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He shook his head as his shoulders slumped. “Your mom’s name is Laura Kensington, is it not?”
Shock reverberating through my veins stole my breath. Everything burned around me as the reality of what he was saying whirred toward me like a time bomb ready to explode.
Cassidy wasn’t lying. He knew her name, and I’d never spoken it so there was no way that my denial had any substantial backing to it. But then that meant my father had been lying to me my entire life. My mother had abandoned me and him, and he’d lied.
“I’ll take your silence as a yes,” he mumbled.
Hot tears slid down my cheeks, passing through the dam that had burst. I didn’t even try to stop them, there was no use as the current of absolute bewilderment coursed through me.
“How…How do you…?” I tried to ask.
“Can I explain the rest at the house? My head is really splitting right now,” he answered. There was no malice in his words, no anger. I could see the pain twisting his features tight as he placed his palm against the side of his head again.
More water left stains down my cheeks, like coals pulled freshly from the fire. The person with answers was fading away from me faster and faster. I needed answers; I needed to know how he knew this so the jolting shock that scorched my veins would stop.
“Cassidy!” I shouted, scrambling to my feet as the world whirred back to life. “Will you stop for a minute so I can catch up?”
“Goldie, if I stop, I ain’t makin’ it back to the house, and no matter how strong you are, you aren’t gonna be able to carry all two hundred pounds of me the rest of the way.” There was something like shame coating his words as he continued to trudge forward.
“Oh,” was all I managed to say and jogged after him.
How was this possible?
Chapter 23
CASSIDY
“Let me sit down, and I’ll explain,” I said the moment we stepped inside my house.
Briar merely hummed a distant agreement, her voice strained. The pure, undeniable stupefaction spread upon such gentle features morphed tighter and tighter the closer we got to the house.
No matter how much the world spun in my head, no matter how dizzying things felt, I’d been the idiot to explode and spill something that should’ve waited until tomorrow. Something I should have shared when my mind was clearer. But holding that secret once it hit me weighed heavier than the rock knocking constantly against my skull. And she needed to know now.
“I’ll tell you how I know, and then we can figure the rest out tomorrow. That’ll give you time to think through things,” I muttered some sort of reassurance that most likely did nothing, stumbling toward the kitchen. The moment my hands found a barstool, I plopped myself down onto the wood and leaned forward, placing my forehead against the cool counter.
“You’re in actual pain, Cassidy,” she whispered as her body heat washed up next to my side. The stool beside me grated across the floor, and I heard her gently sit down.
“Did Rooney ever tell you how I left?” I began.
“No, it never really came up,” she answered, her voice tender and quiet, though once again, there was fear coating her words.
“His truck broke down one night. I honestly don’t even remember what part he needed, but I let him borrow my truck so he could go pick it up in town. I guess your dad thought that meant I wasn’t there, so he came a knockin’,” I paused and slowly lifted my head from the counter. Blinking through the haze at Briar’s beautiful features, a sigh left my lips. “I still remember the shock on his face when I answered the door, because he wasn’t expecting it to be me. He introduced himself to me as Thomas, that was it. Didn’t tell me why he came looking for Rooney, either, and quickly left, but not before I noticed the sticker on his truck. It read Kensington Cattle.”
Briar looked away from me, some blonde hair spilling out from the bonnet still wrapped around her head. She didn’t open her mouth, didn't say anything, so I continued. “I let Rooney know that his neighbor came looking for him, but didn’t think much about it for a few days. Until I realized I’d heard that last name before. I was young, quite young, around four or five when I first heard it. I remembered a woman who my mom invited to the ranch for dinner one day. She’d just moved into town, and my mom likes to be in the center of everything, so it was only fitting to have this stranger over. Being as little as I was, I didn’t really pay attention to why she moved there or what not, but I remembered thinking she looked like Sleeping Beauty with her pretty, blonde hair.”
A single tear slid down Briar’s cheek.
“Anyway, with it being a rather unique last name, I made the connection rather quickly. The day after I put the name on Thomas’s truck sticker and the last name of the lady from my childhood together, I called my mom just wanting to joke about how crazy of a coincidence that was. Suddenly, I found myself graduating without completely finishing schooling and on my way home. Just like that. No one said a word about it either when I returned to the ranch, and anytime I’d ask questions about the sudden departure from Rooney’s or the last name, they’d shut it down. Like they were protecting her or helping her hide something.” I studied the girl beside me, the silence and tears were the only evidence of how much pain this was causing her, but I could see how much she needed me to continue.
“You didn’t tell me your last name because you were worried I’d turn you in for Sundance, right?” I hesitantly asked. She nodded but said nothing, confirming my suspicions that she’d never even doubted her father’s story about her mother dying during childbirth. “Well, tonight, when my dad told me I had to stay behind, he looked as if he was about to explain a little more, and then I heard you walk into the room. The last time he was that short with me, I had been an idiot teenager.”
Sighing, I entwined my fingers together, setting my hands on the counter. “This stupid concussion is really pissing me off because things that would normally just click are taking forever for me to put together. I should’ve figured it out faster, but something like this, even I wasn’t sure I believed at first, because in what world is a story like this real? But my parents learned your last name at the accident just as I did. Weston and Tenley heading to the hospital had to have been the triggering event that connected everything together for them.”
“And you and I wouldn’t have run into her at the hospital after the crash because my mom is in labor and delivery, not in the emergency room,” Briar whispered. Another tear slid down her cheek, and she placed her chin in her hands, resting her elbows on the counter.
“Exactly. And they knew that even if they drove me to the hospital, I would want you to come with me while we all waited for updates on Tenley.” I watched her, unsure of what I could do that wouldn’t overwhelm her. Every bone in my body screamed at me to reach out and comfort her, to touch her, to offer her some sort of physical reassurance that everything was going to be fine. But we were in a weird place right now.
And her processing the fact that her mom was actually still alive was more important than anything else going on between us. Which was also something that I couldn’t help with.
