Chapter 37 #2
He stirred, his body tensing slightly behind mine. He didn’t speak, just waited, alert now.
I sat up, pulling the blanket over my chest. He followed, eyes on me, all the lazy post-orgasm haze gone.
“I’ve been meaning to tell you since before I left for Thanksgiving. I didn’t know how to bring it up.” I looked down at my hands, twisting the edge of the blanket. “But the longer I kept it in, the more it felt like a lie.”
“Tally…” he said softly. “Whatever it is, just say it.”
I lifted my eyes to his knowing this was the moment. I had to tell him now before I lost the nerve “I knew Nate. Before he started the development.”
His jaw clenched, but he didn’t speak. I kept going.
“I know how it sounds but I swear I have never done anything to betray any of you.” I paused, trying to gauge how he was feeling.
What he was thinking. But all he gave me was a tight jaw and silence, so I carried on.
“We’ve grown up together. He’s my brother’s best friend.
Liam’s best friend.” My throat tightened.
“We were neighbors and I’m like a little sister to him. He spent Thanksgiving with us.”
I watched his face, every twitch of his brow, every flicker in his eyes.
“When I brought Dreamy here I didn’t realize the development was Nate.
Well, I knew he had a big new development in the pipeline, but I had no idea it was the one next to the ranch.
I’d been in Kentucky, and I don’t really talk business with him.
Then he turned up here to talk to you all after he’d been in Europe, and I panicked. ”
He was quiet, too quiet. But his eyes never left mine.
“Then we started, and I still kept quiet because I didn’t know how to tell you.
Plus, I was scared it would change something between us.
Scared it would feel like I’d kept it from you on purpose.
But I’m telling you now because I can’t stand the idea of there being anything between us that isn’t honest. I also swear that I didn’t tell him anything about the ranch or all of you.
In fact, he was the one who said we shouldn’t discuss all of you. Any of it.”
Silence sat heavy between us, thick and uneasy. I could hear the fire pop and crackle, the wind tapping at the windows. My heart was hammering.
Finally, he spoke.
“So you knew him. He’s like a brother to you?”
“Yes.”
“And you didn’t tell me. Or Gunner?”
“No. Not until now.”
He nodded slowly, running a hand over his face. “Fuck.” He threw back the blanket and moved to sit on the edge of the mattress.
“I’m sorry,” I whispered.
“I just…” He stood, pacing a little, his hand on his neck like he didn’t know what to do with the weight of it all. “You’re the one person I’ve let all the way in. The one who gets it. The one who I thought I knew everything about.”
I got up, wrapping the blanket around me. “At first it didn’t seem important, because we weren’t important. Then we became…” I swallowed the lump in my throat feeling like broken glass. “We became us, and I knew I had to be honest with you.”
He turned, and the sadness in his eyes undid me.
“I’m not mad at you,” he said. “I’m not. I’m just… shocked. All this time and you never mentioned it. Why? Didn’t you trust me? Was I not important enough to you?”
Shaking my head, I pressed a hand to my chest, thinking it might stop my heart from bursting out through my ribs. “God, no. Of course I trusted you. At first I was scared I’d lose my job and then…and then I was scared I’d lose you.”
“You understand my worries, though? Your reasons for keeping it quiet make sense but you have to understand my concerns.”
I nodded. “I do, but please believe me when I tell you I have never disclosed anything that could have affected the ranch.” I shrugged. “I don’t really know anything to tell him anyway. And like I said, Nate never wanted to know. He really is a good guy. I swear.”
“I’m aware,” he admitted, stepping toward me. “He’s proved that Brownie, with everything he’s done for the camp and the help he’s offered with the wedding barn.”
“But,” I said. “You’re mad I didn’t tell you.”
He touched my face then, brushing my hair back with a gentleness that undid me more than any of his kisses. “I’m a little pissed about it, yeah, but at least you’ve told me now. Thank you for telling me. For trusting me.”
We stood there, close but still full of unsaid things. But I knew this was the start of something harder, deeper—more real. And it didn’t scare me one bit because whatever came next we’d face it together.
“You should tell Gunner,” he added, his brow arching.
“You think he’ll be mad?”
“Gunner? Doubt it. He’s more understanding than I am and I’m so in touch with my feelings I’m practically a yoga teacher.”
I barked out a laugh and curled into him, wrapping my arms and the blanket around him. “I am sorry.”
“I know.” He held me tighter. “Just don’t keep anything else from me. Okay?”
My shoulders stiffened as ice snaked down my spine at the thought of the secret I was keeping from him. If we were to continue to move forward then he was right, no more secrets.
“There is one other thing.”
Wilder moved out of my embrace and stared down at me, his throat bobbing. “What?” His tone was as hard as the set of his jaw. “First Declan, then Nate and now what? Four kids and a prison record?”
“God no.” I moved away and reached for my purse, taking out my phone. “I got these.”
Showing the screen to Wilder, I held my breath. The messages from the unknown number had felt like a constant stabbing in my chest since I’d received them. The last in the early hours of the morning, waiting for me when I woke up.
“What the hell!” His eyes were wild with a mixture of anger and fear as he looked from the screen to me. “When I find out who this is I’ll fucking kill them!”
At that moment I truly feared for Declan’s life.