Mia’s brow wrinkled, reminding Addy of Jesse when he frowned. That she hadn’t seen herself in Jesse’s mannerisms was a mystery. Addy thought of clearing the air completely and telling her that Jesse was her father, but that could come later. One crisis today was enough for all of them to get through.
“Why would you say that about Justine? What has her being pregnant got to do with me?” Mia asked.
“Ricky is the father of her baby,” Jesse answered.
Mia’s green eyes popped wide open. She stared at Jesse like he had horns, a pitchfork, and a long-spiked tail. “You’re lying.”
“Nope, he’s not,” Addy said. “After the way he’s treated you, why would you think Jesse was lying to you?”
“Because that would mean…” She jumped up to her feet and began to pace again. “I can do the math. That means she got pregnant at the end of last summer. Ricky and I were secretly dating back then. He was cheating on me.”
“Maybe he was cheating on her,” Jesse said. “Ever think of it that way?”
Addy did some math in her head, too. “So you were dating him your first semester of college? When you came home on weekends…”
“Dammit!” Mia crossed her arms over her chest. “He said we had to be careful because Poppa didn’t like him. He was seeing Justine the whole time, wasn’t he?”
Addy had thought she was a blessed woman when Mia was growing up. Her child never gave her any problems, but now she realized that her daughter had been saving it all up for one big boom—like an exploding bomb that rattled every emotion and hit every raw nerve in her body. “Betsy told me that Justine wouldn’t tell anyone who the father was until the baby was born. Guess Ricky was telling her the same things he told you, that they should keep things secret, too. You should go talk to her. Y’all were friends before you went to college.”
“What would I say to her, Mama? I didn’t know it at the time, but I was the other woman back then,” Mia said softly.
“Just being able to share might be good for both of you,” Jesse offered.
“But first, you have to go home, talk to Sonny and Pearl, get a shower, and unpack your truck. Then after lunch, you and Jesse will have a long visit about whether you can work on the ranch or if you’ll need to find a different job. Betsy might hire you to clean her house. She mentioned a couple of months ago that she wasn’t happy with her cleaning lady,” Addy said.
Mia groaned.
Addy stood and was surprised that her legs supported her. She took a few steps, went up on her tiptoes, and hugged her daughter. “Get in your truck and go to the house. We’ll be along in a little while. Mia, I know this seems like the end of the world right now, but it will pass, and you’ll be stronger on the other side of it. I love you, and I’ll help you.”
“Will you come with me to talk to Poppa and Nana?” Mia begged.
Saying no was one of the hardest things Addy had ever done, but she slowly shook her head. “That part you need to face on your own, hon.”
Mia sucked in a lungful of air, let it out in a loud whoosh, and marched over to the barn doors. She slung them both open and headed back to her truck.
“Do you think she’ll be okay?” Addy asked Jesse.
“Of course she will. She’s got us.”
* * *
Jesse liked the sound of that word. Us.
Addy was pacing the barn, clearly wrestling with her thoughts.
“You know I’m going to give her back her job, don’t you?” he said.
“I never doubted that for a minute, but don’t give her any authority, Jesse. Make her work like the summer help, with either Henry or you to supervise her,” Addy advised.
“Tough love?”
She plopped down on the floor and leaned back against a bale of hay. “Yes, but it’s tough on both of us, all three of us really. My first instinct is to shower her with love, give her back her position, and not ever mention this again.”
“But?” Jesse sat down beside her.
“But that wouldn’t teach her anything. She needs to be accountable.” She laid her head on his shoulder. “I’m going to ask a tremendous favor of you right now. Make her work right along beside you all summer. She’ll be surly at first, so it’ll be a pain in your ass to work with her, but she needs to know you better before we tell her that you are her father.”
“You forget that I was in the Air Force for twenty years. I’ve dealt with lots of folks who were a pain in my ass,” he chuckled. “That’s the least I can do after not helping you raise her.”
“Thank you, Jesse,” she sighed. “You are a good friend.”
“Our first job, hers and mine, will be to bring the alpacas over, one or two at a time on foot.”
“They’re tough to herd,” Addy said.
“Maybe I’ll learn something.” He grinned. “That should give us the better part of a day to spend together.”
“You are the boss. Just don’t let her forget it. Now, can I please fall completely apart?” she asked.
“Have at it.” Jesse got ready for tears and weeping.
Addy slapped the barn wall so hard that the metal rattled, then she kicked a bale of hay, sending two field mice running across the floor. “I’m so mad at Ricky that I could chain him up to the back of a four-wheeler and drag him out to the back forty for the coyotes and bobcats.” She drew in a breath. “If Mia was ten years old, I would ground her to the house for five years with no phone, no tablet, and no computers.”
“That’s pretty mad,” Jesse said. “I expect her having to work with me is far worse than that, and honey, it would be best for Ricky if he stayed in Nevada. I imagine Justine’s daddy and I would both like to take a turn at teaching him a lesson, too.”
“This isn’t all his fault. If Mia had been honest with me”—she waved her hand around the barn—“with all of us, we could have talked to her.”
“Think she would have listened? All those secrets were exciting, and making her own decisions made her feel like a grown-up,” Jesse told her. “Ricky is a con artist and she got took. We’ll put that behind us and move on to the future.”
“You are such a good man, Jesse Ryan,” Addy said.
Jesse didn’t feel like such a good man. If he had been, he would have realized that something wasn’t right twenty years ago when Addy stopped writing and didn’t take his calls anymore. A good man would have pursued the issue to find out why his best friend was brushing him off—especially after that incredible night they had just shared.
Chapter Thirteen
This is the second time in the five years I’ve lived here that I hate to go into the house,” Addy said as she crawled off the four-wheeler and sat down on the porch step.
“When was the first time?” Jesse followed her and sat down beside her.
Addy closed her eyes and sighed. “Last week when Mia left. She broke Pearl and Sonny’s hearts. How could our lives get in such a mess in such a short time?”
Jesse laid a hand on her shoulder. “They love her, so they will forgive her.”