Heartless: A Small Town Single Dad Romance

Cade: What are you doing? Braiding your hair?

Rhett: No, polishing my nails.

Cade: We’re going to be late.

Rhett: Dude. Your event isn’t even until tomorrow. Take a breath.

Rhett: Are you seriously outside my house honking right now?

Cade: Yes. Making people wait is rude.

Rhett: You can’t rush perfection.

Cade: Nothing about you is perfect.

Rhett: No. But this sign I made you is.

“Iwish you’d just hurry and have this baby already. I am so excited.” Summer bounces on her seat in the back of my truck. I can practically see the excitement pouring off her through my rearview mirror.

“Sum. Hold your horses. I’m like three months pregnant,” Willa replies from behind me.

“She hasn’t stopped talking about it.” Rhett laughs as his fingers drum on the passenger’s seat door, just above where he’s protectively wedged the poster board Rhett created for my event tomorrow. It’s sparkly and reads: Not bad. For an old guy.

Fucking dick.

“Ugh. It’s just going to be the cutest baby though. I’m so ready to be the cool aunt.”

The buzz around the new baby hasn’t died off at all since we came out about everything. Everyone is over the moon.

But no one more than Luke.

When we sat down and told him, he cried happy tears. And so did I. The bridge of my nose tingles just thinking about the way my life has changed again so quickly. So unexpectedly.

It’s a fucking theme for me at this point.

“Dude.” Willa punches my brother in the shoulder. “Read between the lines here. Stop dicking around and make it so that our kids can grow up as best friends.”

Rhett’s face turns serious, and he shakes his head solemnly—but I see that shit-disturber twitch of his lips. Same one that was a dead giveaway as a child too.

“I don’t know what to tell you, Willa. We keep practicing and practicing, and practicing, and nothing ever happens. It’s exhausting, you know? I have to wonder if it’s all the birth control we’re using?”

“Eat a dick, kid.” I take my turn, knocking a hand against my little brother’s chest.

“No, babe,” Summer pipes up, “it’s just that you don’t have a breeding kink.” She can’t even get the words out without snorting and wheezing.

“I’m never gonna fucking live that down.” I grind my teeth to keep from smiling.

What I hear back is a chorus of “nevers” from every single person in my truck. But I also feel Willa’s hand slide over my shoulder to give me a little squeeze. I reach up and lay a hand over hers, knowing that, jokes aside, we’re both excited about this.

We’re surprised and a little unprepared, but happy. So damn happy. Going with the flow has never felt better. Cheesy as it sounds, I’ve never felt more at peace.

I spent years feeling jilted. Feeling angry. Feeling like everyone around me had everything going for them and I was just stuck in a rut of responsibility.

And then Hurricane Willa blew into town and turned everything upside down in the best fucking way.

I squeeze her hand and pull it to my lips, pressing a kiss to the knuckles of the woman I chose—the life I chose.

“Jesus. Who even are you?” Rhett asks, looking a little shocked.

Now it’s Summer’s turn to slap the top of his head. “Stop picking on them. It’s sweet.”

“Why the fuck is everyone hitting me?”

I chuckle as Summer responds with, “Because you deserve it.”

With that sentiment, we pull into the rodeo grounds and the chaos of the Canadian Championship Rodeo swallows us all.

Competing here is a dream that’s been long forgotten. Long shut away as a missed opportunity, something I was too old for—too busy for.

Until Willa sat in that hot tub and dared me to take a shot. Turns out our runs were good enough to qualify us for the finals.

Which means I’m not going to let the fact that my fingers aren’t completely healed stop me.

Blueberry is taking everything in stride from where I sit on her back. Her prickly personality won’t let her be spooked. Every time another horse walks past, she flattens her ears at them, which makes me smile. She’s not a warm-and-fuzzy type of mare, but she’s good at what she does.

We’re kindred that way.

My dad has Luke out in the stands, and the rest of our group is standing beside me in the staging area.

“Are you nervous?” Willa squeezes my leg and peers up at me. The way she glows makes my throat constrict. Her hair is all curled. Her new boots are fuck-me hot and are going to look so good wrapped around my waist later. She’s not showing much yet, but her jeans are extra tight around her ass, and I keep getting busted checking her out.

“Nah,” I reply, smoothing my hand over her hair.

“I love it when you pet me.” She sighs and closes her eyes with a low chuckle.

“Y’all are fuckin’ weird,” Rhett quips from beside us, arm slung over Summer’s shoulders, with a cocky smirk on his face. “I’d tell you not to worry about the buckle bunnies, Willa, but apparently Cade is so into PDA now that he practically broadcasts how taken he is.”

Willa stares back at my brother blankly. “What are you talking about, Rhett? I am a buckle bunny.” She puts her fingers in the shape of a heart and frames the view through them around my face.

“Cade? Lance? Josh?” The ring steward calls our team’s names, and with a quick wink down at my girl, we’re gone.

Blueberry’s easy strides turn into a prance beneath me, a showy little jog as we enter the ring.

And this ring isn’t just another small-town fair grounds. This is a proper arena, one with full stands and a rowdy crowd here for a show.

This arena is a dream I never thought would come true.

I glance over my shoulder, seeking that flash of coppery hair. And she’s there, smiling, gripping the metal fence panel with one hand, the other slung over her stomach, looking at me like I hung the moon—and for her I would.

I’d do it for everything she’s given me in such a short time . . .

A love Luke has never known.

A reason for me to smile again.

A person to talk to after so many years of silence.

A love I’ve never known. One I’m not so sure I deserve, but one I’ll spend the rest of my life trying to preserve. But I’ll get to that part later.

For now, I turn my eyes back on the pen of cattle and listen carefully as we’re given the number. And then I get to work because I’m going to make this lifelong dream come to fruition.

The noisy crowd falls away when the buzzer sounds, and the only thing that exists is what’s between Blueberry’s ears.

She cuts. She runs. She turns. She drops a shoulder.

The leather of the reins is warm in my fingers, and I feel like I’m just along for the ride. She’s never performed so well in her life. It’s like she knows this is it. The big show. Our one chance.

In what feels like it took mere seconds, we’ve squared away the cows and I’m looking around myself like there must be more. Like we must have missed something. Everything feels like it’s moving in slow motion, but judging by the way Lance is standing up in his stirrups whooping like a madman, I’d say we’ve done it and done it well.

When the judges post our scores, they confirm my hunch and I’m left shaking my head, smiling like a loon, and searching for Willa.

She’s climbed up to the top of the fence panel and is staring at me with her hands cupped over her mouth, shouting like a crazy person. My crazy person.

Here for me.

Summer is whistling louder than anyone in the arena, and Rhett is grinning and shaking his stupid fucking sign in the air.

But it’s Willa I can’t take my eyes from. I ride straight to her, in the middle of a packed arena, sling an arm around the back of her neck and kiss her.

I kiss her hard. I kiss her to say the things I can’t find the words for.

“I love you, Cade Eaton, and I am so damn proud of you,” is what she whispers in my ear while her fingers trail up the back of my neck.

“I love you too, baby,” is what I get out, just before she pulls the black cowboy hat off my head and plunks it on her own.

Leaning back away from me, she gives me a playful little smirk.

I quirk a brow in her direction. “You know the rule, Red?”

“You wear the hat, you ride the cowboy.” She winks at me, looking fucking adorable wearing my hat. I should have put it on her forever ago. I should have put it on her the first day I laid eyes on her in that coffee shop.

With a twist of my lips and a shake of my head, I turn to ride away and celebrate with my team for a moment because that score is damn near unbeatable.

But I don’t get far before I hear a whistle and, “Looking good, Daddy!” followed by the most beautiful chime-like laughter, light and airy and heartwarming.

That laugh I heard months ago and was instantly obsessed with. Just like the woman staring back at me from beneath the brim of my hat when I toss a glance over my shoulder.

And I realize in that moment maybe I am heartless after all, because the beautiful girl with the copper hair grinning back at me right now is the one who stole it.