Inside the pool house, I pace back and forth, my thoughts swirling in a chaotic mess.
He has a daughter.
A little girl.
Why didn’t he tell me about her?
Why did he look so mad that I was reading to her?
And then the biggest question of all crashes into me like a freight train.
Where the hell is Willow’s mother?
I pull out my phone and dial Shawna’s number, but it goes straight to voicemail. Of course—it’s barely five in the morning and I guarantee her, and her friends are hungover or still asleep. I groan in frustration and start leaving a message, but a voice behind me cuts through my rambling thoughts.
“Come on, Teagan. I’ll give you a ride home,” Cody says softly, standing in the doorway of the pool house. He’s fully dressed now, his truck keys dangling from his hand in an invitation.
I glance at him, hesitating for a moment before nodding. Right now, all I want is to get out of here and clear my head.
“Okay…”
Chapter 15 – Teagan
The car ride with Cody is heavy with silence, the kind that presses down on your chest and makes it hard to breathe. My mind churns, replaying every moment from the past 72 hours—how Wilder Cameron waltzed into my life, stole my heart, and then shattered it in one swift, blindsiding move. And now, this. A wildcard pulled that I never saw coming, with no explanation to make sense of why he hid it.
Cody clears his throat, breaking the quiet as he steers the truck off the Ashwood Ranch driveway and onto the main road. The tires crunch against the gravel, a stark reminder that I’m leaving the property and probably won’t be returning to Ashwood ranch ever again.
This morning, I was thinking about a future with Wilder and a way to make things work these next four years. Now, I’m trying to figure out how I’m going to let this weekend go when I move back to Houston with so many unanswered questions and the pain of losing something I never had, filling my heart.
Maybe Cody can help me with these questions, but right now, I’m not sure if I’m ready to hear the truth.
“You know, he wasn’t always this way. Quiet, closed off and difficult to read. Slow to open up to people. He used to be much more outgoing and trusting towards new people, though I suppose it isn’t too surprising that he didn’t tell you about Willow.”
“There’s usually always a story for the reason someone retreats inward,” I respond flatly. “I’m guessing his has something to do with her.”
Cody nods. “Look, he shouldn’t have freaked out the way he just did but I think that you should know, he’s never brought a woman back to the ranch to spend the night before. He’d never bring someone to Ashwood knowing there was a chance that they might run into Willow. I know it probably doesn't feel like it right now, but you must be something special to Wilder even if y’all barely know each other.”
I’m quiet. I’ve known him for three days. That’s it. I truly don’t know anything about him and yet I was getting ahead of myself, playing ‘house’ and thinking that my sister’s bachelorette week could have extended beyond just that and into a long-distance relationship. Feeling like what we had wasreal.
“I’m headed back to Houston in three days and will be in school for the next four years. It really doesn’t matter what might have been between us,” I respond, because I can already feel the walls that I’d let down when I’d opened up to him yesterday being built back up. There’s a reason I keep the story about my past a secret because no one has been strong enough to help me carry it. And despite my scathing words, and bitterness over how this all ended so abruptly, I don’t mean a single word of what I just said.
Cody smiles as he casts me a sideways knowing glance. He knows that itdoesmatter to me what was between us. It matters too much.
"Where's Willow's mother?" I ask because I at least need to know that.
Cody sighs. “I’m going to tell you this because you deserve to know. Wilder is so damn good at self-sabotaging anything good that comes his way because he thinks he doesn’t deserve happiness anymore. But I know my twin brother, and this is something he likely wanted to tell you, yet didn’t know where to begin. For most of us in life, we just need someone to hear our story and sit with it to help carry the burden. Don’t you think, Teagan?”
I think quietly about Cody’s words. He’s not wrong. Part of the healing is simply being heard which is what I’d thought Wilder had offered me yesterday while I shared about my past.
“Yeah, I agree…” my voice trails off into hesitation.
He sighs. “A little over two years ago, Wilder met a girl named Mercedes Evans. They were young and fell for each other hard. Her family had just moved from California to Lonestar Junction for work, and she was headed to the local community college to study education. She was quiet. A writer who wrote romance novels as a means of escaping her abusive past. About six months into their relationship, Mercedes and Wilder mutually decided that there was no future for them and decided to amicably break up. He was never like me, bouncing from one girl to the next, but he liked going out, partying, normal stuff for a twenty-year-old guy, and Mercedes spent a lot of her time at home writing and reading. She agreed that she didn't see a future for them either and wanted to focus on her studies, her budding author career, and finding someone a little more well suited for her. They didn’t keep in touch after they broke up, but two months later, she came to the ranch to tell him that she was pregnant with his child.”
I gasp, “Oh, no…”
“Wilder had moved on, and he certainly wasn’t in love with her or had any desire to marry her, but he decided to step up any way and moved out of my parents’ house at just twenty-years-old. He got an apartment in town and moved her in with himso that he could take care of her and the baby once she was born. He provided for them through her entire pregnancy and loved her in his own unique way. Willow was born on October 1, at 10:01 a.m. and Wilder was thrilled. She looked just like our mom, Jovie. Brown hair, big, bright green eyes, and the cutest pudgy nose. Mercedes seemed to be accepting of her new role as a mother and was adjusting to life with Willow. She decided to get back to taking college courses after two weeks post-partum and they fell into their new routine as a family of three.”
He clears his throat before continuing and I can tell this next part isn’t going to be good.
