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“Um, yeah,” I say, a pang of guilt hitting me as I realize that I’ll never even see these people once Wade takes me back to Arkansas. They’re sitting there thinking that I’m basically family—and I’m not even close.
They would probably hate me if they knew the truth.
That’s the one thing I hadn’t considered when I agreed to Wade’s arrangement. I just pictured them all as faceless people, but now that I’ve gotten to know the Lewis family, I really like them.
“So, once y’all are married,” Emma says, looking over to me as Ava calls for Bear, and the two bound off through the pasture—Bear following her horse like the good boy he is. “Are you gonna live in Nashville or L.A.?”
He lives in L.A., too?
“That’s a great question,” I say with a sigh. “I have no idea. My job lets me pretty much live wherever I want to, which gives me a lot of flexibility. I figure I’ll just go wherever he wants to.”
“Has he considered moving back here? I mean, Cooper is here,” she says, her voice full of a curiosity that makes me hesitate. She’s looking to me for real answers, not just small talk.
“I don’t know if he’s considered it or not,” I say honestly. “He’s never talked that much about home—other than the fact that he doesn’t really fit in, and that he’s no good at rodeo or whatever.”
Emma smiles, but I can see she’s sympathetic to him. “I grew up riding with all the boys. My older brother, Wyatt, is Carson’s best friend, so naturally I was around all of the time. The ranch is huge, and they always let me and my friends come out and ride. Wade wasn’t bad at anything he did. I think he just had a different interest than the rest of them, so he didn’t put the time into it. They were competing in the rodeo and he was singing at it.”
I nod, imagining a young Wade with his acoustic guitar playing at the rodeo. Somehow it’s an endearing thought. “That makes sense. He just made it out to be that he was just terrible or something.”
“Oh, none of those Lewis men are terrible at anything when it comes to ranching. Wade made the high school finals for bronc riding.” Emma laughs, shaking her head. “I would hardly call that terrible. I think he’s just one of those perfectionist kind of guys.”
I nod, and then hesitate as I open my mouth to say more. “I don’t know a lot about Harper—his son’s mom,” I say, choosing my tone carefully. I don’t want Emma to think that I’m being overly nosey, but there’s a part of me that’s so curious to know more about his past that I can’t hold back.
“Yeah, Harper,” Emma says with a sigh, pushing some of her blonde hair behind her ear. “She is something else. I don’t know much about their relationship—or that they really had one to be honest. As far as I know, a mistake led to her getting pregnant with Cooper and then he married her to try and please the family.”
“That’s about as much as I know ... and that it was pretty short-lived.”
Emma nods. “From what I know, they fought like cats and dogs, and when it was all said and done, I don’t think they could even find common ground. It went so bad so fast that they divorced less than a year later. And, according to Carson, it’s been tense between them ever since.”
“Because of Wade’s lifestyle?” I ask, still trying to be careful not to blow my cover.
“I don’t know about all that, really,” Emma says, letting out a heavy sigh. “I know that Wade moved to Nashville when Cooper was a few months old. He actually kept him a lot, especially over summers, but then his career exploded. He wound up getting a second home and moving out to L.A. He hit it so big that he just ... he just got a little lost in the lifestyle. There’s a lot of parties out there, and touring led to wild nights.”
“He’s straightening up,” I say, though I’m not sure it’s completely true, but I want to believe it is, especially considering he said something about needing to be a stable home for Cooper.
And he hasn’t consumed a single ounce of alcohol in the time we’ve spent together.
“He better be.” Emma laughs. “If he doesn’t, he may miss out on a lot of time with Cooper. Harper has really come down hard on him this last time after he got arrested for the tiger incident.”
“Yeah,” I say, pretending like I’m aware of the intricacies of his relationship with his ex-wife.
Emma makes a funny face, and I can tell she’s fixing to burst into laughter. “I just want to know why in the world he thought it was a good idea to try and drunkenly fight a tiger through the glass at the zoo?”
“Maybe he just didn’t like how it looked at him.” I choke back my own laughter, still in disbelief he actually considered fighting a tiger was a good idea. Drunk or not, that’s insane.
Emma bursts into laughter, shaking her head. “You are a saint for being with him—I can tell you that. All these Lewis boys have their ups and downs, and I’ve heard that Wade is the worst of them all.”
“Really?” I ask, not sure where they’re coming from on that one. “What makes him the worst? The fact that he fought a tiger through glass?” I can hardly even say it without laughing.
“I don’t actually know him well enough to know. Not anymore, anyway.” Emma sighs, looking away. “We hung out as kids but I haven’t spent much time around him since. The Lewis brothers have just always said that Wade is the wildest of them all—but I don’t know that for sure. Honestly, I think that they’re all wild in their own way.” She chuckles, before squinting out across the pasture, where Ava and Bear are heading back toward us at a full gallop. “I really don’t know what to do with her.” Emma laughs, shaking her head. “I just hope our second child has her wild spirit—because I know she got it from her daddy.”
“She didn’t get it from you?” I ask, furrowing my brow. “You seem like a pretty fun time to me.”
Emma looks over at me and then tilts her head in a way that tells me I am very wrong about what I just said, but I have no idea why. “Ava isn’t my biological daughter,” she says, her voice quieting as Ava rides up on us. “I figured Wade would’ve told you that.”
“Like I said, he hasn’t really talked much about the family,” I reply with a nervous laugh, internally freaking out over the hiccup I just made.
“Did you see how fast I went?” Ava asks me, nearly bouncing up and down in her saddle. “Mom says that she’s gonna let me barrel race this year, but Daddy says that he’d rather me just do cow work. Obviously, I’m gonna do them both,” she says, her voice giddy with excitement.
