"You look like you saw a ghost," Cole said. "Did you fix the sink?"
Ryder leaned against a support beam. He felt heavy. The gravity in the barn seemed to have doubled.
"I fixed the sink," Ryder said. His voice sounded hollow. "And I found out why you warned me about Elena."
Cole went still. His eyes narrowed.
"What did you do, Ryder?"
"I went into the spare room," Ryder confessed. "Leo’s room. I saw a picture, Cole. A newborn picture."
Cole didn't speak. He just watched him, his face unreadable.
"September 14th," Ryder said. "He's mine."
Cole let out a long breath. He didn't look surprised. He looked... resigned.
"You knew," Ryder accused, stepping forward, his crutch thumping in the dirt. "You knew and you didn't tell me."
"I didn'tknow," Cole corrected calmly. "I suspected. The math was always there, Ryder. But Elena never confirmed it. And I respected her privacy."
"Privacy? It's my son!"
"Is he?" Cole challenged. He threw the pitchfork into a bale. "Biology makes you a donor, Ryder. It doesn't make you a father. Being there makes you a father. And where were you? You were in Vegas. You were in Cheyenne. You were everywhere except here."
"I didn't know!"
"Because you left!" Cole shouted, his voice echoing in the rafters. "You cut the line. You changed your number. You deleted us. What was she supposed to do? Chase you down? Send a subpoena to the rodeo arena?"
Ryder flinched. The truth was a physical blow.
"I would have come back," Ryder whispered. "If I had known... I would have come back."
"Would you?" Cole asked softly. He walked over, standing toe-to-toe with his brother. "Or would you have resented her for clipping your wings right when you were starting to fly?"
Ryder opened his mouth to argue, but no words came out. He thought about the buckle. He thought about the roar of the crowd. He thought about the intoxicating freedom of the road.
If Elena had called him five years ago and saidI'm pregnant, would he have turned the truck around? Or would he have sent a check and kept driving?
The uncertainty made him sick.
"She's coming," Cole said, looking out the barn door.
A car was tearing up the driveway. Elena’s SUV.
"This is it," Cole said. "The reckoning. Don't blow it, Ryder. For God's sake, don't make it worse."
Cole walked out the back door of the barn, leaving Ryder alone in the center aisle.
Ryder turned to face the front.
The SUV screeched to a halt. The door flew open.
Elena marched into the barn. She wasn't wearing her white coat. She was wearing a fierce, protective rage that made her look ten feet tall.
"Where is he?" she demanded.
Ryder stepped into the light.
