“Why don’t you call and check that he’s okay?”
He took Elise from her arms, his heartbeat slowing again now that he knew no one was in immediate danger, and he realized from now on he’d be on guard to protect Wye. He kept the baby occupied playing peekaboo while Wye made the call.
“Ward? Where are you?” There was a silence as she listened. “You’re not making anything easier; you know I’m going to spend the whole day worrying about you! You should come back.” She was quiet a moment. “Oh, my goodness, no one cares if you don’t have presents for them; they don’t have presents for you, either. And what about Elise? She will notice you’re not here. You’re her father.” Wye sighed. “You’d better be back by dinner. Don’t do something stupid and ruin the holidays for me forever. Yes, I’m talking about suicide.” She listened some more. Emerson was glad she’d brought up the uncomfortable subject. He knew how hard the holidays could be on someone who was alone. What men were capable of when their hearts were broken. “Okay. Be here by four. I need to be able to help Cass, and I can’t do that and watch Elise at the same time. Okay. See you then.”
She hung up, shaking her head. “That man. I swear, it didn’t even occur to him he’d be missed! Or that I’d worry.”
“What did he say?”
“He couldn’t sleep last night. Couldn’t stand to spend the day around happy married couples, either, so he called a few single friends and made plans to hang out with them. He said they were all grateful to get his call. He seemed almost upbeat.”
“He didn’t even ask if you were okay with having Elise today.”
“You’re right; he didn’t ask, but I won’t hold that against him today. I think leaving her here is his way of not dealing with his sadness about spending the holiday without Mindy. I wonder what she’s doing?”
Emerson could only shrug. He reached for his jeans and pulled them on. “I’m going to grab a shower and get dressed.”
“Better hurry. Sounds like people are gathering downstairs ready to open presents.”
“I’ll be there in a minute.”
As he showered, Emerson couldn’t help but feel bad for Ward, despite the unthinking way he shed his responsibilities onto Wye’s shoulders. Marriage was no guarantee of happiness. Had Ward thought he’d stumbled on a banquet only to discover he’d ended up with a plate full of ashes?
What if his marriage to Wye disintegrated around him in a similar way?
Emerson shook off the dark thoughts, letting the hot water wash them away. Wyoming wouldn’t run away when times got tough. She was the type of woman who saw things through. And he wasn’t Ward, expecting everyone else to pick up the slack.
When he saw his name on a number of packages under the tree downstairs, he was glad he’d found small gifts for everyone. The General was ensconced in an easy chair, almost beaming at the gathering. Everyone else was seated on a couch or the floor, since there were too many of them to fit on the furniture all at once. Cass kept ferrying in mugs of coffee and tea. Elise crawled from person to person, sitting in laps and babbling at them. Emerson took a seat next to Wyoming on the floor, taking her hand in his.
“We’ll eat after the presents,” Cass told him. “Jo? You want to hand them out?”
“Jo always hands them out,” Sadie said. “I don’t think we’ve ever had this many people here at Christmas. Not since Mom’s been gone, anyway.”
All the women turned to the General, who cleared his throat and nodded. “Your mother would love a gathering like this.”
“I wish she was here,” Sadie said.
“We all do,” Cass told her gently and perched on the arm of the sofa. “Jo, how about you hand out a few packages?”
Jo got to it, and soon the poignant moment had passed in a flurry of guesses and unwrapping. Wye amassed a pile of hand-knit mittens, books, a calendar and more, while Emerson received work gloves and several fancy tools that were upgrades from the ones in Two Willows’ motley collection.
As they were all oohing and aahing over their presents, he realized Wye had twisted her engagement ring to leave a plain band that didn’t attract any attention. When she noticed him looking, she put a finger to her lips.
Only when they were done with presents and gathered in the kitchen for a hearty brunch did Wye wink at him, twist the ring the right way around and make a show of reaching for something across the table with her left hand.
“Wyoming Smith!” Cass stood up, scraping her chair back over the wooden floor. “Is that an engagement ring?”
Wye laughed happily. “It is! Emerson asked me this morning, and I said yes!” She fluttered her hand around for all to see.
“Congratulations!” Brian clapped Emerson on the back. “You did it!”
“I told him to,” the General said complacently. “I know what I’m doing when it comes to marrying people off.”
“That you do,” Cass said in mock exasperation. “A toast to Emerson and Wye—may you have many happy years together!”
“Here, here.”
Everyone raised their glasses in a toast. Emerson clinked his orange juice with as many others as he could reach.
“When’s the wedding?” Connor asked.
“Fourth of July,” Emerson said.
“Fourth of July?” The General slammed his drink down on the table. “That’s seven months away, Soldier. If you want to marry on a holiday, marry on New Year’s Eve.”
Wye, who’d been sipping her orange juice, sputtered, “New Year’s? You want me to marry Emerson in six days?”
“I don’t see why not.”
“But—”
Emerson grinned at Wyoming. He’d be perfectly happy marrying at New Year’s, but it had to be her choice. “I’m game. How about you? After all—it’s what the stone said we should do.”
“But—”
“You might as well give in,” Lena said dryly. “I bet Cass already has your wedding half planned out.”
Emerson turned to find Cass smiling sheepishly at the rest of them. “Only in my head.”
“I saw the wheels turning,” Lena said dryly.
“Well, we could pull it off, I’m sure,” Cass said. “We’ve had so many weddings here. But what about family? You’ll want to give them time to make plans to attend.”
“Family? What family?” Wyoming said, finally finding her voice. “Other than Ward, I’m on my own. You know that.”
“Don’t look at me,” Emerson said. “I’m barely in touch with mine.” As soon as he’d left to join the Army, it was as if he’d stepped off the edge of the planet as far as his aunt, uncle and cousins were concerned and he hadn’t pushed the connection when it obviously wasn’t wanted.
“That’s settled, then,” the General said and got back to eating.
“It’s not settled,” Wye protested, then sighed gustily. “You all are impossible, you know that?”
“Amelia used to call me incorrigible,” the General said.
All five of the Reed women stilled. Wye understood their surprise. The General wasn’t one for reminiscences, especially not such personal ones.