the call and then turned off the phone altogether. As she curled up on the bed beside Amber, her eyes burned with tears. The despair she’d been fighting for hours threatened to swamp her.
She’d made such a mess of her life. Her children were suffering because of her foolishness, her bad choices. How could she ever compensate for those mistakes?
Wyatt’s deep, warm voice came into her head. Worry and regrets won’t change anything tonight... You’ve got friends you can count on. She recalled the concern in his brown eyes, the encouragement in his smile.
Friends. She hadn’t had many of those over the years. Travis never liked the women she’d tried to connect with...or else he liked them too well. Susannah hadn’t been blind to those affairs. But for some reason he had always come back to her.
Now, though, the Marshall brothers had declared themselves her friends. Caroline Donnelly would stand beside her, too. If they were willing to offer so much help, she couldn’t let them down. Couldn’t let her children down. Somehow she would have to dredge up the courage and determination to accept Wyatt’s offer. She would spend the summer working for him, doing whatever she could to make his recovery easier, maybe help with the kids’ camp, as well. Amber and Nathan would have a chance to recover from Travis’s influence and experience a more settled, responsible way of living.
At the end of the summer, she would find a job, probably in a bigger town like Casper, or Cheyenne or Laramie. As for a divorce...she’d already filed the papers, which had only made the situation worse. Travis had never hurt one of the children until tonight, when he was notified of her petition. Now that he knew, he would put up every roadblock he could think of to keep the kids, including a custody battle, and the court might very well give him visitation, at least. Then he would be part of their lives forever. The prospect drenched her with dread. What would it take for them to be free?
With her thoughts still in turmoil, Susannah began to wonder if she’d be awake all night long. Sleep finally claimed her but only until the sound of a shower running somewhere in the house roused her at five thirty. Anxious to start her new job—her new life!—responsibly, she groped her way out of bed and into the bathroom, where a cold washcloth on her face and arms dispelled most of the brain fog. She donned a clean shirt and jeans, combed her hair and twisted it into a messy bun. She even managed to put on some lipstick. Just as the shower cut off, she left the guest room and made her way to the kitchen.
But the coffeepot defeated her. A stainless-steel monster with no obvious controls, it lurked on the counter, daring her to do something stupid and break it. The only coffee she found was a bag of whole beans, beside a grinder as intimidating as the brewer. Susannah hung her head. Not even six o’clock and she’d already failed.
“Well, good morning!”
She whirled to find Garrett Marshall standing in the doorway. His wet hair identified him as the one who’d taken the shower. “G-good morning. I was going to make some coffee, but...”
He sent her a grin nearly as appealing as his older brother’s. “It’s quite a contraption, isn’t it? Dylan decided we should upgrade from the standard plastic-and-glass model.” He joined her at the counter. “I will admit this version makes a great brew. Let me run you through the process.”
Within minutes, they were sampling the results. Susannah savored the aroma rising from her mug. “I had no idea coffee could taste this rich. I’ll have a pot made at about five thirty tomorrow. And breakfast at six thirty. Will that work for you?”
Garrett shook his head. “You don’t have to worry about that. I usually make the coffee. As for breakfast—”
“It’s my job,” she told him with some pride. “Wyatt hired me last night to cook and keep house.”
The man on the other side of the breakfast bar gazed at her for a long moment. Then he chuckled. “Of course he did. It’s a great idea.” He offered a handshake. “Welcome to the staff at the Circle M. Wyatt is the main one you’ll be making breakfast for, besides yourself and Amber. Occasionally I’ll need something, too, and maybe Dylan, those mornings after he stays up late working on his sculpture. The camp kids do most of their own cooking, so Ford, Caroline and I try to show up for their meals as a gesture of support. I expect to lose a good ten pounds this summer, when all is said and done.”
She laughed with him. “I’ll have a supply of cookies on hand, to keep your strength up.”
“I’ll hold you to that promise.”
By six thirty, she’d explored all the cabinets and the refrigerator, started a pan of biscuits baking and arranged a place setting at the breakfast bar, where Garrett said Wyatt preferred to stand and eat. When she heard new steps coming down the hallway, she quickly poured a big cup of coffee and turned just in time to see Wyatt enter the kitchen. Wearing a wrinkled T-shirt and sweat pants, with his hair uncombed and his puffy-eyed face unshaven, he reminded her of a bear just coming out of hibernation.
She couldn’t help smiling at him. “Good morning! Here’s your coffee. How do you like your eggs?”
“Damnation,” he growled, squeezing his eyes shut for a few seconds. When he opened them again, he was scowling. “I’d forgotten you were here.”
So much for the first day of her new life!
July
“Will you play with me?” a little voice asked. “Please?”
Honey, dozing on the floor beside the desk, raised her head at the intrusion. Wyatt started to glance over his shoulder, but a stab of pain in his back stopped him. With an irritated snort, he swiveled his chair away from the computer instead.
But his bedroom seemed to be empty. “Who’s there?”
The five-year-old peeked around the corner of his dresser. “Me.” She eyed him nervously. “Amber.”
Not wanting her to be afraid of him, he kept his tone gentle. “Why are you hiding, Me Amber?”
She glanced behind her. “My mommy said not to bother you,” she said at a lower volume.
He smothered a smile. “So why did you?”
“’Cause I want to play Candyland.” Coming out from behind the dresser, she displayed the game box she was holding. In a bright yellow T-shirt, green shorts and green sneakers, she reminded him of a cheerful dandelion. “And you can’t play by yourself.”
Wyatt remembered playing the game with Dylan when his brother was about this age. “Did you ask your mom to play with you?”
Her golden curls bounced as she nodded. “She has to dust the bookshelves. And wash the windows. And sweep the fireplace.”
“That’s a lot to do.” In the short time she’d been there, Susannah Bradley had systematically overhauled the place, room by room. He scarcely saw her during the day, she stayed so busy. And the house had never been so clean, so easy to live in. The meals she prepared tempted him as food hadn’t in years. On her breakfasts alone, he’d have been well fueled for a full day’s work...if he wasn’t stuck in the house with nothing to occupy him but wrangling numbers.
The
