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The only reason Wyatt responded instead of fleeing the office was because Brand sounded more curious than angry. “Because Mom died when I was sixteen.”
“Fuck, I’m sorry. She was a special girl.”
“Yeah. She was an amazing mom.” Part of him didn’t want to share this with Brand, but Brand was paying attention, not getting mad and demanding he leave. “It was liver cancer, and she might have survived if she’d matched for a transplant, but she didn’t. I had a huge argument with her parents about biology. Asked what I was supposed to do if I ever got sick like that and needed a transplant. That I wanted to know my biological father, and not just as a backup for potential illness, but because he was half of me. I thought I deserved to know who he was, even if he was a bad person.”
Brand rubbed his eyes with one hand. “I knew Ginny’s parents hated me but I never imagined they would try to poison you against me and my family. Not that I’m all that surprised. Not after how everything went down.”
“Ramie told me a little about that.”
“Ramie did?” His eyes flashed with anger. “Why?”
“It wasn’t really her fault. Last week was the birthday of the baby she gave up and she was really down about it, and she blurted out the thing you two had in common. Giving up a kid. Told me a little about it, like how my grandparents threatened to bring rape charges if you didn’t sign away your rights.”
“Yeah, that definitely happened.” More anger brightened his cheeks and blazed in his eyes. “I would have done my part. Stuck by you and Ginny, but her parents were too embarrassed by the whole thing. They wanted to move away and leave behind the stigma of a teen pregnancy. I always wondered if Ginny kept the baby or gave it up for adoption, and if this is real then I guess I know the answer.”
“If this is real? Do you think I’d be here baring my soul to you if I thought it wasn’t? Everything fucking fits. And now I hate that I lied, because I really like this job, and I really like Jackson, and I don’t want to lose everything I’ve built here.”
“Wait, what does Jackson have to do with all this?”
He’d already laid down the dynamite and connected the fuse. Might as well press the button on the detonator. “Because we’ve been secretly dating almost since I was hired, and he knew I’d come here to Claire County to find my biological father, and after he talked to Hugo last night and learned your secret, he put it all together. We had a fight, and I’m pretty sure he dumped me, and I had to confess to you, so if I’m fired now that you know the whole truth I will go.”
Brand blinked hard. “You think I’m gonna fire you because you might be my kid and are dating my friend?”
“Aren’t you?”
“Wyatt, I am trying to process this. Honestly, I don’t know what I think or what I want to do. It’s just all so surreal.”
“Tell me about it.” He picked at a loose thread on the inseam of his jeans. “For what it’s worth, I am sorry for deceiving you. Maybe another guy would have just knocked on your door and told you what I suspected, but my family is all about secrets. Keeping secrets. Not telling, or else. And I also wanted to see if the stories about you were true before I said anything.”
“Are they? True?”
“No. No, you’re a pretty cool guy, and your family is awesome. You aren’t the Manson family. You’re the Woods family and I like you guys. Especially Rose. Her kindness reminds me of Mom sometimes.”
“My mom loves her kids and grandkids without condition. Doesn’t surprise me Ginny was like that. I’m glad to know she kept the baby. Raised you. You’re a pretty decent person.”
“When I’m not lying about my reasons for being here? Or at least leaving out part of the truth. I did want to learn how to live this life, be a cowboy. That wasn’t a lie.”
Brand frowned. “You just left out the whole part of you suspecting I was your bio dad.”
“Yeah.”
He stood and moved to the window behind his desk, arms crossed, expression flat now. “I wanna believe you about all this and just accept it as truth.”
“But I’ve lied already and you don’t trust me.”
“I’m sorry.”
“It’s okay, I deserve that. We can do any kind of DNA test you want. We can confirm it for both of us.”
“Okay. You good with doing it right now?”
Wyatt stared dumbly for a beat. “Right now?”
“Yeah. I’ll drive us to the hospital. I mean, you can get those DNA test kits and mail them in, but I’d rather go to a real lab and do it that way. Plus, we’ll get the results in days rather than weeks.”
“That’s fine.” He was still a touch stunned Brand was being so calm about all this, instead of running him off the land with a shotgun.
Stop it, that’s your grandparents talking. Brand isn’t the villain.
