Page 150 of Stay Wild Darlin’

I didn’t say anything as we walked into Beau and Fable’s house. The door shut behind us, muffling the noise of the party outside. Brooke swayed slightly, and Beau gently guided her to sit at the long farmhouse table in the dining room.

Fable disappeared into the kitchen and returned a minute later with a glass of water, placing it in front of Brooke without a word.

I sat down across from her, Dalton next to me. He didn’t reach for my hand like he normally would. He stayed still, his arms on the table, his jaw tight. Maybe he was trying not to set Brooke off. Maybe he was trying to keep his own temper from cracking wide open.

“What are you doing here?”

Brooke leaned back in the chair, glass of water untouched, legs crossed. “I told you I’d be back. She’s my baby. You don’t get to cut me out.”

Dalton scoffed. “Back? No. You didn’t say you’d be back, Brooke. You dropped her off and all but said ‘Good luck raising her.’ ”

Brooke’s face twisted, lips pulling into something between a sneer and a smirk. There wasn’t even shame. Not really. Just whatever cocktail of substances was holding her upright.

“You’re high,” Dalton said plainly, like he was done pretending. “You’re not even here right now. You don’t get to walk in like this and claim her.”

Brooke sat forward, pointing straight at me. “And you’re fucking whoever this is. Sitting there in a dumbass Mama shirt like it’s a costume party.”

My cheeks burned, but I didn’t say anything.

Not because it hurt, but because it didn’t.

It didn’t land the way she wanted it to.

She could call me names, mock the shirt, question my place, but she hadn’t been there. She didn’t know about the sleepless nights, the teething fevers, the first time Cora said Mama or fell asleep on my chest.

She’d missed the real story. This performative outrage was noise.

Dalton didn’t look at me either. He stayed locked on Brooke.

“Poppy’s been the one showing up. Every day. You don’t get to talk about being a mother when you’ve done nothing but leave.”

Brooke opened her mouth to snap back, but Fable—still standing at the edge of the kitchen, arms crossed—cut in sharply. “Maybe drink your water before you start rewriting history.”

I watched them—Dalton and Brooke—locked in a loop that was never going to end well.

He was furious, holding it together by a thread. She was unraveling, fueled by whatever was in her system and whatever pain she hadn’t dealt with. They were both tired in different ways, speaking from places that had already been broken long before this moment.

Underneath the bitterness and the venom, all I saw was someone who had missed so much and knew it.

I thought about our families. About the way both Dalton and I had lived with absence dressed up as normal. The way we’d both carried our anger. The way we learned to function around silence and disappointment and people who never showed up the way we needed.

The outcome of that was always the same.

It was sad. Plain and simple.

I didn’t want that for Dalton, for me, and definitely not for Cora.

This rage, this venom, this habit of turning every wound into a war wasn’t going to shape our family.

I straightened, drew a slow breath, and quietly placed my hand on Dalton’s thigh beneath the table, enough to steady him and remind him I was still here.

“Brooke, you know we can’t let you walk out of here with Cora. Not in the state you’re in. Why are you here? If you want to see her—spend time with her—when you’re sober, we’d love for that to happen.” I truly tried to keep my voice as even as possible, hoping that she might fold. That maybe, somewhere in her, there was still a mother’s heart.

She let out a sharp, mocking laugh. “Oh, how generous of y’all. What is this? The perfect little replacement family audition tape?”

Dalton opened his mouth, the heat in him starting to rise again, but I pressed my hand against his thigh.

I turned to Brooke. “Yes. Sorry—you’re right. Let me introduce myself.” I took a breath, leveling her with my gaze. “My name is Poppy Stone. I’m dating Dalton, and we’ve been together for a while now. I live at his house, and I have since Cora was five months old.”