Page 6 of Born Wild

“I don’t want you to see me like this.” She folds over the handkerchief and blots her skin, a vain attempt to remove the evidence of her tears. Her nose is red and her eyes are bloodshot. But more than that, she looks completely devastated. I want to take away whatever is causing her such distress.

“Come here.” I take her hand and lead her to the passenger side of my truck. She’s exposed on the side of the highway like this, where anyone can see, and the need to protect her supersedes my own feelings.

I open the door and help her inside before coming around to sit in the driver’s seat.

“I’m sorry.” She shakes her head. “You probably have somewhere to be.”

“Nope,” I lie. Doesn’t matter if I have to mend the fence line in the middle of the night, I’m not leaving Cassie like this. “I got all the time in the world.”

She glances up and meets my eyes. “Thanks for writing me.”

I try not to beam under her genuine appreciation, but a small grin breaks through. “Yeah, well, I should be thanking you.”

“Thanking me? For what?”

“I was dreading this summer. But your letters got me through each week.”

“I hardly believe that.” She gives me the barest of smiles but I’ll take it.

“This may come as a shock, but ranch life doesn’t leave much room for fun. Least not the way my father runs things. Writing to you—and getting your letters back—it meant a lot.”

“Well, I enjoyed them, too. It made home feel not so far away.”

“I’m glad.”

“Though I think you made some of those things up.”

“What? No way.”

“It’s unlikely anyone in this town cared about what I was doing as much as you made it seem.”

“They did. Swear on my life. Now, me on the other hand, no one in this town would even notice if I disappeared.”

“I’m sure that’s not true.”

“It is.” I chuckle to release my nerves.

“I would notice.”

The cab goes silent at her words. My gaze meets hers from across the cab and I swear I forget to breathe. My mouth goes dry and my pulse races. Her eyes search mine and I wonder if she can read my thoughts. Does she know what I’m so desperate to confess? This is the moment I have been waiting for. The one where I tell Cassie the truth. Where I take a chance, leaping off a cliff and praying there’s enough water below to soften my fall.

I open my mouth, ready to put my heart on the line.

“I’m pregnant.” Her confession sucks all the oxygen from my lungs.

I stare, my brain trying to reconcile her words with this moment. “You’re . . . since when?”

“I took a test today.”

“And the father?”

She presses her lips together, as if she doesn’t want to answer. I wonder if she will. She doesn’t owe me anything, and I’m a sadist for asking when the answer is sure to gut me. “He wants nothing to do with me or this baby.”

“What?” I can’t fathom. “Well, then he’s a fucking idiot.”

She sighs, her eyes squeezing shut. “Don’t say that.”

“Why not?” I shake my head. “It’s the damn truth.”

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