Epilogue #2
Closing myself inside the small space, I lean back against the door, my mind racing.
The look in Gran’s eye sparked something in me. Put a thought in my head that I can’t get out. It was excitement, like a kid on Christmas morning about to get whatever wish she’d told Santa. And what would Gran wish for? What has she wished for, for so long?
Pulling my phone out, I blow out a long breath as I type in my query.
How likely is it to get pregnant with an IUD?
WYATT
It’s taking everything in me not to go knock on the bathroom door to make sure Bryn is okay.
I had to move back to where the cookies are, putting the island between me and the hallway that would lead me to her.
She was even paler than she was outside.
Which is saying something because her cheeks were rosy outside, and I could still tell she’d lost color.
“Don’t eat another one.” My mom swats my hand away when I go to pick up my third cookie. “You’re going to ruin your dinner.”
Ruby’s pulling another batch out of the oven, easing the worry in my mind without me having to voice it. “She’ll be fine. Nothing a little love won’t cure.”
“Oh, and they are so in love, aren’t they?” my mom preens. “I just adore them together.”
My phone vibrates in my pocket, and I pull it out, ignoring the two of them as they go on.
Bryn: Can we borrow Boone’s truck to go into town?
Me: Sure… what for?
Bryn: Can we talk about that not over text?
Me: Are you okay?
Bryn: Wy, I really need us to go into town. Please.
Me: Boone will want to come, I’ll ask my mom instead.
Sliding my phone back into my pocket, I put an arm around my mom’s shoulders while she works on the potatoes at the sink. “Mind if we borrow your car to go into town?”
She glances up at me. “What for?”
There’s no way I’m telling her I don’t know, so I make up an excuse. “Get some beer. There’s that brewery outside of town that I love. Boone had some, but we drank him dry so I figured we’d go get some more before dinner.”
Behind us, Ruby hums, and I slide my eyes in her direction. One look at her smirk tells me she knows it’s a lie, but my mom doesn’t seem to catch on.
“Keys are on the hook,” my mom says, patting my hand still hanging over her shoulder. “Just be back well before dinner.”
“You’re the best,” I tell her, kissing the side of her head before releasing her to walk around the rest of the island where Ruby is. Keeping my voice low, I ask, “What do you know?”
The feigned innocence is the same one she’d always give me when she broke something to keep me around. A habit that’s miraculously disappeared since Bryn and I got together.
“Nothing.” Then in a whisper she adds, “But maybe don’t take any cookies on the drive.”
Before I can ask why, Bryn appears in the kitchen, walking at a clip towards the mudroom. Ruby steps around the island before she can go by, stopping her. Cupping her granddaughter’s face in her hands, Bryn’s eyes well with tears when Ruby whispers something to her.
I’ve moved close enough to hear Bryn’s reply. “I love you, too.”
What the fuck is going on?
It isn’t until we’re in my mom’s SUV, pulling out of the garage, that either of us speaks. She beats me to it.
“Can we go to the store?”
The question is quiet, and I reach out, taking her hand, which I note is in her lap. She’s looking out the window, facing away from me, not letting me see her expression.
“We can go anywhere you want, baby,” I tell her, bringing her hand to my lips.
A sound slips from her, and she shakes her head, turns in my direction, and leans over the console to press her head to my bicep.
The way she melts upon contact has me breathing a little easier, and it seems like it has the same effect on her.
Everything about her softens in that moment, and though I still don’t understand what’s going on, I don’t push her as she shifts again, wrapping both arms around my upper arm and fully leans against me now.
I hate that we don’t have Betty to drive, because I know she’d be curled against my side if we did.
We’re on the edge of the property, out of eyesight from the house, when she says, “Stop the car.”
“Are you gonna be sick?” I ask, slowing down to move to the side of the gravel road.
“No,” she shakes her head, sitting up. “Can I see your phone?”
Taking it out of my pocket, I hand it to her. She knows the code, punches it in, pauses, looks at me, and smooths a hand over her stomach. “We should get out. Let’s get out. I know you. You’re going to need to be out of the car.”
“What does that mean?” I ask, but she’s already out, and I’m following on my side. “B, what the heck is going on?”
By the time I join her at the front of the car, she’s got her purse set up on the front, my phone leaning against it, the camera open. She presses record before turning towards me, shaking her hands out.
“Oh god, I’m hot,” she says, waving a hand in front of her face. That doesn’t do enough because a second later, she’s pulling her zipper down, tugging her jacket off.
“B, it’s like fourteen degrees out, keep it on,” I insist, and it’ll be one of the only times in my life I tell her not to take a layer off.
“No, I’m hot, I’m freaking out, I’m hot, I can’t breathe, it’s too hot.”
“Do you have a fever? Babe, really, keep the jacket on. If you’ve got a fever, we don’t want you getting chilled,” I tell her, taking the purple jacket to try and at least wrap it around her shoulders.
“I’m not sick!” She bats at my hands, wanting nothing to do with the jacket. “I think I’m pregnant.”
The world stops.
I freeze.
Bryn’s hands are over her mouth, frozen, eyes as wide as I’ve ever seen them.
I don’t think any animal in the entire valley breathes, collectively holding their breath like the two of us. The wind stills. The setting sun doesn’t move. The few clouds in the sky pause.
Pregnant.
She thinks she’s pregnant. With my baby. Our baby.
Holy fuck.
It’s no more than a fraction of a second, and then I’m tossing her jacket towards the hood of the car, choking down a whoop of excitement because tears are spilling over her eyes and I know they’re not because she’s jumping for joy like I am.
They’re because she’s freaking out. She just said those words, and before I can celebrate like I want, I need her to be there too.
Wrapping my arms around her shoulders, I pull her into me. “It’s okay, my love. It’s okay.”
“What are we going to do?” she whimpers, her entire body vibrating against mine as her arms wrap around my middle.
I press a kiss to the top of her head. “We’re going to go to town, get a test, and find out.”
“I mean if we are pregnant. Will you be happy?”
Ecstatic. But in this moment, I’m not sure overwhelming her with my desire to have her knocked up with my kid will go over the way I want it to, so I reel it in.
“Absolutely. A little you or me running around? How could I not be happy about that?” I ask her. “I know it’s not something we planned, but that’s okay. I didn’t plan you, and you sure as hell didn’t plan me, and look how that turned out.”
It makes her laugh and confirms to me that she’s going to be okay. We’re going to be okay.
Half an hour later, we’re standing in Boone’s bathroom because if anyone is going to find evidence of this, I need it to be him.
Plus, it was easier sneaking in through his place under the guise of having beer than it would have been to get through the kitchen and living room where everyone has congregated before dinner.
“Can I tell you something?” I ask while we wait for the timer to go off.
We’re standing in the middle of the bathroom, the camera turned on at Bryn’s insistence, arms around each other, swaying softly to music only in our heads. She’s a lot more settled since the moment on the side of the road, some of the tension having evaporated.
“Always.”
“You remember that day I became the handyman? You told me I could try and fix the fountain?”
She nods against my chest.
“When we were out there talking, you ran your hand over your stomach, and for whatever reason, all I could think about was you pregnant. Having my baby.” Our eyes meet in the mirror, hers wide in surprise. “Every time you put your hand on your stomach, which is a lot, it’s all I think about.”
Leaning away from me, her eyebrows furrow as her head turns to look directly at me. “You’ve been thinking about getting me pregnant since then, Wyatt Dalton?”
“Well, I mean, I didn’t think it would happen with an IUD. But I’m not upset,” I tell her with a quirk of a grin.
“You freaked out the first time we had sex because we didn’t use a condom. I thought you were going to freak out. That’s why I was freaking out,” she says, head dropping forward. “I mean, I was freaking out anyway, because this is a shock, but if I’d known…”
“Baby, me being happy about this can’t surprise you that much. You know I love pushing my cum back into you.”
Her mouth pops open. “Oh! Oh. Oh my god, you totally have some kind of breeding kink. How did I not put that together?”
“You and those fucking ‘ohs’ are going to kill me.” I lean in, pressing my lips to hers. “But maybe. I can tell you right now, if you’re pregnant, it’s going to be hard to keep my hands off you.”
“It already is.”
The timer goes off before I can tell her she isn’t wrong.
We each take a breath, and I push her hair behind her ear.
“I love you. No matter what it says, I love you. Whether we have a little one running around soon, or we have fun pretend-trying, or actually trying one day. I love you,” I tell her, skimming my thumb along her cheek.
“I love you, too,” she whispers, and then reaches for the test.
We maintain eye contact as she flips it over, and then nod at each other, each turning to look at it.
Bryn lets out a breath. Tears collect in my eyes.
I drop to my knees in front of her, lifting her sweater to press my face to her belly. “Hi, baby.”