“You did something to your hair,” I say, walking toward her for a hug.
She tips up onto her toes and wraps her arms around my shoulders as I breathe in the scent of berries in her hair.
If I’m seeing things, I’m really fucking good at it.
“Just a trim. Felt good, though. I haven’t found anyone I trust yet out in San Francisco.” She pulls away from the hug and steps back, inspecting the space. “I never thought they’d do anything with this old place. Whoever’s inheriting it is going to get a load of ghosts.”
“Ghosts?”
She smiles and my chest tightens a little. “Yeah, there’s this book down at the library I checked out once that goes into detail about the hauntings of Rugged Mountain. This place was highlighted as one of themosthaunted.”
There are a million questions I have right now, but I stay on topic. “Who’s haunting it?”
“No one knows,” she shrugs, “but apparently if you’re here after dark you can hear all these voices. I bet they’re even angrier now that the place got torn apart.”
“Guess you’ll have to stay close while you’re here then.” I cross my arms over my chest and stare at her. “What are you doin’ here, peach?”
She glances down at the floor, her long blonde hair falling off her shoulder before she glances up and speaks. “You’re not happy to see me?”
“I’m really happy to see you. Just confused considering you ran out the diner like you were on fire yesterday.”
“I did do that.” She nods and grins sweetly as her cheeks turn pink. “Not my finest moment, but… I had a reason.”
Now I’m really curious. “Okay… guess I’ll bite. Why did you run out of the diner yesterday?”
She looks at me for a long moment, tears welling in her eyes as my mind bounces all over the place.
Is that asshole in California hurting her? Is she in some kind of trouble? Is something wrong medically?
Wiping away a tear, she unzips her jacket and steps toward me, letting the heavy red fabric fall to the floor.
This delusion is getting good. This is my fantasy come to life. She’s here to seduce me.
There’s an inch or two between us when she reaches for my hand and lands it on her stomach. Slowly, her gaze draws up to mine.
“Wyatt, I’m four months pregnant.”
My mind goes blank. “What?”
She nods and holds her hand over mine. “I found out right after I got to San Francisco. I didn’t know what to do. You were spinning out, and I didn’t want to make things worse. Then, I went through my own panic, but when I saw you at the diner,” she glances down then up again, “every mistake we’d ever made melted away, and all I wanted was you. It scared the hell out of me.”
“We’re having a baby?” I say, almost as though I’m confirming what my brain thinks I’ve heard.
“Yeah,” she nods slowly as tears well in her bright blue eyes, “we’re having a baby.”
Jesus! We’re having a baby!
Oh my God… we’re having a baby!
My head spins as my chest tightens. “Fuck, peach!” I lift my girl and spin her in circles, then hold her close and kiss the top of her head. “We’re having a baby!”
For a moment we stay like this, wrapped in the warmth of each other’s arms while the mid-afternoon sun spills in from the massive picture window.
“I don’t want you to leave.” I hold her tighter, speaking before thinking through the words. “I know I made mistakes, but you belong here, or I belong there. Whichever, but we belong together.”
She steps back and stares up at me, the light reflecting the specks of color in her eyes. “I want to come home. I want to raise the baby here, on the mountain, the same way we were raised. I want you, I want us, and I want everything we dreamed about, Wyatt, but I’m scared.”
I brush the hair back from her vision and lift her up from the ground, setting her on the kitchen counter. “What are you scared of?”
