Page 130 of Chasing the Wild
More than one set of eyes are turning to stare at him. He’s every inch the cowboy poster child, especially seeing him dressed in his competition gear. While it doesn’t do anything for me, objectively, I can see that Kayce is a sponsor’s dream in terms of looks and charisma, if only he can get his shit together long enough to put all that talent to the forefront and quit fucking around.
Shit. All of a sudden, the image of a pregnant Chy standing in the kitchen at midnight—her threatening me to leave or else she’d out me and Colt and potentially set Kayce’s career on fire—flashes into my mind. He must be a father by now. The baby would have been born at least a couple of months ago.
“Layla, I feel like such a dick about it.”
I haven’t been paying any attention to what he’s been saying. “Sorry?” Swallowing, I try to focus on the man in front of me. My ex-boyfriend. The son of the man I’m intensely heartbroken over.
“The money. That fucking loan. I’m honestly so sorry, and I was in such a shitty place when all that went down… I never made a proper effort to apologize.” Kayce rubs a hand over the back of his neck, and for the first time ever, I see him look genuinely remorseful about one of his screw-ups. “Fuck. You must hate my guts for doing that to you. I never meant for you to find out, figured I’d have paid it off before you ever knew I’d put it in your name.”
His brow creases beneath the shadow of his hat brim.
“Umm… yeah… well, it all got sorted out with your dad then?” My tongue feels like it is too big for my mouth. I should be angry at him, I really should, but I’m just too fucking tired.
“Yeah, it’s all squared away, but, for the longest time I couldn’t figure out what the fuck the old man was going on about. He got me to work off the money I owed, after chewing me to pieces for screwingyouout of money. In my entire life, I’ve never seen him go off like that before.” He chuckles and shakes his head. “Of course, I had no idea what he meant at first, then after I’d listened to him rip me a new one for an hour about opening joint bank accounts and being financially irresponsible, the penny dropped that you must have spun him some bullshit story.”
“Look, I didn’t want you guys to have more grievances between you.” My eyes drop and I scuff my boot in the dirt. “I only said that because I didn’t want to give you more of a reason to have issues.”
Never mind the fact that I went and made it a thousand times worse by letting myself fall in love.
“I’m being serious when I say, I truly am sorry. That was a black fucking time in my life, when I took advantage of you, and I made some terrible decisions from a dark place. You were always a million miles too good for a waster like me.”
That brings a little smile to my face and I point at him. “Your words, not mine, Wilder. Anyways, how’s being a dad treating you?” Is it weird he hasn’t mentioned his kid yet? It’s definitely weird. Mind you, this is Kayce Wilder after all.
Kayce barks out a laugh and nearly doubles over.
My brows knit together. What the fuck?
“Jesus. I completely forgot you wouldn’t know about all of that.”
“About what?” I scowl at him. It doesn’t exactly seem like the kind of thing to laugh about. Not considering the way that bitch threatened me and was out to sink her claws into both Wilder men.
“Man… it feels like a fever dream, but it turns out I wasn’t the father.” He gives me a wry smile.
My eyebrows shoot up into my hairline. “Oh?”
“Yeah.” Kayce cracks his knuckles, elbow leaned nonchalantly on the railing beside us like he hasn’t got a goddamn care in the world. “Turned out the baby belonged to my dad.”
There’s a high-pitched ringing in my ears.
Every ounce of blood drains from my face.
What the fuck. What the fuck. What the fuck.
My knees feel wobbly.
“Holy shit, Layla. I’m just joking.” Kayce starts belly laughing as he grasps my shoulder with one heavy palm.
I blink at him for a second and then promptly lose my shit. Punching his arm so hard, I hope to god it goes dead and he can’t hold on properly for his next ride. Swearing at him like a sailor. All while he’s cackling at me being a damn idiot. Eyes glistening with tears of laughter, he rubs the spot on his shoulder where I’ve wailed on him.
“You fuck face.” I spit out. “Why would you say something like that?”
The man in front of me gives me a wink, wiping the corners of his eyes with the back of his hand. “Oh, that was too fucking good. How else was I going to get it out of you? I knew it.”
“Knew what?” My stomach lurches.
“I knew there was something going on between the two of you.”
I’m back to speechless mode. My brain splinters, and my jaw falls to land somewhere on the dusty ground beneath our boots.
