the tears from her face. “Please, honey, you’ve got to stop crying like this. It can’t be good for you or the baby.”

  “It didn’t happen to me.... Oh, well...in a way I guess it did, but not like you think.” She took a deep breath. “My mother...”

  “What about her?” Justin asked.

  “My father murdered her,” Marilee said.

  Both Justin and Gavin were momentarily speechless, but it was Justin who was the first to react.

  “Good Lord, darlin’. How awful for you.”

  “He was executed by the state of Texas five years ago.”

  Justin snorted beneath his breath. “Well, at least that’s one parent who won’t be giving us any trouble. I’m sorry I can’t say the same for myself.”

  Marilee almost laughed. “Then you aren’t mad at me for not telling you sooner?”

  Justin groaned. “Honey, there isn’t anything you could do that would make me mad at you.”

  “Or me, either,” Gavin added. “And it would seem that Judith forgot to mention that her great-great-grandfather was hanged for rustling cattle.”

  At that moment, Judith staggered into the bedroom with a drink in one hand and the nearly empty decanter in the other. She heard just enough of her husband’s last statement to mutter something about lynch mobs, then passed out in the doorway.

  Before they could react to Judith’s arrival, Marilee doubled over with a groan.

  “Marilee? Honey?”

  “My water broke... The baby... I think it’s coming.”

  “Oh, Lord,” Justin muttered. “Are you having any pains?”
<
br />   “If the ones across my back count, yes.”

  “How long have you been having them?” Gavin asked as Justin raced for the phone.

  “Most of the afternoon,” Marilee said. “I thought it was just a backache.”

  Gavin steadied her while Justin grabbed the little suitcase that she’d packed for the occasion over a week ago.

  “Dad, help me get her into the truck.”

  Gavin winked at Marilee as he slipped an arm beneath her shoulder.

  “It would be my pleasure,” he said softly.

  Marilee groaned again as a spasm of pain rippled across her lower abdomen.

  “Hurry,” she begged, and then almost laughed as they actually lifted her over Judith’s prone body on the way out the door.

  Moments later she was in the truck and Justin was buckling her inside. Just before he got in the truck, he turned to Gavin.

  “Dad, don’t take this the wrong way, but I need to ask you a favor.”

  “You don’t need to ask,” Gavin said. “We should have gone home to Austin the week you came home with your wife, but we didn’t. However, it’s not too late to fix the mess we’ve made.”

  “Thanks,” Justin said, and then Marilee groaned again. He glanced back into the truck. “I’ve got to go. I’ll call you from the hospital when it’s over.”

  “Use my cell phone,” Gavin said. “If I can get your mother off the floor and into the car, we’ll be on the road to Austin. Now get that girl to the hospital and bring home my first grandbaby, you hear?”

  * * *

  Six hours later, Clayton Wade Wheeler made his entry into the world, protesting greatly.

  As the birthing nurse laid the child in his mother’s arms, Marilee’s eyes filled with tears. His hair was dark like Justin’s, but it was that single dimple in the baby’s left cheek that made her smile.

  “Look, Justin. He has your dimple.”

  Justin was so entranced by the tiny male in his wife’s arms that he could do little more than stare. He traced the side of the baby’s cheek with his finger, lingering on the small indentation that would certainly become a dimple.

  “God...he’s so perfect.” Then he looked at Marilee with something close to awe. “Thank you, darlin’. Thank you for loving me and for giving me a son.”

  She smiled as she kissed the top of the baby’s head and then began fingering the tiny hands.

  “You’re very welcome,” she said, and then shifted the baby in her arms. “Clay boy, it’s time to meet your daddy. Justin, hold your child as dearly as you hold me, and he’ll never come to harm.”

  With tears in his eyes, Justin picked him up.

  “What do you think?” Marilee asked.

  Justin looked at the baby and then back at Marilee. “I think we’re pretty damned good at making babies,” he said, his voice gruff with emotion.

  Weary and achy, she still found enough energy to laugh. “I can’t argue with that,” she said, and then closed her eyes. “Lord...I’m so tired.”

  The birthing nurse was still present in the room and heard Marilee’s last remark.

  “Your wife had a pretty hard time of it. We have to take the baby to the nursery and weigh and measure him now anyway. Why don’t we let her get some rest?”

  But Marilee heard them and opened her eyes.

  “Justin?”

  “I’m right here, darlin’.”

  “The baby... When they take him to be weighed...don’t let him go alone.”

  Justin took a deep breath to keep from crying. “I won’t,” he said softly, and then leaned down and gave her a slow, sweet kiss. “I’ll take good care of him just like I’m going to take care of you. And when you’re all rested and feeling better, we’re going to drink a toast.”

  “No alcoholic beverages if the mother is nursing,” the nurse cautioned.

  “We’ll use juice,” Justin promised.

  The nurse nodded approvingly. “What are you going to toast?”

  Justin grinned at Marilee. “For starters... Monopoly games and blizzards.”

  Marilee laughed.

  EPILOGUE

  Justin stood at the window overlooking the terrace, watching his wife and son in the pool. Clay would be two in a few short weeks and Marilee was teaching him how to swim. His heart swelled with pride as he watched the ongoing lesson. Marilee’s patience was unending and Clay’s determination was just as strong. It made him sick to his stomach, every time he remembered how close he’d come to never knowing about Clay. And his wife—he couldn’t imagine life without her.

  The phone rang in the middle of his musings.

  “Hello?”

  “Justin, darling, how are you?”

  “Fine, Mother. How are you and Dad?”

  “Okay, but we’d be better if we knew when you were coming to see us again. I just know our little Clay boy is growing like a weed. Is he all right? What has he been doing?”

  Justin turned back to the window, smiling to himself as Clay jumped off the side of the pool into Marilee’s arms.

  “He’s good. Marilee is teaching him how to swim.”

  “Oh, Lord... Do you think—”

  “Mother.”

  The slight warning tone in Justin’s voice was enough to remind Judith of her place.

  “I’m sorry, dear. I know Marilee is a wonderful mother, but don’t tell me not to worry about all of you because I can’t help it. It’s something that comes with the territory of being a mother and, unfortunately, never goes away.”

  Justin grinned. The first time his mother had seen the baby and realized he was a carbon copy of her son, she’d done a complete about-face toward Marilee, even apologizing in tears and begging forgiveness. But her real test had come that first Christmas when they’d gathered together at the ranch for dinner and Gavin had proposed the first toast. Judith had raised her glass along with everyone else and then turned red in the face when Gavin toasted her great-great-grandfather’s brief career in the cattle business. She had however, taken it in good stride, knowing that it was his subtle way of reminding her that she was the last person who should be casting stones.

  Justin chuckled beneath his breath, but when Judith spoke, she realized he hadn’t been listening to her at all.

  “I’m sorry, Mother. What were you saying?”

  Judith sighed. “I asked if it would be all right if your father and I drove up one day next week. We can only stay one night. I have bridge club and I’m on the planning committee for the Harvest Ball at your father’s club, so we can’t stay any longer.”

  “That’s fine, Mom. I’ll tell Marilee you’re coming. Just give us a call before you leave.”

  “Wonderful,” Judith said. “Give Marilee and Clay boy our love,” she said, and hung up.

  Justin hung up the receiver then turned back to the window. Suddenly the need to be with them was stronger than updating the accounts. His mother wanted him to give them her love.

  “I believe I will,” he murmured, and walked out of his office. As he exited the house, Marilee saw him coming and waved. “Hey, darlin’, how’s the little fish coming?” he asked.

  Clay squealed. “Daddy! I not a little fish! Look at me! Look at me! I can swim!”

  Clay began flailing his arms and legs in the water, confident that his mother’s hand would still be on his belly as it had been all afternoon.

  Water went everywhere, dousing Marilee’s face and hair, even onto the legs of Justin’s jeans.

  “Hey,” Marilee said, as she lifted Clay out of the water, “you’re getting Daddy’s pants all wet.”

  “I don’t care,” Justin said, and held out his hands. “Give him to me. I’m thinking I need a big hug.” Then he winked at Marilee as she lifted Clay out of the pool. “Besides, I’ve been at the mercy of the elements ever since the day we met.”

  Marilee laughed. “So the weather was your Waterloo?”

  “In more ways than one,” Justin said, and then grinned when Clay put both little we
t hands on either side of his face and gave him a big, wet kiss.

  “Mom and Dad send their love. They want to come up one day next week and spend the night.”

  Marilee nodded, then smiled. “I just hope they don’t bring another carload of presents. Clay has too many already.”

  Justin looked at her then, drenched from head to toe and standing waist-deep in the pool. Her blue, two-piece swimsuit was glued to her body like skin and she had that come-hither smile on her face. His gut clenched with a wanting he couldn’t deny.

  “Clay boy, I’m thinking it’s about time for your nap,” he said.

  Marilee gave Justin a Mona Lisa smile and then climbed out of the pool and took Clay out of his father’s arms.

  “Daddy’s right, little man. You’ve worked very, very hard today, and it’s time for all good cowboys to take a rest.”

  Clay’s lower lip jutted out. “Daddy is a cowboy. Is Daddy gonna take a rest, too?”

  Marilee looked back at her husband, acknowledging the hunger in his eyes and then nodded slowly.

  “Oh, yes...I think he’s more than ready for bed. Aren’t you, Daddy?”

  Justin’s eyes glittered. “Yep, and after Mommy tucks you in bed, she’s going to tuck me in, too. Aren’t you, Mommy?”

  Marilee laughed. “Something like that,” she said, and then walked inside with their child in her arms.

  Justin grinned as he followed them into the house.

  * * * * *

  “Skillfully balancing suspense and romance, Sala gives readers a nonstop breath-holding adventure.”

  —Publishers Weekly on Going Once

  Looking for more heart-pounding romantic suspense from New York Times bestselling author Sharon Sala? You won’t want to miss a heart-stopping moment in the action-packed Secrets and Lies series:

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