Summer of Two Wishes by Julia London Read Free Book Online Page B

Wyatt asked.
    There was a pause so long he could have driven cattle through it. Wyatt heard the catch in her voice and the little gasp for air and realized she was crying. “Not well. I’m sure he’s confused and hurt, but he’ll hardly talk at all. He keeps looking at me like I stabbed him in the heart,” she said through a rush of tears. “I feel awful, Wyatt! I did stab him in the heart! I might as well have picked up a knife! That’s what kept him going—he thought he was coming home to…to us . I don’t know what to do!”
    Wyatt anxiously shoved a hand through his hair. If he could, he would have reached through that phone to hold her. “This is why I wanted to come with you, sweetheart. I knew this would be too hard for you.”
    “What was I supposed to do, show up to greet my long-lost husband with my new husband? How could I do that to him, Wyatt? Or you , for that matter? No, I definitely had to do this on my own.”
    “Come home,” he said, his pulse starting to thump in his neck. “Come home now, don’t wait. His folks are there, right? And his brother? Maybe they can—”
    “No, no, the army won’t let us,” she cut him off. “They are concerned about how everything looks, and there are all these people and officials who want to welcome him home. He’s a hero. ”
    “I’m coming to Washington, then. I am not going to let you go through this alone.”
    “You can’t come to Washington!” she cried. “That would make everything so much worse!”
    “Worse?” he responded angrily. “I’m your husband, Macy!”
    “Think about it, Wyatt! The press would be all over it. It’s not a good idea. Please stay there.”
    “How am I supposed to—look, Macy, Finn’s got a lot of issues he’s going to have to face. You can’t be held prisoner for three years and not bring back some problems. But you don’t need to face them for him. He needs to face them. You…you need to come home and you and I will face whatever the fallout is from this together. That’s what husbands and wives do, they face hardship together.”
    “Are you kidding?” she asked with uncharacteristic ire. “I’m not going to let him twist in the wind after all he’s been through! Can you imagine being held by the Taliban all this time? Do you know they kept him chained?”
    Yes, he knew; he’d heard it all just like the rest of the free world. “Macy, darlin’, listen to me,” Wyatt said, feeling control slip through his fingers, feeling his heart dangling on a very thin string. “I know he’s been through a rough time—I can’t even begin to imagine how rough it has been for him, and he’s a stronger man than I am for having survived it. But the fact remains that you are married to me now, and he’s going to have to accept that.”
    “Am I?” she asked tearfully. “Honestly, Wyatt, I don’t know that I am married to you. Not legally, anyway. And there are all these questions.”
    “What questions? Who is asking the questions?” he demanded angrily. If Jillian was stirring the pot—after Jillian’s initial legal assessment, which she had freely shared with anyone who would listen, Wyatt had told her to please leave it to him, that he’d handle it, and had immediately called Jack.
    “No one,” Macy said. “I mean, I guess it’s me. I have questions.”
    Wyatt’s heart was beating as if he’d just run through fire. “I told you I’d handle it, Macy. It’s not anything you need to worry about now. You need to come home now . When you get home, we will straighten out whatever needs to be straightened out. But you need to come home.”
    “Wyatt, please try to understand. We—oh, wait a minute, I’m getting another call.”
    “Macy!” Wyatt shouted into the phone. “Macy, wait—do you know how much I love you?” he asked in a desperate bid to keep her on the line a moment longer, to make her understand him. “Do you understand how much you mean to me?”
    “Yes, yes, of course!” she