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His stomach was too knotted up to take more than a few plain crackers for lunch, and he barely managed choking those down with some ginger ale. Ramie had already left, whether for work, shopping or lunch with a girlfriend, he didn’t remember if she’d told him. He kept staring at the time on his phone, watching the minutes tick down. He didn’t want to show up too early for their appointment, and he definitely didn’t want to be late. He also kind of didn’t want to go at all.
In the end, he drove to the ranch and idled just past the entrance with music blasting until it was closer to one. He pulled up in front of the bunkhouse and barely managed to get the keys back out of the ignition with his trembling hand. Somehow he got the keys into his pocket, climbed out of the car, and made sure his phone was on him. Not that he planned on calling anyone. After this conversation, he might not have anyone close by to call for help or commiseration.
In that moment, Wyatt really wanted to talk to his mom. To get her advice, her blessing, her confession, anything. But he couldn’t. She was gone and he missed her more than anything in the world—except for Jackson. Jackson was still alive but he might as well be on a different continent for as far apart as Wyatt felt from him right now.
Brand opened the bunkhouse door before Wyatt could knock, and he gave Wyatt a familiar smile. Too fucking familiar and not because he’d seen it a lot these last two months. He saw it in the mirror when he smiled at himself.
“Hey, come on into my office,” Brand said. So calm and patient that Wyatt wanted to punch him and scream his secret to the sky.
Instead, Wyatt followed Brand across the living room and into his office. Brand left the door open, so Wyatt assumed Hugo wasn’t home and about to bear witness to this. To the moment when Wyatt went against everything his family had ever taught him and confessed to a huge, life-altering secret. Witness to the implosion of the wonderful life Wyatt had created here at Woods Ranch. Despite Ramie’s reassurances, Wyatt wouldn’t believe in a positive outcome until it happened.
Now or never.
“So you wanted to talk about your work progress, right?” Brand asked as he sat behind his desk. “I admit I’m not overly fond of your record of minor injuries, but some folk can’t help being clumsy.”
“Yeah, I do my best.” Wyatt stood behind one of the chairs, unable to sit himself, positive his entire body would vibrate apart at any moment and break the chair along with it. “Not to get hurt but to not get hurt. Um.”
“Well, apart from that I think you’re making great progress. Jackson has nothing but good reports as you learn new skills, and he thinks with time you’ll be a great asset to us here at Woods Ranch. Actually, with Alan coming back soon and on light duty, I might pair you two up for a while. He’s been in the life a long time like Jackson.”
“Right.” Even if Brand didn’t fire him after this conversation, it was unlikely Jackson would want to continue mentoring Wyatt.
“Is everything okay, Wyatt? You seem really nervous about something. You’re not thinking of quitting, are you?”
“No. No, I don’t want to quit, not at all. I just...um.”
Brand stood and circled the desk, lips pursed and eyebrows slanted. He urged Wyatt to sit and then perched on the chair beside him. “If you’re having some kind of personal issue, you can talk to me. I’m your boss but I can still be a friend if you need one.”
“You might not feel that way in a few minutes.”
“Why? You didn’t do anything illegal, did you?”
“No.” At least, he was pretty sure lying the way he had wasn’t illegal. He’d been honest on his application forms.
“Then what’s going on? If you’re in trouble we can help.”
“I’m not in trouble. There’s just something I lied about when I moved here, and after Jackson talked to Hugo last night, Jackson figured out my secret, and he’s really mad at me for lying, and I told Ramie after she saw how upset I was that Jackson hates me, and I have to come clean about it. With you.”
Brand’s concern had shifted into utter confusion. “Okay, Hugo mentioned he’d spoken to Jackson last night, but how does what they talked about relate to you?”
Relateis the most perfect word ever for this situation.
“Because I moved to Weston to get to know you,” Wyatt said, the words burbling up like acid in his throat. “To see if the stories I’d been told about you and your family were true or false.”
“Me? But why would—?” Brand’s entire face went pale and blank, and Wyatt saw the understanding forming in his eyes. Eyes that seemed to really look at Wyatt, to take in his green eyes and red hair, and all the things he’d inherited from Ginny Foster. “You’re fucking with me right now.”
“I’m not.” Wyatt wasn’t sure if he wanted to throw up, burst into tears, or scream at the sky. “Ginny Foster was my mother. I’m her only child and I never knew my biological father. Not his name, not where he was from, not until these last few years when I started digging. That digging led me to you.”
“Ginny.” He said the name softly, almost reverently, his own eyes glistening. “She’s your mother.”
“Yes.”
“And you’re twenty years old.”
“Yes.” Brand was still scarily pale and seemed likely to topple right out of his own chair if he wasn’t careful. “You think you’re my son.” Not a question.
“Yes. It all fits. My mother was born here, moved away when she was sixteen. Gave birth to me when she was seventeen. She married my stepfather when I was just a kid. My grandparents never talked about their life before I was born, and all I was ever told about my father was that he was selfish. That he gave me up, signed away his rights, and never wanted a thing to do with me. That his whole family was mean and selfish and to forget that side of my family tree.”
“Why didn’t you forget it?”
