“Wyoming and I will do just fine down here. If we marry. And if we stay.” And it would keep Lena happier, Emerson thought privately. Maybe she’d even agree to giving them a share in the ranch.
“Do I stink or something?” The General turned on him testily. “Need to keep your distance?”
“You know it’s nothing like that, sir.”
“Well, whatever it is, I don’t like it.”
The man knew exactly what it was. Emerson decided not to argue with him. He’d get nowhere when the General was in this kind of mood. “You don’t want me to fix up the trailer?” he asked instead.
The General glowered at him. “Never said that. Go ahead. Just don’t get too attached to it. You and Wyoming need a real house. You talk to her, figure out how many kids you are going to have, how many bedrooms you’ll need. We’ll get it sorted out.”
Children? Emerson wanted kids, of course, but they were getting a little ahead of themselves. First he needed some time alone with Wyoming. Then he needed to convince her to actually marry him. Then Cass, Brian and the others needed to buy in to the idea of them staying.
How was he supposed to know ahead of time how many kids he wanted, anyway?
“Just ask her,” the General said as if he’d read Emerson’s mind. “Get a ballpark figure. Five? Ten?” He shrugged.
This time Emerson didn’t hide a smile. “Ten? That seems excessive.”
“Especially if you’re going to live in a trailer,” the General said.
Wyoming shifted Elise to her other arm and knocked on Ward’s door again. When he still didn’t answer, she fished her keys out of her purse and let herself in, figuring he must be in the shower. It had probably been a long night. Had he and Steve stayed up late talking?
The minute she stepped into the house, she wrinkled her nose. It smelled like a bar in here. As her eyes adjusted to the dim light, she noticed the bottles on the coffee table in Ward’s small living room. She moved from window to window, raising the shades, set Elise down on a blanket on the floor and began to collect the empties.
She hoped the number of them meant some more of Ward’s friends came over to console him. She set the bottles on the kitchen counter to rinse later and hurried back to check on Elise. The little girl was mobile enough to get into trouble at a moment’s notice.
“Ward?” she called. “You here?”
There was no answer. With a sigh, she picked up Elise again, settled her on her hip and headed down the short hall to the bedrooms. Ward slept in the largest at the end of the hall. The door was firmly shut, so Wye rapped loudly on it with her knuckles.
An indeterminate noise emanated from the bedroom.
“Ward? I’m here with Elise. We’d better talk about schedules, don’t you think? Aren’t you going to work?”
Ward groaned again. She thought he said something about being sick.
“We need to talk,” she said again. She understood Mindy’s desertion must be hard to process, but Elise hadn’t seen either parent in days. “I’ve got Elise with me,” she added again for good measure.
No answer.
She moved to the kitchen, settled Elise in her high chair, gave her a toy to distract her and started pulling out the makings for a big breakfast for Ward. Surely the smell of bacon would rouse him.
Thirty minutes later and still no sign of her brother, Wye was losing patience. She called Steve.
“Morning,” he answered cheerfully. He wasn’t any worse for wear after a hard night’s drinking, Wye thought.
“Steve, it’s Wye. I’m worried about Ward. He won’t get up.”
“He really tied one on last night. Better let him sleep it off.”
“Did you talk to him? Did he say what he’s going to do?”
“Honey, the last thing your brother wanted to do last night was talk. We watched the game.”
While she took care of Elise and worried about him? She bit back a caustic reply. “He isn’t going to work.”
“Won’t need that fancy house without Mindy to have to impress,” Steve remarked.
Wye looked around her. This was a fancy house in Steve’s opinion?
“He’s still got a daughter to raise. She needs a roof over her head and food on the table.”
For the first time, Steve seemed uneasy. “Yeah, I know. Don’t think Ward’s in a mindset to do much fathering. You might need to pitch in a little.”
That was obvious. “I guess I’ll take her back to Two Willows.”
“That’s a great idea. I’ll stop by after work to see Ward.”
She wasn’t sure if she should be comforted or worried. “Don’t let him drink. He needs to go to work, and he needs to hire a sitter.”
“Sure. No drinking.” Steve chuckled.
Wye hung up and shook her head at Ward’s breakfast getting cold on the table and the dirty dishes she’d made.
He could deal with the aftermath of the meal, she decided, if and when he ever decided to get up.
“Come on, Elise. We came all this way to town. Might as well get some errands done.”
She took her time, stopping in at the bank, the post office and the library. It seemed everyone she met wanted to greet Elise and coo over her, and once she got over her irritation with Ward, she began to enjoy herself. She stopped in at Fila’s Familia restaurant for lunch, and both Fila Matheson and Camila Whitfield came out of the kitchen to greet her and play with the baby. Fila warmed Elise’s bottle, then went back to cooking while Camila insisted on feeding Elise her baby food while Wye enjoyed a plate of fajitas.
It was early afternoon—time for
