Page 110 of Merging Wright

“Landon.” I greet him with a head nod.

“Mach.” He exhales and narrows his eyes at the river.

“I’m not going to like this, am I?” I stare at him.

He shakes his head slowly before turning to face me. “Frank is trying to contest the will. He’s using your marriage as his springboard, stating it isn’t legitimate.”

“What?” I twist to face Landon and swipe a hand over my head, resting it on the back of my neck. This can’t be happening.

“He’s making the claim you weren’t married before the will reading, which is technically true, but we have five witnesses that will disagree with Frank.” Me, Myles, Ma, Landon, and Jane.

Jane.

“But what about my marriage to Jane?” I drop my hand from my neck and slap at my leg. I don’t care about the fucking will.

“Your marriage is locked and loaded. While I might have had to pull some strings to procure the license sooner than the two-day period, you and Jane are legally wed.”

Relief rushes through me and my shoulders fall. Then I’m hunching forward, gripping at my knees.

“Mach?” Concern fills Landon’s voice.

I shake my head, fighting the nausea burbling in my stomach. For a few seconds there, I thought Landon was going to tell me I wasn’t actually married to Jane. That the original farce was null and void. Only I don’t want it to be a fake. Or pretend. Or an act.

I want my wife.

I straighten, blow out a breath and meet Landon’s gaze. “You know Jane isn’t here, right?”

Landon sighs. “I heard. But she needs to come back. Her leaving could look like a marital separation, thus breaking the terms of the will. We need to do anything we can to prevent Frank from thinking he has more fuel to add to these fires. You’re so close to finishing this project.”

I stare at Landon, holding his eyes. “I need to tell you something. A suspicion that Myles had.”

Landon’s brows lift.

“And I might have to agree with him.”

Landon’s eyes might fall out of their socket at that statement.

But it’s time to come clean about a few things.

+ + +

“Where is Jane, Big Mac?” Willow’s sweet voice gets my attention, along with her tugging on the edge of my jacket as I’m walking back through town. We are standing outside the future Riverbank Mercantile Co.

I bend to her eye level. “She had to go home for a little while.” The words are bitter on my tongue. Home seems like a foreign premise. Being with me should be Jane’s home. As for a little while, I wasn’t certain Jane wasn’t gone for good. With Landon’s news about Uncle Frank, though, we played off the separation to the townspeople by telling them Jane needed to return to Chicago for business. We didn’t live here. We worked out of state.

But Jane was no longer a vested employee.

She was also no longer interested in me.

If anything, I’m the one who should have returned to Chicago. Originally, I could have left Jane here to manage everything as she has, but I didn’t want to leave her behind. I didn’t want her staying without me. Myles has been my excuse, but my heart knows differently. I wanted to be near Jane. She felt like home to me.

“When will she be back?” Willow shivers as she’s only wearing a thick sweater, and the weather is colder. I reach for her tiny arms and absentmindedly rub up and down.

“I don’t know.” There is no sense in lying to Willow. Jane adores this child and Willow is smitten with her. Willow needed someone to love her, Jane said.

My woman has a soft heart.

Willow stares at me, reaching for the collar of my jacket. Her little fingers fist. “She didn’t disappear in the river, right? You saved her.” Her lower lip trembles.