Chapter 3
Cal watched his rescuer-slash-jailer limp away. Watched her struggle on the stairs a bit, one hand on the handrail, and the other arm wrapped protectively around the baby.
He wanted to rush over there and help her. He would admit that to himself, at least. He knew better, though. Auggie wasn’t the kind of woman that wanted rescued. He knew that instinctively. Had to be the one in charge, that one. Couldn’t appear weak in front of anyone, or else.
He hadn’t seen her since before the shooting. Even thinking about the day she had almost died was guaranteed to send his blood pressure through the roof. Two of his sisters had been on the street the day an enemy of Auggie’s father had decided to teach that man a lesson.
With bullets. Aimed at Bruce Tyler’s daughters. Larry Kellman hadn’t cared about the other people on that street at all.
Claudia had almost bled to death. Had the man used anything larger than the .22-caliber, and she would probably have died that day.
Auggie had nearly died, too. It was a miracle she’d pulled through. Junie had been struck and nearly bled to death, as well, he thought. Em had been grazed.
Junie had knocked his youngest sister out of the way. Clancy had had only bumps and bruises. She’d told him that as soon as Junie realized what was happening, she’d just…thrown herself right at Clancy and Em and protected them as best she could. He’d owe Junie for that, forever.
Auggie’s struggles showed the results of that day. It had him hurting. She’d been all fire before. He suspected she still was, but now…there was darkness in her eyes.
Scars.
When she’d come right at him and yelled at him for trying to buy her ranch over a year ago, she had shocked him.
Even her hair—wild, pumpkin-colored ringlets—had vibrated with her rage.
And those eyes had shot lasers at him. As she had ripped him up one side and down, and even brought his mother into it. Cal had never forgotten.
She had been so alive that day. Vibrant.
He’d been taken aback. He’d not recognized her as Cloe’s friend, at first. The woman she had become was not anything like that shy, insecure, quiet girl she had been.
He had been away at college during Cloe’s teen years.
He had only seen Auggie a handful of times that he could recall. Just quietly in the shadows.
Until his father had nearly killed her cousin Maggie. At first, he’d mistaken Maggie for Auggie. They had the same color hair, although Maggie’s didn’t curl like Auggie’s. The other one with the curly strawberry blonde hair was Nikki. He’d mixed them all up in his memories, too.
Tylers looked like other Tylers. No denying that.
It was hard to keep them all straight at times. He’d known Nikki from the diner. Em and Junie still worked there, too, he thought. But not her.
Auggie worked for her cousin Gil now. He wasn’t certain what she did for the man.
He and Gil had had a few not so pleasant run-ins over the past two or three years.
Well, going all the way back to high school, really.
Gil had been a bit of a brawler back then.
Cal had been a bit on the wild side himself. They had clashed. And clashed often.
Sometimes with fists.
Now, it was mostly just business run-ins, but…another reason he’d wanted his sisters to avoid the Tylers, if at all possible. Even before what his father had done.
Well, there was no avoiding the Tylers tonight. They had rescued him and offered him dinner. He wasn’t going to be an ass, even if he’d rather be surrounded by rabid coyotes than the seven Tyler females staring at him now.
Cal stepped cautiously toward the table. He still felt disoriented. Cloudy. It was worse when he was standing.
“Head still hurt?” Em asked. “I have some ibuprofen.”
“I’m just a little dizzy, but thanks.” Em liked to pester him, same as Clancy did, but he still felt a bit protective over her.
She and Clancy were such close friends, he’d known her almost her entire life.
He settled into an empty chair, assuming the one at the head of the table next to the highchair was hers.
The queen’s.
The little girls just stared at him, varying levels of apprehension on their faces.
It was the first time he’d really gotten a good look at Bruce Tyler’s secret daughters.
They all just looked like each other. The hair was about all that really varied.
Every last one of them was a redhead of some shade or another.
They all had big blue eyes and cat-like little faces and pointed little chins.
Even Em and Junie. They were an intimidating lot, that was for sure.
Junie was dishing up plates filled with slices of pizza, then passing them to the teenager next to her who would give breadsticks and would hand it to Em, who would add the salad and dressing.
They were very efficient. And they just included him right in with the rest of them.
Like he’d always been there. The pet troll in their midst.
By the time Auggie had returned, in cotton pajamas in the deepest of blues that made her eyes even darker, with the baby, everyone had a plate. Em had Auggie’s ready and waiting for her, while Junie had a bowl of microwaved baby pasta ready.
These women were scarily efficient, even at something as simple as a meal.
Well, with six younger sisters they were now raising together, efficiency had to be the name of the game.
Auggie fastened the baby into the highchair. Cal studied the baby for a long moment. She was definitely Auggie in miniature. The hair was as wild as Auggie’s and as red as Junie’s. She was a beautiful baby. She smacked her little lips and started babbling, seeing her food. “I take it she’s hungry?”
“She’s just starting solids.”
He still remembered Clancy as a baby. She’d been adorable, no denying that.
Auggie smiled. It was almost as if she was smiling at him. Damn. He wanted the woman to smile at him more often. There was real power in that woman’s smile. Enough to bring even a smart troll with his guard up down to his knees.
“Everything smells wonderful,” she said. “Thanks, Junie, for cooking tonight.”
“I love pizza,” one of the girls said. “I wish we’d had it before. With our old dad.”
Augusta’s smile tightened. Cal just sat in his chair and observed. “Well, we’ll have it a lot of times now, I promise.”
“Mommy Aug,” the one with the lisp said. “What’s a burden?”
“A burden is something that’s heavy or difficult to carry. Why?” Mommy Aug answered. He supposed that was exactly what she was now.
“Miss Smith at the liberry told cousin Pete that it was a pity that you hads to take on Daddy’s burdens and won’t ever find a decent man of your own now today, especially since you can’t walk good no more,” the little girl said. “She didn’t know I heared her.”
“And what did cousin Pete say in return?” Em asked.
“He said Tylers take care of Tylers. It’s what we do. I think her made cousin Pete mad, though. When she said you had other problems and were brokened, too. He had a mad look on his face.”
“It means Miss Smith doesn’t think Auggie will ever find a husband of her own,” the teenager said. “Because she has to take care of the six of us now. That we are problems for Auggie. But we promised we weren’t going to be, remember?”
“Thath stupid. Mommy founded hims. She saw hims first on the road.” The younger girl pointed at Cal as she lisped. “Husbands are boys, right?”
“You’re right about that. But she meant a husband and not just boys.
Husbands are guys you marry. She meant Auggie won’t find a guy to marry,” Junie said, perfectly calm.
“Not just finding Aunt Claudia’s brother when he was in an accident.
Because Mommy Aug will be too busy taking care of you all. But that’s just silly talk.”
“There was a book from the library with a really pretty redheaded lady on the cover. She looked just like Auggie, same hair and everything. I read it last week,” one of the older girls said.
“It was about this lady, and she had four little sisters to take care of. And she was trying to protect her ranch, too. They were in Texas in the 1800s. And there were these greedy ranchers and stuff with guns. And they wanted her land and they were going to make her marry one of them so they could get it and because she was so beautiful. Just like Auggie. But they were really mean and she didn’t want to marry them.
But there was this ranger—that’s like a cop, like Aunt Sage and Aunt Claudia—and he came to rescue her and then they did the gross kissing stuff and had se—"
“Julianna. Enough,” Auggie said. “Next time we go to the library, we’re going to check what you pick out a lot more closely.”
Cal thought that was probably a really, really good idea. A really good idea.
“What? What did I do? That was the book Em checked out to read, but I grabbed it out of the bag when we got home first. They got married in the end and he helped her keep her ranch and take care of her little sisters and they had more babies. It was really romantic. And the gross kissing wasn’t too bad. Neither were the se—"
“Nope. You and I are going to have a discussion about age-appropriate reading material soon.”
“I used to read whatever I wanted in Garrett.” It was definitely a challenge there.
“I’m sure you did; now, eat. Your dinner’s getting cold.”
“Why does you need a husband anyway? Husbands just hit and be mean and lock you in the closet and won’t let you eat all day long when you are bad.” The little girl with a lisp shrugged as she said it. Like it was a fact. Cal almost choked on the water he’d just swallowed.
“No, Tobi, those are daddies. Husbands are nice to you, like Daddy was nice to our old mommy. He never hit her. Just January and Jules,” her slightly older sister said. “And me sometimes. When I wasn’t fast enough to get away.”
Holy hell, the little girl was serious. She was all of eight, maybe, and couldn’t weigh forty-five pounds. Cal’s heart broke in that one instant for what these kids had experienced.
And he would never forget.
Nor would he forget the pain in their eldest sister’s eyes when she looked at that child. A pain that said she understood. That she had been there.
Damn it. If Bruce Tyler had hit his younger daughters…he’d hit his elder. Cal hadn’t known. Hell, he had known Em when she was as young as some of these girls, and he hadn’t known they were being abused. He would have done anything in his power to help if he had just known.
He had to wonder if his parents had ever suspected. Auggie and Em were some of Cloe and Clancy’s closest friends, going back to early elementary. Surely his parents had realized something was wrong?
Damn it, hadn’t anyone?
Auggie sat her fork down and looked at her family. “Girls, listen to me very carefully, okay?”
They were all quiet. Cal just waited. How could anyone ever address the pain?
“Husbands and wives should never hit each other. Dads and moms should never hit each other or their kids. Hitting is wrong. Hurting someone else is wrong. But sometimes people forget that, somehow. Our dad and our mom forgot that. A lot. And it hurt every time. It hurt our hearts as well as our bodies. We didn’t make them do that.
They made bad choices. But that is over now.
We don’t hit each other, hurt each other, here.
And we never will. We love each other here. Sisters…”
“Take care of sisters. No matter what.” They all said together. Even the baby had something alien to say after that.
“Exactly. Now, as for Miss Joanie Smith. She’s a frog, who is just jealous of anyone named Tyler. Because she wanted Uncle Nick to marry her years ago and kept flirting with him when he came back.”
“But he loves Aunt Robin, instead. Everyone can see that.”
“Right, Avril. I will never consider any of you burdens—except Em, and that’s just because she’s a brat and stole the last of my favorite shampoo this morning. I love you. People we love are not burdens. Ever.”
“But do you want a husbands?” the lisper asked.
“Not particularly. At least not right now. I’m too busy being mom to all of you—and loving every minute of it. Well, almost every minute. Diapers…not so much. Now, everybody eat. After you tell our guest your names. We can be kind of confusing to outsiders, you know. It’s the red hair.”
They rattled off their names one by one. And ages.
He was never going to remember.
Nor would he ever forget that moment, as he looked at Augusta Tyler, and realized what an extraordinary task she had taken upon herself with Bruce Tyler’s secret daughters.
She was the bravest woman he had ever met.
And if he ever crossed paths with Bruce Tyler—Cal was going to tear that bastard apart. Bruce wouldn’t be fast enough to get away from Cal. He would make sure of it.