His Unexpected Return

Oh, but it was.

Cassidy blinked away tears as she opened her eyes and lifted her chin. “Tell me, Wade. Were you held captive for the last five years? Hit your head and suffered from amnesia?” She already knew the answer, but he needed to understand what he had put his family through. He needed to see that he couldn’t just explain away the kind of pain he had inflicted. Comprehend how ridiculous any explanation he had to offer would be.

“Was there some tragic reason you were unable to access a phone or computer or carrier pigeon to send a message? No kindling for a smoke signal to tell us you were alive?” Her voice trembled, but she held steady. “Or was not telling us—not reaching out—a deliberate choice on your part?”

“Cass, please.” He held his hands out to her, palms up.

“It’s a simple yes or no answer, Wade. No need for long explanations. The phone number and address are the same, so that couldn’t have been the issue.”

“There’s a lot more to it than that.”

“Just answer me.” She ground out the words.

Wade sighed, defeated. “I didn’t reach out. It was a choice. I already told you that.”

“Then I don’t need to hear anything else,” she said.

And meant it.

He had chosen to let them hurt. To let her heart crumble to dust at the loss of him. To destroy his family. He had allowed them to believe and make decisions based on lies.

Nothing could make any of those things go away. Nothing ever would.

At one time in her life, she had fiercely loved this man. Loved the way his calloused fingers brushed the back of her neck or traced her arm right before his lips found hers. Loved the intensity in his eyes whenever they locked onto her face. Loved the caress in his voice whenever they talked together.

For her, their love had been a consuming force. Something that had shoved the rest of the world away. Something that had saved her from the suffocating pressure her parents had stacked on Cassidy her whole life.

Wade Jarrett had once been her everything, and it had been both wonderful and dangerous in turns.

But Cassidy Danvers had grown up. In the past five years, she had built a life where Wade didn’t exist. One where her happiness and success didn’t depend on him.

And it was a good life. A life she loved. A life in which she didn’t need him at all.

“Please,” he whispered.

She didn’t know the man standing in front of her. Not anymore.

He was nothing more than a stranger.

One she didn’t care to know.

Wade glanced around inside of the small white chapel as his oldest brother unceremoniously propelled him through the building’s front door. A large brown dog with yellow eyes followed close on their heels. Minutes into Wade’s conversation with Cassidy, Rhett had charged out of the big house and wrenched Wade away. Not that Wade had fought him at all. He was ready for this. For hard talks.

But he hadn’t expected to ever see Cassidy again.

Wade ran his fingers nervously over the lump on his throat. Was it getting bigger? The nurses had told him it wasn’t noticeable, but it’s all he saw whenever he looked in the mirror. The doctor in Florida had told him he had time to settle on a medical team that fit his needs. But the doctor hadn’t specified how much time exactly. Weeks? Days?

He was a father.

A father.

He had missed five years of his child’s life.

His hand went to his throat again. If something happened before he got to know his daughter... If...

He couldn’t think that way.

Wade ducked under the pull rope hanging from the bell tower as Rhett guided him forward.

“You can let go. I’m not going to disappear.” Wade put his hands up in surrender.

“Given your history, that’s debatable.” Rhett’s voice was a gruff rumble but a raw edge of emotion was evident too. Wade hadn’t gotten to say a word to Rhett before Cassidy told his brother that he had faked his death. Had left them on purpose.

She was right. Painfully so. But there was more to it.

The door rattled as it closed behind them. Farther in, Wade stumbled into the colored light spilling through the intricate stained glass windows lining both sides of the chapel. Wade caught himself on the back of a pew and then wheeled around to face his brother.

It was time to face them all.

Face what he had done.

Own his consequences.

He had thought he was ready but after seeing Cassidy, Wade wasn’t so certain anymore.

From the news articles he had read online, Wade knew Rhett was now the owner of Red Dog Ranch. One link he found said their father had willed the ranch entirely to Rhett, naming no other heirs. Figures. As the eldest son, Rhett had been painted in the never-do-wrong light early on in Wade’s life. All the Jarretts had played their roles, actually. Rhett as the beloved eldest, Boone as the book-smart son with straight A’s and Shannon as the lively, optimistic only girl of the family. The baby girl everyone doted on. Where had that left Wade? Out in the cold, that’s where. The only role left had been the rebel, the disappointment.

A role he had filled all too well.

The large dog had seated itself in front of Rhett as if it was his brother’s bodyguard. The dog’s eyes tracked every movement Wade made, putting him on edge.

“Is that thing going to attack?” He jerked his chin to indicate the dog.

Rhett ran a hand over the dog’s head. “Kodiak’s as gentle as a lamb, unless I tell her to be otherwise.”

Not super reassuring.

Rhett had always been much bigger than him, taller with a wider shoulder span. Slightly intimidating, even when they were kids. None of that had changed in five years. If anything, Rhett was even more impressive now. Rhett’s hat was askew and his chest heaved, but Wade didn’t think it was from the exertion of charging up the hill. Rhett scowled at him, a mask of disapproval that, in Wade’s experience, every older sibling perfected early in life.

Or maybe only Wade’s siblings.

Disappointing people was Wade’s specialty, after all.

A muscle in Rhett’s jaw bunched and popped, then just as quickly Rhett’s face fell.

“First,” Rhett said, and then he crossed the distance between them so quickly Wade had no time to react. No time to block a punch Rhett would have had every right to throw after what Cassidy had revealed. But no hit came. Instead, Rhett yanked Wade into a rib-crunching hug. Wade hesitated for a second before his hands rose slowly to Rhett’s back.

Had his brother ever hugged him before? Not that he remembered.