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“Yeah, that,” I say with a sigh, plopping down on the other side of my suitcase, opposite of Emma. “I mean ... I agreed to it because I was having terrible writer’s block, and I thought that it might be a fun adventure and a good way to break out of it, you know?”
“I get that,” Bailey chimes in. “I completely get needing a change. Sometimes life is really hard, and I’m sure that Wade was pretty charming—all of the Lewis boys have a way of getting under your skin,” she adds with a laugh. “But they’re also all a handful. There’s no doubt about that.”
“I’m just so sorry to involve you all in this. When I agreed to be his fake fiancée, I had no idea I would meet such wonderful people—”
“I don’t believe that you were really faking it,” Emma suddenly blurts, meeting my eyes. “I work on reality TV shows, where we manipulate a lot of scenes to keep the intensity going for viewers—and whatever you and Wade had going, it was real chemistry. There’s no pretending going on between the two of you.”
“And the song you wrote was ... real,” Bailey adds.
“Then why didn’t he come up here?” I huff, feeling the tears threatening to spill over my cheeks again.
“I don’t know,” Emma says with a sigh. “And I know that what happened down there was probably mortifying for you, but you have to know, no one sees this as your fault. I mean, Wade didn’t have to fake anything in front of his own family.”
My phone buzzes in my pocket, my sister’s name showing up with a text.
Beth: Your ride is there.
Chapter Twenty-Seven
Wade
I need to find Callie, pronto.
Now that I’ve come clean to the family, I can’t let the girl I love get away. Especially not before I can tell her how sorry I am. I don’t want to break her heart—that was never my intention when I asked her to be my fake fiancée.
But it also wasn’t my intention for everything to be outed, either.
I’ll just say, “Callie, I love you. I want to be a better man for you.”
I scrunch my nose at how stupid it sounds in my head. I have to be able to say something better than that—I really need to woo her. Obviously, the songs didn’t work.
Just talk to her, Wade. Just talk.
“Son,” my dad’s voice catches my attention just as I’m heading to the grand staircase to go up to Callie’s room, still lost in my thoughts of how to make everything right again. “Stop right there, Wade,” he adds in a stern voice—one that makes me do exactly that.
I turn to look at him. “Look, Dad, I know that I messed up with all this, but we can talk more about it later or something. I don’t have time for your lecture right now, I really need to figure out what the heck is going on—”
“So you had time to bring some woman home, lie to us all, and make me think that you were finally going to be around for the long term—that I was going to get my son back, but you don’t have time to sit here and talk to me for a few minutes about the chaos you just caused?”
“What the heck are you talking about?” I explode, my thought pattern changing for a moment. “Get your son back? How could you say that? How have I not been your son, Dad? I’ve always been your son—and maybe if you would’ve treated me like I was, I wouldn’t have felt like I needed to bring some girl home to prove it.”
“I didn’t mean it like that.” He grunts, shaking his head at me. “I mean that you’re never around, Wade. You never come home anymore. I know you’ve been working hard to change your life because you want to see your son—but you never seem to realize that I might want to see mine. I know that we haven’t always seen eye-to-eye on everything, but you have to know that I still love you—no matter what kind of extravagant plan you try to pull off. You didn’t need to fake a relationship for me, I never asked that from you.”
“No, but every time we talked, it was about what my brothers were up to—how great Sawyer has been doing with the company, how great of a cattlemen Carson is, and how Hunter finally found someone who makes him a little less ... whatever he is,” I say, trying to keep my voice under control. “There’s no point in us even having this conversation, Dad. I’ve always been the black sheep—and I always will be.”
“I was just telling you what was going on with the family, because you’re never around. I never expected you to be like them—to live here and work for me in one way or another. I’ve always been supportive of your music and you following your dreams—I want that for you, but I also know that you have a son that needs a stable dad.” He lets out a sigh, rubbing his chin as he looks at me. “I want the best for you Wade—and I thought I made that clear. We have a good time with each other, and I’ve really liked you being around, I just wish you’d visit more.”
“Yeah, well, maybe I would if I wasn’t such a screw up.” I swallow hard as I admit how I really feel about the whole situation. “I don’t know what I was thinking coming home with some fake fiancée. It didn’t even feel fake—I mean, it did in the beginning, but not now. I fell in love with her, Dad.” I’m choking back the pride that threatens to make me take it back.
Just be honest. I have to be honest.
“I know you did.” Dad’s face softens, frustration replaced with sympathy. “That’s why it was so shocking that it was all fake. But Wade, you have a chance for something real—you ought to do something about it.”
“That’s what I was going to do,” I say through gritted teeth. “But then you stopped me right here before I could.”
“Ope.” Dad chuckles. “I guess you didn’t need my guidance to go after the girl, huh? Well, go get her then.” He shoos me up the stairs, and I spin around, hopping up a couple steps as Bailey and Emma appear at the top of the stairs. They’re whispering to each other in a way that makes my stomach clench—they probably think I’m a huge jerk.
Callie probably does too.
