Why did naming a fucking meal feel like such an intimate thing right now?
Forcing myself to snap out of this, I turned and headed back to my spot at the counter. I pulled out a cutting board, then got to work prepping the chicken breasts.
“I’ll put the groceries away after I get this started,” I told her, trying to make conversation so the tension in the air would clear the fuck out.
“I can do it,” she offered. Before I could protest, I heard the clink of her can being set down, and she began shuffling things around.
The silence while the two of us got to work was deafening.
“My siblings are probably going to want to see you,” I said to fill the quiet.
“They know I’m here?”
“You saw Wyatt. The whole damn town probably knows you’re here now.” Wyatt wasn’t a blabbermouth, but news spread fast in Bell Buckle. He’d likely told one person, and it spread like wildfire. I knew for certain it hadn’t been anyone from the funeral, because the topic of Parker had only been brought up after her trip to the shop today.
Once the chicken was coated in seasoning, I moved over to the stove. Parker had moved to the opposite side of the kitchen, placing boxes and other dried goods in the small pantry.
I set a pan on the stove and turned the heat to medium-high, drizzling some oil in before bringing thebreasts over.
“I don’t mind seeing them,” Parker stated.
“I know. They’re just…a lot. They’ve all got their partners, so it’s, like, a family of forty now.”
Parker’s silence spoke volumes as I set the chicken in the heated pan. I didn’t want her to think I was trying to hide her for any reason.
“I don’t want to overwhelm you, is all,” I went on.
“Because I’m pregnant?”
I grabbed the tongs, needing to give my hands something to do. “No. Because they’re going to ask you a million questions, and I don’t want you to feel obligated to give them answers.”
The pantry door swung shut, and I glanced over my shoulder to find her elbows on the counter and her teeth digging into her bottom lip.
“Speaking of…” she began.
“Oh, no. Tell me, what did you manage to do in the couple of hours you were out of the house?” Parker was good at getting herself in a pickle, but she was good—usually at getting out of it, too.
“Wyattmightthink the baby is yours.”
My entire body froze. If that’s what Wyatt thought, then that’s what the entire town was led to believe. Unless he hadn’t been the one to spread the news of Parker’s arrival, then someone might have simply seen her pregnant and not thought twice. But Bell Buckle being the town that it was, that was highly unlikely.
Everyone who was around when Parker and I were kids knew that we were destined for marriage. Thoughthat didn’t end up happening, I wouldn’t put it past them to try and piece her reappearance together with that baby being mine.
Was that really such a bad thing, though? The father wasn’t around, and by the sound of it, he wouldn’t be coming by at all. I didn’t want Parker to be subject to the scrutiny single moms seemed to get. People were so quick to judge when they didn’t know the situation, to encourage someone to stay even if the environment wasn’t healthy, all because of fucked-up values.
“Okay.” I pulled a meat thermometer from the drawer.
“Okay?” Parker repeated. “That’s it?”
I shrugged. “Is that a problem?”
“He’s not your baby.”
“He doesn’t belong to the man who stuck his dick in you and decided he wasn’t ready for a child. So, as far as anyone needs to know, he’s mine.”
Her mouth opened and closed like a fish out of water. I think I was speechless, too. Who the fuck was I, coming in and claiming that baby as my own? In a perfect world, of course he was. But inthisworld? Well, I had no fucking idea what to call this.
“All I’m saying is that I don’t mind running with that narrative if you don’t.”
