Page 21 of Wylder Ranch
Hendricks turns to me. “What are you feeling right now?”
“I don’t know.” I shake my head. It’s a question I’ve been asking myself. Overwhelmed is probably the best answer, but I say, “Confused, I guess. Frustrated. Hurt.”
“What about your feelings for Haven?”
Again, I don’t know what my response is. For most of this year, I’ve had to face the truth that Haven wanted nothing to do with me. That our relationship started and ended in the space of a week. Seeing her again brought back all the feelings I’d been trying to forget, only now they’re tangled up in this new reality that we have a baby together.
I don’t answer him, and instead, I ask him a question of my own. “What would you have done, Hen? If this had been you, knowing everything you do now about being a parent?”
His hands push through his hair, and he leans back in his chair. I see the memories flash through his head, because we all know what he’s been through. How hard it was for him when Max came along, how much he had to learn. But he also stepped up in a way I’ve never seen anyone do.
“I’d do whatever it takes to keep a baby of mine in my life.”
“We don’t know it’s his child,” snaps my mother.
“Enough, Mum,” Miles snaps back. “Wait until you see her.”
Hendricks continues, “We’re saying Haven’s now a single parent?”
“Yes.”
He pauses, taking a deep sigh, and glances over at Max, now lining up his firemen figures.
“I love Max with all my heart, and I would never change anything . . .” He huffs a laugh. “Maybe I’d change a couple of things. But it’s fucking hard. Being a single parent isso fucking hard.” He sweeps his hands around the place, gesturing to the tall, mullioned kitchen windows overlooking the back lawn and beyond that the swimming pool, the fields, the stables. The implication is clear. We have a lot. “And look at how much help I have, and the resources at my disposal. Mum is an amazing granny, you’re all with me whenever I need you, and when we’re all busy, Max still has Birgitta,” Hendricks replies, mentioning Max’s Swedish nanny. “From what I remember of Haven, she doesn’t have any of that. We’re not saying you have to marry her, but I know you, Al. You couldn’t live with yourself if you didn’t help in some way.”
“Just talk to her,” Miles adds. “See what she has to say. She didn’t fly over here for nothing. But you have toface the truth. One way or another, your life is about to change.”
The four of us sit in silence.
Change. Precisely what I’m afraid of.
CHAPTER 6
Alexander
Lando’s staring at me slack-jawed. He hasn’t said anything for a good minute.
It’s possible I haven’t heard his response because every time the fireworks explode above us, everyone cheers. But I don’t think I’ve seen his mouth move.
I wanted to tell him before the fireworks, but Holiday’s and his plane landed a little later than planned. Then there was the inevitable celebration from our mother that they’d gotten back together, followed by the news that Holiday would be moving into Burlington.
Taking a long draw of my beer, I finally say, “This was my first reaction.” I’m still too ashamed of my behavior to discuss it just yet.
He shakes his head back and forth. “I don’t know what to say.”
I shrug. “There’s not much to say.”
“Alex, there’s so much to say. How do you feel? What are you going to do? When are you seeing her? Shit, what was it like to see her again for the first time since last Christmas?”
I swallow with a large gulp. Never in all my years of knowing Lando have I seen him so animated. Hanging out with Holiday seems to have rubbed off on him inmore ways than one. He’s happier, that’s for sure, but this excitement is new.
I’m trying to decide whether it’s because Holiday’s an actress or American, when she sidles up next to him and tucks herself under his arm. Lando drops a kiss on her head.
“Hey guys, what’re you talking about?”
Lando’s eyebrows shoot up, but he stays silent. He’s going to let me do the honors. I guess Holiday’s almost family now, which means Lando’s going to tell her anyway, and even though I haven’t told a single person outside of my mother and siblings, I definitely don’t want this to make it into the Valentine Nook weekly gossip roundup.
My cheeks blow out while I wait for a particularly flamboyant series of fireworks to be done so that I can have their full attention.
