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He closed his eyes, thinking about what came next. He and Shelby would finally have some time together to figure out how to be partners in raising Eliza. He’d jump through any hoop she put in place. He’d do whatever it took. He’d show her he wasn’t a deadbeat dad. He cared. More than she knew. Because even if she didn’t know it, she’d saved him.
It didn’t take long for him to drift off. Shelby had a way of making everything seem okay, and her presence always settled him, though it also amped up the desperate need he had for her.
The peace only lasted so long, because sleep opened the door to the many nightmares stored up in his mind.
Something strong gripped his arm and shook him. “Chase! Wake up!”
Chase’s eyes shot open, and he sat bolt upright with the echo of therat-a-tat-tatof automatic gunfire and the blast of explosions going off in his head. Not real. Just a series of horrific memories now. He pressed the heels of his hands into his eye sockets, and the gruesome scenes turned into a new fresh hell as the ghostly image of a beautiful blonde stared at him with dead eyes and blue lips.
Juliana.
He dropped his hands, opened his eyes, sucked in a ragged breath, and stared at the unfamiliar house in front of him.
“Are you okay?”
He hated that Shelby kept asking him that, but he guessed he hadn’t slept peacefully. He never did. Not for long.
The concerned look on her face confirmed it.
“I’m fine.”
Worry turned to doubt in her beautiful eyes.
“Where are we?”
“This used to be the Hudson place. Now it’s the Wilde place.”
He stared at the white house with the covered porch, black-trimmed windows, and dark green front door, not understanding at all. “What?”
“This is your new place. Welcome home.” She gave him a brilliant smile that made him want to soak up all the good and wonderful things she was, but two trucks pulled in behind them and set his teeth to grinding.
His father and both brothers climbed out of the trucks.
“Fuck me.” Chase climbed out of the truck ready to battle his family again, but they didn’t come after him. Instead of chewing him out, his dad went off on Shelby.
Chapter Two
Shelby climbed down from the truck and faced off with three very pissed-off Wilde men. She should have realized when she spotted them in the driveway at Split Tree Ranch down the road that they’d come and start trouble. She knew why they were here, even if Chase was completely clueless.
All she wanted to do was surprise Chase and make him happy. He deserved it after everything he’d been through. But no. His family had to come and ruin her surprise.
She knew exactly what this was about. Still didn’t make it any easier.
No one believed Chase, the handsome high school football star, prom king, valedictorian, and college grad with a bright and successful future, who could get any woman he wanted, had slept withher.
Chase’s father, Wayne Wilde, took the lead and didn’t mince words. He never did. “You’re not going to get away with this, girl.”
Chase stopped right beside her, gaze bouncing from his father to her.
“I did get away with it.” She’d pulled it off days ago right under his nose.
She’d been working on it ever since she overheard someone talking in the diner where she and Eliza had Pancake Tuesday. Nobody ever really paid her any attention in this town, so she tended to hear a lot of things people said, not realizing she was right there.
They thought her quiet. Shy. Odd.
Someone to whisper about behind her back.
Stained by her mother and father’s past.
