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“Um…”
“Wait, he’s coming to family dinner? Avery! You just met this guy.”
“Bradly, Beck is here because he wants to meet his father’s family. He never met them—or his dad.”
Bradly’s brows drew down as his sister’s words sank in. Then his head snapped up, and he looked at me. “Beck… You said your name is Beck?”
I nodded. “Yes. I was named after my father.”
Bradly’s eyes went wide as Mackenzie looked around confused.
When he turned to face his sister, Avery nodded. Bradly looked back at me and asked, “How old are you, if you don’t mind me asking?”
I shrugged. “I’m twenty-seven.”
Dropping back in his seat, he continued to stare at me. “Holy shit. Beck…you have no idea how much your world is about to change.”
“Um, for the good or the bad?”
Bradly smiled. “For the good. This is like a damn miracle!”
Avery squeezed my hand again. “I know. I thought Dad could be the one to help us figure out a way to introduce Beck.”
I looked between the two siblings. “Are you sure about this?”
Bradly laughed. “Yes! They’re like family, dude. I’ve heard stories about Uncle Beck my entire life.”
“Uncle?” I asked.
“We’re not blood-related. Our father, Dirk, is best friends with Brock. Well, all of your uncles, really. But they were on the circuit together, and they grew up together as best friends.”
“Circuit?” I asked.
Bradly laughed again, then looked at Avery. “You should’ve just had him drive to Hamilton with us. We have so much to tell you.”
“I didn’t want to overwhelm him, so I’m driving with him. I can fill him in. If you get home before me…”
Bradly held up his hand. “I know. You love a good surprise.”
“Fill me in on what?”
Turning to me, Avery smiled, her sapphire eyes sparkling. “I want to tell you all about the Shaws. From Grams to Ty Senior, all the way down to little Callie, who was just born. That way, when you meet them, you’ll know a little about the family.”
Mackenzie slowly shook her head. She’d been quiet during all of this. “Stella is going to take one look at you and know you’re Beck’s son.”
Her admission surprised me, my head drawing back in shock.
Bradly nodded. “Yeah, I honestly don’t know how I didn’t see it the moment I looked at you, dude…from your eyes to your build to the way you smile. You are a Shaw through and through.”
Chapter Three
AVERY
I wrung my hands together as I sat quietly, waiting for Beck to say something after we started our drive down to Hamilton. When he finally spoke, I jumped.
“Why didn’t you tell me on the plane who you were to the Shaw family?”
Turning some in my seat, I cleared my throat. “Beck, if I’d told you that I was like family to the Shaws, you would have thought I was feeding you a line. You’d just told me your grandfather was wealthy—one of the wealthiest men in Texas, I believe is what you said. That you were attempting to find your long-lost family. And then suddenly, this stranger next to you says, ‘Hey, by the way, I know that family! In fact, I call your uncles my uncles.’ You would have thought I was scamming you.”
I could see him frown slightly. “That’s true, I probably would have. It is a crazy coincidence.”
I let out a soft laugh. “It really is. What are the odds we would end up sitting next to one another on the flight out of Dallas? A flight I wasn’t even supposed to be on in the first place.”
“Yeah, I would have totally thought you were pulling a scam. I already thought it was crazy that you were from Hamilton.”
Grinning, I sat back in my seat and stared out the window. “I love Montana so much.”
“I bet you’ve missed it.”
Sighing, I closed my eyes. “I have.” Looking back out the front window, I felt the tears sting the back of my eyes. “I wanted to come home about a year and a half after moving to France.”
“Why didn’t you?” Beck asked.
With a half-shrug, I replied, “One, I don’t give up on things, even if they turn out to be something I wasn’t planning on. Two, I didn’t want to let my parents down. I begged and begged them to let me move to France. I talked them into letting me be homeschooled. I finished high school last year, and I’ve been taking some college classes online while working.”
“What exactly did you do in France? Model the whole time?”
“I started off as an assistant to a fashion designer my sister Morgan and sister-in-law Georgiana knew, as well as modeling. I fell in love with fashion a few years ago. I thought for sure it was going to be my life. While in France, though, I fell even harder for plants. There was a flower shop across the street from where we lived, and every day they’d put all of these gorgeous flowers out in front of the shop. Me and Eden, Eden Briggs is her full name. She’s a model and the woman who offered me the opportunity to model in France. Anway, we would sit out on her patio every morning and the smell would float up and I’d be lost in the scents. I’d pull out my journal and draw pictures of what I could see down below.”
