None of it made sense, and he didn’t want to sort it out now, but he couldn’t deny the fact that Hank looked shocked. That he looked like he hadn’t known. Hadn’t expected this.
“I didn’t know,” Hank repeated. “I didn’t know about you.” He shook his head. “Where did you grow up? Who took care of you?”
Rose stepped in front of him. “We did. We took care of him. And it’s not...”
“What the hell?” That came from West, who had crossed the space between them and was now standing directly in front of Logan. “You knew? You knew all this time? You knew that I had come back here looking for family, and we... We’ve been having dinner together. You knew and you didn’t tell me.”
“Because I haven’t told anyone,” Logan said. “And I haven’t admitted a damn thing. Look, you had to come here and make your own decisions about what you wanted to do with the Daltons. I grew up here. I made my decisions a long damned time ago. And I made my family. I don’t know why anybody wants to have it out here and now.”
“How could you just keep it a secret like that?” Pansy asked. “I brought your half brother home to you, and you just kept it a secret.”
“Yeah,” Logan said. “It was my secret to keep. I don’t owe any of you anything. And I don’t owe you any damned explanations for my behavior. It’s not up to you what I do or how I handle this. But hey, here you go. Here’s your wedding gift. I’m a damn half brother.”
“Were you just never going to tell me?”
“West,” Logan said. “You marrying Pansy brought you about as close to me as anything could have. I didn’t figure it mattered.”
“It matters,” West said. “I...I threw everything aside for Emmett, because he’s my blood. I came back here to Oregon looking for family, because the Daltons are my blood, imperfect or not. You knew that. You knew all that, and you didn’t confide in me.”
“Have your wedding,” Logan said. “Have your wedding, and enjoy yourself. Don’t make it about me. We’ll talk when you get back from your honeymoon.”
“You expect me to just go on like this didn’t happen?”
“It doesn’t change anything. I went to high school with them,” he said, pointing at Gabe, Jacob and Caleb, who were staring. “It wasn’t like we had some supernatural connection. We didn’t even ever talk.”
“This is my fault.” It was Tammy Dalton who stepped forward then, a petite blonde with Dolly Parton’s sense of style. “I’m the one who talked to your mother. I didn’t know who she was, and I didn’t want to. I gave her money and I sent her on her way. Hank didn’t know.”
Her words hit Logan like a punch to the gut.
“He didn’t know,” he echoed.
It didn’t change anything, though. Didn’t change his mother’s pain. It didn’t bring her back, didn’t make any of this better.
It didn’t matter.
It couldn’t.
“No,” Tammy said. “He never knew. And it’s something that we’ve been dealing with, the two of us, because we hurt each other in a lot of ways, but we hurt other people with it. And I’m sorry, I’m so very sorry.” She choked up. “Now it’s ruining West’s wedding...”
“My wedding isn’t ruined,” West said.
“I...I don’t know what to say to this,” Logan said. “And it’s not the right time to be saying anything. This wasn’t supposed to happen today.” He looked at West and Pansy when he said that.
“And I’m sorry,” Hank said. “Because everything I did more than thirty years ago just keeps coming up and up again. Just keeps coming back to bite... Well, everyone else in the ass. All these things that I did. And no matter how many times I say I’m sorry, I just still...keep having to look at how I hurt people. And I don’t mean to say that to make you sorry for me. It’s just... I can’t seem to be sorry enough. And you’re right, you don’t owe me a thing. But I suspect I owe you an awful lot. So if you’ll let me... If you’ll let me, I’d like you to be part of this family. We are not perfect. We’re still finding out how not perfect we are. But we’re trying. We’re trying to be a family.”
Logan pulled away from Rose, and he turned and walked away from all of it. Out of the barn. Outside.
He heard footsteps behind him, and he expected it to be Rose. But when he turned, it was McKenna.
“What?” He sounded mean. He didn’t care.
“I just wanted to say, that... I didn’t have anyone, either. I mean nobody. I came here to get money off Hank. I didn’t come here to find a family. I didn’t give a shit about my brothers. I didn’t care at all about Hank Dalton. I grew up in foster care. My mom’s not dead, she just didn’t want me. And I...I didn’t expect anything. I didn’t want it. I came here, I started working for the Dodge family, and I met Grant. I got a whole lot more than I bargained for there. And then... And then I met Hank. And he told me to leave. He offered me money. And I was... I was devastated. Because it turned out that part of me really did just want a family. I thought that I was independent and strong, and that I didn’t need anyone. And then it turned out I needed a whole lot of someone’s. So maybe you do, too. I don’t know. But speaking as someone who never had anyone, who came into the Dalton family... I think you should give them a chance.”
“You don’t understand,” he said, his voice hoarse. “I had someone. I had a family. I had my mother. She loved me. And she died. Hank hurt her, McKenna. I’ll never forgive him for that. I don’t expect I should have to.”
And
