Chapter 29
Chapter Twenty-Nine
Bennett
As surprised as I am, Emmett gave me some solid advice, so instead of sitting on the news and weighing my options, I head over to Delaney’s parents’ house to have a conversation with her.
After I park in the driveway, a thought stops me from leaving the truck.
Leia is in there. I’ve never seen her, at least not her face. Does she have a resemblance to me, to Wren, or is she all Delaney?
I don’t want to scare Leia, so I pull out my cell phone to call Delaney to ask her to meet me outside, but before I can press the green button, Levi steps out of the house and walks toward my truck. I drop the phone in the center console and roll down my window.
He’s in his usual white T-shirt and beat-up jeans, a sandwich in hand. Levi is a guy you’re intimidated by the moment he walks in the room. He holds an air of confidence I’ve admired over the years, and he makes his decisions whether you like them or not. He doesn’t care.
“Hey, Bennett.” His free hand runs through his hair.
“Levi.”
He nods. So he knows, and I’m sure he’s going to be protective of his sister and niece. “Leia is out with my parents at dinner. Delaney will be out in a second. I need to ask you something first though.”
“Okay,” I say hesitantly. We can’t really pretend that Levi couldn’t kick my ass. He’d be scrappy, and I’d probably overthink every move I was gonna make.
“You know I have to be the protective brother and uncle right now, but I’m glad she told you.”
“You knew?”
He shakes his head, his sandwich long forgotten in his hand. “No. I suspected, but she only confirmed it to me the other night.”
She certainly seems willing to put it out there after years of keeping it to herself.
“I have to know, B, what are you looking for here? Because if you try to take Leia—”
I quickly shake my head. “No. I would never.”
He nods. “Okay, okay. I didn’t think so, but I had to ask, you know?”
“And had I wanted to?”
His eyes lock on mine. “You don’t want to know.” He chuckles then hits the roof of the truck.
Delaney walking out the front door pulls my attention from Levi. Their screen door shuts, and she takes the few steps down to the driveway.
“Good luck then.” He steps away but backtracks. “I have no right to ask this of you, but don’t be too hard on her. She’s so close to breaking, and I’m trying like hell to see her through this.”
It’s his expression more than his words that make me nod in understanding. I’d be the same if it was Lottie or Romy or any of my cousins.
Levi holds out his arms, and Delaney gives him a brief hug. He whispers something to her, then glances back at me before he walks into the house. Delaney stands for a moment in the same spot, not moving toward me, so I climb out of the truck and approach her.
“Do you want to go for a ride?” I ask.
She looks up, and my heart constricts. All the anger brewing inside me simmers from seeing her swollen, red-rimmed eyes.
“If you promise not to leave me in a ditch somewhere.”
She’s just like Levi, deflecting with humor, but I can’t find it within myself to match her, so I just hold out my hand toward the truck.
We part ways at the front, me not opening her door for probably the first time ever.
Silence extends through the cab as I start the engine and back out of her parents’ driveway. I have no idea where to go, but I’m certain we both want to be alone with no prying ears, so I head to the only spot I know that might be private but isn’t on the ranch—a lookout area in Hickory.
Thankfully, no teenagers are making out when we get here. Probably because the sun hasn’t completely gone down at this point.
I kill the engine and trace the steering wheel with my fingers, unsure where to start, but I forgot how much Delaney hates silence.
“I have no excuses for what I did, and I understand you’re angry with me, but I don’t think that there’s much else to say to one another.
I’m sorry, I am. You know it all now, so how do you want to go about this?
Do you want me to introduce you to her? I’d like to be the one to tell her, if that’s okay.
Should we get lawyers involved, draw up papers around visitation?
I’d like to explain myself to Wren, since I’m assuming you want to tell her—”
I place my hand on her shaking, entwined ones. “Breathe.”
After a deep inhale, she starts right back in.
“I have to know what you want and how you want to go about it. I can’t sit here and live in limbo.
” She turns to face me, a fresh set of tears running down her cheeks.
“I know that’s unfair of me to ask, that you deserve the time to figure out how you feel, but…
she’s all I have.” A strangled cry leaks out of her, and she covers her face with her hands, her back shaking.
I tear my eyes away from her, the need to soothe at war with my anger. “I would never try to take her from you,” I say softly, concentrating on the sky in front of us. “But I want a relationship with her. Regardless, she comes first. She and Wren have to be the priority here.”
She says nothing, but I feel the weight of my words heavy on my heart. I thought it might’ve been our time, we were so close to starting something again, but that has to end. I’m not sure I’ll ever be ready now.
“I agree.”
“I figure we can do this one of two ways—tell everyone right away or keep it between us for a time. But I have told Emmett, and Levi knows, and when the girls find out, I have a feeling it’ll be harder to keep the secret.”
I’m not sure they’ll even understand the repercussions. Wren won’t. I can see her just thinking “yay, I have a sister.” Since I don’t know Leia, I have no clue how she’ll react.
“I’m sure you’d like to tell your parents,” she says. “I plan on telling mine tonight.”
“They don’t know?” I’d thought maybe since Levi did, they would too.
She shakes her head. “Only Sean and I knew all these years.”
My head falls back onto the headrest, and I sigh. The man who raised my daughter for the last seven years. Suddenly, all the times she tried to tell me he’d never hurt them physically or verbally make sense.
He was good to us.
“He always knew?”
She peeks over at me but quickly looks down at her hands again. “From day one.”
I understand her just wanting to move forward, but I still feel the need to ask. “Did you think I wouldn’t have chosen to be part of her life? I mean… is that why you didn’t tell me?”
Her shoulders shrug. “Honestly, it was more that you didn’t even try with us. You just went back to Kristie, and I was still all wrapped up in that when I found out about Leia. I got very protective and didn’t want her to ever have to feel the same way I did when you left me.”
I have no excuses for picking Kristie in that moment other than it felt like I was making the right decision for my unborn child. If I had to make the decision again right now, I would have said, “let’s coparent, and I’m staying with Delaney,” but I didn’t.
“How did we get here?”
The past creeps into every crevice of the cab. I open the door, escaping into the fresh air. The click of the truck door sounds, then the crunch of gravel as she meets me at the top of the cliff.
“We have to put our past aside and focus on the girls. Figure out this coparenting thing,” she says, wrapping her arms around herself, standing six feet away from me.
The last time I felt this disconnected with her was when I told her about Kristie being pregnant and ended it.
“I have so many questions.” I can’t stand here and pretend that I’ve come close to forgiving her. I’m not sure how or if I’ll ever get over what she did.
“None of them matter.” She turns to me, her arms tighter across her chest and determination on her face.
“We were always looking for ways to sever this pull to one another. It’s done now, so I’m going to tell my parents tonight and Leia in the morning.
I’m taking her out for the day, just me and her.
If you’d like, tell your family and Wren tomorrow.
I’ll see how Leia is handling things, and maybe the four of us can do dinner next week sometime. Does that sound good?”
I nod.
“Okay.” She heads back to the truck, but circles around before she gets inside. “And I’ll drive myself to the country club from now on. Probably should’ve from the start.”
She turns her back to me again and climbs inside the truck.
There’s still so much unfinished business between us, but if she wants to pretend there isn’t, then I can do that too.
I head back to the truck and get into the driver’s seat. “Can I ask one thing?”
She doesn’t answer, but glances at me.
“Can I see a picture of her?”
The anger drops from her face, and she pulls out her phone, scanning through photos before handing it to me.
It takes me a second to look down, but now it makes sense why I’ve never met Leia. Delaney knew, from one look, I’d have known she was mine.