Eventually he was going to have to.
She opened up the truck door and climbed in quickly. “I’m going to the courthouse to file the paperwork, and then I’m going to make my announcement later today.”
“Do I need to stand behind you like a silent, dutiful partner?”
“No. But … we’ll have to get some signs made. And get them put up around town.”
“Are you going to ask me to recruit my family?”
“I might.”
He shook his head. “All right. Well … You know, I don’t have your number.”
“Your brother does,” she said, smiling.
On that note, she started the engine of the truck and slammed the driver’s side door shut. And then she took her first full breath since first encountering Flynn the night before.
As schemes went, this was going to be a wild ride.
Chapter 4
I was too young when I learned my first lesson about men—but that’s how the world is. My ma wasn’t in, so he offered me a coin to please him, but it wasn’t an offer. In the end I had a coin pressed to my palm and knowledge I couldn’t give back. I held the coin tight in my palm like the weight of it would overtake the weight of what had happened. I wanted to learn to hold a coin so tightly in my hand that my payment couldn’t be taken from me. I wanted to at least hold that.
—Belle Martin’s Diary, November 1865
He texted Austin as soon as Jessie drove away, because he wasn’t going to stand there looking after her with longing or something.
He didnotlong for her.
His brother responded immediately.Just dropped Millie off at the library. Taking Emma to the park.
Well, an opportunity to see his niece was always welcome. If he was going to get a lecture, he might as well do it while a baby was giggling in the background. He might not be able to see a future with a wife and kids for him, but that didn’t mean he didn’t like kids. It was a particularly special thing to see his brother be a dad, to see Austin have something so … he was tempted to call it normal, but that made it sound common, and it was anything but.
They were the product of a home that had been broken multiple times during the course of their childhood. Flynn didn’t take love, marriage, or family for granted.
It was one reason he wanted to steer clear of them himself.
But Austin deserved the world, and thank God, he’d gotten it.
Meet you there.
Flynn started to walk down the block past the historic shops, heading to the little square that contained a gazebo, a stretch ofgreen grass, and a small play structure. He knew that Emma would be on the swings the entire time they were there.
As he saw Austin approaching from the opposite direction, he couldn’t help but smile. His big, burly brother had a baby strapped in a front pack on his chest, a white cowboy hat on his head.
He could remember feeling so lost when their dad died. He’d been fifteen, and Austin and Carson were the adults left to care for him most of the time.
He could still remember his mom, in her fancy kitchen with the bright white countertops and tall, dark cabinets. She couldn’t even reach the second shelf. Those cabinets were for looks; they weren’t for use. The way she’d made him a hot chocolate and stood on the other side of the island while he sat there, feeling certain he would do something to mess up the pristine space. Like maybe the Wilder in him would leave an impression on the chairs that couldn’t be erased.
He could still remember her look of … sadness, concern, worry.
You don’t want to leave your dad’s, do you?
Worried, he’d realized later, that he’d say he did want to leave the ranch, that he wanted to come live with her.
He’d never lived with her full time. It had always been sporadic, joint custody with no real schedule. He’d tried, for a time, to see if anything he did affected her willingness to have him around. If he was extra good, would he get a Christmas invite? If he was naughty, would he be left out of the Fourth of July barbecue? But there never seemed to be any rhyme or reason to his mother’s decisions.
Nothing he did—good or bad—changed the situation with his mom at all.
