Skyler's Wanna-Be Wife

by Liz Isaacson

Their eyes met, and Mal nodded. “I didn’t know we’d be moving to Three Rivers so soon.”

  “I didn’t either. It’s just…Wyatt might need my help, and he said something the other day at breakfast, and I don’t know.”

  “What did he say?”

  Before Skyler could answer, Wyatt and Marcy came out the front door, and Skyler nodded to them. “Later,” he said, opening his door and sliding out of the truck. Mal did the same as Skyler started to laugh. He and Wyatt embraced, clapping each other on the back.

  They almost looked like twins, though Wyatt was slightly broader and slightly taller. He carried himself with supreme confidence, and Mal felt nothing but genuine happiness from him. He grinned at Mal over Skyler’s shoulder, and then he stepped around him to hug her too.

  “Ooh,” she said as he picked her up in a hug. She couldn’t help laughing and patting his shoulder too.

  He set her down quickly, and said, “Okay, so I guess you maybe want to see where you two will be staying if you decide to come live here?”

  “Something like that,” Skyler said, reaching for Mal’s hand. She gladly slipped her fingers in between his, needing and finding the anchor he provided. They exchanged a glance at the same time Marcy and Wyatt did.

  “Well, we have a secret in the house,” Wyatt said. “And if you don’t want to know it, that’s fine. But if you do, you have to solemnly swear to keep it a secret until we announce it.”

  “Solemnly swear?” Skyler laughed, and Mal smiled too. He looked at her, and he beamed with joy. She liked seeing him like this, and she felt every muscle in her body soften. “Do we want to solemnly swear not to tell anyone?”

  “I don’t know who I’d even tell,” Mal said. “It’s not like anyone knows—”

  “Remember, this is Wyatt we’re talking about,” Skyler said. “Even a casual mention of the secret could end up somewhere he doesn’t want it.” He looked at Wyatt and Marcy, who waited expectantly. “We’re out on the secret,” he said. “I don’t want that kind of pressure.”

  “All right.”

  Marcy said, “Give me a minute,” and went back in the house.

  “They’re still working on a few things out here, too,” Wyatt said. “The yard won’t go in until spring. I’m having them do the back fence though, because I want to get a dog.”

  “Oh, Skyler wants a dog too,” Mal said.

  “Of course he does.” Wyatt chuckled and slowly started moving toward the front door. “Has he told you the story about the turtle?”

  “Wyatt,” Skyler said with plenty of warning in his voice.

  “Or the snakes. And there’s at least three about dogs.”

  Mal looked at Skyler, who wore that adorable blush in his face. “Do tell.”

  “This guy has a heart of cotton,” Wyatt said. “He’ll bring home anything wounded, helpless, or crying.” He grinned like he’d just revealed an amazing thing about his brother.

  But Mal felt like Wyatt’s words had formed spikes and were stabbing, stabbing, stabbing right through her lungs.

  Chapter Nine

  Skyler chuckled with Wyatt, though he noticed an immediate change in Mal. All at once, he realized what Wyatt had said.

  He’ll bring home anything wounded, helpless, or crying.

  And wasn’t that exactly what he’d done with Mal? She had been crying the night he’d gone to her hovel of an apartment. He had brought her home. But she wasn’t wounded or helpless.

  She pulled in an audible breath, but Wyatt didn’t notice or didn’t care as he turned to open the front door and walk inside.

  Skyler didn’t need another thing to put on the conversational back burner, so he didn’t follow Wyatt inside. “You’re not one of the animals I used to rescue growing up,” he said.

  Mal simply looked at him. “Feels like it.”

  “It’s not true.” He gathered her into his arms. “Honestly, it’s not.”

  She clung to him, and Skyler wondered if she could feel how much he needed her too. He was the one who was wounded and helpless, and she’d always been the one to pick him up, pound on his door at six-thirty and get him out the door for a run, and make him laugh.

  In that moment, Skyler fell a little further along the path toward loving her, and they breathed in together. “Okay, so let’s go see where we might stay if we decide to come here and help Wyatt.”

  “If?” Mal asked, stepping back and straightening her shirt. She looked into the house like it might swallow her whole.

  “Yeah,” Skyler said. “We make decisions together now, Mal. That’s what married people do.” He took her hand again and led her into the house. A huge foyer had doors leading off both sides of it, and directly in front of him opened up to an enormous living room. This was definitely high-end living, and he wondered how much Wyatt had paid for this house. It honestly didn’t matter. His brother had so much money, he’d never be able to spend it all, even if he bought a hundred houses like this.

  “Marcy’s office is here,” Wyatt said, coming back into the foyer and indicating the room on the right. “The steps are right around the corner here, and you guys will be upstairs. But main living here. We have a hot tub back there already.” He grinned, and Skyler did too.

  “For your back, of course,” he said.

  “Of course.” Wyatt laughed, and it felt good to be surrounded by so much joy. Skyler sure could use more of that. With Wyatt, he didn’t feel like he couldn’t be himself. With Wyatt, he wasn’t the black sheep.

  “Formal living here,” Wyatt said, indicating the other side. “If either of you need an office, you can have it. I don’t even know what to do with a formal living room.”

  “That’s where you meet with people you don’t want to bring all the way into your house,” Skyler said. “You know, like the pastor, or someone who just drops by.”

  “I don’t think many people will drop by,” Wyatt said.

  Thank goodness, Skyler thought. In his opinion, there was nothing worse than a pop-in visit. He’d opened the door for anyone over the past two years in Amarillo, and he’d hosted parties where he couldn’t get people to leave when he wanted them to. Anything to be in the spotlight, be the guy everyone loved.

  Since marrying Mal, he’d dropped that persona completely, and he didn’t miss the Skyler Walker who’d been so concerned about hiding who he really was.

  You still haven’t told Mal a whole lot about Dallas, his mind whispered, and he pushed the thoughts away. They had plenty of time for her to learn his deepest, darkest secrets.

  Not that long, filtered through his mind. His almost-arrest and the accusations against him could be brought up in her hearing. He honestly didn’t know what happened at a hearing like this, and he thought about hiring a lawyer while Wyatt showed them the living room, the fireplace, the bathrooms, the master suite, and the kitchen.

  “This is beautiful,” Mal said, dropping his hand and moving into the kitchen more fully. Her eyes glowed with wonder as she took in the granite, the six-burner luxury stove, the double ovens. “I could make so much Mexican food in here.” She laughed—truly laughed—and Skyler’s heart took flight.

  “Neither Wyatt or Marcy cook,” he said. “And I’m sure they wouldn’t mind you taking over the kitchen.”

  She looked at Wyatt with pure hope in her eyes, and Wyatt swept his hand toward the enormity of the kitchen. “It’s all yours, Mal. I haven’t had good, authentic Mexican food in a while.”

  Skyler shook his head and rolled his eyes.

  “What?” Wyatt asked. “I haven’t.”

  “Sure,” Skyler said. “Show us the upstairs.”

  Marcy met them on the bottom stair, turned, and went right back up. They all followed, bypassing the first room on the right and continuing through the loft.

  “Three bedrooms up here,” he said. “All yours, even if you only need one. Three bathrooms, all connected to bedrooms. Big loft. Theater room. I’ll probably move into the theater room and never leave, honest
ly.” He chuckled, but Marcy protested.

  “He won’t be able to climb stairs for a while after the surgery,” she said. “Don’t let him fool you. He’ll watch movies from bed or from the hot tub.”

  “Which has stairs I’d need to traverse to get in it,” he said, grinning at her.

  “Where do you come up with these words?” Skyler asked. “Traverse?”

  “He also started doing this vocabulary game,” Marcy said, swatting at him in a playful way. Skyler watched them, because they acted like a married couple, and he knew he and Mal were much more stiff. They acted like they were dating, still unsure about each other and where they stood.

  Because that was a completely accurate description of where they were in their relationship.

  “So now he uses all these fancy words no one understands.”

  “They understand them,” Wyatt said. He looked back at Mal and Skyler. “And that’s it. It’s a big house. We’re two people. I’ll need a lot of help immediately following the surgery, and Marcy has to fly and run Payne’s.”

  “All right,” Skyler said. “We’re gonna need to talk about it.”

  “Of course.”

  Skyler also wanted to talk to Jeremiah about a more permanent living solution…at Seven Sons. But he’d felt Mal’s shocked energy when he’d mentioned moving to Three Rivers, and he wasn’t even sure he could get her to come right now.

  They all went back downstairs, with Marcy chit-chatting with Mal about the holidays in Mexico. Skyler shouldn’t have worried about her fitting right in with everyone else in the family. Mal was a pro at fitting in.

  It was him who always seemed to be just on the outskirts, circling and trying to find a way into the bonds his brothers had created with each other while he hosted parties in the top floor apartment.

  “Hey, Momma.” He held his mother tight, so glad when she did the same for him.

  “My baby.” She called all of her sons her baby, even Rhett, who was the oldest of them all. Skyler didn’t mind, because he could feel his mother’s love so keenly, and he needed it right now. “How was the drive?”

  “Not bad,” he said. “It’s just long.” He didn’t dare bring up the idea that he and Mal might move here. They’d talked about it on the way from Wyatt’s, and she seemed softer, more open to the idea now that she’d had some time to think about it.

  And honestly, Wyatt’s mansion in the hills had probably helped, especially the kitchen.

  “Smells great in here, Mrs. Walker,” Mal said, and Momma stepped away from Skyler so she could hug Mal too.

  “It’s nothing to do with me,” she said. “Jeremiah brought his barbecue meatballs. All I did was put rice in the machine.”

  “You make your rice in a rice cooker?” Mal asked.

  Momma grinned at her as she stepped back. “It’s so much easier. I used to make it on the stove, but everything they have nowadays is so slick.” She moved further into the ranch house her and Daddy had bought several months ago. “Come in, come in. Rhett just texted to say they were just leaving.”

  A quick glance around told him everyone else was already here. Momma’s house wasn’t nearly as big as the homestead on the ranch, but she’d managed to bring in benches and chairs to supplement the couches so everyone had somewhere to sit.

  “Sky.” His dad came over and gave him a big hug too. “How’s school?”

  “Uh, good,” Skyler said. “I’m thinking of taking next semester off to help Wyatt.”

  That got Momma to turn and look at him again. “You are?”

  “Yeah, it’s an idea,” he said, glancing at Mal. He cursed himself for bringing it up. Because his parents weren’t stupid, and they knew Mal was in school too.

  “What will you do, Mal?” Momma asked. “Stay in Amarillo alone?”

  “Oh, no, ma’am,” Mal said with a shaky laugh. “If we decide to come here, I’ll take a semester off too.”

  Concern rode in Momma’s eyes and she looked at Daddy. “We could help Wyatt.”

  “Momma,” Skyler said. “He wants someone to live-in with him. You can’t do that.”

  “I have all the miniature horses,” Daddy said. “We can’t live with Wyatt.”

  Skyler almost started laughing about the horses. “I heard about these horses, Daddy. You want to show ‘em to me?”

  “Yeah, sure.” Daddy’s eyes lit up with an internal fire, and he moved faster than Skyler had seen him move—at least in the past few years. Skyler grinned at the others as he followed Daddy, pausing to give Micah a hug and bump knuckles with Tripp and Liam.

  Jeremiah was buried in the kitchen wearing an apron while he pulled something out of the oven. The familiar, amazing Walker family energy filled the house, and Skyler could understand why Momma wanted them all there. When Skyler was with them, he enjoyed himself. It was the thought of getting together with almost twenty other people that he struggled with.

  He didn’t know how to describe it, and he couldn’t wait to meet with Dr. Haskell to see if she could make sense of his tangled thoughts and feelings.

  Outside, the wind tried to steal his cowboy hat, and Skyler squashed it back on his head before Mother Nature could be successful.

  “I got seventeen of them,” Daddy said, reaching the fence and standing up on the bottom rung. “Look at ‘em out there. They seem happy, don’t they?”

  Skyler had no idea how to tell if a miniature horse was happy or not, but he said, “Sure do, Daddy.”

  His dad wore a permanent smile, and Skyler realized that he probably missed being a cowboy. Or at least working.

  “Daddy,” he said. “Are you…happy?”

  His father turned his head and looked at him. “Happy? Sure, I’m happy.”

  “What are you doing with your retirement?”

  “Tryin’ to keep up with your mother.” He chuckled. “That’s all I’ve ever done, son. Try to keep up with Momma. She has endless energy, and she dragged me to every beach in Grand Cayman. Twice.”

  Skyler wasn’t sure why that was so funny, but laugher exploded from his mouth and flew up into the sky. Momma was a force to be reckoned with, that was true. “I’ll bet she did.” He put his foot on the bottom rung and pushed himself up too.

  “Are you happy, Sky?”

  “Happy enough,” he said honestly. “Mal and I are thinkin’ of moving here. You can’t tell Momma.”

  Daddy chuckled and shook his head. “If you think you can keep a secret from your mother, you need another year of college.”

  “Nothing’s set in stone,” Skyler said. “And it would be to help Wyatt, which I’ve already told Momma.”

  “She’ll sniff out all the news,” Daddy said. “She’s been doin’ it for years.”

  “That she has.” Skyler sighed as he watched a brown and white miniature horse clip and clop closer to them. “Daddy, do you…I mean, do you think I fit in the family?”

  Daddy didn’t answer right away, and Skyler let his insecurities flow from him. The Good Lord took them and swirled them up into the sky, giving Skyler a few moments of respite from his terrible self-loathing.

  “Why don’t you think you fit in the family?” Daddy asked.

  “Because,” Skyler said, the words teeming beneath his tongue. He hadn’t told anyone about what had truly happened in Dallas. No one. Not even Momma—so some secrets could be kept.

  “They’re all so good,” Skyler said. “Rhett is practically perfect in every way. I swear the man has never had a bad thought or made a mistake in his life.”

  “Oh, that’s not true,” Daddy said. “You know it’s not, Sky.”

  “Yeah, I know.” Skyler sighed and looked up into the darkening sky. “Sometimes, I just feel like, if you guys all knew the truth, you wouldn’t want me around anymore.”

  Daddy stepped off the bottom rung and edged closer to Skyler. He put his arm around Skyler’s shoulders and squeezed him tight. “I don’t know what you’re struggling with specifically, but I can guarantee you one th
ing: I will always love you. No matter what. Momma too. And all of your brothers.” He cleared his throat and sniffed, but Skyler didn’t dare look at him to see the emotions for fear his would break open like a compromised dam.

  “That’s what families do,” he said. “That love is unconditional, Sky. Same as God’s.”

  “Thanks, Dad.” Skyler spoke very softly, and he welcomed the reassurance buzzing through him. “I was almost arrested in Dallas. Shayla stole a bunch of money from my business, which was why it failed, and the federal government thought I was embezzling funds, involved in tax fraud, and getting ready to skip over the border.”

  Daddy didn’t say anything, and Skyler let him think through what he needed to say. Skyler was a lot like his father in that regard, and he never wanted to be rushed with a response. Because he wanted to give the right response and sometimes that took a few seconds to come up with.

  “Were you embezzling funds?”

  “No.”

  “Committing tax fraud?”

  “Dad, no.”

  “Then I’m real sorry that happened to you.” He lowered his arm and stepped only six inches away. “You don’t have anything to be embarrassed about if it’s not true.”

  “I lost everything,” Skyler said. “And even if it wasn’t my fault, it’s still embarrassing.”

  “You were a little boy,” Daddy said with a big breath. “But I lost everything once. And I had your mother, and all seven of you boys to take care of. We had to live with Grandma Lucy and Grandpa Jerry, remember?”

  “Yeah,” Skyler said. “I guess I never thought that it was because of a failure.”

  “Oh, I felt like such a failure,” Daddy said. “I’d tried to get a new type of technology off the ground, and it just wasn’t happening. No one trusted that their secure information would in fact, be secure. I lost the business, my partners, all our savings—and some money we didn’t have.”

  “I didn’t know all that.”

  “You were only seven years old,” Daddy said. “I’m glad you didn’t know.” He bent down just as the little brown and white horse arrived, giving him a healthy pat through the rungs. “That means I did my job as a parent. But Momma knew. My parents. Everyone in San Antonio, it seemed.” He sighed and reached into his pocket, where he withdrew a couple of baby carrots. “But I picked myself up, dusted myself off, and tried something else.”