Page 2 of Found By You

“We’re having a baby,” Cassidy, my brother Butch’s fiancée, announces over dinner at my parents.

My chest tightens.

My mother, Julie, leaps from her seat to hug Cassidy, then Butch. “Oh, my baby is having a baby,” she coos, tears in her eyes.

Butch and Cassidy have been living together for nearly four months. It was a mere month ago when my brother finally mustered up the courage and asked Cassidy to marry him.

If I thought the idea of attending my brother’s wedding hurt… It doesn’t compare to this.

I should be happy for them. I need to be happy for them, but it’s so fucking hard when I had it all and lost it in a blink of an eye that was in the shape of a plane crash.

Five years ago, that same blink took the love of my life, my high school sweetheart, my wife, Rachel…along with our unborn child.

She was only six weeks at the time. We hadn’t even announced it to our families yet. Rachel wanted to wait until the first doctor’s appointment before we made any kind of announcement. She was on her way to visit her sister in Billings, eager for her to be the first to know.

Then the plane went down—engine failure, they told me—taking the lives of all four on board.

It took five, if you ask me.

Being a father was a silent dream of mine. Silent to those around me, but not to her. Rachel and I knew we wanted kids. A crap ton. Her words, not mine. And I was all for it. Kids weren’t a hard sell. I wanted them just as bad, if not more.

Now…five years later, she’s gone, and I’m still fumbling to pick up the pieces of what I thought was my future.

I’ve bought the neighboring property between my brothers, Butch and Beau, right up the road from our folks’ place. I even started building my dream home with the help of our other brothers, Rhett and Levi, a few months ago.

Moving on with my life these last few years has been hard in itself. Planning for the future has brought a whole different kind of hurt I didn’t anticipate when I started this endeavor four months ago with putting my house up for sale.

I’m renting out one of Beau’s vacation rental cabins on his mountainside property. He’s got two built at the moment, and since being stationed overseas for the last eighteen months, my parents and siblings help with maintenance and booking them on his behalf.

There are five of us Montgomery sons. All of us own and operate our own businesses. If there’s one thing people know from the last name Montgomery, it’s that we don’t do anything half-assed—I sure as hell didn’t.

Montgomery Repair & Towing. I eat, breathe, and sleep my business. Trucks, cars, the occasional motorcycle and boat—I live for the classic shit. Old, new, and everywhere in between. We’re the #1 go-to repair shop in all of Whitetail, Montana, and the three surrounding counties. I’ve built a solid standard with my reputation.

Butch and I are close, being a year apart and looking like damn twins, we were raised as such. Beau’s always been the loner of the siblings, straight laced with a stick up his ass eighty percent of the time. Leaving Rhett and Levi close enough to start their company together.

But when it comes to the big events, we always make it about the group. And with a wedding and a baby on the way…the Montgomerys are only growing.

“Congratulations,” my father, Clayton, chimes in, hugging the soon-to-be parents.

Butch gives me a concerned glare at my silence, and I take the cue, doing my damnedest to keep my voice even despite the unwanted emotions building inside of me. “Congratulations, guys.”

Rhett and Levi give their cheers, and as the conversation shifts to talk about the baby and due date—all I hear is six weeks, and I cringe.

I physically cringe because I can’t help myself. The memories are subtle, fading by the day, but that feeling I had when Rachel told me she was pregnant…

That’s a feeling I’ll never forget.

“So, what you’re saying is, the night Butch proposed…he gave you a little…early wedding gift?” Lily laughs.

Cassidy nods, beaming a smile with happy tears in her eyes. “I guess so.”

Butch scoffs, wrapping his arm around Cassidy and pulling her into his side. When he kisses her on the temple, I decide it’s time to go.

“Well, thanks for dinner, Ma,” I say, standing from my seat, “but I’ve got some late snow plowing to get done if I plan to open shop on time tomorrow.”

My mother gives me a hard look, and I already know I’ll hear shit about this from her on the phone at some point. Going around the table, I say my goodbyes. When I reach Cassidy, I give her a long hug as she whispers, “Are you okay?”

I clear my throat as I step away from her. “Congrats again, guys. Can’t wait for the little shit kicker to get here.”

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