Back In The Saddle: Bachelor Auction - Book 2

a fact.
“Huck Manning had his chance and walked away,” I said, frowning. Graham knew exactly what I was talking about. So did everyone in town, even though it was old news. “I think Claire Manning’s proof of that.” I shrugged and tried to play it off. “Thatcher and Sawyer aren’t hard on the eyes though.”
“If that’s all you’re looking for, check out this face right here.” He pointed at himself.
I burst out laughing, and so did he.
Carefully I worked my way down the embankment to Kale’s truck. While the driver’s door had a dent, it opened easily. Papers were strewn across the bench seat, and I pushed them away to climb behind the wheel. I needed to get in to put the vehicle in neutral so it would roll when the winch pulled it onto the flatbed. I grabbed the gearshift and got it into the right gear, but the papers caught my eye. I collected them all into a pile to stick back into the briefcase that had obviously opened in the crash. The top paper looked like a legal document—Kale Bradford was a lawyer—but it was Huck Manning’s name that caught my attention.
I had to take a guess, since they were best friends, that Kale was Huck’s legal counsel. I shouldn’t have snooped at something that was probably confidential, but when it had Huck’s name on it, I didn’t give a shit.
I skimmed it quickly, then started over, this time reading it slower. It was a letter from some lawyer in Helena for his client, an Amanda Oglethorpe of Helena. He stated that while Huck wasn’t Claire Manning’s biological father, he was currently the legal guardian of her. Amanda Oglethorpe was intending to take Huck to court for her maternal rights to be reinstated.
My heart skipped a beat, then another. My palms began to sweat. I glanced out the cracked windshield and didn’t see the acres of growing alfalfa or the mountains in the distance. All I saw was Huck Manning, five years ago, coming back to The Bend with a baby. His baby.
The baby that proved he’d moved on and hadn’t wanted me.
Huck Manning wasn’t Claire’s father. He hadn’t dumped me and gone on to make a baby with a woman faster than someone changed their underwear.
He’d made one with me, but—
“Everything okay?” Graham asked, making me jump. I set the paper beside me.
I’d been so lost in my thoughts I hadn’t heard him approach.
Hastily I picked up the small pile and grabbed the open briefcase off the floor of the passenger side. “Yeah, these were all over and in my way.” I shoved them in, except for the one letter about Huck, and snapped the lid down. Reaching across the steering wheel, I handed the briefcase to Graham through the open door. “Here. I’m sure Kale’s going to want this.”
He took it from me. “I’ll see that he gets it. Thanks.”
With the truck ready to be loaded, I hopped out and folded the letter, shoving it into the back pocket of my jeans. We walked to the tow truck together. As I readied the winch cable, all I could think about was what I’d just learned.
Huck and I had dated after graduation and spent the summer together, practically inseparable. God, it had been intense, and I’d fallen in love with him in a matter of days. Maybe on our first date. I’d given him my virginity the week before I was to leave for college.
The next day he’d come to the house and told me it was over. I’d sat there as he’d told me it wasn’t going to work. My dad had stood in the doorway and watched. His face had been grim as usual. He’d never been shy in how he felt about Huck Manning. While I’d been heartbroken, my dad had consoled me by telling me I was better than a loser like Huck, that he’d never amount to anything, that he’d drag me down.
I hadn’t believed any of it, but Huck hadn’t changed his mind. I’d gone off to college and tried to heal my broken heart. Until I found out I was pregnant. Until a short while later I’d miscarried.
I’d heard Huck had moved to Helena to go to the police academy, but he’d never contacted me, so I never told him about the baby we’d made. The loss of him and the miscarriage had made that first year horrible. But I’d persevered. College was what I’d wanted. What my father had always planned for me. To amount to more, although by then all I’d wanted was the life Huck and I had begun to plan. That was never going to be.
When school ended for the year, I’d returned to The Bend for the summer. Huck had too. With a baby. With little Claire.
Since I was good with numbers, I’d done the math, figured he’d gone from taking my virginity in the back of his truck to another woman’s bed within a month. Proven we were truly finished.
It had taken years to get over him. The way I was reacting to this news, I wasn’t past him at all.
He’d returned to The Bend and worked as a deputy, raising Claire on his own. He had Alice, the awesome Manning housekeeper, and two brothers to help, but never once reached out to me. I’d had to hear all the gossip about it, the mystery of who the mother was. I’d had to listen to all the times my dad told me how much better off I was without him. How Claire had proved Huck Manning was a deadbeat, that he’d have ruined my life.
But now? Kale’s papers? Claire wasn’t Huck’s baby. Why had he lied? Why had he let me believe she was his, that he’d slept with another woman so soon after me? That I’d meant so little to him that he’d found another. That he’d gotten her pregnant.
I was so angry as I let out the cable on the winch.