Page 10 of Reuniting with the Rancher

“I don’t know…” he admitted as he sank to the floor next to her.

7

SAME SIDE

LILY

“Soundslike Mr. Monroe’s mom is a bitch,” Caleb said over breakfast later that morning.

Logan arrived as the sun rose with breakfast items and helpfully suggested Greyson leave with him to give her and Caleb time to adjust to the news. They had spent the hours since his confession in teary silence. Why did it feel like they were grieving all over again?

“You shouldn’t call women bitches, Boogie,” she said gently as she tugged off his hoodie and smoothed his locs. “But…you’re not wrong. I just can’t believe it…There’s still so much I still don’t know.”

“What do you think she’s like?” he asked with a mouth full of bacon.

“We’re going to find out, sooner than later,” she growled as she tapped a pen.

“Auntie?”

“Yeah, Boog?”

“You’re gonna be a good mom.”

Lily blinked away wet and gave her nephew a watery grin. “I’m not so sure. I keep forgetting to feed you Boog and I’ve known you your whole life.”

“Yeah, but you also look like Mom did when she found out about those kids stealing my stuff at school and the school didn’t believe me. She hulked out and I think, unless Mr. Monroe figures this out real quick, you’re gonna Hulk Smash this whole ranch. But you should also stop me from swearing, not just who I aim it at.”

“Shit. You’re right.”

She peekedin on Caleb as he took a midmorning nap. He still slept like he did when he was a baby - on his back spread eagle like sleep hit him with an uppercut. She closed his door and considered taking a nap herself, but as soon as the idea appeared in her mind, the little girl she’d only imagined gave her renewed energy…and anger.

Lily stormed as quickly as she could move across the ranch with a single purpose—she wanted her baby.

Every cell in her body felt electric, buzzing with the surge of emotions that had overwhelmed her since they started to piece together the truth. She wasn’t sure how she’d made it through the night without losing her mind. The shock, the anger, the gut-wrenching sorrow—it was all too much. It pressed her down and held her in place. That energy had shifted, and she needed to know everything. She wouldn’t rest until she had the full truth about Ivy.

She knocked twice before letting her herself into his home uninvited. She figured he wouldn’t or couldn’t mind, consideringhe pulled some weirdo stalker shit last night before dropping the nuke that blew up her entire world.

She was halfway through the living room, calling his name before he appeared at the top of the stairs. She skidded to a halt when she saw him. Shirtless, he descended the stairs slowly, his eyes locked on her, but the condition of his torso distracted her. Part of him was completely flawless, smooth skin stretched over muscles much larger than he had ten years ago, the rest was stretched, shiny skin that looked pieced together in spots with seams tracing across his body and disappearing around his back.

“Don’t stare.”

Her eyes snapped back to his, and his face hardened. She felt bad about the staring and the black eyes and tape across his nose.

“Does it hurt?”

“The nose or the grafts?”

She shrugged. “Either, both, whatever you want to tell me.”

“Most of the time the grafts don’t anymore… Other times I feel like I’m still on fire.”

She didn’t realize she had moved toward him until she felt the warmth and texture of his skin beneath her fingers. He stilled on the bottom step. “How?”

“I received a permanent vacation earlier than I planned, courtesy of an IED.”

She took in the wry smile on his face, and it struck her as wrong. “You shouldn’t joke about that.”

“You don’t get to decide,” he growled and moved past her, giving her a view of the extent of his scars on his back. They went up the back of his neck and spidered over his otherwise smooth bald head.

---