Page 74 of A Rancher's Heart
It seemed to take forever because the whispered words came between heavy bouts of crying, but in the end Tamara learned at some point Emma had been shouted at by the woman. Told thatshedidn’t want to be a mommy, and to stop calling her that, and that Emma needed toshut up.
The fact this verbal assault had taken place in the chicken coop explained another mystery, but the final result remained that Emma firmly believed Wendy went away because of her.
“She told me to stop.” Emma refused to lift her eyes to Tamara’s. “I was noisy, and she went away.”
A strange sense of utter control caught Tamara, even as icy hot flames roiled in her gut. There was no way to do this without being blunt, but she was going to make sure Emma understood the truth.
Tamara spoke gently. “Mommies don’t leave when their babies are noisy. Do you remember hearing how noisy Auntie Dare’s baby was when you visited them? Do you think Auntie Dare or Uncle Jesse would ever leave Joey?
“Sheleft.”
“Not because of you. Relationships fall apart for many reasons. One reason is when a person is sick and not thinking right. They leave because they’re broken inside. And you didn’t break anyone.”
Emma had her fingers tangled in Tamara shirt, her face streaked with tears. Exhaustion was finally taking its toll as she laid her head on Tamara’s chest.
“I mean it, Emma. Wendy was broken, and that wasn’t your fault, or Sasha’s, or Daddy’s. I’m sorry you have that sad part in your life, but it’s not because of anything you did.”
Emma let go with one hand and stroked Tamara’s shirt smooth, as if it were of vital importance to get all the wrinkles out.
She caught the little girl’s fingers in hers and lifted her hand, kissing Emma’s knuckles gently. “You can let that bad dream go. It’s not real. What’s real is you have a daddy who loves you very much, and the best sister in the world, and uncles and aunties and Kelli and Ashton andmewho all love spending time with you. And as far as we’re all concerned, you can be as noisy as you’d like, although I doubt you can be as noisy as Eeny and Meany when they get to complaining about their dinner being late.”
The smallest of snorts escaped Emma, but nothing else until her eyelids fluttered and a yawn broke free.
“You ready to go back to bed?” Tamara leaned back as if to lay her on the mattress. Emma caught hold of her again with an ironclad grip.
Or, maybe not.
The only solution of course was to take Emma to bed with her. But which bed? Emma’s was far too small, and this probably wasn’t a good night to attempt to bring her into Wendy’s old room.
Tamara headed to the couch to curl up there when Emma tugged on her shirt. “Daddy’s.”
So that was where they went.
It was strangely intimate to carry Emma down the hallway and into Caleb’s bedroom. The place was still neat as a pin, but Tamara didn’t spend any time looking around. Just pulled back the covers and lowered Emma to the pillow.
The little girl must’ve used up all her words because she didn’t say anything, just clung to Tamara’s shirt.
“I’ll stay with you,” Tamara promised. “Let me take off my jeans.”
She crawled into bed and Emma curled up against her like a kitten in a nest. Her breathing slowing, the occasional lingering hiccup shaking her body as she burrowed in tight.
Tamara’s earlier restlessness had been burned away by sadness and anger and now, with the precious child in her arms, she ignored all the thoughts trying to overwhelm her. She focused instead on that pulse of warmth beating in her heart, steadily growing.
Caleb put his truck into park then glanced over at his brother who had been strangely quiet the entire drive home. Add that to Caleb’s usual lack of conversation, it had made for a very long silent trip.
Did he say something?
Ahh, to hell with it. “You know what you’re doing with this woman?”
Luke glanced up, blinking out of his stupor. “I’m sorry Penny made a mistake and the sales had already gone through.”
“She made more than one mistake, but I’m not talking about tonight and our wild goose chase. I’m talking about you being engaged to her. Why are you with her? You’re not in love.”
Luke looked away from him, staring out the front window over the lake.
“I think you have some hard realities to consider.” Caleb spoke carefully. “She doesn’t seem to be in love with you, either. You get along, and maybe you’re friends, but it doesn’t seem as if you can’t bear to be apart from each other. That you can’t wait to be together at the end of the day.”
“And that’s what it looks like when you’re in love?” Luke demanded. “Because if that’s the case what are you planning to do about Tamara?”
