Page 12 of Stolen Hearts

Rhae turned, her smile still plastered on her face—until she saw him.

Denver couldn’t move. Couldn’t breathe. It was her.

She looked the same, yet somehow different. Her eyes were sharper, her frame leaner, but it was her. He opened his mouth to speak, but the words died on his tongue.

That was when he saw her. The baby. She was perched on Rhae’s hip, eyes wide and curious, tiny fingers wrapped around Rhae’s necklace.

Denver’s heart dropped into his boots.

Willow glanced between them. So did Oaks, oblivious to the train wreck barreling through his chest.

“Denver…” Willow’s voice sounded far off. This time, it wasn’t the ringing in his ears making her words quieter. His mind was reeling from the shock of seeing her. Of seeing her with a baby.

“This is Rhae,” Willow went on in a tight voice. “And her daughter.”

Her daughter. His throat closed up. His vision tunneled until all he saw was Rhae holding someone else’s baby. She had moved on. Had a life. A family.

He didn’t hear Willow’s attempts at polite conversation. Everything was muffled, like he was underwater, drowning in the realization that Rhae had found happiness without him. She’d moved on. She’d had a baby with someone else. He barely managed a nod, his jaw locked tight.

Willow’s voice faded into the background. Oaks watched him carefully, concern etching lines across his brow, but Denver couldn’t take it. Couldn’t stand there another second.

“I…I gotta go,” he mumbled, barely aware of the words spilling from his lips. He turned on his heel and strode out of the barn, ignoring the weight of their stares.

His boots kicked up dirt as he marched back toward the ranch house, every step hammering the truth deeper into his chest.

The only thing worse than not knowing where she was…was knowing she’d had a baby with someone else.

And it was killing him.

Chapter Three

Rhae stood frozen, her hand stilling on Navy’s back as she watched Denver disappear out the barn doors.

Dear god. He was here. Of all the places in the world, he was here.

She came here thinking she’d never see him again. And here he was.

The man she was in love with.

Her mouth opened, but the words wouldn’t come. Her feet felt cemented to the barn floor, her mind blank except for the wild pounding of her heart.

Before she could even muster the courage to call out his name, he took off. Long strides that ate up the distance, boots stirring up dust behind him until he was nothing but a memory disappearing into sunlight.

Rhae’s gaze snapped to Willow, searching her friend’s face for some kind of explanation, some hint that she’d seen it too—that it hadn’t just been a mirage.

Willow’s eyes were as wide as saucers, but they weren’t on her. They were locked on Navy, who was squirming in Rhae’s arms, babbling nonsense and kicking tiny feet against her stomach.

“That was…weird.” Oaks’s voice cut through the silence, and he looked from Rhae to the barn doors. His brows were furrowed with concern. “Let me check on Denver. You’ll be okay?”

Rhae nodded absently, hardly able to process his words. Oaks took off, heavy footsteps thudding away, leaving her alone with Willow and the thousand questions burning in her mind.

Willow didn’t say anything for a long moment. She just stood there, studying Rhae with that sharp gaze she sometimes got when she was sizing up a situation. Rhae shifted Navy to her other hip, the baby reaching up to grab at her necklace again.

Finally, she couldn’t take it anymore.

“Say something,” she whispered, voice barely above a breath.

Willow blinked, the shock slowly fading from her face, replaced by something much more intense. “You never told me you had a relationship with my brother.”

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