Page 159 of Stay Wild Darlin’

My voice gave out, and the tears came before I could blink them away. I covered my mouth with my hand like I could hold it all in, but it was already too late.

“Hey, hey now,” Dalton murmured, his voice rough but so gentle it nearly wrecked me all over again.

He shifted closer, wrapping one strong arm around me, pulling me in without hesitation. His warmth, his steadiness, they soothed the aching parts inside me.

“There’s nowhere else I’d rather be than right here. We can celebrate tomorrow. She’s surrounded by people who love her. She’s having the time of her life.”

I nodded, swallowing hard. The tears slowed, my heartbeat beginning to settle. I pulled back so that I could see his face, his deep green eyes, his freckles. “Brooke?”

The question barely made it out of me.

“She’s gone.”

Was that a good sign? That she was gone? What did that mean for us? For Cora?

His brow furrowed as though he was trying to read my face. “Is that what you’re worried about?”

I nodded.

“Darlin’, there’s no one else but you. Never has been. I was worried about you the whole time. I thought when you left . . . I thought you were upset with me.”

“I-I figured you guys needed to talk it out.”

“We did, but you didn’t have to go.”

He paused, letting the silence stretch between us before shaking his head and speaking again. He told me everything, from the moment I walked out of the house to when he finally found me again. He told me how Brooke signed a letter saying she didn’t want custody, how she hugged Cora, how she walked away, and how, before she left, she said the words that hit the hardest, that she didn’t want to be a mom.

I sat there, listening, trying to breathe through the growing tightness in my chest. Trying not to let the guilt sink in too deep.

When he finished, I stared out at the water, my heart aching for all of it. For him. For her. For the baby I loved more than anything.

“How do you feel?”

What he’d gone through wasn’t about grief or closure. It was about being abandoned and still showing up. Being let down and still holding on. I could hear it in every crack of his voice. Every space between his words.

In the middle of all that chaos, I only made things worse by leaving. I didn’t hate Brooke. If anything, there was this lingering sympathy I couldn’t shake.

Cora was everything. She was laughter and wild hair and peanut butter fingers and belly giggles and sleepy cuddles and stubborn little tantrums. She was love made real.

Brooke didn’t want that or couldn’t want that.

She had to go back to whatever mess of a life she’d clung to, high on something and in debt to someone, and the only thing she had to offer was the truth: that she couldn’t be a mother.

That broke my heart in ways I couldn’t explain.

Dalton sat quietly for a while, his eyes on the lake.

“I’m sorry I lost a friend. Brooke and I . . . we’ve known each other a long time. There were pieces of her I thought I’d always hold onto, even if we didn’t work. But I’m angry too. Angry that she manipulated me. Angry she lied and got pregnant on purpose because she wanted something to tie me to her, not because she wanted Cora.”

He exhaled hard, running a hand over his face.

“At the same time, I’m glad she said it out loud. That she didn’t want to be a mom. Because now I know. I don’t have to keep hoping she’ll show up or that one day she’ll try to take Cora back to hurt me. I can file the abandonment paperwork. Her rights’ll be terminated, and that’ll be it. No more looking over my shoulder. No more half answers.”

He looked down, picked at the grass between his fingers, then glanced at me again.

“I want Cora to feel loved. That’s it. I don’t care what it looks like or what anyone thinks is right. I grew up with two parents who stayed together but couldn’t be bothered to show up. I know what cold feels like. I don’t want that for her. Ever.” He shifted, his eyes finding mine again. “I’m happy that you’ll still be in our lives.” He hesitated. “If you still want to be?”

“What?” I blinked at him, stunned he’d even ask. “Of course I do.”