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She swallowed the lump that came into her throat. “Let’s get Ty home,” she said. “Look at him, he’s tired out. You can see it in his eyes.”
“I can. I guess I shouldn’t be surprised you can, too.” He crossed to his son, whose head now rested against the pony’s side. “Time to go, Ty. But we’ll be back. Day after tomorrow, okay?”
“Okay, Dad.” He stroked the pony’s nose, then reached for his crutches, which were leaning against the side of the stall.
“You did a good job today, Ty,” Barbara told him. “I think Rusty really likes you.”
He smiled tiredly and Jim scooped him up. Kara scrambled to gather up the crutches, noting that Tyler didn’t even argue with his dad about being carried. When Jim slid his son into the truck, Kara climbed in beside him.
Tyler leaned up and wrapped his arms around her neck just as Jim was getting in the driver’s side. “I love you, Kara,” Tyler said softly.
Kara’s eyes filled and she looked into Jimmy’s. He’d frozen behind the wheel, keys halfway to the ignition switch. She knew he could see the tears brimming in her eyes, but there was nothing she could do to prevent them.
“I love you, too, Ty,” she whispered.
He released her neck but snuggled close beside her for the ride back to Big Falls and fell asleep before they’d gone a mile.
Jimmy looked over at Kara. “What do you say we go on a real date tonight? Just you and me.”
She blinked at him. “What about Tyler?”
“Can we get one of your sisters to watch him?”
Kara nodded. “I did tell him he could play with the twins later on. And I think Maya would love to have him.” She shrugged. “Okay.”
Jimmy didn’t come inside when he dropped Kara off at home. She wouldn’t let him walk her to the door, not with Tyler sleeping soundly in the pickup by then. She promised to ask Maya about babysitting and call him only if it was a problem. Otherwise, she would expect him at seven.
She watched him drive out of sight, then went to the door and walked inside. Maya, Selene and Edie were at the kitchen table waiting for her.
Probably waiting to grill her about her day with Jimmy, she guessed, and then painted a smile on her face and reminded herself that her family loved her and only meant well.
“Looks like someone called a family meeting,” she said, half joking. “Maya, would it be terrible of me to ask you to watch Tyler tonight while Jimmy and I go out for dinner?”
Maya looked at the others, who shrugged as if helpless. Then she said, “It’s not terrible of you to ask at all, hon. I’d love to have Ty. He can sleep over if he wants.” She shrugged. “I mean, unless your plans change.”
“Which they might,” Edie put in.
“We don’t have the whole story,” Selene said. “There’s more going on here than meets the eye.”
“What are you guys talking about?” Kara asked. “Where’s Mom?”
At that moment her mother came into the kitchen, met Kara’s eyes and immediately lowered her own. Something was wrong, Kara realized. Something big. “What’s going on?”
“Sit down, daughter.”
She didn’t even consider arguing with her mother. She pulled out a chair and sat, then waited, knowing that whatever it was, it was going to be bad. There was nothing wrong with Caleb or the twins or with Wade. Edie and Maya wouldn’t be sitting there, grim-faced but calm, if there was. “God,” Kara said, rapidly ticking off possibilities in her mind. “Has something happened to Mel? Or Alex?”
Her mother shook her head. “It’s about Jimmy and Tyler.” She drew a deep breath before plunging on. “A woman came by here today, Kara. Claimed she was Tyler’s mother and asked if I could tell her where to find her husband and her son.”
Kara felt as if she’d been punched in the belly. “He told me Ty’s mother was dead. He... why would he lie to me about something like that?”
“Kara, don’t think the worst,” Selene said, getting to her feet. “We don’t have his side of the story yet.”
Kara got up slowly and moved past them all, needing the solitude of her room before she let the tears flow. “I knew all along he was too good to be true. God, I was so stupid to let myself think... to hope... “
She ran then, tripped halfway up the stairs and almost fell on her face. Then she got her footing again and hurried the rest of the way to her room. She closed the door, turned the lock, and sank onto her bed to hug her pillows and cry. She couldn’t think, couldn’t reason, couldn’t even begin to plan how she was going to handle this. Not yet. Right then all she could do was cry her heart out.
* * *
