“That’s not true!” Wye stared at the doll, shaking with fury. “I’m perfectly capable of having my own children, and I’ve got plenty to do without your interference.”
“Like what?”
“Like look for a new job that’s better than my old one. Like help run the rentals at Two Willows and help with the books, too. Like be part of a real family that actually loves me back.”
“Ha! What about me?”
“You?” Wye saw Ward as clearly as if he was in the room. “You’re nothing but selfish and mean and self-serving! You never think about anyone else! You never notice my accomplishments—or ask me how my day went. You treat me like a couch or a TV set—there to serve you whenever you want and to sit and wait, doing nothing, until you come back needing something else. Well, I’m not! I’m not a couch! And if you loved me at all, you’d never leave!”
Wyoming lurched forward, grabbed the doll from Cass’s hands and wound back to hurl it across the room.
Cass surged up to snatch it, and for a moment they tugged it back and forth until Wye realized what she was doing and let go all at once. She was breathing hard, sobs clogging her throat, tears falling so fast and thick she could hardly see.
Cass stumbled back a few paces awkwardly but caught herself before she fell over. She came to drop down on her knees beside the bed where Wye still sat. “That’s the crux of it, isn’t it? You’re afraid Emerson won’t love you?”
“No one loves me!” Wye covered her face with her hands, unable to stop her tears. “No one has ever loved me. I’m all alone!”
“That’s not true.” Cass set the doll on the floor, leaned in and wrapped Wyoming in her arms, her belly a small mound between them. “I love you. And so does Emerson. So we all do. Wye, sometimes our birth family is just that—our birth family. Sometimes our real family is made up of people who aren’t related to us at all. I swear to God, I won’t ever leave you, and I hope you won’t leave me, either. I’ve lost people, too,” she reminded her. “Please don’t make me lose you.”
Wye didn’t know how to answer her. Couldn’t through her sobs anyway. She ached with pain and shock and fear about what the future would bring.
From her crib, Elise pushed up and peeked over the top bar. “Yiyiyiyi,” she called, reaching a chubby arm toward Wyoming beseechingly.
“What am I going to do?” Wye sobbed. “Cass, I’m so scared.”
“We all are sometimes,” Cass soothed her. “You’re going to get through this. You’re not alone this time, Wye. You have a whole army on your side—even a General.”
Wye laughed, a sound that hitched and edged into a sob again. “Emerson must hate me. I was so awful.”
“I think Emerson understands what you’re feeling right now better than any of us, don’t you?” Cass asked.
Wyoming supposed he probably did. After all, he’d lost his parents, too.
She’d run out on him at the first sign of trouble. “I need to talk to him.” She wiped her face on her sleeve.
“Of course. How about you clean up first? I’ll get Elise’s things together and take you home.”
Home. More tears welled up, until Wyoming wondered how there could be any left. She had a home—and she’d almost tossed it away along with the man she loved more than anything.
“Cass,” Wye began.
“Yes?”
“Thank you.”
“Stop fidgeting, Sergeant,” the General snapped when Emerson tidied the same pile of paper for the third time.
He dropped the pages on the General’s desk and crossed the room, peeked out the window and crossed back.
“If you touch that stack of paper one more time, I’ll have you court-martialed!”
“Sorry, sir.”
“Sorry my ass. What’s got you so wound up? Where’s that girl—Wyoming? And what kind of name is that, anyway? Was Montana already taken?”
Emerson knew the General was trying to help, but his banter was grating on his nerves.
“I already told you she’s at the Evergreen Motel, sir.”
“Then what are you doing here?”
“Giving her space.”
“Women don’t want space. If they did, us men would be living on Mars by now. Look, Sergeant, when a woman loves you, and she pushes you away, it’s because she wants you to push back.”
“I… don’t think that’s right, General.” Emerson moved to a bookshelf and began to straighten the volumes. His ankle ached, and he wondered if he’d twisted it again stalking from Ward’s house to his truck after Wye drove off with Megan. He’d wanted desperately to charge after her when she’d raced out the door, but he knew that would only lead to a bigger fight. Wye was the kind of woman who held her anger in until she reached the breaking point, and she had definitely hit that point when she realized what Ward had done. He’d give her time and then do whatever it took to put her life back together. Meanwhile, he wouldn’t let himself think about a future without her in it.
“Not push—you know what I mean!” the General exploded. “She wants you to prove that you’re going to stand by her, even in the hard times. She’s having a hard time, right?”
“Yes.” Emerson wasn’t sure which made him angrier—the fact that Ward would abandon his child or that he’d assume Wye would pick up where he left off and parent Elise. If Ward hadn’t noticed, Wye didn’t have a home of her own—or an income outside of what he’d been paying her. That’s where he came in, Emerson figured. He was perfectly happy to support his wife-to-be, and Elise, too, but it galled him that Ward thought he could drop his responsibilities and someone would be there to pick them up.
No, more than that, Emerson decided. What bothered him was that Ward acted like there’d be no consequences to anyone else.
To Wye.
“So why the
