Chapter 8
“H ey, you.” Maisie looks way too calm to be aware of what happened between me and Wade last night when I get out of my car. She’s sitting on the porch swing looking bigger than ever, and pleased to see me.
“Everyone good?” I pat her round stomach as I take a seat beside her and look out at the yard. A few men are scattered around working, but there’s no sign of Wade which, right now, I’m grateful for. I really have no idea how I’m gonna handle him when we come face to face.
“We’re all good.” She smiles back at me, but I can sense there’s something on her mind.
“Out with it,” I command. I didn’t come here to burden Maisie with my problems, I came here to get away from Mom and her constant wedding talk.
“Look, if I tell you, you gotta swear not to—”
“Cross my heart,” I promise.
“Garrett’s mom showed up yesterday.” She bites her lip and waits for my reaction.
“Wait, you mean Teresa Carson, the woman everyone thought was dead?” I can’t hide the shock from my face, and suddenly I feel like an even bigger bitch for what happened this morning. Wade never mentioned anything about his mom being back in town last night.
“Leia?” I snap out of my trance and notice Maisie staring at me with concern.
“I’m just shocked, is all. She’s been missing, like, forever. I remember it still being one of the town’s great mysteries when we first moved here, and she’d already been gone ages.”
“Yeah, and she looked a lot like she wanted to make up for that fact when she came here yesterday. Garrett isn’t having any of it. He won’t hear her out.” Maisie sighs.
“Well, can you blame him? Bailing on your kids is a pretty awful thing to do. From what I’ve heard, Bree wasn’t even walking when she left.”
Maisie strokes her hand over her stomach and closes her eyes. She doesn’t know it yet but she’s gonna be a great mom, nothing like her own, or Teresa Carson, for that fact.
“I just really wish my mom was still here. Not because I miss her, or because I’d forgive her for how she treated me, but because I wanna know why.
I wanna know where it all went wrong, why she couldn’t ever prioritize me.
Just thinking about these babies feeling unloved or unwanted makes me feel sick. ”
“That’s because you're gonna be a kick-ass mama.” I nudge her with my shoulder and smile when it makes her laugh a little.
“He has the opportunity to get those answers, and I think he’ll regret it if he doesn’t,” she tells me, just as Garrett comes out of the stable and steps up onto the porch.
“Leia.” He nods his head at me, crossing his arms as his shoulder leans against the pillar by the steps.
“What you ladies talkin’ ‘bout?” I can only just see his eyes under the rim of his hat, but I can feel them judging me and I’m as certain as I can be that he knows something went on between me and Wade last night.
“Your stubborn ass.” I raise my eyebrows and smile sarcastically as I get up from the porch swing. Many people fear Garrett Carson, but I’ve seen a very different side to him lately, in the way he treats my friend.
“I’m going to get me and your wife a drink,” I tell him as I pass him on my way to the door and let myself in, strutting my way through to the kitchen.
It’s a crisp, spring day, and I’m hoping there’s some wine in the fridge because hell, I need it.
I find a bottle of chardonnay and some iced tea for Maisie, which I pour into a wine glass so she can at least feel like she’s cutting loose.
I’m heading back out to join her when suddenly I have to make a stop to prevent myself bumping into a solid chest that I recognize.
“ Shit .” I look up from the CR that’s branded into his flesh and stare right into the eyes of Wade Carson. I thank the lord that my hands are full because if they weren’t I wouldn't trust myself not to touch him.
“I was just getting some ice.” He readjusts the towel he’s got wrapped around his hips and when I notice the bruise on his cheek, I place the glasses on the counter and reach up to touch it.
“Is it okay?” I ask, and when Wade pulls his head back from my touch, I feel the kinda hurt that I’ve never felt before.
“I’m fine.” He tries keeping a blank look on his face, but I see the hurt in his eyes too, even if he is trying to hide it from me.
“I was just getting drinks for me and Maisie,” I explain, hating how awkward I feel around him now… and the fact that I can’t take my eyes off that damn chest. I daren’t look any lower either, because suddenly all I can think about is his cock and how good it felt inside me.
“Better get back to it,” he tells me, narrowing his eyes and moving on toward the freezer.
I stand still and watch him, wondering if I’ve been living under a rock.
Wade is all kinds of fucking hot. He’s fun, when he’s not hating me, and he’s been my protector for as long as I can remember.
I wanna tell him I’m sorry. I wanna explain why I can’t let what happened last night stop me from marrying Caleb, but how can I explain when I don’t know the answers myself?
“What happened?” I ask.
“I fucked my best friend and it got all kinds of awkward.” Wade doesn’t look at me when he says that, he’s too busy wrapping the ice in a tea towel.
“I didn’t… I meant to your face.”
“It ain’t nothin’.” He shrugs.
I notice the scuffs on his knuckles when he raises his hand up and presses the towel against his cheek, and I can’t stop myself from stepping toward him.
“I don’t want things to be awkward between us. I just wanna go back to the way we were.” I reach up on my toes and press a kiss against the cheek he hasn’t got covered.
He takes me by surprise when he drops the ice that he’s holding on the other side of his face and spills it all over the floor as he grabs my jaw.
He uses his free arm to lift under my thighs and put me on the counter top and without any kinda warning, he slams his lips hard onto mine.
His kiss is deep and possessive and it stirs a memory in my head of him attempting to do it last night.
I refused him then, because even in my drunk state I knew kissing Wade would be too intense to ever forget, and when he’s finished proving that by consuming me, mind, body and fucking soul, he pulls back and stares at me.
His chest rises and falls with his heavy breaths and even though my body is screaming at me to pull him close and have him take more, my head tells me I can’t.
He’s waiting for me to react and when I don’t, he shakes his head and walks away from me, leaving me certain that we will never go back to how we were.