Page 45 of I Found You (Wilder #1)

Wyatt

“Hey, was that Kara I just passed? Did she come to tell you anything else about this mysterious relative?” I asked Maeve when I walked in the door.

I took my boots off on the mat so I wouldn’t track grease throughout the house.

When I looked up, waiting for Maeve to answer me, I saw her chin quiver and her eyes well up.

Rushing over to her, I grabbed her arms and pulled her toward me into a hug.

“What’s wrong? What happened?” Even as I asked her that, my eyes scanned the living room, which looked larger and emptier.

The portable crib that usually sat against the wall was gone. I spun my head to where Jane’s favorite bounce chair should be. Gone.

Anger flared in my chest. Where was my little girl? I pulled back from Maeve’s embrace and held her upper arms. “Maeve. Where’s Jane?” My voice was tight as I tried to contain my growing irritation.

“They took her. She’s going to live with her grandmother now,” Maeve said as a tear fell from her eyes. I wanted to wipe it away, tell her it was all going to be okay. But I couldn’t. I could barely even look at her right now.

“You just let them drive away with her? I don’t even get to say goodbye?

” I threw my hat off my head and ran my hands through my hair.

“What the fuck, Maeve! I’ve been here from the beginning.

I’ve been part of that little girl’s life just as much as you have.

” I was yelling now, my anger bubbling up inside of me.

“She wasn’t even nice. She was kind of cold, actually.

And you know what she told me? She said that Jane’s real name was Sunshine.

Sunshine Moon.” A sob escaped Maeve as tears ran down her face.

“It was like she was looking for handouts. She wanted all of Jane’s things, and she asked about the state’s payments to caregivers at least three times. She reminded me of Mrs. Trunchbull.”

“And you just let her leave with them?”

“I didn’t have a choice, Wyatt. That’s part of the deal.

I was only taking care of her until her family was found.

And they were. The Department of Children and Family Services came out to collect her and take her to her family.

What was I supposed to do? Tell them no, they can’t have her because I don’t like the vibe from the lady?

” Maeve was shouting now too. I knew in the back of my mind that I should walk away.

Walk away before I said something I would regret. But I was too pissed to care.

“This is bullshit. Did it even cross your mind to call me, to text me? You didn’t think this was something I should fucking be here for?”

“Of course I did. Have you checked your phone? I called and texted you. I wanted you here for this, Wyatt, for Jane’s sake and yours. And mine…I didn’t want to do this alone either. ”

I hadn’t looked at my phone all day. Guilt and anger warred within me.

Maeve shouldn’t have had to deal with everything by herself.

I should have been here for her, for Jane.

She could have tried harder to get in touch with me, though.

She should have done something, anything, to make sure I was here for this. In my haze of emotions, anger won out.

“Let me guess, you never even bothered to ask them to wait another ten minutes for me to get home. You wouldn’t want to inconvenience anyone by having a fucking backbone.” I spat my words out with spite.

Maeve walked toward me, stood toe and toe, and looked up at me, staring into my hard eyes. “Fuck you, Wyatt. Get out.” She didn’t scream or shout but gritted out her words with bared teeth.

Gladly. Without another word, I turned on my heels, rammed my feet into my boots, not bothering to tie them, and walked out the door.

I slammed my hand on my steering wheel before I turned the ignition and drove away. My heart felt like it was being torn out of my chest. I couldn’t go back to the garage; Jackson was still there tinkering around on his truck, and I wasn’t in the mood to deal with that.

I drove to the other side of town where my neglected house sat. I had been keeping up on the yard maintenance, but otherwise, I was almost never here. It hadn’t felt like home in a while. And besides that, I realized how little food I had here.

I was angry and full of adrenaline and fire.

I needed to do something with my hands to get some of this aggression out.

I placed a call to Luke first, but he was on shift until eleven.

It was only six o’clock now. There was no way I was going to sit quietly, waiting for him to get off shift.

Wes was next on my list. It had been some time since Wes and I had spent some time together anyway.

I probably wasn’t going to be very good company, but hell, what were best friends for if not to hang with you when you were in a dick mood.

I also sent texts to Reid and Seb, both of them replying that they were game for a night out.

Sitting at a bar wasn’t high on my list, so Wes suggested we do a little target practice at the local axe-throwing joint.

It was a bring-your-own-booze, outside-food-welcome kind of place.

We stocked up on beers, pizza, and wings and made our way over there.

The music was bumping some early 2000s R only two other bays were taken, while the other four were unused.

I didn’t really feel too bad about going over our time.

And if the kid didn’t have the balls to even talk to us, that was his problem. I had enough of my own problems today.

That made me think about Maeve again, and Jane.

I hated not knowing where Jane was. How could Maeve just pack up her stuff and send her on her way?

She said herself that the lady was cold.

She couldn’t want Jane to grow up like that.

I knew I didn’t. But I didn’t have a voice in this.

As much as I had been in Jane’s life, it was always on the periphery.

Wes clapped me on the shoulder and pulled me back to the present. “We got to start packing it up soon. That poor kid looks like he’s sweating just thinking about coming over here. You want a few more throws while I clean up?”

“No. I’m good. Let’s get this cleaned up,” I told him.

I was about to call over to Reid and Seb to get them to help us when Wes spoke quietly. “You want to talk about it?” he asked.

I looked back at the other two, working on their trick shots and trying to throw each other off every time someone went to throw. “Not really.” I hesitated for a second before continuing. “But, uh, if you have a couch I could crash on, I wouldn’t say no. My place stinks like stale air and despair.”

He let out a huff I was pretty sure was supposed to be a chuckle that he was trying to hold back. “Yeah, brother. My couch is free anytime.”

We finished cleaning up and pried the other two away from the axes. I didn’t necessarily feel any better than I did before, but I didn’t want to rip someone’s head off, so I guessed that was progress. Reid and Seb both took off, and Wes brought me back to his place to crash.

That night, as I lay on Wes’s couch, looking at the ceiling, my mind was on Jane, wondering if she was okay in her new house.

I hated being away from her. And Maeve. I was still pissed about how it all went down.

Furious that I didn’t even get a chance to see her before she was ripped from my life.

I knew she wasn’t mine, but that didn’t mean I didn’t love that little girl more than I ever thought possible.

I already missed the way her little fingers would grab things, the look on her face when she was processing the world around her.

Every little thing was like the most magical thing she’d ever seen.

Maeve always laughed when Jane would wrap her sticky little fingers around her hair.

She never got mad or annoyed at it. She would smile that bright-as-a-star smile at her and tell her how strong she was.

Fuck, I missed Maeve too. I wanted my body swathed around hers, breathing in the scent of her hair, her skin.

The way her soft, curvy body responded to me was addicting.

I didn’t know when it happened, but it hit me with certainty. “I’m fucked.”

“Yup. You are.” I turned toward the voice and found Wes standing in the hallway.

He walked by the living room and into the kitchen.

I heard him fumbling around with glasses, and the sink turned on.

When he came back, he sat a glass of water on the side table for me.

“You just now realizing it? This about Jane?”

“She’s gone. That grandmother that came out of the blue came and got her. I was working and didn’t see Maeve’s texts and calls. By the time I got to her house, Jane was gone.” I moved my feet so he could take a seat on the couch. “I may have said some shit things to her.”

“What the fuck did you do that for? You got some beautiful, kind, compassionate woman to fall for you, and you’re going to screw it up?”

“She could have tried harder to keep her. She could have made sure I got to say bye. She just let Jane go with this random woman. I know whatever environment she’s in now isn’t going to be as good as she had it with us. ”

“Us? Like a family unit?” Wes asked with his eyebrow raised.

“I don’t know, man,” I lied. I did know.

I knew that Maeve and Jane meant the world to me.

I could see us being the perfect family unit.

Sunday morning breakfasts watching Jane play on a swing set.

Tuesday night pizza on paper plates. Waking up to Maeve’s hair in my face, or my chest, or anywhere she damn well pleased to lie, so long as it was next to me.

What I didn’t know was how Maeve and I would work without Jane.

She was the reason Maeve was brought into my life, and I couldn’t imagine lying with Maeve and not having to wake up to Jane’s soft cry as she stirred in the morning.

“It doesn’t matter anyway. We’re not a family.

We never were. Maeve was Jane’s foster parent. She did her job, and now it’s over.”

“What’s over? The parenting or the relationship?”

“I don’t know. Both?”

Wes lounged back into the couch cushions and took a sip of his water. “Yeah. If I were Maeve, I’d be done with your ass too. She’s only good enough for you if she’s raising a kid. On her own, she isn’t enough. I’d kick your ass to the curb in a fucking minute.”

My head fell back onto the couch. Axe-throwing had drained most of my anger, leaving me feeling gutted. I liked the anger better.

“Fix it. Don’t fix it. Either way, I’m here for you, brother,” Wes said as he stood from the couch.

His gaze was intense, and his brow furrowed when he looked at me.

“But I’ve never seen you as happy as you have been since you’ve been with her.

If you don’t think she was the reason for it, walk away.

But I think it was more than just Jane that brought you over there every day.

That shit looked like the real deal. At least from where I’m standing. ”

He walked away, leaving me to my ceiling staring again.