A baby I wanted, a future I craved, a woman I knew now that Iloved…but I was worthy of none of it.
Time moved quick that day, and the sun was already setting by the time I wrapped up for the day. I stepped out of the main house to find Dakota sitting on the porch steps—looking out at the big Texas sky, a beer in his hand.
He patted the step next to him. “Care to join me?”
I eyed him.
“Come on, brother,” he chuckled. “Indulge me.”
I sat down with a sigh.
Dakota handed me a beer, making it clear he’d been waiting for me.
I groaned, but took it.
We sat there for a minute, just the two of us and the sound of the ranch settling into evening—cattle somewhere in the distance, a bird cutting across the pink sky, the creak of the old porch boards.
"You gonna tell me what's going on," Dakota said, "or are we gonna sit here and pretend I'm an idiot?"
"I wasn't gonna say anything."
"Uh huh." He took a long pull of his beer. "Haven looked like she'd been crying when she showed up this morning."
I didn't say anything.
"And you looked like a kicked puppy." He paused. "No offense to the puppies."
I looked out at the sky.
Dakota let the silence sit for another minute. He was better at that than people gave him credit for—knowing when to push and when to wait. He'd learned it young, being the youngest, watching everybody else.
"How long?" he said finally.
I looked at him sideways.
He looked back, patient, not even a little surprised.
"You know," I said.
"Wyatt." He said it almost gently. "I sleep in that barn three nights a week. Her car's been parked out back since February." He shrugged. "Wasn't hard to figure out."
I rubbed a hand over my face. "Does Gage know?"
Dakota's expression answered that before he opened his mouth.
"Christ," I muttered.
“Neto too,” he offered. “And Forrest. And Stetson, even, and…I think Mom? But she wouldn’t say anything, of course. If she’d told Dad, he would’ve made a whole production of it already.”
“Fantastic.”
"The sneaking around was real cute though," Dakota said. "The back gate. Very spy movie."
"I know what you're saying." I took a long drink of my beer. Set it down on the step between my boots. "She's pregnant."
Silence.
Dakota went very still beside me. Not his usual still—the held-breath kind.
