An Unexpected Wife Read online

  “We missed you too,” Bailey said.

  “Well, I’m home now.”

  “What if you go back to the city again? Who will take care of us?”

  “Listen, I am going to take care of you, I promise.”

  “You really promise?” Bailey asked, his eyes full of hope.

  “I really promise. Now you need to get some sleep.”

  “Can we all stay here?” Netty asked.

  “Sure. We’ll all stay here together tonight.”

  “I miss my momma and daddy,” the little girl said, crying softly. She curled into Sage’s side and hung on tight.

  “I know you do, honey, we all do.” Sage clung to both of her little people, feeling her brother’s body lightly shaking as well. She looked to the ceiling and hoped the fairy godfather was still listening as she whispered a prayer. “Please, God, make sure I’m not giving these kids false hope. Help me to find a way to keep everyone safe and happy.”

  * * *

  The next morning, Sage woke to the six o’clock alarm. This was something she hadn’t really had to do since she’d gone off to college, although she liked to help her dad out when she was home, sometimes. Buck, the hand, though had retired and her dad hadn’t hired a new hand yet so she and the kids were it for now.

  “Wakey, wakey rise and shine,” she chanted sleepily.

  “I’m already awake,” Bailey said with a grin. He was standing fully dressed in the doorway like he’d been waiting for them for a while.

  “Good boy, you really are an old hand at this, aren’t you, Bails?”

  “Yes, ma’am. We got to do the animals, Netty,” Bailey said, giving his little sister a shake. Netty blinked her eyes open. “You can feed the chickens and collect the eggs.”

  “Okay,” Netty agreed sleepily.

  “Can you remember how to milk the cow?”

  “Me?” Sage asked. “I think I can manage that.” She had to suppress a grin. Here she was thinking that Bailey was a little boy, which he was a lot of the time, but at the moment, he was all business. The man of the house. “Will I help you get dressed, Netty?”

  “I’m not a baby. I can dress myself,” Netty said with a giggle.

  Bailey rolled his eyes. “I’ll move some feed and then we can turn out the horses and muck the stables.”

  “Sounds like a plan.” In a perfect world, the plan would involve some coffee and a short lie in but she was well aware that this was how things were done in the country.

  While she waited for Netty to get dressed, Sage put on some coffee and got a loaf of bread out of the freezer. Thank goodness she didn’t have to bake it. When she came home for visits, her mom had always made her own bread. She though, was no superwoman like her mom had been. Her mom had helped her dad out and still held down a job in town in the bakery. Her dad ran this place, boarding other people’s horses and growing what they needed. It was never a big concern, but they got by. Finally, Netty emerged after dressing herself. “Well, that is an interesting outfit for a ranch hand girl,” Sage said with a grin.

  “I’m not a ranch hand girl, I’m a ranch hand princess.” Netty stood proudly, ready for work. She had donned a pale blue, lace and satin princess dress with jeans underneath and a crown on her head.

  “I guess that’ll work,” Sage said with a smile. Hey, if a kid was happy to work and they needed to be a princess to do it, she could go with that. There were so many other things to worry about. Money was a bit of an issue. While she had helped out a bit and she sort of knew the running of the place, she didn’t have a clue how they actually made money. She had noticed that there weren’t any other horses in the barn but their own so the boarding business seemed to be not happening. Oh well, there was a roof over their heads and they wouldn’t starve; there were vegetables in the garden and eggs in the coop. Omelettes anyone? She certainly wasn’t going to be the one to end the life of a chicken. She rubbed her hands over her face, trying to erase fearful thoughts from her mind. At least she had what was in her account. Maybe the lawyer could shed some light on the money issues at the will reading. Why hadn’t she ever had this discussion with her parents? Sage knew why; her parents had been supposed to live forever.

  * * *

  By the time they were finished with morning chores, Sage felt like she was ready to go back to bed but there was a list a mile long of stuff she still had to do. “Right, breakfast,” she said with a smile. “Go wash your hands.”

  “Can we have pancakes?” Bailey asked.

  “Sure.” Sage opened the pantry hoping to find one of those little jugs that you add water to. Nope, not at this place. Her mom always made everything from scratch. That was something else she would have to learn. Her repertoire was omelettes, sandwiches and cold cereal. Not that she wasn’t big on microwaved ready meals, but kids needed more than that. They needed food that had been prepared with love. How hard could that be?

  “Hi.”

  Sage jumped. “Cliff, you scared the life out of me.”

  “Sorry. I did knock but no one heard me.”

  “That’s okay, you just startled me. Is there, I mean, what can I do for you?”

  “Nothing. I came to see if I could do anything for you. I see you seem to have things mostly under control here.”

  “Yeah, I do.” Kind of, she thought.

  “Sage, are we having pancakes?” Bailey asked. “I’m hungry.”

  “Yeah, Bails, about that… there’s no mix left.”

  “What’s a mix?” Bailey asked.

  “Exactly!” Cliff grinned. “What self respecting country girl uses a mix?”

  “One who is a little kitchen phobic.” She found herself smiling as he gathered ingredients, obviously intent on preparing their meal.

  “Did you find any eggs this morning, Netty?”

  “I found all the eggs!” Netty said proudly.

  “Excellent. Milk?”

  “I got the milk!” Sage giggled.

  “Okay, then. Everyone pay attention to your first lesson in pancakes. You especially,” he whispered into Sage’s ear.

  Cliff’s breathy voice against her ear sent a frizzle of pleasure spinning through her body like an out of control fuse. It was all she could do to catch her breath, let alone think straight.

  * * *

  “Those pancakes were yummy,” Netty said.

  “They sure were,” Bailey said, picking up his plate and getting it awfully close to his face.

  “Don’t you dare even think about licking that plate, mister.” Sage tried to frown but her eyes were laughing. “There’s no way you’ve ever been allowed to do that. Rinse your plate and put it in the dishwasher, Bails, you too, Netty.”

  “Okay.” Netty stopped and gave Cliff a hug. “Thank you for the yummy breakfast.”

  “Yeah, thanks, Cliff. Can I go play now?” he asked his sister.

  “Of course you can,” Sage said. “Stay in the yard though where you can hear me if I come out to the porch.”

  “Thanks for showing me how to fix pancakes.”

  “You’re welcome. If you need any other pointers with cooking, I’d be happy to show you.”

  “Have you seen our fridge and freezer? We have enough leftovers to last us a month.” She wished they didn’t. She wished she had an excuse to get Cliff to come and cook for them more often. He made all of them smile.

  “Well, when they run out, you know where to come.” He smiled widely.

  “I do. You’ll be the first person I call.” Sage grinned, wishing she could think of something to say but the air was thick with an awkward silence.

  “Well, much as I’d like to stay, I have to work.” He jotted his number on a post it pad on the fridge and ripped it off, and stuck it back down directly onto the fridge. “I’m leaving you my number so you know how to reach me.”

  “Thanks. Hopefully we won’t have to bother you.”

  “It won’t be a bother. Besides, I had fun this morning.”

  “I did too.”
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  “He could come and eat leftovers with us, Sage, couldn’t he?” Bailey asked, appearing from nowhere.

  “I’m sure Cliff is very busy.”

  “I have to eat,” he said with a broad smile.

  “Then pop in anytime, we’ll be here.” Sage pushed the hair from her eyes, wishing she’d actually spent some time making herself presentable. It hadn’t occurred to her at the crack of dawn that the animals would mind how scruffy she was. Now she was stuck. If she suddenly did herself up around dinnertime, it would be obvious that she was trying to make a good impression and she couldn’t care less. Could she? Was she trying to make a good impression?

  * * *

  Sage lifted the lid on the large washer and started to pull the clothes out.

  “Someone’s coming,” Bailey yelled out from the fence where he was giving his pony an apple.

  Sage dropped the wet t-shirts into the basket and stepped out onto the porch to see who it was. “Aunt Jen, Uncle Harry. What brings you out here again so soon?”

  “Well, we wanted to talk to you, honey.”

  Aunt Jen looked serious and Uncle Harry wasn’t looking at her at all. “Is something wrong?”

  “No, not exactly. There’s something we would have normally spoken to you about as soon as you got home but well, the timing is just terrible.”

  Sage glanced at Bailey who was listening intently. “Bails go and check on Netty will you, honey? She went up to her room.”

  “You just don’t want me to listen,” Bailey said.

  “I just need you to check on your sister,” Sage said. It was the first time her brother had challenged her since she came back and it wasn’t like him.

  “Okay,” he agreed. “I’m not a baby though you know.”

  “I know, Bails.” She waited for her brother to go inside before walking with the others to the outdoor sofa.

  “Please tell me what’s wrong; you’re scaring me.”

  “Sage, honey, I don’t know how to tell you this. We’re moving. It’s not something we would have planned if we had known what was to happen but we didn’t know and now it’s all done. Our house was sold weeks ago and we have already made our plans to move on over to Florida where your cousin Leah has settled with her family. We wanted to be closer to her and, of course, the baby. I’m so sorry, honey, I swear, if I’d known…” Aunt Jen’s eyes filled with tears and Uncle Harry put his arms about her.

  Sage was shocked, and she felt like crying, not just for herself or the kids either. Aunt Jen had lost her only sister and Uncle Harry had lost his best friend. The two couples had been close as long as she could remember. “It’s okay. I’m the one who’s sorry. Here I’ve been thinking just about our loss and I hadn’t really given a thought to yours.”

  “It’s as it should be. They were your parents.”

  “I don’t know what to say except, we’ll miss you. But don’t worry; we’ll be okay.” She hugged her aunt and tried as hard as she could to keep the tears that had welled from falling. She didn’t want to make this harder for them than it already was. “When do you leave?”

  “We’ve managed to get an extension on the time we have to move but we have to be out eight weeks after the will reading on Friday.”

  * * *

  Sage was nervous as she dressed for the meeting. It was finally Friday and she didn’t know why, but she had a bad feeling. The children were already dressed in their Sunday best and were sitting on the sofa waiting for her to be finished. She didn’t know why she’d had them dress up, but it just seemed the thing to do.

  “Why do we have to dress up?” Bailey said from the doorway. “No one’s coming to see me.”

  “It’s the right thing to do, Bails.” Was that the right response? She was the adult now; she should know these things shouldn’t she?

  “Why, what are they even coming for, to talk?”

  “Talk about important things; adult things, stuff about our future.” Yeah, she had no idea really. She hoped it was just a formality but, nevertheless, she was nervous.

  “Exactly. Don’t know what there is to talk about anyways. We’re all right here aren’t we?”

  “Of course we are and you don’t have to listen.”

  “Then why did I have to put on nice clothes?”

  “Bailey!” Sage felt like a heel as soon as she raised her voice. “Bails, I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to yell. I’m just nervous that’s all.”

  “It’s okay.”

  “No, it’s not. You’ve been a really big grown up helping this week and I couldn’t have done it without you. This stuff is a pain but it’s the law. They have to talk to me and I have to listen.”

  “Okay.”

  “Tell you what though, you can go and play in your room and I’ll call you if I need you.”

  “Thanks.”

  “And you can take off that tie.”

  “Thanks, Sage.” Bailey grinned and ran off happily.

  Sage brushed her hair one more time and went to offer Netty the same deal.

  * * *

  The atmosphere was formal as Sage, Aunt Jen and Uncle Harry sat around the table; the family attorney perched formally at the head.

  “Thank you all for coming,” he said. “While wills are not usually read like this anymore, when your parents signed these papers, they specifically asked that you could all be here to support each other and so that they had one more chance to speak to you, to explain, if, in fact, they passed suddenly and together, as is the case.”

  Sage nodded but was a little confused. Explain what?

  “So first for the financials.” He straightened the papers in front of him and tapped them on the table. “You may or may not know, but this property has a fairly hefty mortgage.”

  Sage blinked and tried to breathe; it wasn’t easy. The bad feeling she had was growing by the second. How heavy? That meant payments. How was she supposed to make enough money to make payments and look after the kids and this place?

  “While the house is an asset, all debts have to be paid to the bank before the amount that is left can be determined.”

  “I have to sell the house?” Sage’s eyes bulged. It hadn’t occurred to her that she would have to sell the house, to sell their home? Where was she supposed to live with two children? What was she going to tell them? “Isn’t there life insurance?”

  “Yes, there is life insurance, and I’m getting to that. The life insurance will be divided into thirds with the children’s inheritance being placed into a trust for the minors.”

  “The minors are Netty and Bailey. They have names, they are little people and they need to have a roof over their heads.”

  “He’s trying to explain, dear,” Uncle Harry said.

  Sage tried sit quiet and listen, hoping someone was going to make sense of all this.

  “The horses are not part of the estate and, as such, do not have to be sold. The guardians though will have to make arrangements for their wellbeing. That will include Jack Worthington’s horse Jett.”

  “Great. That’ll be a comfort. We’ll have to live in a box, kids, but you can bring your ponies. They will, of course, be sharing our accommodations and food with Jett, the big cranky stallion.”

  “Sage, just let the man read so we can figure this all out,” Aunt Jen said, putting her arm around the young woman.

  “Thank you,” the attorney said. “The distribution of assets is as follows: There is life insurance that is in trust for the minors; Bailey John Worthington and Annette Rose Worthington until the time that they each turn twenty-five-years-old. In the meantime, their guardian/guardians will be able to access the money for their benefit; school, day-to-day requirements, medical, etc.

  “See, honey, no one is living in a box,” Aunt Jen said helpfully. “Not that we would have let that happen anyway.”

  “Of course we wouldn’t,” Uncle Harry chipped in.

  “Your inheritance will also be paid to you when you turn twenty-five.”

  �
��Are you serious? How am I supposed to feed the kids and the animals?” Sage was beyond frustrated. “Make the mortgage payments?”

  “I’m sure that your parents had their reasons, but my job is just to carry out their wishes. Now, if you’d let me, I’ll finish.”

  “Go ahead.” Sage felt sick. How much worse could it possibly get?

  “The next part has a letter I have to read out loud. It’s with regards to the guardianship of the children.” He took a handwritten letter out of the envelope and read…

  Our darling, Sage. If you are reading this, we have passed together and as sad as I know you must be, we need you to pay attention and hear everything that we have to say. All of it. It’s important.

  You came into our lives while we were still so very young ourselves and we enjoyed every minute with you. We made the choice to get married and be parents and that is a decision that we never regretted. That being said, there were two of us and we always parented together. We hope that you can one day find someone that you can enjoy the kind of relationship with that we have shared.

  This is the hard part. We both know how much you adore your brother and sister, that you will want to be their guardian. Sometimes, as a parent, you have to look at the bigger picture and that is exactly what we are trying to do. At this time of your life, you should be free to make your own best life choices.

  “What are they saying?” Sage felt like she was going to throw up.

  If you are under thirty, for the time being, Netty and Bailey will be with Aunt Jen and Uncle Harry. They will be their legal guardians.

  “We didn’t know, honey, I swear,” Jen said, gasping.

  Sage glared.

  Sage, when you turn thirty or before then if you marry, you may apply for legal guardianship and the children can be in your full time care.

  “So I have to get married to keep my brother and sister?” Sage asked incredulously.

  “That’s about the strength of it, or wait another six years. Which would be the wisest course for action,” the attorney answered. “There’s more.”