But he answered her truthfully. ‘My sister thought she might have had some postpartum depression …’ He shook his head. ‘But Sierra didn’t know Shannon like I did.’ Mav remembered how upset Shannon had been when she’d told him she was pregnant. ‘I think we fell pregnant when she didn’t want to, and she panicked. She made decisions that took her further and further from her modelling career.’
‘She’s a model?’ Nina asked. Before Mav could reply, recognition dawned in her eyes. ‘Shannon? Shannon Carlyle?’
‘Yeah.’
‘I didn’t even know she had a kid.’
‘Not many people do. According to Sierra, she’ll occasionally screenshot a Hunt Ranch photo of Poppy and share it with a caption about how big her baby’s getting, but other than that, she’s largely out of the picture.’
‘Why don’t you hate her?’ Nina asked. ‘When you talk about her, you sound sad. But not angry.’
‘I didn’t help her enough,’ he admitted. ‘I tried. But I always seemed to fall short. I never really saw myself having kids with her specifically, but from the moment she told me she was pregnant, I was—’ he shook his head, searching for the right word before settling on: ‘thrilled. And I don’t know … Maybe I pressured her. That’s what she said, right before she left. That I had pressured her into having Poppy, into getting engaged …
‘But Shannon had never wanted that future. She wanted the city penthouse and glamorous modelling career and late nights at cocktail bars. I wanted the exact opposite – the ranch and the work and the big family.
‘And, yeah, I think she struggled as much as any new mom those first months.’ He had to catch his own shudder. ‘It’s a rough time, for anyone. But I think, for Shannon, more than that, those first few months showed her how much you have to give once you have a kid. She panicked. She couldn’t look at it as a temporary stage, the newborn stage. Couldn’t imagine a future where Poppy would be old enough to be in daycare and she could get back to her career …’
‘So, she filed for divorce?’
Mav took a sip from his own coffee. ‘We were never married. We had only been dating about six months when she fell pregnant. We got engaged,’ he offered. ‘But marriage was my idea of trying to fix everything. I wanted her to know that I’d always stick, you know.’
‘Did you love her?’
Mav thought about that. He wasn’t sure anymore. They had said the words to each other, and at the time he had thought he had. ‘I’m not sure,’ he admitted finally. ‘I wanted to, especially after I had proposed. I’m the result of one of those age-old romances,’ he explained, ‘and I always wanted the marriage my parents had. But I didn’t feel heartbroken when she left. I felt ashamed. And embarrassed. Hurt. Lacking.’
He took a moment to process that, to think about how much of his grief and pain had been shame and pride rather than true heartbreak or betrayal. ‘And Poppy barely gave me time to focus on it.’
‘I’m sorry. That sounds rough.’
‘It was,’ he admitted. ‘Sometimes it still is. But it was also the best thing that ever happened to me. Because I got Poppy without a messy fight.’
As if their conversation had summoned her, Poppy’s feet sounded on the stairs again.
‘Does she ever call? Or visit?’ Nina dropped her voice.
Mav was too busy watching her as she took a glass down from the cabinet and filled it halfway with apple juice from the fridge to give her a proper answer, and only managed a distracted: ‘Not really.’
‘I found it!’ Poppy came in wielding her hairbrush like a sword. ‘I thought it was lost. But it was in my Dreamhouse.’
Maverick distractedly held out his hand for the brush, but Poppy didn’t even notice. She went straight to Nina and passed it to her.
Nina took it without a word and passed Poppy the glass of apple juice in exchange.
‘Thanks,’ Poppy chirped. But she turned serious eyes on Mav. ‘Am I allowed the glass?’
‘Oh.’ Nina turned concerned eyes on Maverick. ‘I didn’t realize …’
As they both stood there, staring at him, Maverick felt a pinch in his chest. It was so strong, so tight, that he chose to ignore it. ‘It’s okay,’ he said, knowing that Poppy would have to transition from her plastic cups sooner or later. But he reminded her, ‘Be careful, okay?’
‘’Kay!’ Poppy took the apple juice in one hand and Nina’s wrist in the other.
Maverick watched them go in stunned silence. He wasn’t exactly sure what had just happened but figured at some point he’d have to deal with the fact that after just twelve hours, Nina Keller already knew more about Poppy than Shannon ever had.
It disconcerted him. He and Nina getting to know one another was one thing but inviting her into Poppy’s life might have been a mistake, especially when she was only at the ranch temporarily.
Unsure of the new territory he was navigating, Mav pushed it from his mind for now.
He picked up his coffee and followed them outside.
