Wyoming told him, clutching the phone like a lifeline, blinking back the tears that gathered in her eyes. “Ward is going to be devastated,” she said when she was done. “I don’t know what to do. Should I wait for him to come home or call him at work?”
“I think you have to call him,” Emerson said. “Do you want me to come over?” he asked again.
“You’d better not. Ward won’t want anyone outside of the family around when he finds out. He’s going to be so angry.”
“What about you? Are you going to be okay? What about the baby?”
“I don’t know,” Wyoming confessed. “I’ll call Cass, too. Maybe I’d better bring Elise home with me tonight. Or maybe I should stay here.”
“Bring Elise to Two Willows,” Emerson told her. “Seems like your brother is going to need to let off some steam tonight. Does he have a friend you could get in touch with? Someone who can be there for him?”
Wyoming thought about that. “Yes. I think I know who to call.” Ward still hung out with the same buddies he’d had in high school. They weren’t her favourite people, given the way they’d teased her when they were all young, but they weren’t bad guys. They might be a little rough around the edges, but they were just the type to show up when someone needed help.
“When he’s home and you’re ready, pack up Elise and bring her here. We can all help you with her.”
Wyoming didn’t doubt that would be true. Cass loved babies, and so did most of her sisters. It wouldn’t be much trouble to have Elise tonight.
She wondered what tomorrow would bring, however. How would Ward keep going to work knowing Mindy wasn’t coming home? How would he handle the day-to-day stress of a full-time job and taking care of his baby? He would need to hire a nanny, she thought. Could he even afford one?
“I have a feeling I’m going to do a lot more babysitting,” she said. “Not that I mind,” she hurried to add.
“Of course not,” Emerson said. “When you call Cass, tell her to give me a ring if she needs any help getting set up for you.”
“Thanks, Emerson. I knew I could depend on you.” More grateful than she could say for his help deciding her plan of action, Wyoming hung up, called Cass and gave her the lay of the land, then braced herself for the most difficult call of all.
“Hi, Celia, it’s Wyoming. Can I talk to my brother?” she asked the receptionist at the radio station.
“Oh… Hi, Wyoming,” Celia said flatly.
Wye waited, a little disconcerted by her tone. Usually Celia was as chipper as she’d been as a cheerleader at Chance Creek High, where they both attended school.
“Is Ward available?” Wye prompted her when she didn’t go on.
“Uh… not really. He’s… in a meeting and can’t be disturbed right now.”
“It’s pretty important,” Wye said. She didn’t think she’d ever had a problem getting Ward on the phone when he was at work.
“He said he can’t be disturbed,” Celia said again.
“What kind of meeting?” Wye pushed.
Celia hesitated. “An… advertising meeting?”
She sounded uncertain, and suddenly Wye knew Celia was covering for Ward. “What’s going on? Talk to me, Celia.”
“I don’t know. It’s just…He’s not… He can’t take your call right now. I’ll have him get back to you as soon as he can.” Celia hung up before Wye could ask any more questions, and Wye shoved her phone in her pants pocket.
That was strange.
Celia was lying, but Wye wasn’t sure which part she was lying about. Was Ward not in a meeting? Or was he in one but not taking her calls? Or was he not at work at all?
If she went looking, would she discover him at the Dancing Boot or Rafters, Chance Creek’s two watering holes? How drunk would he be when he arrived home tonight? When would he even get home?
Wyoming decided not to wait. She pulled out her phone again, called Steve Merks, one of Ward’s closest friends, and filled him in on the whole situation. Then she packed a bag for Elise. When Steve arrived, she gave him a note of her own along with Mindy’s letter, and sent him to town to pigeonhole Ward, wherever he was.
It was better this way, she thought as she drove to Two Willows, Elise gurgling in her car seat in back. She would have liked to be the one to tell her brother the news, but he’d made that impossible, and she had a feeling he’d prefer it if Elise wasn’t around when he discovered that his wife wasn’t coming home. He needed time to process what Mindy had done—time to be angry and then calm down. Tomorrow, when he was ready, she would sit down with him and make a long-term plan.
Chapter 4
‡
“Emerson?” Cass called and appeared in the doorway of the General’s office a moment later. “Wyoming just pulled in, and she’s got Elise. She doesn’t look happy.”
“Thanks. You mind, General?”
“Go help your fiancée.” He waved Emerson off gruffly. Emerson caught Cass rolling her eyes as he slipped past her through the doorway.
“She’s not his fiancée yet,” Cass told her father.
“She will be.”
“You can’t keep ordering everyone around.”
“Like hell I can’t.”
Emerson kept going toward the kitchen. Cass followed him more slowly, grumbling, and went back to work as he crossed to the door and opened it just as Wyoming approached. He took Elise from her arms, grabbed her purse and set it on the nearest chair. “You okay?” he asked her.
“Fine.”
“How did Ward take the news?” Cass asked, taking her coat when Wyoming struggled out of it.
“I don’t know. I couldn’t reach him.” Wyoming told them everything that had happened as she kicked off her snowy boots and settled in at the table. Cass moved around the room whipping up a snack for her.
Emerson sat in the chair beside her, holding Elise on his knee. The baby reached up and grabbed
