Page 20 of Tempting Bo (Montgomery Dreams #2)

BO

Papers lay scattered across the kitchen table.

Once again, my parents sit at one end, the Wards sit at the other, and I sit as far away from the table as I can without getting yelled at for it.

Today's special brand of torture is house hunting. I've been ignoring the listings Savannah texts me, but it looks like she got tired of waiting again. She and her parents showed up right before lunch with a binder full of listings and a bad fucking attitude.

My attitude probably isn't helping much, but whatever. I've lost the trust of my entire family and any chance at being with the only woman I've ever loved because of this. Forgive me if I'm not in the mood to debate square footage.

My parents are pissed off enough at having the Wards darkening our doorstep, and Dad is taking it out on me. I probably deserve it.

“Have you even looked at any of these?” he asks, gesturing angrily toward the stacks of papers. “I raised you better than to run away from your responsibilities, Boden.”

I keep my mouth shut in a desperate bid to stop myself from screaming nonsense. All I can think about is how furious I am. If I start talking, it's not going to go well.

“He hasn't responded to any of my texts about the houses, Mr. Montgomery,” Savannah whines. “I've been trying so hard to get the ball rolling, but he’s just not cooperating. I don't know what I did to be treated like this.”

A muscle in my dad’s jaw clenches in annoyance, but I'm pretty sure most of it is directed at Savannah. Her simpering is a sure fire way to get on anyone’s nerves.

“You have duties, now, as a parent,” he says lowly, staring me down. “You can’t shirk them just because you're upset about the situation, and I won't watch you be a coward and?—”

“David,” Mom says.

Dad stutters over his words, falling silent. Both of us know that tone, the ‘no more nonsense, listen to your mother’ tone. We both freeze as Mom rifles through the papers and pulls out a few.

She slaps them down in the center of the table, staring down the Wards as she slides the pages closer to them.

“These are in good school zones and are within budget,” she says, that tone not wavering. “Something came up today, but the three of you can look these over for now. Instead of lunch, we can set up tours for those next weekend. Sound good?”

Everyone in the room stares at my mom like she's suddenly grown a second head, but the Wards nod in agreement. They look like they're trying not to spook a tiger, which is probably accurate. Mom doesn't take charge like this often, but when she does, no one can get in her way.

Dad and I are smart enough to hide our confusion, but we both know that none of us have looked at any of the listings the Wards sent over.

We've hardly talked to each other at all since they found out about Savannah.

A desperate bud of hope wells in my chest that Mom is going to stand up for me and refuse to let Dad force me into this, but I snuff it out mercilessly.

If I can't get myself out of this situation, I don't deserve to have someone else stand up for me.

“If something came up, I suppose it can't be helped,” Savannah’s dad says. “We’ll narrow these down and contact the agents to set up showings.”

“Great,” Mom says tightly. “I'll show you out.”

She hurries them out the door, leaving Dad and I sitting in awkward silence in the kitchen.

I can tell he’s not done lecturing me, but neither of us want to be caught arguing when Mom comes back.

We just stare at each other, discomfort obvious, until the door slams shut and Mom joins us in the kitchen again.

“Oakley texted me last night,” she announces.

That clears up absolutely nothing, so Dad and I stay still and silent.

“She saw Savannah at the rodeo,” she continues. “She was drinking shots and riding the mechanical bull, and apparently she said some very nasty things to Oakley and Kenzie.”

Dad sighs raggedly before my heart even has a chance to soar at the news.

“Honey,” he says, sounding beat down and exhausted.

“I don't want to believe this any more than the next guy, and I don't think Oakley would make something like that up, but we can't just call Savannah a liar and move on.

If she's telling the truth, the attachment to the Wards would make us social lepers.

We can't run the risk of having them free to say whatever they please about us if she's the mother of Bo’s child.”

Mom hums, a warning and a disagreement both. My dad snaps his mouth shut immediately.

She stays silent as she pulls her phone out of her pocket and thumbs through her messages, and I tense in uncertainty.

Oakley didn't say anything about last night to me, and I haven't heard from Kenzie at all since we last spoke.

If what she told Mom was convincing enough for her to kick the Wards out, maybe it'll make Dad listen too.

I don't expect her to press play on a video and slide the phone in front of my father.

It’s at the wrong angle for me to make everything out perfectly, but it's easy to recognize Savannah as she pounds a shot and climbs drunkenly aboard the mechanical bull. She has an obviously inebriated way to her step in the video, even from as far away as I am.

I lurch forward to watch the video, but it cuts off before I make it to my dad’s side.

I press play on it again, watching the flashing lights of the rodeo and listening to the drunk cheers of Savannah and her friend as Oakley narrates what's going on.

Oakley said she'd find proof Savannah was lying. She delivered. She damn well delivered.

Savannah can't argue against video proof.

I look up at my mom with wide, disbelieving eyes, almost too scared to let myself hope. There's a vindictive smile on her face, and I can't choke back the bark of relieved laughter that falls from my lips.

“Why am I just hearing about this now?” Dad asks, his frustration at having the Wards stop by again still lingering.

“Don’t you take that tone with me ,” Mom warns him, one brow arched challengingly.

“I was planning on talking to you and Bo about it tonight, after you’d worked off some of that attitude on the farm.

If I’d known those snakes were coming over again, I would’ve sat the two of you down this morning and made you figure things out before you even got your coffee. ”

My parents don’t argue often—and I wouldn’t exactly classify this as an argument —but it’s rare that they even disagree in front of me or my sisters.

The fact that Mom is bringing this up now, rather than waiting to talk to him about it in private, means that she’s already decided what she believes.

I’ve never been so relieved in my life to have Mom agree with me.

Dad looks between the two of us, his brow furrowed in frustration and confusion. After a long, tense moment, he leans back in his chair and releases a drawn out sigh. He shakes his head, running his hand through his thinning brown hair.

“Alright, then what do we do?”

He sounds like I feel—too worried about the what-ifs to dare hope the solution could be this simple. But if I’m not the only one trying, if I can get my parents to back me up on this, maybe we can find a silver lining here.

Maybe I can find a way out of this mess.

“Bo, do you know for a fact that Savannah is pregnant?” Mom asks.

I shrug, my hope faltering as I remember the day Savannah shoved that positive test into hand.

“I mean, she showed me a positive pregnancy test,” I say. “You can’t fake something like that.”

My mom levels me with a look that makes me feel about five inches tall, and she pinches the bridge of her nose as she shakes her head.

“That’s all the proof she showed you?” she asks.

“It’s a positive pregnancy test!” I cross my arms over my chest defensively as she shares a glance with my dad. “Am I supposed to ask her to piss on it in front of me so I can make sure?”

“Language,” Dad says sharply.

I shrink back, tucking my annoyance close to my chest.

“Yes, that’s all the proof she showed me,” I confirm, looking up at my mom. “I don’t remember the night before waking up in bed with her, and we woke up naked. I may not like it, but it makes sense.”

I’ve never felt more ashamed of myself than I do now, admitting to waking up naked with someone after blacking out to my own parents. My face flames with embarrassment, but I’d rather look like an immature idiot in front of my family than have them believe I betrayed their trust.

“I’m starting to think we need more than that,” Mom says. “Has she shown you any of the ultrasound pictures? Or hospital lab work saying that she’s pregnant?”

“She hasn’t gone to the doctor yet, as far as I know.” I shrug uncertainly. I have been ignoring her texts and calls, but I assume she’d mention it if she went to the doctor. That seems like something she’d hold over me to pressure me. “All I saw was the pregnancy test.”

My mom’s face crumples into a disbelieving frown at that, and I think that maybe I’ve been a little too stupid about this.

I don’t know how the process goes for pregnant women at all, when they should see a doctor or when they start showing or anything else of the sort.

The way she’s reacting makes me think I might have saved myself a whole world of trouble if I’d just thought to google the basics of pregnancy.

Now I feel like even more of a dumbass.

“Alright, well, give me some time to think all this over,” Mom says with an exhausted sigh. “I’ll talk to your sister and we’ll figure out a plan to get proof, either way.”

I want to cry and thank my mom and hug her about a million times, but I’m so shocked at the possibility of them being on my side that I can’t find words.

If I don’t have to fight this fight alone, I don’t have to lose anything.

My family won’t have to suffer through being associated with the Wards, and there won’t be anything keeping Kenzie and I apart.

Just the thought of having Kenzie in my life, at my side where she belongs, is enough to make tears well in my eyes.

“I’ll back off for now, Bo,” Dad promises after Mom sends a sharp look his way.

“It’s no secret that I don’t want anything to do with those rats, and if there’s a chance that this is all a scam, I want to see proof of that.

You best understand that if she’s telling the truth, my expectations won’t change. You’ll be a man about this, you hear?”

“I swear, Dad.” It’s easy to promise when I finally have some real hope to prove she’s lying. “I’ll prove it to you guys. All I’m doing is trying to tell the truth, I’m not running away from this.”

He stares at me, his gaze heavy and loaded with a million different questions and possibilities, but he doesn’t voice any of them. He just stands and nods at my mom before making his way back outside.

“Go talk to Kenzie, would you?” Mom says as soon as the door closes behind him. “Your dad needs time to think through this, and I need to talk to Oakley and figure out how to get proof out of Savannah, but that poor girl is tearing herself apart. Go make things right with her.”

“I—yeah,” I say. “Yes.”

There’s nothing else I can even think about doing right now. All that matters is getting my life back on track, making sure Kenzie knows that I’m not going to sit back and take this. I’m going to fight for her, for us , no matter what.

With my parents willing to believe me and Oakley willing to help me uncover the truth, there’s nothing that can stand in my way.

I’m free now, and all I care about is Kenzie.