Skyler's Wanna-Be Wife

by Liz Isaacson

  “He’s Shiloh Ridge, right?”

  “Yes, ma’am.” They went into the building together, and sure enough, Agnes had the place as clean as an airplane mechanic hangar could be. The familiar scent of motor oil and metal mixed with maple syrup, and Marcy’s stomach growled and lurched at the same time.

  She knew she should eat before she left the house, but she was even more tired now that she was pregnant. She barely got out of bed in time to get dressed and get to the hangar on time, and she didn’t want to set an example for her new employees that she wasn’t as dedicated to this business as she’d always been.

  She found the plastic bag of food in the office, and she sat at the desk and pulled out a plastic plate of pancakes. Wyatt knew what she loved, and he took good care of her. A smile filled her soul as she ate, and she texted him to tell him thank you. I love you.

  Hours later, she stepped out of her blue coveralls and stepped into her office to say good-bye to Agnes. “Joel is doing all the flights tomorrow,” she said.

  “Yep,” Agnes said. “And we got another call from a small family farm.”

  “We have room,” Marcy said.

  “Right,” Agnes said. “I got them set up.”

  “Great.” Marcy smiled at her, an overwhelming sense of gratitude filling her. “Thank you so much, Agnes. You’re a life-saver.” A Godsend.

  “Oh, I love it,” Agnes said. “Ooh, I got you something.” She jumped up from the desk and stepped over to the counter. A light green bag sat there with a pastel rocking horse on it. How Marcy had missed it, she wasn’t sure. She felt like half of her brain had taken a vacation since she’d found out she was pregnant.

  “Agnes,” she said, tears springing to her eyes. “We haven’t even told our families yet.”

  “Well, no one throws up every morning if they’re not expecting.” Agnes grinned at her with the force of gravity as she extended the bag toward her. “I’m sure you don’t know if it’s a boy or a girl, but you’ll need this no matter what.”

  Marcy took the bag, trying to tame her emotions. Those had been out of control the last couple of months too, but at least she had an excuse now. She took out the yellow tissue paper at the top of the bag and peered inside. A beautiful receiving blanket sat there, with a crocheted edge.

  “I make them,” Agnes said. “None of my kids are old enough for babies yet, but I have more than enough when they are.”

  “Thank you, Agnes.” Marcy took out the blanket, which was orange and yellow and covered in baby lion cubs. She hugged it close to her chest and then hugged Agnes, the blanket between them.

  “And don’t worry,” she said. “I won’t tell anyone your news.”

  Marcy nodded, repacked the blanket, and headed outside to her car. She drove through town and up into the hills, her commute to the hangar much longer since she and Wyatt had moved.

  A truck and trailer sat in the driveway, and Wyatt and Skyler came down the front steps, both of them smiling as Marcy rounded the corner and her house came into view. She instantly worried that Wyatt would overextend himself, though he claimed he knew his limits and he’d stop when he reached them.

  The man didn’t stop, though. Marcy knew that. He was still working at Bowman’s Breeds, though they didn’t need the money. He wasn’t one to sit around and do nothing, though, and this back surgery might be the death of all of them.

  She’d suggested he ask Skyler and Mal to come, because Skyler would tell it to Wyatt straight. He’d make him stay in bed if that was necessary. And Skyler seemed like he could use a friend, and there was no one better than Wyatt to help someone through a hard time. The man had a heart of gold, and he genuinely loved everyone he came in contact with. Marcy had sensed somehow that Skyler just needed a little more tender loving care.

  She pulled into the driveway and got out of the car. “Hey,” she said as Wyatt immediately detoured toward her. He always greeted her with happiness, a hug, and a kiss that left her toes tingling. And it didn’t matter that Skyler and Mal stood at the back of the trailer, watching. Wyatt took her into his arms and said, “Did you like your pancakes?”

  “Always.”

  He grinned at her, kissed her, and pulled back just an inch or so. “How’s the baby?”

  “Good,” she whispered.

  “And you?”

  She fell more in love with him every time he asked her about their baby, and then wanted to know if she was okay too. “I’m good,” she said. “Hungry. But good. I got two new contracts today.”

  “Wow, baby, that’s great.” He turned back toward Skyler and Mal. “Who wants pizza? Marcy’s starving.”

  “I never say no to pizza,” Skyler said, hefting another box. Wyatt went to get a box too, but Marcy just followed them inside, hoping Mal wouldn’t think her rude.

  “This is all you brought?” she asked, pausing to look inside the trailer.

  “We kept the apartment in Amarillo,” Mal said.

  “Oh, of course,” Marcy said. “Because Skyler owns the building.”

  Mal whipped her head toward Marcy, who knew immediately that she’d said something she shouldn’t have. Horror moved through her, and she watched the pure shock and surprise cover Mal’s face.

  “He owns that building?” she asked.

  “I shouldn’t have said anything,” she said. “I’m sorry.” She backed up a couple of steps, mentally kicking herself. But Skyler had plenty of money too, and their situation here in Three Rivers was temporary. He didn’t need furniture here, as she and Wyatt had put a fantastic king-sized bed in the room where Mal and Skyler were going to sleep. Marcy had made sure they had fancy, fluffy towels in their bathroom, and sweet-smelling body gels and shampoos for Mal’s gorgeous hair.

  Mal turned and stared at Marcy, who spun and scurried into the house. “Skyler,” she hissed, and he turned from the stairs. “You didn’t tell Mal you owned that apartment building?”

  “You told her?” Skyler looked like Marcy had declared another world war. His face paled, and he looked over Marcy’s shoulder toward the front door.

  “I’m sorry,” Marcy said. “I didn’t think it was a secret.” She looked helplessly at Wyatt, who watched Skyler and then Marcy.

  “I’m sure it’ll be fine,” Wyatt said. “She knows you have money, right?”

  “Yeah,” Skyler said, sighing. “I’ll go talk to her.”

  “I’m sorry, Skyler,” Marcy said as he went past her. He didn’t glare, but his irritation was like a scent on the air, and it smacked her in the face as he walked out of the house. She looked at Wyatt, feeling all shades of stupid. “I didn’t know.”

  “They’ll work it out,” Wyatt said.

  “Are you working too hard?” Marcy asked.

  “Nope.” He pulled out his phone, clearly not interested in talking about how he felt. “Double pepperoni?” he asked.

  “Yes, please.” Marcy felt like she’d just committed two strikes, and the tears gathered in her eyes. “I’m going to go shower.”

  Wyatt looked up, because he’d obviously heard something in her voice. But she was already moving, and she kept her head down as she went into the living room and around the corner to the master suite. Her husband didn’t follow her, and Marcy closed the door, glad for the peace and quiet.

  She wasn’t worried about having Mal and Skyler here. They were two people, and the house was nearly eight thousand square feet. But she felt like she needed a cheat sheet with acceptable conversation topics. She didn’t know Skyler that well, and she’d met Mal three times. She was excited for the opportunity to get to know them better, but she felt like she’d taken a massive step backward in only five seconds. With one sentence.

  She sighed, got in the shower, and put on a black sweat suit before heading back into the main part of the house. Wyatt sat on the couch in his swim trunks, clearly ready to get in the hot tub. He glanced up as she entered the living room. “Pizza will be here in ten minutes or so.”

  “Did I ruin ev
erything with Skyler and Mal?” The front door was closed, as if they’d brought in everything they needed.

  “Oh, they’re fine,” Wyatt said, lifting his arm as Marcy sat beside him. She sighed as she sank into his side. “They went upstairs to unpack.”

  “Did they look happy?”

  “Not particularly,” Wyatt said. “But Sky said he’d come down and sit in the hot tub with me.”

  Marcy couldn’t get in the hot tub in her delicate condition, but she almost always sat on the side and dipped her legs in the hot water. “We’re going to have to make the announcement soon,” she said. “They’ll wonder why I never get in the hot tub.”

  “Will they?” he asked.

  “I would. And Mal’s smart.” Marcy closed her eyes and breathed with Wyatt. “I’m nervous about the surgery, Wyatt.”

  “I know, sugar.” His hand moved up and down her arm. “It’s going to be okay.”

  Marcy wanted to believe him, but she hadn’t been around during his last recovery, and she didn’t know what to expect.

  Footsteps sounded, and Marcy opened her eyes to find Skyler and Mal coming down into the living room. They didn’t look like they were having an argument, and Skyler said, “We found a dog, Wyatt.”

  Marcy barely had time to look at him before he got up. “You did?”

  “You’re getting a dog? Now?”

  “Not now, sugar,” Wyatt said with a smile, but Marcy had the very real feeling he’d just fibbed. “We’re going to look at a dog.”

  “Now?”

  “After dinner and a soak,” Wyatt said. “You wanna come along?”

  Marcy always wanted to go along with Wyatt, so she said, “Yeah, if you don’t keep me up too late.”

  “That’s a promise I can keep, sugar.” He extended his hand to help her up, and Marcy put hers in his to let him. They could order pizza, and go look at puppies, and sit in the hot tub. But really, all Marcy wanted to do was get through the surgery.

  Soon, she told herself. It would all be over soon.

  Chapter Fourteen

  Micah looked up as the front door of the homestead opened. “In here,” he said as Skyler started to walk past the office. His brother paused, turned to look at him, and changed direction. A grin burst onto Skyler’s face, and Micah couldn’t help noticing how much happier he looked.

  The smile was like a two-edged knife. Micah was, of course, happy for his brother. Of course he was. He was.

  Skyler had been distant and continually withdrawing from the family since he’d left Dallas, over two years ago. So he deserved some healing, some peace, some happiness.

  Micah simply wanted it for himself too. He wanted to be able to throw a genuine smile on his face at a moment’s notice.

  “Hey, brother.” Skyler took his hand and bumped his shoulder to Micah’s. “How are you?” He sat down in the chair across from Micah, who had taken over the front office for himself. Jeremiah kept one out in the barn, and Micah had started making plans to open a general contracting firm here in Three Rivers.

  Miles separated him and the actual opening of such an enterprise, but Micah had already been talking to various people around Three Rivers in the plumbing, electrical, and HVAC worlds to see if he could simply contract through them for jobs. They had to have licenses; he did not.

  He wanted to build custom ranch homes, like Seven Sons, and he wanted to spend the most time on all of the carpentry inside such a home. Design porches. Guest houses. Custom cabinets, and not just for the kitchen.

  He wanted to get back to what he’d loved so much as a woodworker, and that was creating and carving something so unique and so personal that the recipient couldn’t help but smile every time they saw it.

  “What’s going on here?” Skyler said, leaning forward and examining the papers Micah had spread across the desk.

  “I’m good,” Micah said, letting Skyler look. A buzz of nervousness moved through him, but he wasn’t going to be embarrassed about what he wanted. Simone had made him second-guess everything about himself, and he had to fight actively against that. “And I’m putting together a business plan for a general contracting firm that will specialize in custom-built farm houses.”

  Skyler looked up from the papers, surprise in his eyes. “Wow, Micah.” A slow smile spread his mouth. “That’s so great.”

  “Is it?” Micah wasn’t sure why he wanted someone else’s approval. But Skyler was a good friend, and the two of them had spent the most time together growing up.

  “Yeah, totally.” Skyler leaned back in his chair. “And it happens to be perfect. I have your first project.”

  Micah’s surprise now mirrored Skyler’s. “Is that right?” He leaned back too, and while they both wore Wyatt’s custom hat and looked at one another, they could almost be twins.

  In that moment, Micah was glad to be a Walker, to have somewhere to belong when the rest of the world didn’t seem to have a use for him. His thoughts wandered to Stephanie, the woman he’d been dating in Temple. She hadn’t wanted him to leave.

  That had more to do with your money than with you, he told himself.

  “That’s right,” Skyler finally said. “I just got off the phone with Jeremiah. He’ll be in in a little bit, but he said I could tell you.”

  “Tell me what?”

  “I need a house here, at Seven Sons.”

  A sound came out of Micah’s mouth, coated in surprise. “You’re going to live here?”

  “Yeah.” Skyler shrugged like this was no big deal. But in Micah’s eyes, having Skyler at Seven Sons permanently was a huge, massive deal. He wanted to ask Skyler what had happened to drive him away from the rest of the family. And then he wanted to know what had brought him back.

  He thought of Mal, and Micah knew she had a lot to do with it, even if Skyler’s relationship with her was obviously still fairly new.

  “I mean, I’m going to take over almost all of the behind-the-scenes dealings of the ranch,” Skyler said. “All the finances, all the budgeting, all the bills, all the paperwork.” His gaze cooled. “I’m definitely not looking forward to that part. But Jeremiah said he won’t trap me behind a desk all the time, and I haven’t had a horse for a while.”

  “We can go riding in a few minutes,” Micah said. “I have a phone call with a plumber first. She’s going to fill me in on how she works with general contractors. Then I’d love to get in the saddle.”

  “Me too,” Skyler said. “So what’s the process? You design the house? Or do I need to find floor plans or an architect or…?”

  It was obvious Skyler didn’t know how to go about building a house. Micah’s excitement mounted, and he was surprised by that more than anything else that had happened in the past ten minutes. “I design the houses,” he said. “And I’d love to do yours as my first. It would be a good learning experience too.”

  “Are you ready to get started?” Skyler asked, eyeing the papers. “Looks like you’re still in the research phase of all this.”

  “Time to get in the fire,” Micah said. “I’ll probably make mistakes, but I’ll learn, and you’ll forgive me.”

  Skyler grinned at him and nodded. “All right then. Tell me what you need.”

  “I’ll have you fill out a paper.” Micah started shuffling things around on the desk until he found the intake forms he’d printed off the Internet. He hadn’t quite had time to merge them into a document of his own yet. “This will tell me size, number of bedrooms, bathrooms, and other things you really want.”

  Skyler took the paper but didn’t look at it. “Are you still talking to the woman you met at church? What happened with that? You’ve never said.”

  Ophelia’s pretty face popped into Micah’s mind. “Did I mention that to you?”

  “You sure did,” Skyler drawled. “You haven’t told anyone else?”

  “No.” Micah shifted in his seat, clearing his throat. “It’s still fairly new. I sneak off the ranch to see her every weekend.”

  “Snea
k off?”

  “I mean—” But Micah cut himself off. He was sneaking off to see Ophelia. And wasn’t that what he’d hated most about his relationship with Simone?

  Yes, yes, it was.

  “I just haven’t told anyone here,” Micah said. “We don’t sneak around.”

  “What do you do?” Skyler grinned at Micah, who just shook his head, his own smile taking up his face.

  “Take her to dinner. She has a huge sheepdog-poodle mix and a small apartment. We go to the dog park and have toured the apple orchards. That kind of stuff.”

  “So you go out in public.”

  “Right.” And Micah thought that was infinitely better than confining a relationship to a she-shed on a ranch miles from town, behind a locked door, in a room that often smelled like varnish.

  Still, thoughts of Simone plagued him. He missed her more than anything, and his relationship with Ophelia hadn’t replaced the strong friendship Micah had developed with Simone…yet.

  “I’m seeing her tonight, actually,” Micah said. “So let’s maybe sit down in the morning and go over your sheet.”

  “Yeah, sure. What are—?” The front door opened again, and Jeremiah appeared in the doorway. Micah and Skyler exchanged a glance, and Micah knew that was the end of the conversation about his new girlfriend. Warmth filled him that he even had a new girlfriend, and he kind of wanted to climb up on the roof of the homestead and shout it to the world.

  “He talked to you?” Jeremiah asked, clearly not knowing—or maybe not caring—that he’d just interrupted a sensitive conversation.

  “Yep.” Micah stood up. “Give me an idea of where this second homestead will be.”

  Jeremiah looked at Skyler. “I have no idea.”

  “You know the ranch,” Skyler said, standing too.

  “Maybe we should go out to Three Rivers and see how they have their dual homesteads set up.” Micah looked between his two brothers.

  “I know how they have it,” Jeremiah said. “I’ve been out there lots of times.”

  “Three Rivers?” Skyler asked. “Isn’t that the name of the town?”