Chapter Five
Tyler
The next morning, Tyler woke up to the warmth of the winter sun beating down on his bare chest, and the sound of Bronwyn gently snoring as she nuzzled into the crook of his shoulder. As he looked down at her, he was flooded with more emotions than he could process at one time. She was so beautiful and so strong, that he was in awe of her. She was so delicate and so angelic, he wanted to protect her. She was the only woman he’d ever wanted to love, and she was his brother’s wife. Tyler and Declan had never been close, but somehow, he still struggled with the reality of what had happened the night before.
Declan had tried to be a good man and marry Bronwyn when she had gotten pregnant right out of high school, but in the end, he ran away. And then when Bronwyn suffered a miscarriage, he ran even farther. Annie and Roger had done everything in their power to make Bronwyn feel like a member of the Hunter family. They’d even helped her buy the property she’d turned into her organic farm. But every one of them knew Declan was never going to be the kind of man Bronwyn deserved.
And Tyler couldn’t help but wonder if, perhaps, all of this had happened to bring them to together in the end.
He shook the selfish thought from his head and made his way out of the bedroom, leaving Bronwyn to sleep in while he tended to the goats and sheep. The snow had starting falling in the middle of the night, and thick blanket of white covered the fields. The carriage house looked gorgeous in the snow, and Tyler couldn’t remember the last time he’d felt so at peace.
As he trudged over to the barn, he heard the sound of a truck pulling up the drive. It was Roger, coming over to help with the milking, as he had every Saturday morning since Bronwyn took over the farm. Tyler waved with a smile as his father rushed over to meet him.
“You’re up early this morning, son. Something on your mind or just itching to get an udder between your fingers?”
Tyler chucked his dad on the shoulder. “That’s disgusting, pop. I was just up early, so I figured I’d get a jump on some of the grunt work. Let Bronwyn sleep in.”
Roger nodded with a knowing eyebrow raised, and Tyler groaned.
“What, dad? What? What did I say?”
As they walked to the goat enclosure, Roger looked straight ahead. “I may be old, and I may be going blind in one eye, but I’m not stupid, Tyler James Hunter. I see the way you look at that little girl. And you ain’t looking at her like her brother-in-law.”
Tyler always hated this about his dad. He could see right through him, even when he thought he was doing a damn good job hiding what was going on in his head.
“Dad, it’s nothing. Really. I’m just… helping her out.”
Roger grabbed Tyler’s arm to stop him from going in to the pen and pointed to a stump on the ground, gesturing for him to sit. Tyler wasn’t in the mood for a heart-to-heart, but there was no getting out of it. He knew that much. They sat down next to each other on the stump, and Roger took a long, tired breath before he spoke.
“Tyler, I love both my boys with all of my being. But you and Declan could not have been more different. Declan never knew what he really wanted in life, so he tried to live your life, and it wasn’t a fit. I truly think he believed that Bronwyn was his answer to something normal, and then when that didn’t work, he ran away again. We begged him to come back, to do the right thing, but he couldn’t bear to break her heart, even if it was the right thing for both of them. So here we are now. Declan was my son, and I love him forever, and for always, but maybe he kept running in the hopes that one day… we’d just stop chasing him.”
Tyler rolled a clump of snow into a ball and chucked it out into the field in front of him. His father may have been right, but it didn’t make him feel any better about what he was just about to say to Roger.
“Pop. I think I have feelings for Bronwyn. Real feelings. And I don’t know what to do about it.”
Now it was Roger’s turn to start throwing snowballs absent-mindedly out in the emptiness. He let out a long, tired sigh, then looked up at the carriage house, where they could both see curtains fluttering, indicating that Bronwyn was awake and making breakfast. Roger leaned over and shoved his son playfully.
“You’re a good man, Tyler. And Bronwyn is a good woman. Whatever you decide to do, it will be the right thing. Declan never did right by her. I think you will.”
Tyler rolled his eyes, “Thanks, dad. That clears things right up.”
“I’m your father, not a magic 8 ball. You want one word answers, go shake a toy. In the meantime, help me get these goats milked so we can eat some breakfast and I can get back to your mother.”