Page 101 of The Last Dance You Saved
“Can I ask you something sort of personal?” When she nodded without hesitation, I asked, “Why didn’t you have any more kids? Spencer was a good dad. I can imagine him with a whole brood.”
Surprise shifted over her face. “Spence couldn’t have kids. He was infertile.”
The shock traveled through me. “What?”
She chuckled. “Yep. That cowboy had no fertile runners.”
Guilt wafted in again as I realized my brother had faced that knowledge on his own, just like he’d faced his death. When had he found out? Had he wanted to talk to me about it? Anyone? He’d had Lauren, but sometimes you needed another guy to understand the full depth of what you felt about things like that.
After a moment, I said, “There are other ways to have kids.”
That sobered her up. “We talked about adopting or IVF, but both are expensive, and money was tight. And truly, we were happy with it being the three of us.”
It stung, knowing they’d been a family in more ways than I’d ever been one with my daughter. I couldn’t change the past. I couldn’t pick up Spencer’s call, or be there for him when he’d found out he couldn’t have kids of his own, or when he’d realized Adam was stealing from them, but I could be there for Lauren. And I absolutely would be there for my daughter.
Lauren was right. Fallon was the best of the three of us. Better than any of us. The ranch was in her blood. She needed it as I’d once needed it, and I couldn’t and wouldn’t take it from her. I didn’t know what the hell that meant for Marquess Enterprises. Maybe nothing. Maybe it just meant I’d be pouring some of those profits into a dying business and making this my base instead of The Fortress in Vegas. As much as I traveled, would it really matter where I spent my days when I was on the West Coast?
But that also meant I wouldn’t be able to be in Tennessee with a certain dark-haired vixen. I didn’t want Sadie to have to give up her family to be with me when I knew what walking away from mine had cost me. Even if we got past the current danger, even if Adam and Theresa were found and we put an end to the current attacks coming at me, I couldn’t ask that of Sadie. She needed to stay right where she was at, doing the things she loved, being with the family she adored.
For the first time since Fallon had been born, I realized how much family and roots meant. I wouldn’t tear Sadie from her soil and try to replant her somewhere else. It’d be like trying to take a breadfruit plant and make it grow in California. It would just wither and die. I wouldn’t let that happen to her.
So maybe sending her away, making her think we were done, was really for the best.
My heart roared in objection.
My soul shouted into the cavern.
She belonged to me. She was mine as much as I was hers.
But sometimes that didn’t mean anything in the real world. It only meant something in those moments caught between realities.
And reality always found its way back in.
Chapter Thirty-three
Sadie
HE CALLED ME BABY
Performed by Lee Ann Womack
“Where are you going?” I turnedat the door to find Mila with her hands on her hips and a rainbow-colored stuffed unicorn shoved under each armpit. Her dark-blond waves were fastened into braids that were already askew even though Mama had barely tied them an hour ago. Her hazel eyes, the same color as Maddox’s wife’s, glimmered with mischief.
“Fallon and I are taking Parker to pick up the rental car,” I told her, hand waving to the parking lot where both of them were waiting at the car.
In the four short days since we’d been back in Tennessee, Fallon and Parker had both embedded themselves into my family and the ranch. They’d stolen everyone’s hearts by rolling up their sleeves and working just as hard as anyone else. It made me ache all over again because it wasn’tjustFallon who I wanted welcomed into my family with open arms. I wanted her father to be accepted as well. I wanted our two families to be one.
“He’s really leaving? Right now?” Mila asked, looking sad. Of all my family, it was my niece who’d fallen the hardest for the Naval Academy midshipman, and he’d done what everyone who ever met Mila had done—he’d fallen right under her spell. He’d played poker with her, using M&M’s as chips, and patiently answered every one of her million questions about becoming a SEAL.
But true to his promise to Rafe, every time Fallon had left the house, Parker had been right there with her. He’d pitched in with the chores, gone riding with her, and taken long walks through the hills.
The time they’d spent together only increased the stars in Fallon’s eyes so they glowed almost as brightly as my niece’s. Parker saw it, and he’d done his damnedest to treat her as nothing more than a little sister. A friend. It made me think of Lauren’s words about how hard you’d try to make the boy you liked look at you in the same way, but I was pretty sure Fallon saw the difference in their ages as an insurmountable hurdle at the moment.
I’d told Lauren the truth when I’d said I’d never had that strong of feelings for a guy before. But I had them for Rafe, and there was no way I was letting him walk away from me, regardless of our age difference and the miles that existed between our homes.
For now, I’d concentrate on doing the one thing Rafe had asked me to do—I’d look after his daughter. Even though, with Parker here, I hadn’t had to do much—at least, not until today. With him leaving, I had to find a way to keep Fallon close while I continued to do the real job I’d ignored for nearly two weeks. Now, I had a pile of bills I needed to weed through, a fire marshal to make happy, and the next supply order to place.
That meant I couldn’t drag Mila with me along with Fallon this morning.
