Dirty: The Complete Series (Secret Baby Romance Love Story) (30 page)

“So am I,” he said, looking from me to Addie
with a little smile. For a little while, he played with her, and I managed to
scrape up enough decency to offer him some lemonade. I tried to feel good about
the fact that Titan seemed to be interested in learning about Addie, but it
felt more to me like he was asking the same kind of questions that random
people in town always managed to ask, rather than that he was actually
interested in her as her father.

I put her back in the playpen when she was
starting to get restless and fidgety, and sat down to talk to Titan. “So what
brought on this sudden interest in learning about your daughter?” He shrugged.

“I just thought
—
you know, I wanted to do the right thing,” he
said, looking at me. I recognized the expression on his face almost
immediately. It was the same one he always used to use when he was
sweet-talking me, the soft, self-deprecating look.

“That sounds good, but if I’m going to let you
in, I have to believe you’re going to follow through,” I said, keeping my voice
firm, even if I tried to stay polite. “I don’t want to break Addie’s heart with
having you traipse in and out of her life just as you please. If you want to do
the right thing, I want you to
mean
it, whatever is going on between you and me otherwise.”

“Whatever’s going on between us?” He grinned
slightly.

“You left me,” I told him flatly. “You ran off
to the other end of the country to be with someone else. You broke our
engagement and left me to finish a pregnancy as an unwed mom. Do you know how much
that hurt?” I crossed my arms over my chest and shook my head.

“I’m sorry for that,” he said, reaching out
uselessly to take my hand. “I want to do right by you, too, babe.” The sound of
him saying the word babe was enough to make my stomach lurch inside of me. Did
he really think that after all this time I was just going to forget the fact
that he’d abandoned me
—
and abandoned his own daughter?

“I’m not really interested,” I started to say.
I heard a car coming up along the driveway. Titan stood and walked over to the
playpen, reaching in to pick Addie up; I wanted to tell him not to, but he had
lifted her out of the pen before I even had a chance to say it.

“Are you really going to deny our little girl
the chance to have a two-parent home?” I felt my face go hot and then cold.

“Actually, I’m not doing that at all,” I
started to say. I had been trying to find a way to explain to Titan that I’d
moved on since it started to become apparent to me that he was looking for a
way to reconcile
—
something that was far from what I wanted.

I heard the car coming to a stop and turned to
look; in an instant, I recognized it as Cade’s truck. My heart and stomach both
felt as though they’d fallen to my knees. Cade leaped out of the truck and I
saw the flowers in his hands, the brief, hopeful look on his face.

Then he glanced at Titan, saw him holding my
daughter, and just stared for a long moment. I saw the expression on his face
changing, the hope completely dissolving, anger and sadness taking its place.
He threw the flowers in his hands down on the ground and shook his head,
stalking back towards his truck. He didn’t look back, not even when I called
out and started to half-run towards him. Cade climbed into the driver’s seat
and turned the truck around and hurried up the driveway, and all I could do was
just stare at his taillights.

“Who the hell was that?” I turned to look at
Titan; he’d put our daughter back down and looked annoyed.

“That’s the guy I’m seeing now,” I told him
matter-of-factly.

“You’re seeing someone?” He looked me up and
down as if he couldn’t believe it.

“You’re damn right I am,” I said. “You
abandoned me, Titan. You abandoned our daughter. Didn’t you think I would move
on? Especially after that message you sent about how you had no interest at all
in having anything to do with me or our daughter?” I was furious
—
at Titan and at myself. He rolled his eyes.

“He’s probably just got some MILF fetish,” he
said. I stared at him, staggered at what I was hearing.

“Why did you even come here, Titan?” I shook
my head, torn between anger and grief. “Do you really have any interest in
being an actual father to Adelyn?” He shrugged.

“I figured I’d give you a chance,” he said.
“Figured you probably weren’t getting much action since you had a kid
—
not many guys want to stick it in a mom.” If
my eyes popped out of my head I wouldn’t have been surprised.

“You came here to
hook up
with me?” I shook my head. “I haven’t been interested in
you ever since you left me, you asshole.” I laughed. “Besides, I thought you
were just so all about that girl you left me for.” He briefly looked shamed,
then angry.

“She dropped me,” he said. “So yeah, I figured
we could pick things up and see where they went. You’re not in a position to be
choosy.” I laughed bitterly and walked across the porch, snatching up my
daughter.

“You and I are never, ever going to have
anything between us again,” I told him. “As far as I’m concerned, you’re
nothing but a sperm donor. You aren’t ever coming near my daughter again. And
if you don’t leave in the next two minutes, I’m calling the police, my father,
and my brother to
make
you leave.” He
snorted and rolled his eyes but started to move towards his mom’s car.

“You’ll be missing me eventually, especially
now that your side man is dropping you,” he told me. I tried to keep myself
from grabbing Adelyn too hard. I was so furious that it was hard to hold onto
my temper, even with my baby in my arms.

I watched Titan turn his car around and then
blast up the driveway, following in Cade’s exit. I was shaking, adrenaline
surging through my body, and Addie started to whine in my arms, catching onto
my mood.

I needed to do something. I needed to go
somewhere else. I walked from my front porch across my parents’ backyard to the
house, looking for someone to tell
—
my mother preferably, though I was pretty sure
Dad would lend a sympathetic ear, as well.

Instead, I found Tuck, seated in the living
room, watching TV and eating popcorn. “Where are Mom and Dad?” I tried to keep
control of my voice, but it cracked and wavered anyway.

“They’re in town; what’s up?” He frowned at
the sight of me, and I wondered just how well I was even holding myself
together.

“I don’t want to tell you about it,” I said,
shaking my head. “I’ll just go into the kitchen and wait for Mom and Dad to get
home.” Tuck stood and before I could even process what he was doing, he took
Addie from my arms. I hadn’t even realized I’d been about to drop her.

“Tell me about it,” he told me firmly. “I’m
your brother. I know I’ve been shitty lately, but you’re obviously upset, and
not in a way that can wait for Mom and Dad.”

I hesitated for a moment longer, but then
everything sort of built up inside of me and I heard myself telling him about
everything: about lying to Cade, about agreeing to meet with Titan, about the
meeting itself and how Cade had interrupted it, and finding out that Titan was
just interested in a rebound with me, since his situation with the girl he’d
left me for had dried up on him.

“And now I’ve screwed everything up with Cade,
and Titan’s an ass, and I’m never going to find anyone to be a good father to
Addie, and I’m-I’m a terrible mom,” I finished, burying my face in one of Mom’s
throw pillows to cry. Tuck let me get it all out of my system, jostling Addie
on his knee, keeping her calm.

“Do you really love him?” I looked up, wiping
at my face.

“What?” Tuck held my gaze and gave me a
cracked, crooked kind of smile.

“Do you really love him, and do you really
want to be with him?” I nodded.

“I’ve known that for months,” I told my
brother. “And, I’ve gone and screwed it up because I wanted to do the right
thing, but didn’t know how.” Tuck took a deep breath.

“Here,” he said. “Take her back.” I frowned in
confusion but did as I was told, gathering Adelyn to my body and cuddling her
close. I watched as my brother stood and found his phone, plugged in next to
the TV. He unlocked the screen and I wondered what it was he was doing.
Who he was calling. Maybe Dad?

I dried my face off and tried to get Addie to
smile at me, and tried not to feel hopeless at what a mess I had made of
things. I looked up when I heard Tuck beginning to talk again.

“Hey, Cade. Listen, there’s been an emergency
in the fields and Dad’s not here to help me contain it. I need you to come by
and help me out.” Tuck paused and I felt my heart pounding in my chest in a
mixture of hope, excitement, and dread. “Yeah, yeah, it’s not a fire or
anything, but I definitely need your help.” There was another pause. “See you
in fifteen, then.” Tuck ended the call and looked at me. “Go wash your face and
get you composure back,” he said with a wry little smile.

Chapter Forty

Cade

The last thing I’d expected, halfway into my
drive back to town, was to get a call from Tuck. At first, I’d thought that he
was going to chew me out for something
—
maybe for hurting his sister, even if I was
pretty sure I was justified in just walking away after seeing her with Titan
—
but instead as soon as he’d told me there was
an emergency, that he needed me to help out, I’d taken an illegal U-turn and
headed back to the farm.

Since Tuck had told me that there wasn’t a
fire, I’d assumed it was an issue maybe of animals getting into the grain silo
or something like that
—
something I could help him with while Bob was
away.

I hauled ass back to the farm I’d only just
left, and the only thing I had in mind was making sure that I didn’t have to
see Autumn and Addie in the process. If Tuck had found out about the situation
that had happened between me and his sister, I hoped that he’d just keep his
mouth shut about it; it was obvious to me that she’d made her choice, and that
it wasn’t me.

I told myself that I couldn’t completely blame
her for choosing Titan. He was the father of her child, and they had that in
common, something that I couldn’t, for the moment at least, put any claim of my
own on. But the fact that she’d lied to me about it, that she’d apparently
wanted to keep me on the hook while she explored things with her ex, had hurt
me. I’d realized as soon as I’d driven up and seen both of them together and
realized that it was Titan that he was the reason that she’d been jumpy so
much, that it must have been a text message from him that had made her so
distracted during our last date together.

I got to the farm and parked in front of the
Nelson house, looking around to make sure that Autumn wasn’t anywhere to be
seen. I hopped out of my truck and called out for Tuck, wondering where the
emergency was happening.

“Cade! Good to see you, man,” Tuck said,
emerging from the sheds and walking towards me. “There’s something out in the
fields I need your help with
—
one of the irrigator pipes blew and it’s
flooding.” It was an emergency, but since we’d just about finished the harvest,
it wasn’t the sort of thing that would ruin a whole lot. But all the water I could
picture in my head spewing into the field would be a problem, both from the
perspective of flooding the ground and the issue of the cost of wasting so much
water.

I followed Tuck out into the field and looked
around, trying to find the flooded section. He kept going until we were far
enough away that I could barely make out the house itself, and then turned
around to look at me. “I gotta be honest with you,” he said, crossing his arms
over his chest. “But you should know that if you don’t walk away without
hearing me out, I’m going to tell my father about it.” I raised an eyebrow at
that.

“You’re going to tell my father about you
lying to me? How is that a threat?” Tuck grinned wryly.

“I seem to recall that he made a new condition
that if you were going to date my sister, you could keep your job
—
as long as you didn’t break her heart,” Tuck
told me. I groaned and rolled my eyes, wanting to walk back to my truck. All
the hurry, all the adrenaline pumping in my veins to get back to the farm to
help out, and Tuck had been lying to me all along. He’d been trying to get me
out in the field alone to talk to me about his sister.

“You don’t want us together anyway,” I pointed
out. “You should be happy right now. Besides,
she
rejected
me
.” Tuck
shook his head.

“Nah man,” he said. “Let me tell you what just
went down.”

“I know what just went down,” I insisted. “I
drove up to surprise the girl I’m seeing and she surprised me by being with
another man
—
her ex.” Tuck shook his head again.

“Man, let me tell you what just happened, and
if you really think you know the whole thing after that, we’ll return to
whether you broke her heart or she broke yours. Deal?” He raised an eyebrow and
I thought about Bob Nelson; it was true that Bob had told me, mostly in joking,
I’d thought, that I was welcome to both see his daughter and keep working for
him, just as long as I didn’t break his daughter’s heart.

“Fine,” I said, still feeling irritable and
set up. “Just tell me so I can get out of here.” Tuck took a deep breath.

“My sister came to me crying just a little
while ago,” Tuck began. “She didn’t even want to talk to me about it because of
the issues we’ve got.” His lips twisted in something that wasn’t quite a smile
and I thought maybe
—
maybe
—
Tucker was regretting some of his part in
that. “Titan has been texting her, but you already knew that.”

He wasn’t wrong; I had just assumed by the
fact that Autumn hadn’t mentioned it anymore after our confrontation that Titan
had stopped.

“And, she had him over,” I pointed out. Tuck
rolled his eyes.

“Let me tell the story,” he said. “She thought
Titan wanted to be part of Addie’s life, and since he’s the biological father
of her kid, she thought she needed to give him a chance. She didn’t want you
thinking she was going to go back to him.” Tuck shrugged. “Obviously she made
the wrong choice there because not telling you just made you think there was
more to it than there was.”

“So you’re telling me there wasn’t?” I shook
my head in disbelief.

“She found out that Titan was just interested in
a hookup because the girl he left her for dumped him. As soon as she figured
that out, she kicked him the hell out and told him that he would never have
anything to do with her or her daughter.”

I took a deep breath. I could just imagine
Autumn doing that. It was exactly what I could expect from her, if Tuck’s story
was true.

“So what are you wanting from me now?” I
looked at Tucker.

“Do you love my sister?”

I pressed my lips together. “Does she love
me?”

Tuck rolled his eyes. “She was just in the living
room, bawling her eyes out about how she ruined the one good thing that came
from being abandoned by Titan,” he told me. “She loves you.”

“I can’t stay with her if she’s going to hide
shit from me,” I said.

“There’s nothing else for her
to
hide,” he pointed out. He sighed.
“Look, man, if you love her, go find her in the house.” He pressed his lips
together. “You’d be an idiot if you didn’t go for it, by the way.”

“Why’s that?” Tuck smiled wryly.

“She’s obviously in love with you. And for that,
I’ve been thinking that I can put aside all my stupid jealousy and work with
you. But if you’re going to just break her heart like this, I don’t think I can
work with you, even if Dad doesn’t fire you.”

I thought about it; I’d been hurt to see
Autumn with her ex, the implication that she had hidden it from me, the fact
that I had always kind of thought that if Titan came back into her life, it
would be hard for Autumn not to give him a chance. I hadn’t seen any sign of
Titan’s car, but then he might have left for another reason. I had to decide
whether I trusted Autumn, and her love for me, or not.

“I love her,” I told Cade. “I’d give anything
for her.” Tuck laughed.

“In that case, go find her,” he told me.
“Don’t be surprised if she cries all over you, though
—
she’s gone weepy since having that kid.”

I hurried across the field towards the house,
putting Tuck behind me, and when I glanced over my shoulder, I could see that
he wasn’t even trying to follow me. Where would Autumn be in her parents’
house? Tuck had mentioned the living room, but when I stepped into the front
door, feeling a little weird at not even bothering to knock, I didn’t see a
single sign of her.

I went into the kitchen from a lack of any
other idea of where to go and saw her standing over the stove. “Autumn.”

She turned around and her gaze locked onto my
face. “I swear, Cade... It wasn’t…” I shook my head.

“Your brother explained everything,” I told
her. I closed the distance between us and wrapped my arms around her waist.
“What are you cooking?” Autumn shook her head, shrugging.

“I’m not even sure,” she said with a
breathless laugh. “I just felt like I needed to do
something
.” I chuckled lowly and buried my head against her neck.

“Well, I can think of something you can do
right now,” I murmured in her ear. “That is, if you can leave Addie…”

“She’ll be safe,” Autumn said, her breath
hitching in her throat as my hands started to wander over her.

“Then let’s go back to your place.”

Epilogue

The basket in my hands was heavy, but I didn’t
mind that much. Addie wasn’t big enough to do more than carry the big thermos
in both hands, and I was happy to have the chance for a break from other
chores, even if I did have to waddle slightly. Cade and Tuck were hard at work,
both of them hovering over a length of hose, debating
—
amicably
—
God only knew what.

“Will the two of you take a break for a few
minutes so all this delicious food doesn’t go to waste?” I couldn’t help but
smile to myself at the fact that the two of them were on such good terms, especially
when I remembered how hard Tuck had tried to get Cade fired only years before.

“Autumn! You shouldn’t be walking all this way
in this heat,” Cade said, frowning as he moved away from the equipment to meet
me. “You’re going to go into early labor or something.” I rolled my eyes. I
wasn’t going to bother telling Cade yet again that I had worked just as hard
during my first pregnancy. I put the basket down anyway and looked at Addie.

“Set that container down here next to the
basket,” I told her. “We’ll have a picnic with Uncle Tuck and Daddy.” No matter
how often I said it, calling Cade Daddy for Adelyn still gave me a little
thrill. Cade really was her Dad
—
at least, from every possible definition
except for biology. He had stepped up where Titan had let both her and me down;
he deserved the name.

“Here,” Cade said, looking me over anxiously.
“Let me get the blanket and lay it out under this tree.” Tuck followed Cade
over to where Addie and I stood, and I could see that he was struggling not to laugh
at his future brother-in-law. Things had become much simpler and much more
relaxed between the man I loved and my brother, ever since a few months after
Titan had left my life for good.

“Did I ever tell you that I did all my chores
on the day Addie was born?” I watched as Cade shook out the blanket and laid it
down under the tree. Tuck picked up both the basket and the big thermos full of
iced tea, giving me a quick wink.

“Addie is one thing,” Cade said. “Her little
brother-to-be is another. I don’t want you working so hard.” I sighed and sat
down on the blanket, and Addie threw herself down next to me with all the
enthusiasm she could muster. My little toddler was almost old enough to start
pre-school, and Cade and I had an appointment later in the week to visit the
few options in town to decide which would be the best for her.

It felt weird, but perfect that Cade was so
involved in Addie’s life; even if he’d only entered it when she was almost a
year old, he had taken over his fatherly duties in such a way that anyone who
saw them together would think that he’d been there from the moment of her
birth.