John gestures to the chair opposite him. “Sit.”
She stand there frozen. I put a hand on her shoulder and gently push her down. She sits.
Her breathing is too fast, her pulse visible at the base of her throat. I should step away now. Give her space. Give myself space from the things that want to claw their way out of me around her.
I don’t. As much as I want to reassure her, I need to protect her from anyone that would hurt her. Including herself, even if it is unknowingly.
John rests both hands on the desk. “Tell me everything.”
Peyton’s voice comes out thin. “I didn’t go there to upset anyone.”
Pace snorts. “Could’ve fooled them.”
“They are the ones who let me talk,” she snaps back. “They could’ve told me to leave, but they didn’t.”
“It doesn’t matter,” I bite out. “You trespassed into people’s grief. Into their anger. Into the place where everything about Sadie sits like a damn landmine.”
Her eyes flash up to mine. “I didn’t trespass. The gate to the ranch was open.”
“Because they were expecting the ranch hands,” Pace mutters. “Not Sadie’s daughter.”
Her face twists. He didn’t call her theirgranddaughter. JustSadie’s daughter. Because to them, that is what she is andnothing more. To them, she isn’t kin. She’s the proof of what Sadie did. Proof of the betrayal.
I step in closer, lowering my voice, letting her feel the full weight of what she walked into. “You went somewhere dangerous. Not because of the land, Peyton, but because of the people. Because of what they think your mother did.”
Her breath hitches. “What did she do?”
John looks like he might crack a tooth from clenching so hard.
Pace glances at him but John keeps quiet.
Peyton turns back to me looking desperate, angry and lost. “Someone please tell me.”
I crouch down in front of her seat so she can’t look away. So she has no choice but to face me.
“Are you sure?” I ask softly knowing that the truth, the real truth could shatter everything she has built up about her mother. Sadie may not have won any mother of the year awards, but she was still Peyton’s mother. The one who raised her.
Her eyes glisten. “Yes.”
“Then stop running headfirst into the past like it won’t bite back.”
She opens her mouth to argue, but I am already shaking my head.
“You think we are trying to control you.” I lean in close enough that she feels the heat off my skin. “But we are trying to keep you safe.”
He breath catches and she looks away, jaw tight.
I hook two fingers under her chin and guide her gaze back to mine.
“Look at me.”
Slowly, she lifts her eyes to mine.
Her pupils dilate, lip trembling. And for a split second, the air between us crackles with the same reckless and electric energy we’ve had together since first meeting.
John clears his throat sharply. Knowing that I have claimed his daughter and seeing are two different things. As the soon to be head of the family, he has no say in my claiming her, but it doesn’t mean he has to be fully on board with it.
“Colter.”
