The Bad Boy of Redemption Ranch - Maisey Yates Page 0,84

have been in a foster home, McKenna had been in several, and while he knew the families she’d been with had been good enough to her, she’d been bounced around a lot and then spit out of the system at eighteen with no support and no real idea of how to make it in the world.

“So, how are things?” he asked.

“Great,” McKenna said. “I think this is the first time in my life I’ve ever been able to say that and mean it. Not a bad place to be.”

“I’ll get a round of beers,” Caleb said, standing up and walking toward the bar.

For some reason, it struck West right then that he was the only one in this group that wasn’t paired off. But then, he was also the only one that had been in a marriage that had ended in divorce.

He couldn’t decide whether he was the before or the after. Whether this thing that they’d all found was out there waiting for him, or if he’d already spent his tokens on a bad marriage. A bad life.

No, he had never really thought that he would get married again.

But...

Somehow, love had worked out for all of them.

It was a strange realization.

Jacob, Gabe and McKenna were talking about family life in a way that West felt on the outside, in spite of the fact that he’d been married for a good number of years.

And when Caleb returned, the conversation went to children for a while, since he and Jacob were fathers.

“Thankfully, I don’t have to get a babysitter for Emmett,” West said.

“Who’s Emmett?” McKenna asked.

“My half brother,” West said. And when her eyes flew wide he added, “Mine. Not yours.”

She chuckled. “Thank God. Honestly you never know with this family. You kick a rock over and find another Dalton.”

“Hey, we already know there are more,” Gabe pointed out.

“Yeah, we’re kind of a tangled mess,” Jacob agreed.

A mess he was part of, but they’d let him in anyway. He and McKenna, the interlopers who were just here at the table with them. Like they mattered just the same.

“Well, it’s the only real family I’ve ever known,” McKenna said. “And of course the Dodges. They’re like family too. Before I came here I never had anybody. My mom...my mom gave me up when I was two. I don’t even remember her. And then I came here, expecting to find...well, deep down I wanted to find family. But in reality I expected that what I would find was just people who didn’t want anything to do with me. Because that was my experience all my life. I thought family just existed to disappoint you.”

The men around the table fell quiet. In some ways they all had experience with that.

Caleb, Jacob and Gabe had had some form of stability living with Hank and Tammy, but he knew that it had been a rocky upbringing, and that Hank’s behavior had hurt everyone.

“At least nobody knew about you,” Caleb said. “Poor West... Our mom knew.”

West felt all eyes on him. “I’m not mad at her about that,” he said.

“Really?” Jacob asked. “Because I was pretty mad about it.”

“I was furious about it when I realized,” Gabe said. “And upset about my part in it. Because I knew Mom had turned away other women claiming to have Dad’s kids, that she’d paid them off.”

“I didn’t mean to blame you,” Caleb said. “That’s not my point in bringing it up.”

Gabe shrugged. “I know. But it’s true all the same. I knew about them too and I didn’t say anything.”

“You didn’t physically turn their mothers away at the door,” Jacob pointed out.

“I said I’m not mad at her,” West said.

“I don’t understand how,” Gabe said.

“Because. Because I wish my mom would have done half of that for me. She came after your dad’s money, it’s true. She did, and so did the other mothers of the other two brothers we don’t even know. I can’t speak for those women, but my mom didn’t do it for me. It wasn’t for Emmett. It didn’t benefit us. I think she cares about us in her way, but it’s not like Tammy does. Your mom fought for you. She fought for that family as best she could. And she didn’t give a shit about me. But...why should she?”

“Because it was the right thing to do,” Gabe said. “Because you’re our family.”

“Just because were related by a couple strands of DNA?”

“I’m not really sure what family is,” McKenna said. “I mean, in a