Chapter 12
Madeline
Madeline waits until Agent Saldano and the sheriff have left before turning to Wes. “Did you know that Lucy was going to show
up here?” she asks.
Wes pulls her into a hug. “I had no idea. But last night she told me she was worried about you. She said she felt bad about
how you left things after your stepdad’s funeral.”
“I’m just surprised she’d come now,” Madeline says, pulling back from his embrace. “She was awful to me. I can’t help it that
her dad put me in charge of his estate. She needs to grow up and take responsibility for her own actions.” She had told Wes
about her argument with Lucy but hadn’t told him everything.
Wes tightens his arms around her. “Honestly, I’m surprised too. But maybe it’s a good thing she’s here. It’s not healthy for
you or the baby to have all that anger and resentment built up. This might be a chance for the two of you to make up. And
besides, I’d feel a lot better having an extra pair of eyes looking out for anything out of the ordinary.”
“Maybe,” Madeline says noncommittedly.
“I love you so much, Madeline,” he murmurs into her neck.
“And the baby. I don’t want anything bad to happen to either one of you.
” Wes is gripping her so tightly now that his fingers are digging into the tender area on her torso at the edge of her stitches.
She gasps at the pressure, trying to pull away, but he holds on for a second longer. When Wes lets go, his eyes are damp.
Madeline reaches up, lays a palm on his cheek. “I love you too,” she says, extracting herself from his grip.
“I’ll go check on the horses,” Wes says. “Maybe take Billy out for a ride. I need to wrap my head around all this. Will you
be okay here?”
Madeline nods, not wanting to admit she’s afraid. Afraid of whoever caused the explosion, afraid of the media circling like
sharks around them, afraid of what her sister might do.
Out the window, Madeline sees Lucy making her way toward the house. Despite her small stature, she moves confidently and with
purpose, as if she belongs here. Madeline can’t deal with her sister right now and excuses herself to go upstairs and wash
away the final remnants of ash and smoke.
She can’t get her stitches wet, so a bath or a shower are out of the question.
Instead, she stiffly lowers her head and washes her hair in the bathroom sink, then uses a washcloth to scrub her body, avoiding the strip of stitches on her back.
She stands for a moment, staring at her pregnant body in the mirror.
As her stomach expanded and her breasts swelled, Madeline thought that Wes might not find her as attractive, but until the last month it was the opposite.
He couldn’t get enough of her. His hands roaming, exploring the curves and valleys of her body.
Then suddenly he stopped. Wes still hugged her and dropped perfunctory kisses on her cheek, but it wasn’t the same.
Secretly, Madeline was relieved. Her body felt like it wasn’t her own any longer, and physical touch made her want to jump out of her skin.
Madeline had spoken about it to Johanna, who assured her a change in sexual activity was common, nothing to worry about.
They were in for a big change in their lives.
The house phone rings. It’s been ringing all day. More reporters, Madeline thinks.
Wrapping her wet hair in a towel, Madeline slips on a pair of maternity leggings and one of Wes’s old sweatshirts and goes
to the bedroom window. The crime-scene investigators and the fire marshal have packed up their equipment and are gone, leaving
behind the charred wreckage of the barn and a few tattered remnants of yellow crime-scene tape. The backyard and the meadow
are a mess, but Madeline is too tired to deal with it right now. She’ll lie down, just for a little while, and then call Dalton.
The absence of Johanna is a raw, gaping hole. Johanna is the one Madeline would talk to about the barn fire. Johanna would
be the one able to put Lucy in her place. Johanna would be the one with Madeline right now, easing her into bed, assuring
her that the baby would be fine.
Madeline stifles a sob, but before she can turn from the window and bury herself beneath the covers, she sees Wes and Lucy
walking together into the stable. They are so close to one another that Madeline can’t see daylight between them. Moments
later, Lucy appears guiding Blackjack while Wes follows behind with his quarter horse, Billy. Of course her sister would take
Madeline’s favorite horse out without her permission. Lucy makes a show of struggling to hoist herself up into the saddle
until Wes steps in. Madeline watches in disbelief as Wes places both hands on Lucy’s ass giving her a boost. Wes then climbs
into his saddle, and side by side the two of them move languidly through the meadow. Lucy throws her head back and laughs
at something Wes says.
Madeline watches her husband and sister bouncing lightly in their saddles, then pick up their pace until they are moving as one with the horses, Pip trotting happily behind them. What in the world would Wes and Lucy have to talk about besides Madeline? Irritation strums her nerves.
Despite their fragile relationship, they are still sisters. That has to count for something, right? Doubt, hot and fetid,
begins to curdle in her chest. Lucy, Madeline knows, is capable of a great many things, but is seducing her husband one of
them?