19. Billie
Billie
" A bsolutely not," I said, staring at Blake like she'd suggested I take up cliff diving as a hobby. "I'm not talking about my feelings at a real girls' night."
"That's exactly why we need girls' night," Blake replied, pulling into Delaney's driveway behind Reece's truck and Emma's sedan. "You've been bottling everything up for weeks. It's not healthy."
Through the farmhouse windows, I could see warm light and moving figures, the other women already settled in for an evening of wine, gossip, and the kind of honest conversation that happened when women gathered without men around to complicate things.
"They're all going to have opinions," I said weakly.
"They're all going to have wine," Blake corrected. "Which makes their opinions infinitely more entertaining."
Five minutes later, I was perched on Delaney's couch with a glass of her homemade hard cider, surrounded by the women who'd somehow become my found family without me realizing it.
Emma was curled up in the armchair by the fireplace, her flower shop apron replaced by comfortable jeans and a soft sweater.
Reece had claimed the other end of the couch, her feet tucked under her and her wild hair caught up in a messy bun.
And Delaney moved between kitchen and living room like the perfect hostess, making sure everyone had drinks and snacks and not looking like she'd had a baby only a month ago.
"So," Emma said without preamble, "are we going to talk about the elephant in the room, or are we going to pretend Billie hasn't been pining over Gage Farrington for the past month?"
Heat flooded my cheeks. "I haven't been..."
"Honey," Reece interrupted gently, "you've been avoiding him at every possible sign of potential interaction. In a town this small, that's basically a declaration of love."
"Or a declaration of cowardice," I muttered.
"Same thing, when it comes to matters of the heart," Delaney said, settling beside Reece with her own glass of cider.
Despite being a new mom she looked radiant, and lacked the dark circles under her eyes that always seemed to grace my face.
"Trust me, I spent months convinced I was protecting myself from Trace when I was really just punishing us both. "
"That's different," I protested. "You and Trace have history, but you also had Cade to think about. I'm just..."
"Just what?" Blake asked. "Just in love with a man who looks at you like you're the answer to every prayer he's ever whispered?"
"He doesn't..."
"Billie." Emma's voice was firm but kind.
"I saw you two at the farmer's market three weeks ago.
You were pretending to look at my flowers while he was pretending to examine produce two stalls over, and you spent the entire time stealing glances at each other like teenagers. It was adorable and painful to watch."
I took a large sip of cider, hoping the alcohol would calm my nerves. "It's complicated."
"It's not," Blake said, echoing her words from the other night. "You're scared."
"Of course I'm scared!" The words exploded out of me before I could stop them. "He left once without explanation. He spent eleven years radio silent. What if he decides he can't handle small-town life again? What if he gets bored? What if..."
"What if he doesn't?" Delaney interrupted softly. "What if he's exactly who he appears to be now? A man who made a mistake, learned from it, and is trying to build a life here with the people he loves?"
"You don't understand," I said, setting down my glass with shaking hands.
"I was seventeen when he left. I was so sure we'd spend our lives together.
I had it all planned out—college, wedding, kids, growing old in this town surrounded by family.
And then one morning he was just... gone.
No real explanation, no goodbye, nothing but a letter that told me to forget him and find someone better. "
The room fell silent. I could feel their eyes on me, warm with sympathy and understanding.
"I tried," I continued, my voice barely above a whisper. "I dated other people. I moved away, built a career, convinced myself I was over him. But then he came back, broken and hurting, and all those feelings I'd buried came rushing back like they'd been waiting just beneath the surface."
"And that's terrifying," Reece said gently. "Because loving someone that deeply means they have the power to destroy you."
I looked at her, surprised by the understanding in her voice. Reece had her own history with heartbreak. I'd heard the story of her escape from an abusive relationship and her journey to finding love with Booker.
"How do you get past the fear?" I asked.
"You don't," she said simply. "You just decide the possibility of happiness is worth the risk of heartbreak."
"But what if he leaves again? What if I let myself hope and..."
"Then you'll survive it," Blake said firmly. "Just like you did before. But what if you don't even try, and you spend the rest of your life wondering what could have been?"
I stared into my wine glass, watching the liquid catch the light. The fear felt so much bigger than logic, so much stronger than hope. "I don't know if I'm brave enough."
"You know what?" Delaney said thoughtfully, setting down her own glass. "Maybe we're approaching this wrong. Maybe instead of focusing on your fear, we should look at examples of people who found love worth fighting for, even when it seemed impossible."
"Like who?" I asked, though I suspected she had someone specific in mind.
Blake and Reece exchanged a look, and I could see some kind of silent conversation happening between them.
"Actually," Reece said carefully, "that's something we've been meaning to talk to you about. Blake and I have been doing some research lately. About second chances and lost loves and whether some connections are strong enough to survive decades apart."
"Research?" I raised an eyebrow.
"Well, it was more snooping, but research makes it sound less like a complete invasion of privacy. About Jasper's past," Blake explained. "About Caroline."
My eyebrows shot up. "Caroline?"
"The woman Jasper had the affair with when Trace was a baby," Delaney explained quietly.
"We found her," Reece said quietly. "She's living in Blue Point Bay, about two hours north. She's a retired nurse. She worked at the children's hospital there for thirty years before retiring last year."
"That's..." I paused, processing. "That's wonderful that you found her, but what does this have to do with..."
"She has a daughter," Blake said. "Twenty-six years old."
The implication hit me like a physical blow. "Oh my god."
"We don't know for sure," Reece said quickly. "But the timing... and when you see the photos, the resemblance to Jasper is unmistakable."
"Does he know?" I asked.
"We don't think so," Blake said. "From what we can tell, Caroline moved away when she found out she was pregnant and never told him."
I stared at them, my mind reeling. "They might have a half-sister they don't know about."
"And Jasper might have left the woman he loved, who was carrying his child, when he went back to Regina and let her emotionally abuse the whole family for years," Delaney added. "It puts his whole marriage, his whole life, in a different context."
"God, that's heartbreaking," I whispered.
"It is," Emma agreed. "But it's also hopeful. Because if Caroline has spent twenty-six years raising his daughter alone, maybe she's been thinking about him too. Maybe she's been waiting for him to find her."
"Or maybe she wants nothing to do with him," I pointed out, hating to be the voice of reason here. "She never told him. In fact, you don't know that she never told him. He might be completely aware of her and not want anything to do with her."
"Just like maybe Gage has been thinking about you for the past eleven years," Blake added pointedly.
I felt tears prick my eyes, but I pushed past the personal implications. "Okay, now's not really the time for that. What are we supposed to do with this information? This is... this is huge. Life-changing. We're talking about a potential sister for the boys, a daughter Jasper never knew existed."
The weight of what they'd discovered settled over our small group like a heavy blanket. We sat in silence for a moment, each of us processing the magnitude of the secret we now carried.
"Do we tell them?" Emma asked quietly, voicing what we were all thinking.
"Tell them what, exactly?" Reece countered. "That we've been playing detective with their family history? That we found Caroline and she has a daughter who might or might not be Jasper's?"
"We can't just sit on this," Delaney said, her voice filled with the same urgency I was feeling. "If there's even a chance that Caroline's daughter is Jasper's, don't they have a right to know?"
"But what if we're wrong?" Blake asked. "What if we're reading too much into timing and physical resemblance? What if Caroline's daughter has a father who's been in her life all along, and we come barging in with theories that could destroy that?"
My stomach churned. "God, why did you have to involve me in this? I already have enough complicated feelings about the Farrington family without adding family secrets to the mix."
"Because you're objective," Emma said. "You care about them, but you're not so close that you can't see the bigger picture."
"Objective?" I laughed, but it came out bitter. "I'm the least objective person at this table when it comes to that family. I'm in love with one of them, remember?"
The words slipped out before I could stop them, and suddenly four pairs of eyes were staring at me with varying degrees of surprise and satisfaction.
"Finally," Blake breathed. "You said it out loud."
Heat flooded my cheeks. "That's not... I didn't mean..."
"Yes, you did," Reece said gently. "And that's exactly why we need your input on this Caroline situation. Because you understand what it feels like to love someone from that family and have to make impossible choices about whether to fight for them or protect yourself."
I buried my face in my hands. "This is a disaster. We can't tell them about Caroline based on speculation. But we can't not tell them either. And I can't be the one to make that decision because I'm too emotionally invested in the outcome."
"So what do we do?" Delaney asked.
"We need more information," Emma said practically. "Before we say anything to anyone, we need to know for sure whether Caroline's daughter is actually Jasper's."
"How do we do that without completely invading her privacy?" I asked.
Blake pulled out her phone, scrolling through what looked like research notes.
"Caroline's daughter is named Leigh. Leigh Pierce.
She's a professional photographer—landscapes and candid street photography, mostly.
She has a portfolio website and Instagram with some really stunning work.
There are some photos of her at gallery showings and local art events around Blue Point Bay. "
"Show me," I said, even though part of me didn't want to see.
Blake handed me her phone, and my breath caught. The young woman in the photo had Jasper's eyes, Trace's jawline, and something about her smile that reminded me achingly of Gage.
"Oh," I whispered.
"Yeah," Reece said quietly. "Oh."
"We have to tell them," Delaney said firmly. "Look at that face and tell me those boys don't have a right to know they might have a sister."
"But how?" Emma asked. "Hey Jasper, we've been researching your love life and we think you might have a daughter you never knew about? Hey Trace, surprise, you might have a half-sister?"
I handed the phone back to Blake, my hands trembling slightly. "This could destroy them. Or it could heal something that's been broken for decades. And we have no way of knowing which."
"What if we approached Caroline first?" Reece suggested. "Carefully. Respectfully. Just to see if she'd be open to contact from Jasper."
"That feels like we're meddling in something that's none of our business," I said, even as part of me was desperate to know the truth.
"But if we don't do anything, and Jasper spends the rest of his life not knowing he has a daughter..." Delaney's voice trailed off.
"Or Caroline spends the rest of hers thinking he never cared enough to find them," Blake added.
The parallel to my own situation wasn't lost on me. How many years had I spent thinking Gage had simply moved on, when maybe he'd been protecting himself the same way I was now?
"I hate that you involved me in this," I said finally. "I have enough moral dilemmas in my life without adding Farrington family secrets."
"Sorry," Emma said, though she didn't look particularly sorry. "But you're part of this family now, whether you admit it or not. And sometimes being part of a family means helping them navigate the impossible decisions."
"I'm not part of their family," I protested. "I'm just... I'm just an old friend who happens to be trying to be friends with Gage again."
"Honey," Blake said with a gentle smile, "you can keep telling yourself that, but we all see how you look at him. And more importantly, we all see how he looks at you. You're going to be part of this family eventually. The only question is whether you're brave enough to admit it."
I stared around at these women who'd somehow become my confidantes, my support system, my chosen sisters. They were asking me to help make a decision that could change everything for the people I cared about most.
"What if we're wrong about Caroline's daughter?" I asked one more time.
"Then we apologize for the intrusion and we never speak of it again," Reece said simply.
"And if we're right?"
"Then we help a family find a missing piece they never knew they'd lost," Delaney said softly.
I closed my eyes, thinking about Gage buying the swimming hole house, about Jasper finally free from Regina's manipulation, about Trace and the boys building their lives without knowing they might have a sister out there.
"We need to be absolutely certain before we say anything," I said finally. "And we need a plan that protects everyone involved—Caroline, her daughter, and the Farrington men."
"So you're in?" Blake asked.
I opened my eyes and looked at each of them. "I'm in. God help us all, I'm in."