Page 85 of Omega’s Fold

Wyatt says, “Yes.” He says, “Yes, I will.” He says, “Thank you.”

He hangs up.

He sits with his hand on the receiver for a count of five. Then he lifts his head and he looks at me across the table, and his face does something I have never seen it do.

It comes apart.

Not crying — Wyatt Briggs does not cry — but I see the moment that relief takes hold and all the weight that he has been carrying suddenly dissipates.

I am out of the chair and around the table before I have decided to be.

He stands up to meet me. I get my arms around him, careful of the bump between us. His face goes into the place where my neck meets my shoulder and he breathes there, slow and ragged, his hands fisted in the back of my shirt.

“I’ve got you,” I say, into his hair.

We stand there for a long time.

The boys come home at a quarter past three.

Caleb comes in first. He hangs his jacket. He looks at our faces — both of us, in turn — and he stops with his hand on the hook.

“What?”

“Sit down.”

He sits. Matthew comes in behind him with his lunchbox banging against his thigh and his shoelaces undone, and he stops in the doorway when he sees the three of us at the table.

“What’s wrong?”

“Nothing’s wrong, bud. Sit down.”

Matthew sits. He puts the lunchbox on the table. He looks at Wyatt and his small face has gone serious.

Wyatt clears his throat.

“We’re not moving.”

A beat.

Caleb’s shoulders come down half an inch. He has been carrying this for months.

Matthew goes very still.

“What?”

“We’re not moving. The Linden Group has made an offer. It clears the mortgage. We’re keeping the ranch.”

Matthew looks at Wyatt. He looks at me. He looks at Caleb. He looks back at Wyatt. His mouth opens.

“We’re staying? Forever?”

Wyatt’s jaw works. “For as long as I can manage it. Yeah.”

Matthew’s face crumples.

He puts both hands over it and he starts crying. Wyatt is up and around the table before I can move, and he has Matthew on his lap with the bump between them.

Caleb has not moved. He stares at the table. I put my hand on his shoulder. He does not shake it off.