I don’t mind. It’s nice to have a distraction, actually.
“We’ll figure it out,” I whisper to her. “Promise.”
The front door opens, and both of us tense.
David and Hailey enter the kitchen only moments later, following Pa, and they look just as strained as I feel. Haggard and exhausted, but obviouslypissed.
Well, David looks pissed. Hailey mostly just looks relieved to see Maggie in one piece. The two of them share weak smiles, and then my focus narrows down to the harsh set of David’s shoulders and the red-faced rage he’s doing a shit job of hiding. I’m pretty sure Hailey is the only thing stopping him from dragging Maggie back to Montana, kicking and screaming.
“I don’t intend to hold you responsible for your employee’s actions, Joseph,” David says through gritted teeth, glaring at me like he wants to bash my face in.
Right. We didn’t exactly mention my last name on that call last night, figuring it would be better to drop that particular bomb in person. All we told him was that we were on the Hernandez Ranch. It makes sense that he’d assume I’m just an employee, but I feel guilty for the misunderstanding.
Pa stares at the two of us incredulously, realizing that David still doesn’t fully understand the situation. His jaw twitches, and I’m sure if we were alone, he’d be screaming until his throat went raw but as it is, he just turns back to David with a strained smile.
“I apologize for the confusion,” he says, voice rough with controlled anger. “I wasn’t in the room when they called you, so I didn’t realize there was any information withheld. While your daughter seems to be in the practice of keeping secrets,Iam not. Bennett’s my son. We’re all involved in this, whether we like it or not.”
Dangerous silence settles over the room at Pa’s announcement, the kind of quiet that comes just before an explosion. Ma and Hailey both tense, but no one has a chance to speak before that explosion comes.
David turns his attention on Pa as his building rage finally bubbles over. “Who thefuckdo you think you are, insulting my daughter like that? You slimy fucking bastard—you tried to take the ranch from me once and it didn’t work, so you decided to get your son involved? That’s low, Hernandez, even for you, but I should have fucking known. I trusted you! I trust you, and you send your son after my youngest, huh? Is that what I get? You’re a coward, Joseph.”
I remember my own words when Maggie told me she was pregnant with a violent wince. Hearing them directed at my pa is bad enough, I can’t imagine how awful it felt to hear them directed straight at her. Add that to the list of things I need to apologize for.
Pa doesn’t give me time to wallow in my guilt, blowing up right back at David.
“You wouldn’t know trust if it bit you in the ass, Montgomery! Tried to take the ranch? I offered tohelpyou, you jaded piece of shit! I only ever cared because it was yours, because I wanted to see you succeed. I wanted to be yourfriend, and all I ever got out of it was your shitty attitude.” He turns his glare to Maggie, scoffing low in his throat. “You must be proud to have a daughter who’s just like you, huh? Power hungry and jaded, just like her father.”
David’s shoulders tense, and Hailey reaches out to try and calm him, but he shrugs her hand off without glancing back.
“Where the fuck do you get off talking about my daughter like that?” he hisses, teeth bared like a rabid dog.
“Where does your daughter get off seducing my son?” Pa shoots back. “All this talk about me trying to take over your business, I’m starting to think you’re projecting,hermano. You’ve wanted a cut of my hard work this whole time, haven’t you? Sent your daughter to do your dirty work as soon as you realized I sent Bennett up to help you.”
“You watch your fucking mouth when you talk about my family. I have everything I want in Montana.” David is red in the face and damn near spitting his words, barely a foot of space between him and Pa as they yell. “Why was your boy on my ranch anyway? Trying to steal business out from under me? Checking my work like I don’t know what the fuck I’m doing?”
Pa throws his hands up in frustration, barking out an angry laugh. “Checking up onyou! I’m trying to be your friend, trying to help where I can, but you hardly answer my fucking calls! The best I can do is send one of my men up to help you during the drive and make sure you’re not running yourself into the ground.”
“Enough!” My voice breaks through their back and forth, and they both turn on me with mirroring snarls. “Fuckingenough. Everyone needs to sit down and talk about this calmly. Stop talking about Magnolia and I like we’re not right here. We made our own choices. Neither of us were trying to cause problems with each other’s families. Pa,” I say, turning my gaze on him, “she thought I was just your employee until she came here. She’s not after our money. David—” I shift to look at him, “—I’m sorry for hiding this from you. Nobody’s trying to hide anything anymore. That’s why we’re all here. I expect everyone to sit down and talk this through like adults.”
I sound a lot more sure of myself than I am, my heart pounding in my chest at David’s furious glare and Pa’s flabbergasted scoff. The only thing keeping me standing is the knowledge that Maggie is probably scared out of her mind right now.
I promised last night that I’d protect her through all of this, and I’m not going back on that.
“Look at you, all macho when you’ve got your daddy to back you up,” David says with a scathing laugh. Thankfully, he sits, throwing himself back into one of the chairs around the kitchen table. “Alright, we’re alladults, right? So what’s your plan? My daughter’s pregnant, so what are you going to do about that,Ben?”
I refuse to flinch, no matter how guilty I feel at the reminder of my betrayal.
“We’re going to get married.” The words slip out before I have a chance to think about them, but, well… it’s the obvious answer, isn’t it? It’s rational, and now that I’m not trying to hide my feelings from Maggie anymore, it just makes sense. That’s what two people who are having a baby together do. “The businesses don’t need to be a part of this. We can get a prenup and?—”
“Excuse me?” Maggie cuts me off with a laugh that’s somewhere between outraged and shocked. “Where the hell did you get that idea from?”
I wince at the look of hurt on her pretty face, but I don’t let that stop me. I need to do damage control with our fathers first; we can talk later.
“I know we didn’t talk about it,” I say, gentling my voice as much as I dare right now. David looks like he’s about to explode, Hailey’s hand on his arm the only thing keeping him in his seat. I have a feeling that if I try to get affectionate with Maggie right now, I’ll just wind up with a black eye, and we’ll be back at square one. “But we’re having this baby together, and I’m not going to let you go through all of this alone. You deserve support, and getting married makes the most sense.”
I don’t mention anything about my feelings, but I try my hardest to let them shine through in my eyes. Spending the night with Maggie in my arms was the calmest I’ve felt in my entire life, and shehasto know that. We skirted around any mention of our relationship last night, not wanting to make any concrete decisions until we managed to get our families on board, but there’s no stopping the flood of my affection for her now.
I just need Pa and David to hear this as something driven by rationality rather than the feeling in my chest that I’m still scared to put a name to.
