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TWENTY
Sunny forced himself to take a deep breath and raise his hand to knock on the door. He was back in the bunkhouse. Ford had taken up temporary residence in one of the rooms and Sunny knew this confrontation had to happen. The door eased open, and Ford stared out at him, eyes widening.
“I…uh…what do you go by?”
“Sunny.”
“Ok, Sunny. I’m glad you stopped by. Do you want to come in?” Ford asked stepping back.
That was the last thing he wanted to do, but he did it anyway. Turning he stared at him. “Why did you come here?”
“I don’t have any family left besides my men. I just thought…” He trailed off shaking his head. “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to make things hard for you. I just hoped for a connection.”
“What about your mom?”
“She raised me on her own. Her parents disowned her. She died just before I graduated high school. Her father died this summer. In his will he left me a box of her things, including letters from my…our father. So I looked him up.”
“When did he die?”
“Three weeks ago.”
He was amazed his mother had managed to honor his wishes and leave him out of it.
“Did you get to meet him?”
Ford nodded. “And your mother.”
Sunny bristled at that, but then deflated. What did it matter? He wasn’t planning on reclaiming them.
“I have my family here, and I appreciate what you’re doing for them, but—”
“But you don’t want anything else,” Ford finished. “I understand. I’ll just stay on until all of your team returns home if that’s alright with you? We caught this guy, but there’s still two more men asking questions in town.”
He opened his mouth to refuse but stopped. Was that what he really wanted? Did he want someone coming out here to the ranch when they were short staffed and possibly harassing Laura? She didn’t need that in her condition, and he knew she would never leave Eagle without notice. Hell, Eagle would probably try to talk her into staying.
Which she should, but if she did, he’d have to leave. It was only fair. If he didn’t want to be a part of the kid’s life, he couldn’t stick around and watch.
Something felt hollow inside him at that thought. He realized he’d been staring at Ford, whose eyes were so much like his own. No one who saw them would dispute that they were brothers.
“What will you do when you leave here?”
He shrugged. “Apparently my mom had an estranged brother as well. He’s planning to leave me a hotel he owns, I guess. I’ve got to figure out what to do with that, then I’ll go from there.”
Sunny took a deep breath. “So what do you want from me?”
Ford shrugged. “Nothing, really. If you wanted to get to know me, I would like that, but I won’t try to force anything.”
It was hard to wrap his mind around someone he was related to wanting to know him. Every experience in his life told him it wasn’t possible, but here was someone who said different. What did that mean? He shook his head, and Ford’s mouth dropped into a tight line.
“Sorry. I wasn’t saying no. I’m just…I don’t know yet. I’m dealing with a lot right now.”
“Besides what happened this morning?” Ford asked, his eyebrows drawing together.
Sunny grimaced. “Yeah, that’s why I’m glad you’re staying. I can’t right now.”
“Okay…”
He scrubbed a hand over his face and started to turn away. No way was he telling this stranger all his problems. Somehow, though, when he opened his mouth to say that, the whole story poured out instead.
