Bitter Creek: The Loner Part 12

"I'm going to be here awhile," Summer pointed out, setting her tea on the counter. "You might as well finish whatever it was you were saying."

"This is family business," Emma said. "It doesn't concern you."

"Billy and I are married," Summer said. "That makes me family."

"That makes you Billy's wife," Emma corrected. "You can never be part of this family."

Summer felt the flush burning its way up her throat, until she could feel the heat of it in her cheeks. Her stomach had twisted into a knot. Her hands were trembling, and she stuck them in her back pockets.

She didn't know why Emma's statement upset her so badly. The truth was, her marriage to Billy was intended to be a temporary situation. All she had to do was get along with Billy's mother and sister for two years. She didn't have to love them. And they didn't have to like her.

"I have no intention of trying to horn in on your precious family," Summer said irritably.

"Keep your voice down," Emma said. "You'll wake Will."

At that moment, Will let out a howl.

"Now look what you've done," Emma said, shoving her chair back in disgust.

"Don't worry yourself," Summer said, moving past her. "I woke him up. I'll take care of him." She marched from the kitchen in high dudgeon, realizing only as she crossed the threshold into Billy's bedroom that she had no idea how to comfort a crying child.

However, she'd helped deliver her share of calves and colts. How hard could it be?

Will was standing in the crib, and he greeted her appearance with an anguished wail. "It's okay, Will," Summer said in the voice she would have used with a newborn foal. "I'm Summer. I'm going to take care of you."

Will wailed unhappily.

Summer glanced over her shoulder, expecting to see Emma or Dora or both at any second. When no help arrived, she turned back to Will. She reached out a tentative hand to caress his sweat-damp curls, and he screeched as though she'd ripped them out at the roots.

She pulled her hand back and said, "This is silly, Will. I'm not going to hurt you." She tried to think of what Billy had told her-that children only needed to be fed and kept dry and loved. "You're probably hungry," Summer said. "And no doubt you're wet. I think maybe we better start with the loving part, since that seems to be what you need most."

She knew that with horses you had to be firm and show who was boss, or the animal would never obey you. She slid her hands under Will's armpits and lifted him surely and carefully into her arms. "There now," she said, as Will settled onto her left hip. "That wasn't so hard."

Will stared at her from large, wide eyes every bit as dark as Billy's, teardrops suspended from his lower eyelashes. Then he looked past her toward the door, pointed, and said, "Go see Daddy."

"Your daddy's working right now. He'll be back soon." She felt inside the leg of the romper Will was wearing and discovered he was sopping wet. "I think we'd better change this diaper."

Really, she thought. How hard could it be?

She looked around the room for clean diapers and found a couple near his crib, along with powder and some Wet Wipes. That made sense. Remove the diaper, swipe the kid's bottom clean, powder it, then put on another diaper. She'd seen enough movies to know that was the routine.

And enough movies making fun of helpless dads trying to perform this simple procedure to fear that it wasn't as easy as it looked.

She collected the supplies she needed on the bed, then laid Will down, unsnapped the romper and pulled it up to expose the diaper and rubber pants. So far, so good. She tugged off the rubber pants and realized the soaked diaper was leaving a wet mark on Billy's bedspread. She hurried to get the pins unpinned and pulled the diaper off.

Which was when she experienced the first glitch in the process.

Will immediately rolled over and started crawling away from her. She'd stuck the pins in the bedspread as she took each one out, but she was left holding a wet diaper. She looked for the diaper pail, which she realized had been moved outside so the diapers could be washed. She couldn't leave Will alone long enough to take it out there, so she just dropped it on the floor and went scurrying around the bed to intercept the child as he dropped off the other side onto his feet.

"You can walk!" she exclaimed as Will headed for the door lickety-split.

"Daddy daddy daddy!" Will shouted.

Summer scooped him up with a laugh. "Caught you!" she said.

Will struggled to get down. When Summer held on he said, "Down down down!"

"Diaper first, young man," Summer said, carting him back around to the side of the bed where she'd left everything. The instant she lay him on his back he rolled over and tried to escape again. She grabbed him by the ankles and dragged him back. "Come on, Will," she said. "You need a diaper."

Which became obvious as soon as she turned him over and he began peeing onto her shirt. She leaped back, but the damage was done. She grabbed the diaper and covered him until he was done.

Will grinned up at her.

"That wasn't funny!" she said. And then laughed.

She should have known better. She just hadn't realized how dangerous an undiapered little boy could be.

"All right, let's get organized," she said, dropping the second wet diaper beside the other one and picking Will up to keep him from running off. She looked for another dry diaper and realized there was only one left. Good thing she was doing laundry.

"Okay, kiddo, let's see if we can get it right this time."

She had to hold Will down with one hand while she did everything else with the other. Which worked fine until she needed to pin on the diaper. She needed one hand to hold the diaper together and the other to manipulate the pin. "You have to hold still, Will, or I'm going to-"

She stuck him with the pin.

He screamed as though he'd been jabbed with a foot-long hypodermic.

And both Dora and Emma showed up at the door.

Summer knew they were seeing the giant wet spot on the front of her shirt, the wet spot on Billy's bedspread, the diaper soaking into the rag rug beside Billy's bed, and the still undiapered child wriggling and crying on the bed.

"I accidentally stuck him with the safety pin," she explained.

"I told you she couldn't do it," Emma said to her mother.

"I'll just be another minute," Summer said.

"I'll do it," Emma said, shoving Summer aside.

Summer felt like shoving back, but it seemed ridiculous to fight Emma for the right to diaper Will. There would be other opportunities, and she'd learned a great deal in this first encounter.

Emma pinned one side of the diaper and said, "Where's the other pin?"

"I stuck it in the bedspread," Summer said.

They both searched the spread but couldn't find it. "I've got some extras in the kitchen," Emma said.

When Emma picked Will up, Summer immediately saw the missing pin. "I guess Will was lying on it."

No wonder the poor kid had been wriggling and crying, with a safety pin digging into his back.

Emma gave her a look that made her feel like a worm, lay Will back down, and finished pinning on the diaper. "Those diapers need to go in the pail outside," she said, laying Will over her shoulder and marching from the room.

It sounded like an order, and Summer bristled at the thought of obeying it. But she realized she might as well get used to her position in this household. She was no longer the favored daughter of wealthy parents. She was an unwelcome addition to a struggling household.

She headed outside, wishing she could keep her distance from these two until Billy got home to play peacemaker. She got a bit of a respite because she had to hang the diapers on the line, which she found a surprisingly pleasant ch.o.r.e. The breeze occasionally caught a diaper and slapped it back in her face, but the wet cloth felt cool against her skin and the borax made them smell fresh.

She was sorry when the job was done, because it meant now she had to face the two dragons inside. But whatever flaws there were in her character, cowardice wasn't one of them.

She found Dora sitting at the kitchen table cutting up potatoes to be put in a pot of boiling water on the stove, while Emma was frying pork chops. Will was sitting on the floor at Dora's feet banging a wooden spoon on an upside-down pot.

The scene looked and smelled and sounded surprisingly homey. She felt a wistful desire to be one of them, which died a quick death when Emma turned to her and said, "Took you long enough to hang those diapers. There are green beans in the fridge that need to be snapped."

Summer opened the refrigerator without a word and looked around for the beans. "Give me a hint," she said.

"In the vegetable drawer," Dora said.

Summer opened the drawer and took out the brown bag full of beans and set them on the table. "Where can I find a pot?"

"Left of the sink," Dora said.

Summer found a cooking pot and set it on the table, then dumped the beans out of the bag. She was sitting at the table "snapping beans" when Billy finally arrived.

She was so glad to see him, she had to restrain herself from leaping up and throwing herself into his arms. Of course, that would have been a perfectly appropriate response if they were a real husband and wife. But nothing about their marriage was normal. It was a good thing she didn't do anything so embarra.s.sing.

Because Billy only had eyes for Will.

He opened his arms and said, "How's my boy?"

"Daddy daddy daddy!" Will shoved himself upright, his face a picture of gladness, and tottered on baby feet into his father's arms.

Billy lifted Will up as high as he could, causing the child to shriek with delight, then pulled him down into a ferocious hug, at which point they both laughed with joy.

Summer swallowed over the sudden lump in her throat. She wanted to be loved by someone-anyone-the way Billy loved Will. It must be wonderful to know you were the total focus of someone's life, that his every thought concerned how to make you happy.

She wondered how Billy had learned to be so loving. Not from his mother or sister, she thought, noting that both of them had continued with their ch.o.r.es, although they were both smiling now. She realized she was just like them-watching, but not partic.i.p.ating.

Why not? She was Billy's wife. She ought to be greeting him with some sort of affection. She stood and shoved her chair back and crossed to Billy. "Welcome home," she said, putting her arms around his waist on the side opposite from where Will was perched and hugging him.

Billy glanced at his mother and sister before he bent and kissed her on the cheek. "You looked pretty domestic sitting there snapping beans."

"I've been washing and hanging clothes, too," Summer said.

Billy raised a brow and whistled. "You don't say!"

"Don't make fun of me," she said, unaccountably hurt by his dismissal of her efforts. "I'm trying."

Billy gave her a quick kiss in apology. "I think it's great. Really. How have my three girls been getting along?" he said, glancing at his mother and sister.

And that's when the fairy-tale homecoming came to an abrupt and unpleasant end.

"Not well at all," Emma said. "I had to show her how to use a washing machine, for heaven's sake! And she stuck Will with a safety pin."

"It was an accident!" Summer said.

Emma turned with her hands on her hips and said, "A rich b.i.t.c.h like you has no business shoving her way into our family."

"Emma, that's enough," Billy said.

"I don't want her here, Billy. She's upsetting Mom."

"Mom?" Billy questioned. "Is that true?"

Summer stared, stupefied, at Billy. It seemed she was going to be tried and condemned without a chance to say a word in her own defense.

Dora said, "I don't understand why you brought her here. She's just going to be a burden to everyone."

"I'll never understand why you married her," Emma said. "You haven't seen her in two years, so you can't have been pining away for her. She has no talents to speak of. What were you thinking, Billy?"

"I was thinking we need help around here, and Summer's offered to provide it, plain and simple," Billy said.

"I can handle things without her," Emma said.

"You're the one who called me to come home," Billy reminded her. "Precisely because you couldn't handle everything on your own."

"You and I can manage together."

"Summer is my wife, Emma. Don't make this harder than it has to be."

"Either she goes or I go," Emma threatened.

Summer's heart shot to her throat and stuck there. She turned to Billy, wondering what he would do, what he would say. He couldn't possibly choose her over his own flesh and blood, could he? But she desperately hoped he would.

In the few hours she'd spent in Billy's home she'd realized that there was a feeling of family here she'd never found at the Castle. And she wanted to be a part of it.

She held her breath, waiting for Billy's response.

"You can go anytime you want, Emma," Billy said at last. "Summer stays."

From the stricken look on Emma's face it was clear she hadn't expected Billy to side with his new wife.

Summer realized suddenly that Billy had issued his ultimatum knowing full well that there were no teeth in Emma's threat. After all, how could his sister possibly leave? Five months pregnant, who was going to hire her to work? And without money for rent, where would she live?

Emma glared at Billy. "If that's the way you want it, fine. I'm out of here." She took off her ap.r.o.n and threw it on the counter.

"Give Summer a chance, Emma," Billy said as she headed to her room to pack. "Please."

Summer thought Emma might relent, but then she met Emma's gaze and realized Emma couldn't relent and keep her pride. Apparently, Coburns possessed every bit as much of that mortal sin as Blackthornes.