Chapter 30}

Aubrey fell asleep and woke up in the arms of her husband every night, cherishing his nearness and wishing she could have it more.

He stayed gone from when he left in the morning until after supper most days, and with no apparent reason. Aubrey kept getting more and more confused until one day she decided that she wouldn’t have it anymore. She was going to make Wade want to be home when he was supposed to. She was going to tell him her feelings in the best way she could. Even show him if she had to. She was going to get to the bottom of the late hours he was putting in even if she had to follow him around on the ranch.

Waking up in the morning, she found her body cold and lacking his usual nearness. Blinking her eyes, she found that she had overslept. Groaning, she thought about what she would do.

“I’ll use the day to my advantage, that’s what I’ll do,” she told herself. “I’ll pretty myself up until he’ll have no choice but to notice me and stay awake. Then I’ll tell him. I’ll tell him flat out, that’s what I’ll do.”

She spent the day prettying herself up. She took a bath and used scented soap, shooing Jay outside to play with Sadie. Next, she dried her hair by the fire, brushing it until it shone. She chose her prettiest dress to put on before Wade arrived.

While she was doing these things, a horse approached outside.

Panicking and running to the window, Aubrey breathed a sigh of relief when she saw Katie.

Opening the door, she let her friend inside.

“Nice to see you, Katie” she smiled.

“What’s that smell?” Katie asked, sniffing the air.

“That’s scented soap,” Aubrey answered, running a towel through her damp hair.

“What’s the occasion?” Katie made herself at home and sat down at the table.

“Nothing” Aubrey answered, sitting beside her.

“There must be something going on,” Katie pressed.

Aubrey sighed. Maybe Katie could help her. Wade had said something about her matchmaking skills.

“Well, the thing is. Wade comes home late so tired that he hardly speaks to me. I plan on prettying up so he’ll have to stay awake and I can talk to him,” She explained.

Katie stared at her strangely. “He’s coming home late?”

Aubrey nodded. “It’s strange, but for the last month or so he’s been coming home later. It’s not normal.”

Katie twisted her hands and stood. “Oh no.”

“What’s wrong?”

Katie looked at her. “He hasn’t told you about his and Toni’s deal?”

“No” Aubrey arched an eyebrow.

“He and Toni reached an agreement where he worked half days for half the wages. It’s been this way for six weeks now,” Katie explained.

“Six weeks?” Fear burst in Aubrey’s chest.

This couldn’t be true.

“Katie” Aubrey gulped. “You don’t think there’s… there’s another woman, do you?”

“No” Katie sat down.

“How can you be sure?”

“Look at Wade’s character. He’s incapable of being unfaithful to you,” Katie stated as if it were common knowledge.

Still, fear pierced Aubrey’s heart.

“Yet the idea can’t be ruled out altogether, can it?”

Katie sighed and leaned forward. “There’s not the smallest chance. Not with the Wade I grew up with.”

Aubrey started wringing her hands. She had seen that look Katie had made when she first found out about Wade’s long hours. She feared the same thing Aubrey did.

“I know what I’m going to do” Aubrey said.

“What’s that?”

“I’m gonna finish prettying myself up, then I’ll sit him down when he gets home and tell him that I love him. I haven’t told him yet, and I think it’s high time I did. I’ll be so innocent that he’ll be as guilty as can be about that other woman if there is one” Aubrey nodded her head decidedly.

Katie nodded, too. “I’ll help you.”

**********

Toni felt so tired. It was unlike her to just feel tired for no obvious reason.

Yet she understood that this came with pregnancy, as she went through it with Sandy. It seemed that she would be settling down sooner than she had hoped.

Making it to the house after yet another trip to the outhouse, Toni was tempted to not drink anything at all. Yet Katie had told her that drinking lots of water helped with the nausea. How Katie knew this, she didn’t really care.

Toni also found that she hated the taste of coffee nowadays, which restricted her to water or milk. No piping hot brew in the morning made her sleepy enough, and now with the added fatigue of pregnancy, Toni felt like she wanted to go to bed and sleep all day.

Entering the house, she smiled at Sandy, playing with her dollies on the floor by the fire. Sitting in a chair beside the fireplace, Toni bent down and picked her up, doll and all.

“Are you excited about your new baby brother or sister?” Toni asked.

Sandy nodded. “When’s he gonna get here?”

Toni smiled. “It’ll be a while. Mommy’s gonna get really fat before he gets here, too.”

She cringed at the thought. It had taken her long enough to get the weight off from having Sandy, now she would go through it again. Looking down at her slightly rounded belly, she smiled. The idea wasn’t half as bad after experiencing the joy of seeing Sandy for the first time.

Handling Sandy was hard enough. What if she wasn’t a good mother to two children? What if Sandy was neglected or the new baby? What if they grew up and led terrible lives because of her terrible mothering skills?

She was overcome by fear, dread, excitement, and exhilaration all at one time.

“Mommy? Why are you crying?” Sandy asked as innocently as possible.

Toni shook her head and sat the child in the floor, running to her room before the child witnessed a further display of tears from her.

Her silent sibs soon turned into all-out wails. She would make for a terrible mother to two children!

“Baby? What’s wrong with you?” Erik’s strong, steady voice asked from the doorway.

Toni shook her head and tried to stop the flow of tears. Erik sat on the bed beside her and took her in his arms, rocking her back and forth.

She blubbered into the coarse fabric of his shirt until she had cried all she could. Then she felt another bout of nausea coming on.

Yet Erik never left her. He stayed with her the whole day while she giggled, cried, vomited, and made repeated trips to the outhouse. They had been through this only once before, yet Erik handled it like an expert.

************

“Wade Dylan, sit down because I have a few things to tell you.” Aubrey took a deep, calming breath. “I’ve been waiting to tell you this for some reason I don’t know of. The timing just didn’t seem right but tonight I don’t really care. I need to tell you how I feel about you. I feel that you are the most wonderful man in the world. I feel like everything is going to be just fine when I’m with you. Things seem to be perfect when I look into your eyes. Wade Dylan, you’re just perfect. That’s all there is to it. I love you more than my own self, and if you’ve got something going on with some other woman, then you better believe that I’ll kill her with my bare hands if you don’t stop your conniving, scheming, evil, twisted, malevolent, sinful, malicious, mean, nasty, cruel, wicked…” Aubrey stopped her rant as the sound of a horse approaching echoed into the empty shack that Aubrey stood in, talking to the broom wearing her Stetson. Removing the hat and stuffing the broom into a corner, Aubrey waited for Wade to enter their shack. Katie had taken Jay to sleep with the cowboys tonight incase something bad happened.

She waited while Wade tended to his horse, then she heard his boots on the porch. He stomped the dirt off them before he entered. The door creaked open and Wade entered, his hat sitting low over his eyes. He pushed the hat up off his forehead, revealing his gorgeous eyes that sparkled and shone, still intense but no longer creepy.

He smiled at her, and that dimpled smile banished every evil thought she ever had toward him away. She trusted him completely.

She walked toward him and fell into his arms, reveling in the strength they surrounded her with.

What was that smell?

Aubrey felt tears sting behind her eyes as she recognized it.

Perfume.

Another woman’s perfume.

　Dun dun dun! (won't let me put this in bold :/ Crazy computers:P I have to leave for a while but wanted to post for you guys! I shall return and respond to all of your comments on chapter 29 later today:)