My guts twist. It shouldn’t matter, but damn, it does. I clear my throat, trying to break the weight of the moment. “Why didn’t you tell us sooner?”
She shrugs weakly. “Felt like… too much. Like it might make things weird.”
Weird doesn’t cover what’s happening in my chest, but I keep that to myself.
“Well,” Caleb says, voice thick but warm, “I’m honored.”
She smiles at him, and it hits me like a quiet punch. I lean back in my chair, fighting the jab of jealousy lodged under my ribs. I have no claim on Joelle. I know that. But the idea of her choosing his name for her boy while she’s been cradling my face and coming on my fingers. I don’t like it. Not at all.
“So, you want me to stay?”
“Of course,” Caleb says, his mouth running away with him. That’s something we should discuss before he commits. Not that I was going to say any different.
“Both of you,” I add. “That’s what family is supposed to do.”
She looks between us like she can’t quite believe she belongs at this table but wants to. Needs to. And thatsplinter of doubt Caleb shoved into me earlier pushes deeper. Is she open with us because she trusts us, or because she’s desperate for somewhere to land?
She rises to collect her bowl, but Caleb stops her with a hand on her wrist. “You cooked. We’ll clean.”
She blinks, thrown off balance. “Are you sure?”
“Absolutely,” he says.
She looks at me.
“You deserve a break,” I say. “Sit down or go lie down. We got this.”
For the first time all evening, a genuine smile, small, warm, and tired, touches her face. She slips out of the kitchen quietly as Caleb gathers dishes. I stand beside him, rinsing bowls under the faucet.
He nudges me lightly. “You okay?” I don’t answer right away. The truth tastes too raw.
“I didn’t know about the name,” I say.
“I didn’t either.”
“Still…” I scrub a little too hard at the bowl. “Feels like somethin’ I missed.”
Caleb watches me for a long second. “You didn’t miss her, Wade. Back then, you were shouldering the worst of it. You didn’t have a chance to look up and see a girl who was lost. And you’re seeing her now. That’s what’s important.”
I don’t tell him that seeing her is the problem. That wanting her is starting to feel like a need I won’t be able to quench anywhere else. And that now, knowing she named her boy after Caleb, not me, has left me with an ache in my chest I don’t know what to do with.
Chapter 11
Wade
I’m bone tired. The day was hard: fence work, colts acting like the devil settled in their bones, feed bags that seemed heavier with every hour. It was the kind of day that grinds a man down, but none of it sticks once I step out of the shower, dress and walk into the family room.
Joelle’s on the couch, curled on her side, one knee tucked under the other, hair spilling in soft waves across the cushion, and feet bare. My T-shirt hangs loose over her thighs. She has a paperback open in her hand, and the second she looks up, everything inside me tightens.
There’s a softness in her face now. The tears are gone, though I can still see their traces in a faint puffiness around her eyes. She looks pleased to see me, though, which is a big relief after everything.
I hover in the doorway for a second.
“Hey,” she says, voice soft.
Just that one word pulls me in like a rope around mychest.
I drop onto the couch beside her, and she sits up a little, closing her book on her lap. Her fingers toy with the edge of the cover, fidgeting enough for me to notice.
