Facing West (Forever Wilde 1)

I knew that when the entire thing was paid off, I’d feel an immense sense of pride at owning the gorgeous home, but until then, I felt lucky enough to live and work there every day.

When I’d pulled past the small parking area for patients, I’d noticed a familiar dark SUV parked there. I got out and joined my brother Hudson who was sitting on the back stoop, checking his phone.

“Hey,” I said as I stepped past him to unlock the back door to the kitchen. “What are you doing here? I thought you’d be heading back to Dallas.”

He was still dressed in the suit he’d worn to Adriana’s service, and I realized I hadn’t even stuck around long enough to thank my family for coming.

“Stopped by to see if you wanted some company,” he said, still looking at his phone as he stood to follow me in. Despite the casual tone of his voice, I could tell there was nothing casual about his offer.

“What’s going on?” I asked. “Did Grandpa and Doc send you over here?”

“Yep.”

“Why didn’t they come themselves?” I asked, walking up the back staircase to my second-floor living space. I tossed my keys onto the kitchen counter and made my way to the fridge for a couple of beers.

“They did, West. We all came,” he said, looking up and finally meeting my eyes. I saw kindness and love in my brother’s face, and I wasn’t quite ready for that level of emotion from anyone just yet. My feelings about Adriana were too raw, and after everything that had happened with Pippa, I felt like the smallest thing could push me over and send me reeling.

“Where is everyone now?” I asked, continuing to focus on opening the beers as if that brief moment of connection hadn’t happened.

As I expected, Hudson let it go. He shrugged. “Took off after you didn’t show. Figured you’d gone to Adriana’s or Goldie’s. Grandpa said to tell you he’s fixing Chicken Marbella and you’d better be there by six.”

I handed Hudson one of the bottles before slugging down half my own at the same time I pulled off my tie. I made my way back to my bedroom and began shucking off the rest of the formal clothing so I could change into something more comfortable for family dinner.

Hudson padded down the hall after me. “Where’s the baby? With Goldie still?”

“Yeah.”

“Who was the guy?”

I turned around to look at him with my eyebrow raised in confusion. As if I didn’t know who “the guy” was.

“You know, the guy with the weird hair and all the ink. I saw you talking to him after the service. Never seen him before.”

Just the mention of Nico Salerno had my back teeth grinding together again. “Adriana’s good-for-nothing brother,” I admitted. “Apparently she left custody of Pippa to him.”

“What the fuck? The guy who took off when we were kids?”

“Yeah. Don’t get me started, Hudson. Okay?”

I turned back around and slipped my shirt and undershirt off to replace them with an old, soft flannel button-down. I hung up my suit trousers and slid on a worn pair of blue jeans, thankful Grandpa had been a rancher and didn’t give a damn about how we dressed for family dinners.

After throwing on some boots, I followed Hudson back out to the kitchen to finish our beer.

“You sure you don’t want to talk about it?” Hudson asked. I thought for a minute about how many times he’d been there for me before—just a quiet companion when I’d needed a friend. We’d been brothers my whole life, but we’d also been as thick as thieves. As the two oldest siblings in a family overrun with them, we’d taken the unofficial roles of protectors to our younger brothers and sisters. Instead of burdening anyone else with our problems, we kept them quiet.

And only burdened each other.

I wound up telling him about the punk who’d come in from the West Coast to butt his nose into Pippa’s business—the guy who’d abandoned Adriana when she’d been a wayward teen and left her alone with the Billingham boys when Mrs. Salerno married Sheriff Billingham but died only two years later in a car accident. Just the thought of it set my teeth on edge and made me want to beat Nico up even more.

Hudson tilted his head at me and furrowed his brow. “This is really bugging you, West. What’s the problem? You said you think he’s going to go through with the adoption, right?”

“Yeah. That’s what Hon thinks anyway. I guess I’m pissed off that he couldn’t bother to show up and be there for Adriana until it was too late,” I explained. “She deserved better than that. She deserved someone in her corner. Especially after her mom died.”

“She had your friendship this past year, West. And everyone at the bakery. And Pippa. She was happy.”