Page 77 of What I Should Have Known

Lie. Big, fat lie.

“Kat, sweetheart.” From my peripherals, I watched as she closed her eyes, and a soft smile lit across her face. “You really care for him, don’t you?”

Furrowing my brows, I dropped the arm from around my body and looked at her. “For who? Wyatt?” I asked.

She slowly shook her head and the weathered lines on her face softened. “No. That Bernie fellow.”

I stared blankly at my mom. “How—How’d you know?”

Her fingers slid across the blanket as her chest expanded. “You’ve told me for years now that you don’t care for Wyatt. Then Bernie shows up and I see you blush. Giggle. You can’t stop staring at him. But more so, it’s the way he looks at you. I figured it out when Emma invited him up to camp with us during the cattle drive. And now, you’re sitting on your bed with the look of a woman who’s wrapped up in a new love. A look I’ve never seen on your face before.”

“You’re not…mad?” I whispered.

She shook her head. “Nope. All I’ve ever wanted for you, all your dad has ever wanted, was for you to be happy and taken care of.”

“Then why Wyatt? Please help me understand.” I crawled forward as my mom opened her arms.

“You get half of his inheritance when you marry. That’s security for you that your dad and I can’t offer or promise. Sweetie, the ranch is in a lot of debt. And I’m ashamed to admit that as a wedding gift, his parents were also going to invest in the ranch. Help us out of some of the loans we’ve had to take the past couple years to keep us afloat.” My mom placed a hand against my shoulder, tucking me into her body as the pieces to the puzzle all snapped together.

“So, this whole time…” I muttered, and her chin rested against the top of my head.

“Yourhappiness, your freedom to have someone you choose is more important to me than that money. I never meant to let the ranch fall on your shoulders. Your dad and I will figure out—”

“Bernie’s in the military,” I quickly inserted. A confession released that I needed to get off my chest before she fully gave me her blessing. Before I was freed from this bind between two families I’d been unaware of until now. “He’s in the Navy.”

I felt my mom swallow. The only sound in the room was the tick of the clock, drumming steadily onward. Her fingers never faltered as she stroked my hair, but the tension coiling within me weighed as heavy as the burden that still remained knowing I wasn’t out of the chaos yet.

“Okay,” she replied.

Pulling my head back from her, I glanced at her face. Her eyes stared at the wall, unblinking. “Okay? That’s it. Dad is—”

“What happened to me sucks, but that doesn’t mean that Bernie is the same. Let me break the news to your father, all right?”

“After prom, please,” I said. Her brows twitched, and she shot her gaze down to me. “I agreed to go with Wyatt as his date.”

She tipped her head, her brows pinching together. “Why would you do that when you’re sleeping with Bernie? This isn’t like you. Playing someone while—”

I quickly shook my head and grabbed her hands. “I’m not playing Wyatt. There’s some stuff going on I can’t explain just yet. I need you to keep this entire conversation to yourself until after prom. Please. My safety is at stake.”

“Kat, you need to tell me what’s going on. As your mom, it’s my job to protect you.”

“Bernie’s got this. Trust me,” I replied and squeezed her hands.

She locked her eyes on me and frowned. “Just because he’s in the military doesn’t change the fact that he is rather impulsive. What—”

“He’s a Navy SEAL, and yeah, he may be impulsive, but there’s a side of him that would do anything to protect me.” I closed my eyes, letting the words roll from my tongue like hot coals. The one sure thing about Bernie was his ability to feed off chaos and turn it into something he was in control of. The one sure thing about the man I truly cared for was how comfortable he was in the midst of violence.

Yes, it scared me. But it also reassured me.

No matter what happened, he would take care of things. “He’ll take care of me. He promised,” I whispered.

A soft exhale escaped my mom’s lips. “He is…not what I expected for you.”

“Why’s that?” I opened my eyes, catching sight of the twinkle brightening in my mom’s gaze.

“For one, he has no clue what to do with horses or cattle or anything ranching.”

“He did beat Wyatt at the rodeo,” I replied, and my mom chuckled.

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