Page 12 of Reuniting with the Rancher

Lily turned the pages slowly, absorbing each photo—first smiles, first steps, birthdays. Ivy’s life unfolded in front of her, and the pain of missing out on every moment crushed her. Each page served as a painful reminder of what she had lost, of all the years she had been denied.

Greyson sat silently across from her, watching as she flipped through the albums, his own emotions raw. “She’s strong, just like you,” he reiterated softly. “And stubborn too.”

Lily let out a shaky laugh, the first sign of lightness she’d felt in hours. “I wonder where she gets that from,” she muttered, her voice barely above a whisper.

A knock at the front door took Grey out of the room for a few moments. When he returned, Caleb was with him.

“I wanted to make sure you were ok,” Caleb said before he sat close and peered at the most current album. “Wow, she looks a lot like you and Mom in that picture that Grandma kept in the living room.”

“Yeah,” was all she could get out.

They fell into silence again, the only sound the turning of pages as Lily and Caleb continued to soak in the lost years.

After a while, an alarm on her watch went off. “Feed Caleb” flashed.

“What did that say?” He asked incredulously.

“Nothing,” she mumbled.

He picked up her phone with the notification clearly on display. “Auntie. ‘Feed Caleb?’”

“You do want to eat, don’t you?”

He dropped his head and shook it slightly. “I could also just tell you when I’m hungry. I’m not a little kid anymore.”

“Help yourself to anything you find in the kitchen,” Grey said, smiling at him.

When Caleb had gone, his face turned more serious. “If it’s okay with you, I think she should finish the rest of the school year before she meets you,” Greyson said after a moment. “It’ll give you time to prepare and for us to work through…everything.”

Lily closed the album slowly, her emotions swirling. “I both don’t think I can wait to see her, and don’t know how to be her mother, Greyson. I don’t know where to start.”

He leaned forward, his voice gentle. “Just be honest with her. She’s been asking about you for a long time, Lily. So this is a bigger shock for you than her, and maybe taking this time will give you both the reunion you deserve.”

Lily swallowed the lump in her throat and looked up at him, her eyes filled with a mixture of fear and hope. “I don’t know how to forgive you. Forgive myself for this,” she admitted. “But I want to be there for her now.”

Greyson nodded, the weight of his own guilt and anger pressing heavily on his shoulders. “I don’t expect you to forgiveme. I won’t forgive me. But I’ll help you learn about her. I’ll do whatever it takes to make this right.”

He started to get up and changed his mind, instead scooting closer to her. His jaw clenched and unclenched, the words he wanted to say catching in his throat.

“I’ve been angry with you for so long, Lily,” he finally said, his voice rough and low. “So damn angry. I blamed you for everything—for walking away, for choosing fame and leaving me and Ivy behind. And now…” He stopped, his eyes locking with hers. “Now, I don’t know what to do with it. I don’t know how to process any of this.”

“I thought you didn’t care,” he continued, his voice shaking slightly. “And I carried that with me for years. It became a part of me. It ate holes through me.”

He moved closer to her, his voice softer now, filled with a vulnerability she barely recognized anymore. “But now… we know some of the truth. And I don’t know what to do, Lily. I don’t know how to undo all that hurt. But we have a month. A month to figure it out for that beautiful little girl with her momma’s eyes. I went to war for her Lily. I went to war to get her the care and security she needed. I never hesitated. And now I can make peace for her to bask in the love she has always deserved and desperately needs.Yourlove.”

They sat in silence, the years they’d lost stretching between them like a vast chasm. But for the first time in ten years, Lily felt like they were both standing on the same side.

8

NO PROMISES

GREYSON

He wentto see about Caleb and give Lily some space.

If he was being honest, he needed space, too. He needed to get out of this house and put some sweat therapy in and it arrived as a moving truck trundling up the lane toward Lily’s cottage. He finished up the quick meal he’d helped Caleb finish making and made a plate for Lily.

Greyson panicked when he saw she’d left the office, but instinct led him to Ivy’s room where he found a sleeping Lily curled up in Ivy’s bed clutching one of her stuffies, her face still wet. He was dumbstruck as he took in the scene in front of him. She looked so much like Ivy, it almost brought him to his knees. She’d lost so much. There was no way they could navigate this on their own.

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