“When Mom got sick, I took a second job to help pay the bills, and Troy started demanding money from me too. It didn't matter that I was working myself to exhaustion, or that Mom was fighting cancer. If he wanted something, he expected us to hand it over.”
The memories came back with painful clarity—the shouting, the slammed doors, her mother's exhausted attempts to keep the peace, and the knot of dread that formed in Shylo's stomach whenever Troy showed up.
“Whenever he got arrested, somehow it was always somebody else's fault.”
For years, she'd believed that was simply what having a brother meant. Someone bigger, louder, and crueler. Someone who made home feel anything but safe.
“All my life, I wondered what it would be like to have a brother who wasn't like that.” Her gaze found Shane's once more. “Then I met you, and I realized I'd rather have you as my brother than anything our father could've left me.”
When Shylo's voice faded, no one rushed to fill the void she'd left behind. The grandfather clock’s steady ticking did that. She'd laid bare thirty years of hurt, and for a few precious moments, everyone let her words sink in.
Emotionally drained, she picked up the half-full glass of sweet tea that had sat untouched since she'd finished dinner. Condensation coated the outside, dampening her fingers as she lifted it. The ice had long since melted, but the cool sweetness soothed the rawness in her throat far better than the bourbon ever could.
Paige reached for the tissue box, pulling one free before dabbing at the tears gathering in her eyes. She offered Shylo a watery smile, as though wishing there were something she could say to make any of this easier. The simple gesture made Shylo's chest ache.
Meanwhile, Shane scrubbed a hand over his face and quickly brushed the moisture from beneath his eyes before anyone could pretend not to notice. He stared at the table for several long moments, his jaw tight, as though searching for words that refused to come.
Tucker was stoic. Some of the hardness was gone, but not all of it. The anger she'd seen earlier had dulled, replaced by something more conflicted. Protective. Wary. He looked like a man determined to believe the worst until she gave him a reason not to.
He drummed his fingers against the tabletop for several long seconds before finally asking, “What about Seth?”
The question hit her in the heart.
“You latched onto him almost from the day you got here. Was that part of the plan? Use him to get on the ranch and close to us?”
Of course he would think that. If their positions had been reversed, she wasn't sure she'd have trusted someone who'd walked into her family's life under false pretenses either.
She owed him the truth. All of it.
“When I realized he worked here, I won't pretend the thought never crossed my mind that getting to know him might help me learn more about Shane.”
The admission tasted bitter.
“But Seth made it impossible to keep thinking of him that way.” A humorless smile came and went. “I tried to keep my distance, but he wouldn't let me. We kept running into each other, and every time I thought I'd seen the last of him, there he was again. Before I knew it, he'd invited me to the barbecue at the ranch. Then he talked me into going horseback riding.”
The memory warmed her despite everything.
“The more time we spent together, the less I could deny my attraction to him. He’s kind. Funny. Patient. I should've told him who I really was before he heard it from anyone else.” She closed her eyes for a moment. “And I should've told him I was falling in love with him.”
The regret was almost unbearable. “Now it's too late. If I tried to tell him that now, he'd probably think I was lying... or laugh in my face.”
The thought cut deep.
“Once I realized how much he meant to me, telling him the truth became even harder. Every day I waited made it worse because I knew that if you couldn't accept me, Shane...” She paused, forcing herself to finish. “I'd leave Hazard Falls, and either way, I'd probably lose Seth when he learned who I really was.”
She glanced at Tucker. “I know why you don't trust me. I probably wouldn't trust me either.” Her voice was barely above a whisper. “But I never pretended to care about him. That part was real.”
Her tears flowed freely again as her gaze moved from one person to the next before settling on Shane. She shook her head and stood. “I'm sorry. I never should've come here. It’s not your fault Peter didn't want to be my father.”
Without another word, she hurried toward the back door, desperate to put as much distance as possible between herself and the people she'd come to care for. But the moment she stepped onto the porch, she stopped short.
Her truck sat in the motel parking lot. Seth was gone. And she was alone.
The future she'd been too afraid to hope for had slipped away.
Chapter 27
Shane remained in his chair long after the back door slammed shut.
