Page 60 of Love in the Wild

Thea grimaced. “Not yet. We’re not looking forward to telling her.”

“Don’t let her dampen your happiness. She’ll understand eventually.”

“I hope so ‘cause this is forever,” Brett said as he wrapped an arm around his new wife.

“I still can’t believe this. You’re married! Oh, I need to get out of here. It’s your wedding night!”

“We’d never kick you out of your own house!” Thea said.

“Right. We’ll kick Linc out,” Brett added.

“No, no. I’ll go stay with Blake and Everly. They have plenty of guestrooms.”

“Are you sure?” Thea asked.

Hadley pulled out her phone and typed up a text to Everly. “I’m already asking her.”

“Is there a chance you could keep this a secret for now?” Brett asked. “We’d like to tell everyone together.”

“Sure. I’ll just tell her I want to have a girls’ night.”

Hadley’s phone dinged with a message. “She said come on over. That’s my cue to pack up. I can’t wait until you tell everyone!”

Brett scratched the back of his head. “I’m planning to tell Gage tonight. He probably won’t be happy, but Thea and I need to do whatever we can to put the feud between our families behind us. We want to stay here, and she can’t have a life outside the ranch until her family lets go of their grudge.”

Hadley’s skin turned hot. “So you’re telling Gage that Thea is still here?”

“Yeah. I guess that’s the first point to cover. Then break the news of our marriage. I want to set up a meeting with Bruce to talk about mending fences in the morning.”

Hot. So hot. Her skin was melting off. Gage was going to be so mad at her for lying. Ugh. She wanted to be the one to tell him the news and fess up to her lie, but it wasn’t really her news to tell.

“He’ll probably be upset at first, but he’s actually been hoping to find a way to fix things between the Howards and the Pattons too. He’s been sticking around Bruce and Tommy because he wants to know if they’re planning to do anything that involves Thea. He thinks they’re not finished.”

“Well, they can start it, but I’ll finish it,” Brett said. “I’m tired of playing games. It’s time to grow up and put the past behind us.”

“Be patient with him, please. He’s trying,” Hadley pleaded.

“I want to be able to talk to my mom and brother again. We have to find a way. If Gage is on our side, it’ll be even easier.”

Brett tilted his head back and forth. “I wouldn’t say any of this is gonna be easy.”

Hadley gripped Thea’s hand. “I’m here for you. Whatever you need.”

Brett pulled out his phone. “I guess now is as good a time as any to break the news to your dear old brother.”

Hadley sat on the edge of the couch and let out a deep breath. “Oh boy. This is gonna be fun.”

“He probably won’t talk to me about it over the phone. I’ll meet him somewhere to talk about it.”

“I’ll go with you,” Thea said.

Brett shook his head. “He doesn’t even know you’re here. He’d probably be too focused on that to listen to anything we had to say.”

Thea sat beside Hadley. “You’re right. I don’t like you going alone though.”

“If Gage tells me he’ll come alone too, I believe him. If we’re going to trust any of them, we have to start with him, and he hasn’t given us any reason to doubt him yet.”

“Gage wouldn’t double-cross you. I firmly believe that,” Hadley said.

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