Jeremiah's Bogus Bride
Page 26
She moved a jacket someone had left, and she stubbed her toe against the coffee table. She cried out and more tears—more blasted tears—flowed down her face.
“Marcy,” Wyatt said, but she didn’t look at him. She finished in the living room and turned to the dining room. He moved out of the way as she started picking up lemonade cans and sweet tea packets from the table.
The trash made a clunking sound as she set it on the ground. She moved into the kitchen and started running the hot water. She could wash dishes while he watched, though she hadn’t planned to hand-wash a sink full of dishes.
“Marcy,” he said again. “Will you just stop for a second?”
“No,” she said. “I have to go to work in the morning, and I don’t have a maid.”
Wyatt probably did, though she knew he lived with his brothers and only had his bedroom to keep clean.
“What do you want me to do?” he asked.
Marcy dropped the silverware she held in her hand, and it made a horrible clanging sound against the plates there. “Why are you here?” She turned toward him, her despair spiraling out of control. She hated this feeling, and she wished he hadn’t come. Why couldn’t he just leave her alone?
“I want to offer you support,” he said. “I know you—”
“Support?” Marcy shook her head, the idea almost laughable. “No, Wyatt, you’re not here to support me. You’re here for you. You’re here because you want to ask me to dinner. You want me to be your girlfriend.”
He glowered at her and folded his arms. “I do want all of that, but that’s not why I’m here.”
“Right.” She turned back to the sink and plunged her hands into the water. But it was far too hot now that it had been running for a while, and she yelped as she pulled her hands back. Wyatt arrived at her side a moment later, and Marcy couldn’t help crying.
“It’s okay,” he said, handing her a towel. He turned off the water and curled her into his chest. “It’s going to be okay.”
Marcy opened her mouth to argue, because she could not see how a world without either of her parents in it was every going to be okay. But all she could do was suck at the air as she started to sob. And sob, and sob.
Wyatt held her close and tight, and she let him, because she needed someone to do it. Bryan had left. Her cousins had families and lives to get back to. The huge turnout from the people living in Three Rivers had comforted her, but they’d all move on with their regular lives too.
Marcy didn’t have a regular life anymore. Not one she recognized, at least.
Wyatt began to hum, and his bass voice soothed her. “Come on, sugar,” he said. “It’s time for bed.”
Marcy wasn’t sure how long they’d been standing in her kitchen, the sink full of dirty dishes sitting in hot water, but she knew it wasn’t time for bed. But she let Wyatt lead her down the hall to her bedroom. She was aware of him opening a couple of drawers and then handing her a pair of pajamas.
He left the room, and she somehow changed. He knocked before re-entering the room, and he held a glass of water and a couple of pills. “Painkillers,” he said.
Marcy didn’t want them. “They can’t get rid of this pain,” she whispered.
“I know, baby. Take them anyway.”
She did, and she crawled under the covers. Wyatt laid down with her, a groan pulling through his throat as he did. She curled into his chest and listened to his heart beating. He breathed deeply, and she tried to match her breathing to his.
Finally—finally—she drew a breath full of peace and calm, both things she hadn’t felt in twelve long months. “Thank you, Wyatt,” she murmured just before she fell into unconsciousness.
#
When she woke, she was alone, and panic pulled through her sharply. She sat up with a gasp, searching the darkness for some clue as to where she was.
“It’s okay,” Wyatt said again, and Marcy looked toward the sound of his voice. He sat in the recliner in her bedroom. “You’re safe, Marce.”
Marce.
She loved the nickname he used for her, and she sighed as she swung her feet over the side of the bed. “What time is it?”
“Late,” he said. “I didn’t want to leave you alone.”
Reaching over, she fumbled for a moment before snapping on the lamp on her nightstand. Their eyes met, and pure gratitude streamed through Marcy. Everyone else had left her. Wyatt had not.
“Will you be okay now?” he asked. He looked as exhausted as she felt. She wanted him to stay, but she wanted him to get the rest he needed too.
“I’ll be okay,” she said.
Wyatt got up, pain moving across his face, and stepped over to her. He swept his lips along her hairline and said, “I’ll bring breakfast to the hangar in the morning. I won’t stay. I know you’ll be really busy.” With that, he walked out of her bedroom, leaving Marcy to wonder why she’d tried to push him away. Again.
She also needed a plan for tomorrow morning, because she still wasn’t sure she was ready for a real relationship with Wyatt Walker. At least not the kind he obviously wanted. She needed to figure out how to live in this new world first. She needed to keep her crop dusters running. She had all the cleaning and estate sorting to do.
She wondered if she actually had room for Wyatt in her life right now, and she certainly didn’t think so.
So she’d just tell him tomorrow. With everything else already weighing on her conscious, she couldn’t have her poor treatment of a good man adding to it.
WYATT’S PRETEND PLEDGE is coming soon! Preorder it now!
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Read More by Liz Isaacson
Want another Walker Brother? Another cowboy billionaire in Three Rivers? Yeah, me too! You can preorder WYATT’S PRETEND PLEDGE right now, and get ready for more great Christmas romance, another fake relationship, and the swoon-worthy cowboy billionaires in Three Rivers! Oh, and Wyatt’s a world-famous rodeo star. So there’s that too!
Have you read the books in the Three Rivers Ranch Romance series? That’s where this world started! Begin with SECOND CHANCE RANCH or THE FIRST LADY OF THREE RIVERS RANCH, both entry points to the Three Rivers world.
Love billionaire cowboys? I’ve got you covered! Read any of the EIGHT cowboy billionaires in the Christmas in Coral Canyon Romance series. Start with HER COWBOY BILLIONAIRE BEST FRIEND.
Or read HER LAST BILLIONAIRE BOYFRIEND, Book 2 in the Last Chance Ranch series.
Or CHARMING THE COWBOY, Book 2 in the Grape Seed Falls Romance series.
Love small town western romance at Christmastime? Who doesn’t, right? Try CHEERING THE COWBOY, and travel to Texas Hill Country for Christmas!
About Liz
Liz Isaacson is a USA Today bestselling author and a Kindle All-Star Author. She is the author of the #1 bestselling Three Rivers Ranch Romance series, the #1 bestselling Horseshoe Home Ranch Romance series, the Brush Creek Brides series, the USA Today bestselling Steeple Ridge Romance series (Buttars Brothers novels), the Grape Seed Falls Romance series, the Christmas in Coral Canyon Romance series (Whittaker Brothers and Everett Sisters novels), the Quinn Valley Ranch Romance series, the Last Chance Ranch Romance series, and the Seven Sons Ranch in Three Rivers Romance series (Walker Brothers novels).
She writes inspirational romance, usually set in Texas and Montana, or anywhere else horses and cowboys exist. She lives in Utah, where she teaches elementary school, taxis her daughter to dance several times a week, and eats a lot of Ferrero Rocher while writing.
Learn more about all her books here. Find her on Facebook, twitter, BookBub, and her website.
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JEREMIAH’S BOGUS BRIDE
Book Four in the Seven Sons Ranch in Three Rivers Romance series
by Liz Isaacson
Copyright © 2019 by Elana Johnson, writing as Liz Isaacson
Published by AEJ Creative Works
All Rights Reserved
This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents either are products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events, locales or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental. No part of this book can be reproduced in any form or by electronic or mechanical means including information storage and retrieval systems, without the express written permission of the author. The only exception is by a reviewer who may quote short excerpts in a review. Please purchase only authorized electronic editions, and do not participate in, or encourage, the electronic piracy of copyrighted materials. Your support of the author’s rights is appreciated.
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