Nash knew it wasn’t just the pregnancy. Everything was closing in on him at once. He needed to confess now that the racing season was over and Cassie and Tessa were focusing on Cassie’s new school. He couldn’t wait for Damon to sell those horses to someone else.
Nash’s assistant should’ve already proposed the next offer, now Nash just had to wait.
Waiting was about the dead last thing he wanted to do, but he hadn’t gotten this far in life by being impulsive. Timing was everything in reaching your goals.
And timing would definitely play a major role in the next steps he took with Lily. It was like walking through a minefield. One wrong move and every plan, every unexpected blessing could all blow up in his face.
He’d spoken with his mother this morning and she was still worried about him exposing the truth, but Nash assured her he wasn’t going to disclose everything, only that Damon was his father. Everything else...hell, he had no clue when to drop that bomb. Would Damon look closer and see the man who had been his rival for so long? They’d not been face-to-face in the business world in years and Nash knew he’d changed. Besides the hair, the beard and the clothes, Nash had done more grunt work on his own land, bulking him up quite a bit and changing his physique.
“You may be the hardest working groom I’ve ever employed.”
Nash jerked around to see Damon striding through the stables. Fate had just presented him with the perfect opportunity...but was he ready to take it?
Damn it, this was harder than he thought. Before him stood the man who was his biological father and had no clue. How would he react? Would putting the fact out in the open change Damon’s life? Would he care? Would he embrace Nash as part of the family?
In the past several months since learning the truth, Nash had played this scenario in his head a million times. Now that the perfect opportunity had presented itself, he didn’t know how to lead into the life-altering conversation.
“Haven’t seen you down here much lately,” Nash finally said as he tugged off his work gloves and shoved them in his back pocket.
“The girls are done training, so that’s freed up my time.” The elderly man rested his hand on one of the gates to a stall, curling his fingers around the wrought-iron bars. “I come down more in the evening now. Been spending some of my days playing with sweet Emily.”
Nash smiled. Emily was Damon’s granddaughter...and Nash’s niece. So many instant family members. Actually, with Ian marrying Cassie, that would make Lily’s agent Nash’s soon-to-be brother-in-law.
His head was spinning. Everything would start unraveling the moment he told Damon the truth, or the part of the truth that Lily knew.
Nash had no clue how Damon would react to having a long lost son, but he knew damn sure how he’d react if he found out the rest of Nash’s identity. Epic anger like nothing Nash had ever seen, of that he was positive.
One step at a time.
“You going to be home later?” Nash asked, resting his hands on his hips.
Horses shuffled in the background, one neighed as if trying to chime into the conversation. Nash was starting to love these stables as much as his own. Damn it, he hadn’t counted on getting emotionally invested in this place, this family...Lily.
What the hell was happening to him?
“Should be.”
“Mind if I come back around seven? I need a private meeting with you.”
Damon’s silver brows drew together. “You’re not quitting on me, are you, son?”
Son. The word was a generic term yet Damon had no clue just how swiftly he’d hit that nail on the head.
“No, sir.”
“You’ve got me intrigued.” Damon let out a robust laugh and nodded. “Sure. Come on up to the house about seven.”
“Will Cassie and Tessa be around? They may want to be there, too.”
He’d made a split-second decision to include his half-sisters. Honestly, Nash wasn’t sure if Damon would want the girls to know, but Nash needed them to. The more time he’d spent here, the more he’d gotten involved in their lives and wanted a chance for a family.
“I can ask,” Damon informed him. “You’ve certainly piqued my curiosity, so I’m sure they’ll be intrigued, as well.”
Nash swiped his forearm across his sweaty forehead, then rested his hands on his hips. “Great. I’ll be up to the main house around seven.”
If Lily wanted to join him, he wouldn’t turn down her support. He needed her, and that wasn’t weakness talking, either.
Besides, if he shared everything he could with her now, perhaps the blow that would inevitably come later wouldn’t be so harsh. The only other woman he’d let close to him was his mother. Women in his life had come and gone, nobody really fit. Lily fit...as much as she could with all the jagged edges of his life he’d yet to smooth out.