Page 48 of Fragile Heart

Brielle freezes beside me as we watch Ethan disappear down the road and turn onto the main highway in the direction of the Monroe Ranch. Though he could be running off to Jackson, I suppose. Camden sets down the flower he’d picked the moment he came outside and attacks the cinnamon roll with renewed ferocity.

I don’t break the silence, trying to ignore the uncomfortable edge of it and enjoy the morning with my son and my scent match. After a while, Brielle sighs and sets aside her half-eaten breakfast. She glances at me, her eyebrows furrowed, and starts to say something before shutting her mouth and looking away, focusing on the swath of mountains that jut out toward the west.

“Papa, can I ride my scooter?” Camden asks.

“Of course, bud,” I say, getting to my feet and grabbing both of their plates. “You need shoes on, though.”

Camden nods and follows me into the house, grabbing a set of his shoes from the basket beside the door, a pair of socks already tucked into them. I raise an eyebrow but don’t fret over it. I’ll just add it to my list to get done before my reset ends next weekend. As he rushes back out front, I set the plates in the sink and then head to the garage, pulling his scooter from where it’s leaning against the far wall. I take the walk back to gather my thoughts, cool my body, slow the rage that’s still seething through my veins.

Brielle’s moved to one of the oversized chairs we have positioned on either side of the large window that looks into the living room. Her feet are tucked under her and her shoulders are rolled in, but her eyes hold an unspoken laughter as she chats with Camden next to her.

“Here, bud,” I say, setting the scooter next to the stairs. He smiles and runs over, pulling the helmet from where it’s looped over one of the handlebars. Instead of having me help him, though, he crosses back to Brielle.

She doesn’t say anything, just helps him with a small smile curving the edges of her lips. It fades as he rushes down the stairs and starts down the sidewalk, giggling the entire time.

When I sit on the other chair, she sighs and turns to me. There’s a resolve in her posture that hadn’t been there before.

“I didn’t want to say anything in front of Camden,” she says.

My stomach clenches.

“I’m sorry,” I say before she can decide that it’s really her that needs to apologize for Ethan’s asshole behavior. “He had no right to freak out like that.”

She offers a sad half-smile and shakes her head.

“He does. I don’t like it, but he does.”

I frown, and she picks at the strings of the hoodie, adjusting them until they sit perfectly even.

“Ethan and I dated.” The words are quiet and rushed, nearly identical to how she told me she’d filed as Matchless. They hit me harder than that admission, though. Confusion races through me.

“What?” I can’t help the single word question from falling out of my mouth.

She ducks her head as she grimaces.

“When I spent that summer here during college,” she says.

Oh hell,Brielleis the nameless Omega he was so twisted up over? I’d come home after that fire season to find Ethan doing his damn best to work himself to death, as angry as I’d ever seen him. All he’d say was that there’d been a girl—and now there wasn’t.

I focus on my son, trying to keep the confusing mix of emotions roiling within me off my face.

“It started small. We’d see each other nearly every day since I was staying with Melissa,” she says. “He’d swing by most mornings before he and Brandon went out to work the cattle for Misty Mountain. We’d chat, flirt. And then it slowly morphed into something more.”

I glance at her. Her gaze is locked on the mountains again, her teeth biting into her lip. She sighs.

“Anyway, I should have told you earlier instead of letting you be blindsided by him being so angry this morning.” Her look is full of apology when she focuses on me, a sad tilt to her lips that’s almost a smile. Almost. “The short of it is that I went back to school. He didn’t want to make it long distance.”

Her eyes give away just how painful it must have been even as her voice stays steady.

How in the world was this not something that was plastered across every single gossip post in town? How had Ethan—and Melissa, clearly—managed to keep the nosy asses from getting word that her and Ethan had dated? Had clearly been at least moderately serious, if her nervousness in telling me and fragile look in her eye are anything to go by?

“He’ll deal with it,” I tell her, reaching across the open space so I can take hold of her hand. “I’ll handle it, all right?”

She nods and then climbs into my lap, tucking her head against my shoulder. Her scent surrounds us, clean and breathtaking. After a minute, the acidic feel creeps in. I wrap my arms around her and kiss her temple.

“I’m glad I found you,” I whisper.

Chapter Twenty-Three

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