“I like it here.”I smile at mama, and then my smile grows even wider when movement catches my eye, and a group of cowboys come riding through the gate toward the stable.
“Have you told him you’re in love with him?”
I turn to her, my smile vanishing.I debate refuting her statement, but a part of me doesn’t want to.A part of me is tired of running from my feelings and playing it safe.“That obvious?”
“I won’t pretend to know what goes on in my son’s head—or his love life—but I’ve never seen that man look at another woman the way he looks at you.And I never saw you look at your husband that way.”
“I loved my husband,” I say, somewhat coldly.I would have put up with the dumb son of a bitch forever if he hadn’t left me first.“I was loyal.I kept my vows.Eddie was the one who left us.”
“I know, sweet girl, but you didn’t look at him the way you look at my son.Do you believe in soul mates, Daisy?”
“I don’t know what I believe any more.”
“Well, I do.I always have, and I know soul mates when I see them.”She smiles sadly.“But more importantly, what doyousee when you look at my son?”
“I see my future.I see generations of Winchesters to come.I see the three of us happy here and more babies on the damn way, but I don’t want him to wake up one day and feel like he’s been saddled with a wife and kid he never wanted.I know he never saw us in his plans, and Waylon and I are kind of a package deal.”
“Oh, honey, one thing I know about my son, is he won’t ever do anything he don’t want to.They keep me in the dark about a lot of things on this ranch, why you needed to move out of your beautiful home in town, for instance,” she says with a reproachful look, “But one thing I’m never wrong on, is who’s forever, and who’s not.When I say you’re family, it’s not because you work for us, it’s because I know better than anyone what future daughter-in-law material looks like.I’ve just been waiting for my son to figure it out too.”
“Everything is just so ...uncertain.”I bury my face in my hands to cover my tears.“I don’t think I could handle the rejection if he decides he doesn’t want me.”
“Only an idiot would turn you down, Daisy.And I didn’t raise no fools.”Mama sets her mug on the coffee table and takes my hand.“Regardless of whether or not he does figure it out, you and Waylon will always have a place at my table.Winchesters don’t leave family.”
At those words, something inside my chest breaks free, some old hurt, rejection, disappointment, all of it just melts away, because theyarefamily, no matter how much my inner antagonist protests.West is family, and I finally feel as if I’ve found home after a lifetime of searching.
Chapter Twenty-eight
West
“Daisy’s looking freakinghot tonight,” Lemon says from the booth beside me at Earl’s.It took a hell of a lot of convincing to get Dais out tonight without Waylon, but Lemon had plans and—where my sister is concerned—I learned long ago not to interfere.Lemon Winchester could talk a dog off a meat wagon.
I follow my sister’s gaze, as if I haven’t been ogling Daisy all fucking night.She’s across the room, tearing up the dance floor with Wyatt and Zadie.I smile as I watch Daisy laugh louder than I’ve seen in days.My sister’s not wrong.Daisy’s always been a small-town smoke show, but now, with her voluptuous curves and her lush tits spilling over that pink dress that’s just a little too tight, looking at her, I think I’ve died and gone to heaven.Her eyes are smokey and rimmed with makeup and her full lips are painted a nude pink that I can’t stop looking at.Absolute fucking smoke show.When I realize Lemon, Colt, Cash and Wade are all staring at me, waiting for a response, I sip my beer and clear my throat.
“Lemon, you wouldn’t be tryin’ to meddle in my affairs, would you?”
My sister frowns, but it’s her voice pitched three decibels higher than usual that lets me know I’m in deep trouble.“Who said anything about meddling?And what affairs?You’re not stupid enough to still be screwing Alexis, right?”
