Page 86 of The Life We Left Behind

“It’s a lot,” she admitted. “I never saw myself coming back here. But now that I have…everything’s changed. Everything I thought I knew was true. I don’t know how to deal with this, what I’m supposed to do. But I’m not going to take him away from you when you’ve only just found out about him, Trace. You deserve a chance to be with your son if that’s what you want.”

I was out of my seat before she even finished speaking and pulling her into my arms only a second later.

“It’s everything I want. It might be what I’ve wanted for my entire life without even realizing it. It was always you, Lanes. You, me, and the family we wanted to build together. If I have to go to the city to be with you, then I’ll do it. If you can’t stand to be in this place, I’ll leave it all behind. I don’t care. All I care about is the two of you and having a chance to keep you in my life.”

She rested her head against my chest, and I kissed the top of it as we stood in the middle of the kitchen and just held each other.

“I wish my dad could have been here for this,” she whispered. “That he could have seen his family come home.”

I clung to her all the tighter, not knowing what to say. I’d never really lost anyone before. When my grandfather passed, he’d been ill for so long that it had been more of a blessing. He wasn’t in any pain anymore, and he was ready to go. We knew it was coming. I refused to think of anyone else as gone. I might not be in contact with all my brothers, but they were out there living their lives, and I was happy they were doing what they wanted, even if I would have preferred them to be here with us instead.

“I think he would have liked that, too.” It didn’t feel like enough, but there had always been something so understated about Barrett James. He lived life on his terms: no fuss, nononsense. He was a stand-up guy and an amazing father. He was everything I wished my dad had been.

Wrapping one arm around Delaney’s shoulder, I pulled her into the living room and onto the couch with me. We needed to talk, and now that we were on the subject, it was time to rip off the Band-Aid. So, to the sounds of furniture dragging across the floor upstairs, I took a deep breath as I gently ran my fingers up and down her arm, unable to bring myself to pull away from her.

“How are the arrangements for the funeral coming? Is there anything I can help with?”

Delaney shook her head. “No, it’s all done. There was barely anything for me to do. Dad had most of it arranged before he went to the hospital.”

That was just like Barrett. Taking as much of the burden as he could for himself to save the people he loved.

“Okay, what about here? Do you need to make a run to the city, or do you have what you need?”

Delaney looked around at the mostly empty living room and sighed. The furniture was still in the same places it had always been, but the room had been stripped bare of anything that made it a home. The collection of boxes pushed into the corner, evidence of where they’d all gone. It was like that in every room I’d seen so far.

“I still need to go through all these boxes. Decide what to do with them. And everything is still in our apartment. I guess we need to go and box it up and bring it here.”

I nodded. Finally, I could see where I could be of some help to her.

“How about I get Booker and Dex over here tomorrow, and we move all the boxes out to the barn? Then you can bring them in one at a time when you feel like it. There’s no rush.”

Delaney nodded, but I could already see that she was in her own head, making arrangements and figuring things out. She’d always been like this.

“We can do a run to the city at the weekend if you want? Grab a U-Haul and box everything up.”

I knew I was moving fast, but I wanted them here. The reassurance that they were here to stay.

“That’s a good idea. Blake’s probably going to want to bring some of her stuff as well.”

I was nodding now as I started to build a plan. The deal with Delaney’s land was dust. It didn’t matter. We’d think of something else. The hotel wasn’t happening. It was a blow to the regeneration plan, but honestly, before Barrett had passed, we’d already reached the point of looking into alternatives.

The important thing was getting Delaney and Cade settled. To set them up so that they could get back as normal of a life as possible.

“Delaney?”

“Hmmmm.” She was still lost in her mind, working through the details. Damn, she was cute when she did that.

“What’s your job?”

It felt like such a stupid thing to have to ask the mother of my child. The woman who occupied every single space in my heart and soul.

“Oh. I’m not working at the minute. After Aunt Adelaide passed, I took some time off to figure out what I wanted to do. I was in marketing before that, but I kind of hated it.”

Delaney was a single mother. Yeah, she’d had what sounded like a good job before, but how long could she sustain living without an income? I looked around at the farm as if I was seeing it for the first time. The property taxes on this place would be steep, and it was an old house. There was going to be stuff that needed doing.

“I’m going to help out,” I declared. “Cade is my son, and I should be contributing. I should have been contributing for years. I can’t believe my damn mother.” I pulled my phone out of my jeans pocket, thumbing open my email. “I’ll get my accountant to set up?—”

“Trace, what are talking about?”

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