His Dakota Bride (Book 5 - Dakota Hearts) (5 page)

Kate sighed, shaking her head as she picked up another picture, scrutinizing it before deciding on a different one. Wade could tell his mother was struggling with something.

“Just say it.”

“It was a very difficult time for all of us. I knew Skylar and I were connected through grief. I knew there was someone who broke her heart. She never spoke of it. I just knew. And as we grew closer, I actually hated that man for breaking her heart. She’s such a sweet girl.” She looked up at him from the pictures and smiled ironically. “Can you believe that? I actually hated him. And all that time it was you.”

He deserved his mother’s honesty no matter how much it hurt. He’d done all that and more to Skylar. And to his family.

“She’s hates me,” he said again.

Kate chuckled, then rolled her eyes at the sky. “She’s angry as all get out, I’ll give you that. And I can’t say that I blame her. Part of me wants to put you over my knee like I did when you were a boy.”

Wade grinned and gave his mother a sidelong glance. “When did you ever put me over your knee?”

“Well, I may not have done it but you gave me plenty of reasons to want to on a daily basis. And if I wasn’t so thrilled to have you home, I’d do it now. You have no idea what it did to us when we thought we’d lost you.”

“I’m sorry.”

She shook her head. “They’re words, Wade. I know you said you have your reasons. I’m sure they were good reasons at the time. I also know I’ll probably never understand them as being valid enough for the broken hearts you left here. But if you say you had no choice, then I’ll eventually get over it. With Skylar…you’re going to have to work harder there, son.”

He looked down at the pictures of him and his brothers in the photo album. When he looked at his face, he saw Alex.
His
son.

“She’s leaving.”

“She told me.”

“I…don’t want her to leave.”

“Neither do I, but it’s her choice.”

“I just met my son. If she leaves, I’ll never have a chance to be a father to him. I’ll never have another chance with her.”

“Then give her a reason to stay.”

He hesitated a moment. “I don’t know how.”

Kate’s shoulders sagged as she rolled her eyes again. “Sure you do. You got her to fall in love with you once. Just help her remember why.”

# # #

“What are you doing here?” Skylar asked.

Wade walked over from the back of the parking lot and leaned his body against her car. “This is the end of the first week of school. It’s a big deal. I thought we’d celebrate with some ice cream down at the dairy.”

She looked at him skeptically. “You’re plying Alex with ice cream?”

“No, I’m plying you with ice cream. I know how much you love maple walnut.”

“How would you know? There was never any good ice cream places on that island we stayed on.”

“I remember. You said that many times when you had a craving it was for maple walnut ice cream like you used to get in Vermont. You said it every time you tried to make pineapple papaya ice cream.”

She made a disgusted face. “I can’t believe you remember that.”

“I remember everything.” He looked at her for a long moment until the school bell rang, signaling the end of the school day. Within seconds, the doors to the elementary school opened and kids filed outside, walking toward the buses.

“I don’t know. I have a lot to do when I get home, Wade.”

“I’m surprised you don’t work at the school. You were always good with the little ones in Samoa. You used to talk about wanting to get your teaching degree when you got back to the states.”

“I couldn’t. Alex was too little,” she said. “I wanted to spend as much time as possible with him.”

Skylar saw Poppy’s car pull into the parking lot. There were no free parking spaces now that most of the parents picking up their kids were here. The five buses that would transport the remainder of the school population home were blocking the small parking lot entrance. Poppy parked on the grass, got out of the car, and walked over to them.

“We’re going to be seeing a lot of each other,” she said, watching the faces of all the kids coming out of the school just as Skylar was doing.

“Maybe we should set up a schedule and take turns picking the boys up,” Skylar suggested.

“Sure. It might be easier. I can pick them up and drop Alex off at the diner if you’re still there. Otherwise I’ll let the kids play and you can pick him up at Logan’s when you’re ready. There’s no need for you to rush.”

Skylar wanted to mention that she may not be living in Rudolph for very long, but decided against it. She hadn’t even spoken to Cara yet. She had no firm plans. When she had them, she would let everyone know, just as she promised Kate she would do when they’d spoken earlier in the week.

The boys took that moment to come rushing over to them. The backpacks on their backs bounced up and down as they ran. In their hands were pictures they’d colored in class.

“This is for you, Mommy!” Alex said, handing her the picture.

“Thank you, sweetie. It’s beautiful. We’ll have to put it on the refrigerator when we get home.” She turned the picture so Wade could see it. His eyes were immediately drawn to the name Alex had written on the paper. Even though she’d wanted to give Alex Wade’s surname, she’d used her maiden name of Barnett on his birth certificate, just to be safe.

“I’m impressed boys,” Wade said.

Keith handed his picture to Poppy, who inspected the picture and said, “I think we have a couple of artists here.”

Keith smiled at the compliment and then asked, “Can Alex come over today?”

“Not today, Keith. Your dad wanted to take a ride to Rapid City. We’ll probably have dinner there.”

That seemed to satisfy Keith. He waved to Alex as Poppy led him by the hand to where she’d parked the car. “See you both on Monday!”

Wade waved and then turned to Skylar.

“So? What do you say?” She appreciated that he didn’t mention ice cream out loud while Alex was in earshot, giving her the opportunity to shoot down the idea.

“I don’t know. I have a lot of packing to do tonight.”

His bright expression collapsed. “Already? I thought you said you were staying in Rudolph for a while.”

“I am. But there are a lot of things in the house that I’ve accumulated over the years. I want to sort it all out and get rid of it before we make the move.”

“Where are we going?” Alex asked.

“Home,” Skylar said, brushing her hand over his head, messing up his hair. Alex giggled in response.

“How about dinner then? I can stop by the market and get something to grill. This way you can work without having to worry about fixing dinner. I can even pick up a half gallon of your favorite i-c-e c-r-e-a-m.”

She grunted. “You do know how to get to me.”

The smile on Wade’s face told her he knew it, too.

He was wearing her down. But Skylar knew the work she had ahead of her and she was already wiped out from a week of being on an emotional roller coaster.

And it would give Wade more time to spend with Alex. It didn’t have to be the two of them. The McKinnon men had always been strong male figures for Alex in his young life. But none of them were his father. That was Wade’s role.

“Make sure you pick up a half gallon of mint chocolate chip, too. That’s Alex’s favorite.”

“Is it?”

“Yeah!” Alex said, finally understanding the conversation.

“And don’t get vegetables. I have plenty in the garden that I have to use up.”

“You still tend a garden?”

“It’s not nearly as big as the one we had on Samoa. But you know how it is. Old habits die hard.”

“Okay. I’ll meet you both at the house in a little while.”

She watched Wade as he turned away. His shoulders were still as strong and wide as she’d remembered in her dreams. She’d forgotten just how wide a gait he had when he walked until she saw him pulling the keys to his car out of his denim pocket and rushing across the parking lot.

She looked down at Alex, who was now pulling at her arm.

“Come on, Mom!”

“Okay, okay.”

For the past five years, she’d relied on memory when looking at Alex, or the precious pictures Kate had shared with her. But the resemblance between father and son was even more striking than the resemblance everyone always saw between Alex and Keith. One day her little boy would grow up to be a mirror image of Wade.

She led Alex to her car and helped him strap himself into the booster seat in the back, all the while thinking of Wade. That’s all she ever seemed to do these days.

A half hour later, she was freshening up while Alex chattered on about how he couldn’t sit next to Keith in class because the teacher said they talk too much.

“Then don’t talk to him when you’re in class and maybe she’ll let you sit next to Keith,” she said.

Alex pondered the thought for a moment. “But he’s my best friend.”

Skylar laughed and proceeded to put colored lip-gloss on. Then she turned her face to the left and then to the right as she inspected herself in the mirror.

When she looked back at Alex, she saw the frown on his face.

“What?”

“You look funny.”

“Thank you.”

“What’s that stuff on your lips?”

The doorbell rang and her pulse quickened. What was she doing? She couldn’t remember the last time she’d put makeup on for a man. What did it matter what she looked like tonight?

Glancing at herself in the mirror, she realized it did. She’d put on a fresh pair of blue jeans and a crisp white shirt that she only wore when she wanted to look nice. Most all of her other shirts had stains on them from working in the yard or just doing activities with a young boy who didn’t think twice about getting messy.

The doorbell rang again.

“Mom? Someone’s at the door.”

“It’s probably your…Uncle Wade. Why don’t you let him in?”

Alex ran out of the bathroom quickly. Even without his sneakers on, he sounded like a stampede of elephants running down the hall to the door.

Placing a hand over her heart, Skylar took a deep breath. The anger that had sustained her earlier in the week, making her charge like a work horse through a field, had eased. She needed to give Wade a chance to build a relationship with Alex before she left Rudolph. She only hoped that she wasn’t setting their son up for another heartbreak.

She walked out of the bathroom and strode into the kitchen with more confidence than she felt inside. Her nerves were frazzled, but she kept her hands tucked into the pocket of her jeans to help steady them.

Alex was standing on a chair at the kitchen table helping Wade take items out of the shopping bags he’d just brought.

“What’s all this?” she asked.

“We have ice cream!” Alex said, his eyes bright with excitement. “Uncle Wade brought chocolate sauce and whipped cream, too.”

She chuckled and glanced at Wade. “You scored some major points there.”

“With which one of you?”

“Both.”

He looked at her for a lingering moment, noticing the wardrobe change she’d made and perhaps even the small extra step she took in applying some makeup, something she normally didn’t do. She knew Wade too well to imagine the thoughts running through his mind.

He lifted his eyebrows with a smile. “You look nice.”

“She put red stuff on her lips,” Alex added without looking up from the bag he was emptying.

“It’s called lip-gloss.” She gave a little shrug, slightly embarrassed by how obvious her transformation had been. “It’s supposed to protect the lips from the sun.”

Wade’s gaze dropped to her lips and he gave her a slight grin. “Very nice.”

Heat filled her cheeks. “Alex, why don’t you show Uncle Wade where the grill is outside? I’ll make a salad.”

Within minutes she was standing at the counter with an assortment of washed vegetables in front of her. The kitchen window was open. An early September breeze made her white linen curtains billow. As she cut vegetables on the bamboo cutting board, she heard the chatter of a deep male voice and a high-pitched young boy’s voice as they got to know each other.

For a moment, Skylar’s world seemed to be suspended. It was almost as if she were living the fairy tale she’d dreamed of so long ago. And yet, reality slapped her in the face when she looked around the kitchen and realized where she was.

Buying this house had been Jay’s idea. He’d wanted to give her a home as a way to tempt her into marrying him. But when he’d left, he’d wanted nothing of it or from it.

She pushed thoughts of her ex-husband aside as she cut the carrots and red bell peppers she was putting in the salad. That was her past and she wanted to keep it there. She didn’t want it to intrude on her evening. She could allow herself at least one evening with Wade and her son, and cherish what could have been with them if things had been different.

They sat down to dinner and Alex regaled both of them with the wonders of being in kindergarten and how hard it was. Little Susan Weston didn’t like to share the blocks and kept throwing them at Keith. Alex felt the need to defend his friend. But that resulted with the teacher shutting down the block station, which in Alex’s opinion, was utterly unfair.

He seemed to get over that travesty quickly while they were making hot fudge sundaes with mint chocolate chip ice cream, and instead announced how cool it was that he and Keith would have recess every single day. As Alex sat in front of the television, eating his ice cream and watching his favorite DVD, the house was finally quiet.

Skylar took that time to finish cleaning up the dishes and let the boys have more one-on-one time. But as she turned on the faucet and filled the sink with hot, soapy water, Wade came up behind her. She felt the heat of his body first, coming in close, but not touching her.

“He’s amazing,” Wade said. She could hear the pride in his voice. “He could only have become this amazing because of you.”

It was something so simple, and yet Wade’s validation for the job she’d done with their son meant the world to her.