“I’m pregnant.”
The words suck all the oxygen from the air. They fall to the ground at my feet and bring oppressive silence along with them. The birds stop singing, the water stops burbling along, the bees stop buzzing.
Wayne stares at me in total shock.
His mouth opens and closes several times, but nothing comes out. He just looks at me, a million different emotions flashing across his face. My heart sinks when I realize not one of them is excitement.
He settles on anger.
“Pregnant?” he asks, his voice full of acid and hurt. “You’re pregnant?”
My anxiety spikes at the betrayal in his tone, and my arm falls to cross over my stomach. Shame washes over me, like this is somehow entirely my fault. All I can do is nod, tears in my eyes.
God, I was an idiot for daring to hope he’d ever step up for this.
“I was gone for two weeks!” His brows furrow together as he rakes a withering gaze over me, pain and anger twining together and turning the clear blue of his eyes murky with agony. “You couldn’t even give me a chance to come back before you moved on?”
What?
“What?”
What does that even mean? I didn’tmove onwhile he was gone, but what would that have to do with this? I blink at him as confusion overtakes my worry about his reaction.
“Who’s the father, then?” he scoffs, shaking his head. “I was out there wishing I was back here, and you were in someone else’s fucking bed.”
A bolt of pure fury spears straight through the center of my brain as the pieces click together. Oh, you’ve got to be fucking kidding me.
A laugh burns its way up my throat, entirely humorless and dry. Wayne’s eyes are filled with disgust and hurt, but all I can think is that I shouldn’t even be surprised. Of course he’d shove the blame off.
Onto me, onto another man.
Anyone else, so long as he doesn’t have to take responsibility for his own fucking actions.
“How dare you?” My voice is low and trembling with fury, and I ball my hands into fists just so I can feel the prick of my own nails in my palms. I need something to keep me centered, or I’m going to blow up completely. “Not everyone jumps from person to person, you asshole.”
He flinches at the words, but I know they don’t cut as deeply to him as they did to me. Wayne has probably spent his whole life in Billings rotating women through his bed. I’m sure he sees nothing wrong with it, as long as it’s him doing it.
He’s still so fucking immature.
“Oh, sure, you were just sitting here and waiting patiently for me to come back,” he mutters. I’m so angry at him that I don’t have a chance to point out that he was the one in fuckingVegas. If anyone had opportunities to fall into bed with someone else, it sure as shit wasn’t me. “Are you even really pregnant? Is this just a way to keep me around to help with the lawsuit? I’m not going to be a fucking wallet to someone.”
A flash of agony bursts in my chest, and then I go completely numb.
I stare at him, dumbfounded, as he sneers bitterly at me. I can’t summon tears, not even a hopeless laugh. Nothing. I know, logically, that my cheeks flame in embarrassment and that my legs shake so badly they almost give out when I stand. I just can’t feel any of it.
The whole world spins around me, green and blue and brown blurring together into a whirlwind. All I can see is the ground beneath my own feet and the path I need to take to get back to the barn.
Everything else is inconsequential.
“A wallet.” I repeat with a hollow bark of laughter. “Don’t bother. I don’t need your money. Or you. I don’t need your help. This baby and I will be fine without you.”
I leave. I walk fast, without turning back, and he doesn’t call after me. The sounds of the birds and the rustling of the trees slowly fade back in as I trudge up the trail that leads to the barn. I’ve walked this path a million times before, but it feels so unfamiliar now. Everything feels different.
The brief flash of hope that flared when Wayne asked to talk has been completely extinguished.
Every bit of trust I had in him is gone, turned to dust and blown away in a harsh gust of wind. I was an idiot for hoping things would be okay. For thinking there could ever be something real between us. God, afamilywith Wayne Riggs? What the fuck was I thinking?
Enjoying each other’s company and sleeping together a few times doesn’t make the foundation for a life together.
