She was so fucking beautiful.I’d spent hours rememorizing every inch of her face, relearning each expression, trying to find the little things that made her happy now.Not much did, unless it involved Ernesto.For him, she had soft smiles, affection glazing her eyes.
For Ryder and me, when we weren’t keeping a low profile, she had only cold glares and vacant stares.As if she were looking through us, not at us.It would have been better if she had yelled and thrown things when she saw us.At least then we would know she still felt something, even if it was pissed-the-fuck-off.
“I know you’re there, Kane,” she said without lifting her gaze from the fire.She took another sip from her mug.It was the herbal stuff she liked that helped her sleep.“I’ve been waiting for you.”
Surprised, I crossed to the chair beside hers.Sitting, I let my knee brush her leg.Hazel eyes narrowed on me before moving pointedly back to the flames.“Don’t you have a wife to get home to?I mean, Ryder is rarely here.I’m assuming he’s off playing house with his bride.But you’re either skulking in the shadows or down in the barn.Never took you for the cowboy type.”
“I don’t have a wife,” I told her.“Neither does Ryder.And he’s always here.”
Her snort was damned adorable.Fuck, I’d missed that.And a thousand other things.“Sure.”
“What do you doubt,mo réiltín?”
She rolled her eyes.“All of it.”
“We signed the annulments yesterday,” I told her and waited for her gaze to jump to mine—disbelief warring with hope in those pretty eyes—before continuing.“And Ryder is always within shouting distance of you, every minute of the day.”
“Whatever,” she muttered, slouching a little in her chair.
“You were waiting for me?”I redirected her, not wanting to argue with her.
“Yeah,” she sighed, pulling something from her hoodie pocket.“Figured I should be a responsible mom for a minute.I’ve been putting this off for a while.”
Suddenly, my heart was racing, my eyes glued to the white envelope in her hand.The seal was broken, and whatever was inside had already been unfolded and refolded multiple times by how worn the creases were.Her pregnancy was the proverbial elephant in the room no one had acknowledged, not even Ernesto.He’d been following his daughter’s lead.
“What do you have there,mo réiltín?”
She offered the envelope to me.I took it but couldn’t pull out the documents.Vega took another sip of her tea, staying silent, letting me decide when or if I wanted to look at whatever she’d given me.
“Ryder should be here for this,” I choked out after a full minute passed without opening the envelope.
“If, as you claim, he’s always within shouting distance, then he already is,” she challenged.
“Ry!”I called, not even glancing over when I heard his footsteps coming from the line of trees beside the house.
Hands stuffed into the pockets of his coat, Ryder sat down on the other side of Vega.Stretching out his long legs, he kept his eyes on our star and not the envelope that I was clutching between my fingers.
“Is the baby a boy or a girl?”I asked, putting off the inevitable.
“Just look, Kane,” she said with another roll of her eyes.
“You already know what this says?”She nodded.Without hesitating another moment, I ripped the paper twice, then threw the pieces into the flames.As the paternity results turned to ash, Ryder let out a heavy breath, and I continued, “There is no his or mine, Vega.Only ours.It doesn’t matter what that piece of paper said.Not to me.Not to him.You needed to know, fine.You know.But that stays with you.”
“I figured you’d want to let your wife know if you’re going to be a father or not,” she snarked.
“Iamgoing to be a father.So is he.”I leaned forward.“But just to be clear, I don’t have a wife.And neither does Ryder.”
“You did, though,” she argued.“Both of you.”
“Not by choice.”
“There were plenty of choices.No one held a gun to either of your heads and made you say ‘I do.’”
“No, it was worse.There was one held to yours—you just couldn’t see it because we tried to hide it from you.Everything we did was to protect you.”
“You made me your whore to protect me?”
“Fuck,” Ryder hissed, stabbing his fingers through his hair.“You were no one’s whore, baby.”
