Page 3 of Bride for Keeps

Until a few weeks ago. She’d thrown she didn’t know how many fits lately, and Carter had simplylether. What had broken in their pattern? She didn’t understand and she didn’t know how to fix it.

She watched him now, silent despite her question, tight-lipped and serious, and she knew she was absolutely right when she’d rejected Jess’s advice. She had to act like everything was fine. The same as they always were. It was the only way to ensure thingswerefine and would stay that way.

Carter parked the car in front of his parents’ house and then he got out without a word. He didn’t even wait for her before he was striding toward the house.

She stared at him for a few seconds, mouth dropped. He reached for the door, not once looking back at her. She had never seen him act this way. It was disorienting and downright scary.

She was tempted to stay where she was. His family treated her like garbage. Why would she voluntarily walk inside, especially when he didn’t even seem to care whether she followed him or not?

But finally,finallyCarter glanced back, then raised an eyebrow at her. Anare you coming?impatient look.

It infuriated her, but worse, it scared her. They’d only been married a few months, maybe hewasrealizing the error of his ways. Maybe this was the punishment for not living up to the fake image he’d created of her in his mind, for not winning over his cold parents. Slow torture by McArthur insults.

Blinking back tears, she got out of the car and crossed the yard to him. She wished she knew what to do. How to make sure he didn’t change his mind.

But all she knew to do was follow him inside, feeling scraped raw and scared.

He led her to the library where Dr. and Mrs. McArthur were sitting on the couch. Chairs had been arranged in front of the couch. Lina, Carter’s little sister, was sitting on one of them. Jess on the other. Carter slid into the seat next to Lina.

Childishly, Sierra didn’t want to sit next to him, but what choice did she have? She didn’t want his mother sensing discord, that was for sure. If she was going to weather whatever this was, it had to be without Mrs. McArthur pouncing on a weakness.

No one exchanged any real greetings, just nods. After a few horrible silent moments, Dr. McArthur asked Lina something about med school, which got some boring medical conversation going.

But Carter didn’t speak or add to the discussion in any way like he usually did. He only stared at his hands. He hadn’t been sleeping. Sierra questioned whether he’d been eating. What could be the cause of this? Something awful. So awful he wouldn’t tell her. Or worse, couldn’t trust her with it.

Lina looked grave as well, but not like Carter. Not like the weight of the world was on her shoulders.

So, it couldn’t be that bad, could it? It was just Carter taking too much on his shoulders. Par for the course. She’d finally figure out what was bothering him and this horrible dread would go away. It would be something small and silly and he’d apologize for blowing it out of proportion once it was dealt with.

A little hush of silence fell and Sierra glanced at the doorway. Cole stood there. She only recognized him because they’d run into him on the street last week. She’d knownofthe McArthur’s prodigal son who’d run away to be a rodeo star almost a decade ago, but that day on the street had been the first time she’d really met him.

Carter had been rude to Cole, and her, so she’d flounced off, not bothering to find out about the brother Carter never spoke of.

Sierra sighed heavily. Her flouncing wasn’t even enjoyable anymore, but she didn’t know how else to get Carter’s attention when he was mired in McArthur-land. Usually a good fit got his attention, pulled him out of all he kept himself caught up in. That’s the way things worked for them.

Except it wasn’t working these days, was it?

Cole took the empty seat and all eyes turned to Dr. McArthur.

“Thank you all for coming,” he announced, always the leader. Always in charge. Sierra wished she could admire it the way Carter did, but mostly she thought Dr. McArthur acted more like a king than a father.

She’d give her marriage into the McArthur family one thing: it had certainly allowed her a new clarity on her own parents and family not being nearly so bad as her teenage self had thought they were. Her father didn’t dictate things the way Dr. McArthur did, and her mother most definitely didn’t sit in judgment of everything like Mrs. McArthur did.

“Some things have been going on with the family in the past few months, and your mother and I are forced to realize we’ve mishandled them. Keeping my MS diagnosis a secret caused more problems than I could have ever imagined it would, and that will end now. For those of you who don’t know, I’ve told your mother about my MS diagnosis and apologized for keeping it from her. We’ve decided to move forward as a family unit. Fighting this disease…together.” Dad’s gaze turned to Cole. “As long as we’re all in agreement?”

It was a question directed at everyone, but Dr. McArthur stared mostly at Cole, the son who’d left ten years ago and was only back for a visit orchestrated by Jess.

Cole nodded.

MS diagnosis. MS. Sierra didn’t even know what MS was exactly. A disease of some kind. Was it serious?

But then her thoughts turned to the fact Dr. McArthur made it sound like everyone had known about it. But no one had told her. Anything. She was the one sitting here confused and in the dark.

She looked at her husband, who didn’t even have the decency to look apologetic or explain why she was the one who didn’t have a damn clue what was going on.

But apparently Dr. McArthur wasn’t done.

“We also decided that since some of the family knew and some didn’t, that we would inform everyone of one last thing. Secrets don’t make us strong, and we always want the McArthur name to be strong.” Dr. McArthur looked at Carter so Sierra did again too.

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