Last Riders: Lucky's Choice Part 31

Chapter 24.

Willa rolled over in the bed, her hand searching for Lucky in the rumpled sheets. Her eyes opened in the dark bedroom. He was gone again. She didn't have to search for him, knowing he was in the backyard of the church. It was where he went every night when she fell asleep after they made love.

On their honeymoon, she had believed he had risen to watch the sun rise from the beach. However, when they had returned home, it didn't take long to realize something was wrong. She had tried to talk to him several times, but he maintained that it was the time he used for his prayers. She believed that, but the prayers weren't ones of mediation. Willa feared it was much more than that, and he wouldn't confide in her.

She climbed out of bed, picking up her robe from the chair beside the bed. The hardwood floors were cool underneath her feet.

They had only been married for a little over a two months; therefore, she was aware it would take time for him to unburden what was bothering him. Willa was deathly afraid she might be what he was praying about, though. Had he discovered he didn't love her as much as he had believed? Was she doing something wrong, and he was praying about the best way to tell her?

She walked down the hallway in the dark, comfortable in the silence and the stillness. They had moved into the pastor's quarters when they had returned from their honeymoon. They were having her bedroom at her house enlarged into a suite with a sunken bathtub. She was also enlarging her kitchen and putting in new carpet throughout the house. Douglas had given her such good quotes it had been hard to resist the upgrades.

Lucky had wanted to find a different contractor, complaining that, whenever he had stopped by to check on the work, Douglas had been nowhere around.

"He's busy. He works for several people in town. I can't fire him when he's doing a great job."

Lucky had lost that argument and the one where he had wanted to install new wiring into the house so that everything was controlled by one system.

"Do you have any idea how much that would cost?" She had fought against it until Lucky had offered to pay for it. Seeing that he really wanted it, she caved yet did an internet search for the cheapest system.

She opened the door to the church's backyard, seeing Lucky standing with only a pair of shorts on, his skin gleaming with sweat.

"Lucky?" she spoke softly, not wanting to interrupt, but she was concerned for her husband.

"Go inside, Willa. I'll be there in a little while."

Although she thought about refusing to be sent away again, the tense way he was holding himself made her wary.

"Okay. Take your time." Willa bit her lip, tempted to try again. She wanted to say something that would reach him so he would talk to her, tell her anything.

"I love you."

"I love you, Willa." The tone in his voice brought tears to her eyes.

Since moving into the church, she had taken over the huge kitchen. Because the women provided meals for seniors, it had already been approved for food preparation, and Lucky had gained permission from the church deacons for her to do her baking there. She finally had the s.p.a.ce she needed, which had almost tripled the desserts she made each week. Willa was ecstatic to be able to produce more without the added cost of overhead. He had even bought her two display cases that he had put in the church store. She was able to sell her desserts and give the church a percentage of the profits.

Her life was falling neatly into place. She took over Bible studies, baked in her free time, and was able to support Lucky as pastor when he needed her by his side.

She looked over her shoulder before going inside, torn to go to him.

Pain and loneliness shrouded him in the morning mist.

"G.o.d, please help him find what he's searching for."

Lucky heard the door close as Willa went back inside. He had heard her when she had come outside, but he hadn't turned to face her. He couldn't. The nightmare that awakened him still had him in its grip. He had prayed when they had married that he would be able to sleep next to Willa, that his love for her would keep the nightmare at bay. He had realized his mistake when he woke up in the middle of the night, drenched in sweat and shaking. The strange hotel hadn't helped, either. He had jerked clumsily out of bed, but thankfully, Willa had been too exhausted to feel him leave.

Each night for the first two weeks, he had tried to fall asleep next to her yet had woken with the same fear churning in his gut. Since then, he had dozed at night, making sure to schedule two hours in the morning to sleep in his office. In the evening, he would tell Willa he had sermons to write and would sleep another two then.

The smell of bacon lured him from the early morning sun rising. Going inside, he bypa.s.sed the kitchen to go upstairs to shower and change. He came out of the shower to find a suit neatly pressed, lying on the bed. She had even s.h.i.+ned his shoes and laid a matching pair of socks and tie perfectly positioned on the bed.

She did the same thing every morning, making his breakfast and laying out his clothes. She worked to antic.i.p.ate his every need. She would fix his lunch, keep a pot of coffee warming, and even his favorite oatmeal raisin cookies sat in a container on the kitchen counter.

She was driving him nuts.

He wasn't used to being waited on. Despite his objections, she would find something else he liked and make sure it was readily available.

As he began to go out the bedroom door, he picked up the starched handkerchief he had begun wearing in the front pocket. This was one of two habits he hadn't tried to break. Inevitably, by the end of the day, he would be wiping Willa's tears with it. His wife was too tenderhearted, and everyone in Treepoint was taking advantage of it. If he didn't put a stop to it soon, the woman was going to work herself into an early grave.

He smiled when walked into the kitchen, wrapping his arms around Willa from behind.

"Good morning, husband."

"Good morning, siren." He slid one hand inside the front of her robe, cupping her breast in his hand.

She swatted his hand away. "Go sit down; breakfast is ready. I need to get changed. I invited Dustin to bring my accounts by so you'll quit worrying."

"I'm only concerned because you let your customers run up big bills or don't pay you at all. From what I can tell from what paperwork you have shown me, King and about five other customers are paying you." Lucky sneaked one of the oatmeal raisin cookies as she placed his plate on the table.

"I told you I love baking, and my customers pay me when they get paid."

"Why does the restaurant of Charles's father owe such a large bill, then?"

Lucky was aware Lily's old boyfriend had gone to school with Willa, also.

"Oh, he's behind in taxes, but he's going to get caught up with me after they're paid."

"Owing taxes didn't keep him from buying Charles that new truck."

Willa poured him a cup of coffee. Bending down, she placed a kiss on his cheek. "You worry too much."

"I'm going to talk to them," Lucky said firmly.

"Don't you dare." She placed the coffee pot back on the burner. "You'll hurt their feelings."

Thankfully, Lucky had just swallowed the bite of bacon he had taken, or he would have choked on that choice of words.

"I've got to go get changed. Promise me you won't be mean to Dustin if he comes before I get back."

When Lucky took another bite of his bacon, remaining silent, Willa went to the cookie jar, taking out a cookie that Lucky saw as she paused by the table.

"I'll try." He took the cookie she handed him, chewing it thoughtfully.

He needed to start exercising more, or Willa was going to make him fat. He missed the exercise equipment at the clubhouse. He and the brothers would compete to see who could lift the most weights. Missing the time they hung out together grew worse each day.

He looked up when he saw Dustin standing in the doorway.

"Willa texted me and told me to come on in."

If Lucky hadn't known Dustin for years, he would have never recognized the young man standing in the doorway. He was wearing a grey suit that was not only clean, but pressed, and his dress shoes were more expensive than the ones on Lucky's own feet.

"Fix yourself a plate. Willa left plenty on the counter."

"I'll just pour myself some coffee." Dustin placed his briefcase on the table before going to the counter.

Lucky finished his breakfast while Dustin drank his coffee as he opened his briefcase.

"How long have you been Willa's accountant?"

"Since I gained custody of my son. I had gone by Willa's house to pick up a cake for his birthday. I was a dollar fifty short, but she wouldn't take the money. I had just earned my high school diploma, and she asked what interested me. I told her money, just joking around, but she offered me a scholars.h.i.+p and wouldn't take no for an answer.

"I thought she was crazier than s.h.i.+t, but I worked hard in college and discovered that I have a head for numbers. Then she offered me the job because her accountant wanted to retire. I almost s.h.i.+t myself when he showed me all this, though." Dustin looked down at the papers in his hand before handing them to him.

Lucky moved his dirty dishes aside as he began going through the paperwork.

"Willa's great-grandfather founded a company that made millions. When her father and his wife pa.s.sed, Willa inherited as their only child.

"I didn't start taking a salary from Willa until she began making money on my investments." Dustin pointed at one of the columns. "This is the normal commission a broker would make."

Dustin began going over the paperwork, intermittently pausing to answer a text.

"Have you built up other clients?"

"Rachel and Cash, even though I didn't want to. Cash threatened to kick my a.s.s if I didn't. Shade, Angus Berry, Drake, and a couple of investments of King's." Dustin paused, answering another text.

Lucky went through the paperwork for over an hour before he leaned back in his chair, dismayed at what he had found out about his wife. The numbers were so large they were beginning to run together.

"Exactly how rich is my wife?"

"I would say richer than G.o.d, but I don't think you would appreciate the a.n.a.logy," Dustin joked, getting up to refill his coffee. He sat back down then handed Lucky a lone paper that he had kept to the side. "I need you to sign this."

"What is...?" Lucky picked up the paper, going pale as he read over it.

"It makes you beneficiary of her estate."

Lucky tossed the paper to him. "I'm not going to sign that."

"It doesn't matter if you do or not. I just wanted to witness for Diamond that you received a copy."

"Diamond?"

"Knox's wife is Willa's attorney. My office is next to hers, and Diamond had to be in court this morning with Tate, so she asked if I would take care of it for her. Willa asked Diamond to explain the way her estate will be split, but since she couldn't be here, she gave me permission."

"Who was the beneficiary before she changed it?" Lucky asked hoa.r.s.ely.

"I'm familiar with the details because I was in the meetings with Diamond when she was writing the will. She wanted my advice on how to split her estate.

"Willa has several beneficiaries. Seventy percent of her fortune goes to you, but that's subject to change depending on the number of children you have. It decreases with each child. She wants her children taken care of, but doesn't want to leave them enough to spoil them." Dustin's mouth twitched. "She keeps going back and forth between five and ten percent."

"The other thirty percent?"

"The children she fostered split ten percent, and Lily, Beth, Rachel, Angus Berry, and last week she added Killyama-though I couldn't understand why, something about a broom-will split the remaining twenty percent." Dustin's phone dinged with another incoming text. "This doesn't include her house and two other investments. The house is paid for and, upon Willa's death, remains in the direct family, unable to be sold."

"Why?"

"Willa wants a home for her children in case they ever need it. The two investment profits go to various charities that she decides on each year."

"You can tell Willa to come back down now." Lucky nodded toward the cell phone in Dustin's hand when it dinged.

"How did-"

"It doesn't usually take my wife two hours to get changed," he said wryly.

"Willa is very sensitive," Dustin confided.

Unless Lucky was mistaken, the youngest Porter brother had a crush on Willa.

Lucky burst out laughing. "My wife is a tightwad. Did you know she won't buy anything unless it's on sale? I settled for an ugly green tile in her bathroom shower because it was twenty percent cheaper per tile. I thought she was broke. I didn't even think to check her finances out before we married."

"It could be emasculating for a man to have a wife as rich as Willa is."

"I think my masculinity will survive."

Lucky caught his wife's apprehensive look as she came into the room. As she drew nearer, he put his arm around her waist.

"We're changing the tile color."

When she started to argue, Lucky forestalled her. "I think we can afford those two children you want, but I was hoping to sweet-talk you into four."

Happiness filled her face. "Really?"

"Yep. On one condition. You have to talk Dustin into becoming my accountant."

Chapter 25.

"I can't believe it!" Willa closed her computer, so excited she wanted to tell Lucky the good news. She had entered a contest to win a state-of-the-art smart home computer system and won.