Trish, and her babies, had stolen his heart without him even realizing he was losing it. And now he had to make sure that he didn’t lose her, too. He didn’t want her to sign off her share and leave the Four Corners, because then there would never be the chance of her falling in love with him, too. Of her trusting him with not just her heart but with her children as well.
But Nolan had offered his assurances, and Brett had a feeling that the man spoke the truth. It might not be pretty, that truth, but he wasn’t going to lie.
So Trish’s share of the ranch should be safe.
And Nolan Stokes was Brett’s older brother.
* * *
Trish was usedto Brett supporting her, but now she was the one trying to support him. He looked like his legs had been kicked out from under him. All the Lemmons and even the Havens looked that way: totally shocked.
“I’m sorry,” she apologized to all of them like she just had to Brett. “I had no idea what Nolan’s connection was to all of you.”
But now it made sense why he’d sought her out and warned her about the Lemmons. He was holding a grudge against them. He must have thought that they’d rejected him when he was a baby. But it was clear that they had had no idea he even existed. Sue was the only one who’d known. Not Bob and certainly none of his family.
“You don’t need to apologize,” Brett said. “Of course you didn’t know…” And there he was again, her white knight rushing to her rescue, defending her even from herself.
Was it any wonder that she’d fallen for him?
But she couldn’t tell him that, not now when he had to be reeling, as everyone clearly was, over Nolan Stokes’s shocking revelation. All she could do was be here for him as he’d been for her since she’d shown up at the Four Corners late that night so many weeks ago.
Had she fallen for him then? At first sight?
Or had she fallen for him when he’d caught her on the stairs in the bunkhouse? Or when he’d carried her to his truck and into the ER when she’d thought she was in labor? Or had it been when he wrapped his arms around her on the wagon?
She didn’t know the exact moment that she’d fallen, but she knew that she was definitely in love. Real love. The kind she’d never felt before.
The kind that might actually last…if she could take that risk. Would Brett be willing to take it, too? Or was he already overwhelmed with everything that was going on?
And how determined was he to stick to his original vow of putting the ranch first, before himself, before marriage and children?
Could he come to love not just her but her babies as well? She couldn’t be with someone who wouldn’t be able to love them as much as she did. She knew all too well how much it hurt to have a parent who didn’t unconditionally care about you.
As hard as she’d fallen for Brett, she had to keep her feelings to herself if he was still determined to stay single and childless. She couldn’t make things any more awkward than they already were at the moment.
* * *
Bob probably shouldhave raced after Nolan Stokes, the son he hadn’t known he had, as Nolan rushed out of the house. But he hadn’t been able to move yet then. He’d been utterly frozen with shock. But now, as Sue started to push through the people on her way out the door, he could move. And he chased after her.
“Where are you going?” he asked her as he caught up to her on the front porch.
She shook her head, tears flowing freely down her face. “I can’t…”
“Sue, I didn’t know,” he said. “Why didn’t you tell me?”
She shook her head again.
“Please,” he said. “You owe me an explanation.”
She turned on him then, her pale eyes ice cold. “I owe you?”
“You didn’t tell me you were pregnant.”
“Yes, I did,” she said.
He shook his head, but she didn’t seem to notice as she continued, “And that was hard to do with the way that you avoided me after the prom. You got what you wanted and then just never called again. You left for college without so much as a goodbye.” She stared at him, fury written all over her features.
Heat rushed to his face. “I acted that way because I was embarrassed,” he admitted. “I didn’t know the punch was spiked at prom. I got so drunk that I don’t remember anything about that night.”
