Say You Want Me (22 page)

“I
SWEAR TO GOD, ANGIE,”
Presley warns. “If you don’t tell me what the sex of that baby is tonight . . . I’m not responsible for what’ll happen.”

I laugh. I’ve made them all wait for the last three and a half weeks. I don’t know why I wouldn’t tell them, I just wasn’t ready to share, which of course drove everyone nuts. Added bonus.

“I’ve been patient, sugar, but I’m dyin’ here. You wouldn’t want to let an old lady die before knowing what her grandbaby is gonna be, do you?” Macie lays on the guilt.

Wyatt glances at me and grins. “Fine,” I huff. “I guess we can tell you.”

Both of their eyes shift between us and then we yell, “It’s a girl!”

“I knew it!” Presley hurries forward and hugs me tight. “You totally needed a girl.”

“I agree!” I laugh. “Think of all the pretty stuff we’re going to get!”

Mrs. Hennington pulls me into her arms and then Wyatt’s dad follows. “I’m so glad you’re going to give this family a girl! I don’t think I could’ve listened to Macie grumble for another ten years about the boy things.”

He’s such a sweet guy. He doesn’t say much, but when he does, it’s important. I was really nervous around him the first few times, but then I realized he’s a big teddy bear. Wyatt explained that he enjoys the quiet and doesn’t feel the need to fill the world with noise.

Everyone laughs and talks about how happy they are. It’s the first time all of us have truly celebrated anything with the pregnancy.

Wyatt glances at me every now and then, still in his funk. We haven’t talked about whatever is bothering him, and he doesn’t offer anything up.

I thought we’d crossed some threshold, but it seems we haven’t. Instead, I feel like we’ve regressed.

We sit around the table for dinner. The boys are excited to get a girl for a cousin. They offer various suggestions for names, which is ridiculously entertaining. Wyatt grumbles about boys and what they think about girls while I laugh.

“You should name her Belle,” Logan sniggers.

“I like that name!” I say.

“Because we all
live
in Bell Buckle.” He laughs at his own joke.

“Well, cross that one off,” Wyatt huffs. “Not that it matters if Belle is in the name.”

I glance over at Presley, who gives me a look. It seems I’m not the only one picking up on his mood. “What does that mean?” I ask.

“Nothing.” Wyatt looks over and shakes his head. “It means nothing, I’m sorry.”

“Okay.” I lean in close, drop my voice to a whisper, and place my hand over his. “I feel like something is bothering you.”

“What about Gertrude?” Cayden offers.

“No.” I shake my head. My grandma’s name is Gertrude, and while I love her dearly, it’s not a name I’m giving my daughter.

The boys continue with some of the most horrible names possible. I try to picture what she’ll look like. Hopefully she has blonde hair, like me. We all know blondes have more fun, and get away with more. I hope she has Wyatt’s light brown eyes and his nose. He has a great nose. No matter what, I’m sure she’ll be beautiful. I have faith in that.

“What about Faith?” I say as it hits me.

“Faith?” Wyatt repeats. “You like that name?”

I smile and nod. “Faith Hennington.”

He puts his fork down and leans back. “I like it.” Then he grabs my hand and squeezes. “I like it a lot.”

I start to wonder if I’m imagining all of this. His hot and cold mood swings are giving me whiplash, but right now he seems like he’s okay. Maybe it’s something at work? Maybe he’s nervous about the baby? Or is it because he thinks I’m still planning to leave? I still haven’t talked to him about it because I want to talk to Erin first. It could take a good amount of time for me to get things in order, and I need to know my life is set before I start making any promises. I doubt he would be this upset about that, though. I’ve been pretty clear with my actions that he’s won me over.

Hell, maybe it’s just his man-period.

“Well.” I shrug. “We can put it on the short list.”

We finish dinner and all sit out on the porch, listening to the rain. Zach and Wyatt argue about some football game and then move on to the problem Zach is having with some buyer up north. Presley and I sit quietly, drinking wine and apple juice respectively.

“I keep feeling these weird bubbles in my stomach,” I tell Presley when it tingles for the third time in a few minutes.

She smiles and leans forward. “That’s the baby moving, Ang.”

“What?” I gasp. “I mean, wouldn’t it be like a kick or something?”

She giggles. “Not at first. Not until you’re further along, but that tingling, moving feeling that’s almost like gas?” I nod, letting her know I’m following. “It’s the baby.”

“Holy crap!” I rest my hand on my stomach with a grin. “She’s become so real to me.” I whisper and then worry at my bottom lip. “Pres, what do you think is going on with Wyatt?” My eyes move toward him. “He’s being weird. It’s making me question things.”

I get hung up on this a lot in my mind. With never really loving someone, do I even know what love feels like? I love people, obviously, but loving a man is totally different. It’s things that I never experienced before. He’s the first thought I have in the morning. I wonder if he brought his lunch or if he’s thinking of me, which then usually leads to me stopping by and seeing him on my way to the bakery.

He does the sweetest little things too. The other day he ordered a Keurig and every different flavor of Starbucks cups he could find. I’m waiting for him to hire a barista at this point. Then, he kissed my nose and told me I didn’t need a Starbucks, I had it here.

And then he went back to being moody.

“I noticed . . .” she trails off.

“Maybe he doesn’t feel the same way about me.”

She shakes her head. “No. I know that boy, and I see it in his eyes.”

I thought I did, too. “Well, the way he’s been this last couple of weeks is not love. He’s barely able to tolerate being around me.”

“Love can be so many things.” She shakes her head. “It can be beautiful, exciting, full of so much hope, even freeing, but it’s also scary as fuck. You give yourself to a person in a lot of ways. But you need to talk to him.”

Until the ultrasound, I thought we were there. Now, it feels like we’re pulling away more than we’re coming together.

“I’m not the one with my head up my ass.”

“Uh huh.” She laughs.

“What does that mean?”

“It means we have to go forward, babe. Make him listen to you. If you do nothing else, don’t let him slip away from you. All we have is right now and, apparently, two idiot men that we love,” I laugh as I look at Zach and Wyatt. They’re freaking sword fighting with Cayden and Logan. However, they’re fighting each other while the two boys watch.

“I’ve never been more grateful for having a girl.”

She laughs. “Yeah, I get the dumbass who skipped the awful baby part and is now teaching them all the joys of being country boys, which means more laundry and dirt in my house.”

“Would you change it?” I ask.

“Not one single thing.”

I nod. Me either. Even with Wyatt being funky . . . I wouldn’t change anything.

“I’m so tired,” I grumble to Wyatt as we drive home in my car. It’s almost midnight, cold, and wet. We hung out with Presley and Zach, played some cards, and I ate my weight in cake.

Presley always has cake. Really good cake.

“We’ll be home soon. I need to check on the new foal at the ranch,” Wyatt explains.

Cooper called him and asked if we could stop by. I wish he would’ve said no, but he’s Wyatt, which means he helps everyone. The Townsend ranch isn’t far from us, but I’m so exhausted that I just want to get home.

“I can’t believe how freaking cold it is.” I pull my sweater tighter around me.

Wyatt cranks the heat in the car, and I shiver.

“I’ll get you to bed soon.”

“Promises, promises,” I joke. “If you don’t start putting out again, I’m going to find someone else.”

“You wish.” He grins.

Back to warm we go. Men are weird. “Worried much?”

Wyatt’s eyes shift back to mine. “Not at all. I give multiples.”

“Oh, please!” I laugh. “I’ve had better.”

“I heard you and Presley talking.” He clues me in. Wyatt’s voice shifts to try to mimic mine. “Oh, Presley. You don’t even know. Wyatt is so good in bed, I about died. He’s the best I’ve ever had.”

My eyes roll so hard I’m surprised they’re still in my head. “Idiot.”

I lean back, look out at the road, and try not to smile. He’s so stupid, but I know that I love him. I need to tell him and then get him to work through this.

“So you really like the name Faith?” Wyatt asks.

“Yup.”

“What about Isabelle? We could call her Belle,” he suggests.

I shrug. “The boys will still call her Belle and make fun of it.”

“Then I’ll make sure Zach and I mess with them until they stop.”

While that sounds fun, I’d rather not give her any chances of being picked on. I went to school hearing all kinds of fun crap about my name. Angelina doesn’t sound like a name that’s easy to twist into a joke, but boys will find anything.

“I’d rather not have them start off already making fun of their cousin.”

He nods. “Crickett?”

“Like a bug?”

Wyatt chuckles. “Okay, I like the name Emma.”

Hmm. I like that. It’s really popular, and Emma Hennington sounds pretty. Maybe I can keep it as a middle name. I still can’t seem to get my head to stop thinking of Faith, it’s as if it has been her name for as long as I’ve known about her.

“What was your comment about before?” I ask.

“What comment?”

He’s playing dumb, which he sucks at. “The one about Belle.”

“Just that what does it matter if Belle is her name?”

“Well, we live in Bell Buckle.” I shrug.

“No.” He looks over. “I live in Bell Buckle.”

Okay? I don’t know where he’s going with that, considering I was hoping
we
were going to live here. Maybe I really did misread everything.

“What the hell does that—” My words catch in my throat, and then I’m screaming, “Wyatt! Look out!”

“Shit!” He screams as he sees it too.

A massive buck is rushing from the woods and straight to the car. It’s going to hit my door.

“Fuck!” He yells.

Wyatt slams on the brakes, and his hand shoots out in front of me. I’m already flying forward.

My seat belt stops me, but the pain is instant across my lap.

I scream, trying to cover my stomach as everything slows to a crawl around me.

The deer drops his antlers, and I brace for impact, turning my body toward Wyatt. I know it’s not going to matter. We’re sliding toward the side of the road and straight toward the woods.

Wyatt tries to correct the wheel, but we skid over the wet ground. There’s no way to stop this.

The deer slams into my door, and the sound of metal and glass breaking fills the air.

Pain shoots through my arm as we continue to spin.

Another loud
bang
cuts through the chaos, but I can’t focus on anything but the pain that’s blooming in every part of me.

“Angie!” I hear his voice, but agony erupts from every inch of my right side as I’m slammed against the door, wrenched left, and then thrown forward against the dash in some twisted dance where someone else is pulling my strings.

My body violently shifts to the left before being thrust forward and against the dash.

My mouth fills with the metallic taste of blood and warmth trickles down my face.

The airbag deploys, and it hits me so hard that whatever air is left in my lungs is pushed out.

I can’t breathe.

It hurts so much.

Then everything is still and dark.

I try to move my body, but it doesn’t cooperate. I feel the blood sliding down my head and the way my lungs struggle to work.

I hear my name over and over, but I can’t open my eyes. I’m going to die here.

I know it.

Wyatt

“N
O!” I SCREAM AS I
watch her eyes shut. “Angie! Stay awake!” I scream, trying to get to her. She doesn’t move or acknowledge me at all.

I push my airbag out of my face and do the same to hers. I reach behind my back, grab my knife, cut my seat belt, and try to get the door open.