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“The other night. You’ve known for days, Wyatt.Days. I honestly don’t know what to do with that. Our entire relationship has been built around a lie.”
“No it wasn’t. Maybe our work relationship was built on a few fibs, but I was always myself with you. What we feel for each other isn’t a lie. I care about you so much, Jackson. I think I’m in love with you, but I’ve never been in love before so I’m not totally sure what it feels like, but it’s there. We can fix this.”
“Can we?” The absolute grief in those two words made Wyatt want to cry. “How can I ever trust you again? I only ever asked you for one thing. And I get that you have your reasons, but I have mine, too. And I can’t do this.”
“Jackson.”
“Don’t call me.” He turned and strode toward the door. Put his hand on it, then looked over his shoulder. “You have until work starts Tuesday morning to come clean with Brand, or I’ll tell him.”
Wyatt’s insides shriveled into a cold, tight ball as Jackson left. Walked away from what they’d briefly had and stalked to his truck. Wyatt’s ingrained habit of keeping secrets had just imploded the best thing in his life. He was only vaguely aware of sitting on the couch and of the house getting dark all around him. His stomach growled once but he couldn’t imagine putting food in it.
At some point, he curled up around a pillow, his body shaking, as if crying for him because his dry eyes wouldn’t. The life he’d built here was going to crash and burn, and he wasn’t ready to say goodbye to it. Not to Jackson, Brand, Ramie, and everyone else at the ranch. But somehow Jackson had found out Brand had a kid once. And for the first time since landing in Weston, Wyatt had been completely honest. He could hear his stepfather’s voice in the back of his mind, berating him for sharing a secret, demanding he look at all the hurt he’d caused, and threatening him with the horse whip if Wyatt ever did it again.
Where do I go once this is over?
Home was out of the question. He’d never live this down. Sure, he’d succeeded in his goal of finding his biological father, but he’d also failed at so much more. He was still a clumsy cowboy with a lot to learn, and he’d completely obliterated the first romantic relationship of his life. And Ramie? Would she kick him out once she learned the truth?
He had no idea.
Time passed, and too soon Ramie let herself inside. She gave a startled yelp at the sight of him on the couch, simply lying there and doing nothing in the semidark. “Hey, are you sick?”
“No.” Heartsick, but that didn’t count.
“Then what’s wrong? It’s not like you to sit around in the dark like a bridge troll.”
“I lied.”
She perched on the edge of the couch by his feet, eyebrows furrowed. “You lied about not being sick?”
“I lied about why I came here.”
“Home from work?”
Man, she really gave people the benefit of the doubt, and he adored it about her. He’d also hate losing such a genuine friend. “No, Ramie.” He dragged himself upright, his entire body aching with grief, and he couldn’t look higher than her chin when he said, “I lied about why I came to Weston. I mean, I did want to learn the cowboy life, that was true. But I applied to Woods Ranch for a very specific reason.”
She tilted her head, wariness coloring over some of her confusion. “They were hiring.”
“Yes, they were, but that was an actual coincidence. They were hiring exactly when I planned to apply. To Woods Ranch specifically, because I wanted to get to know the family. Brand, in particular.”
“Why Brand in particular?” All the tumblers clicked into place quickly, and Wyatt saw the moment she understood what he hadn’t yet said. She paled considerably, her lips parting in a shocked O. “You are shitting me right now.”
“I’m not.” Something thick clogged his throat; it didn’t get any easier to say, and he had no idea how he’d get the words out when he confronted Brand. “I suspected Brand was my birth father. It’s why I came to Weston.”
“Wow.” She made several different faces he had no hope of understanding. “So you came here to what? Pull some kind of long-con on Brand and his family?”
“No, I didn’t come here to con anyone. Ramie, my whole life my grandparents have told me how horrible my father’s family is. That my father was selfish and didn’t want me, and I believed that because why would they lie? I needed to see for myself what kind of man he was and that’s what I’ve been doing. Brand is nothing like the monster I was told about. I really like him and his family. They’ve been nothing but amazing to me, especially Rose.”
“So when I told you about my daughter and about Brand having a kid, that’s when you knew for sure?”
“Yes. I’ve been waffling over what to do for days. I know I need to tell Brand the truth, but then Jackson found out about Brand’s baby somehow, and he put it together with my story about being here, and we had a fight tonight. I think I lost him.” His voice cracked.
Ramie scooted closer and pulled him into a tight hug. He melted against her chest, grateful for the silent support when his body seemed ready to shake apart and leave his entire world in jagged pieces on the ground.
“Just so we’re clear,” she said after a few minutes, “Iammad at you for lying to me about why you’re here. But I also understand why you did it. Sometimes we don’t make rational decisions when family is concerned.”
“We really don’t.” He told her a bit more about his upbringing and the ways he was taught to keep secrets at all costs. They moved apart while he spoke, but she kept hold of one of his hands the entire time and he adored her for that single point of contact. Her dark eyes glittered with tears but she never cried. “I was so fucking turned around when I got here. I wanted to be honest but I was scared of getting in trouble, and I kept talking myself out of telling Brand.”
“Why do you think you’d get in trouble? Family means everything to Brand. He’ll probably be upset that you were under his nose for two months, but he’s not going to fire you or run you out of town.”
