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Summer: I think he’s fucked you stupid, bestie.
“Maybe Talia will catch us, and I can make things abundantly clear for both of you. Because I can promise you, I’ve never fucked anyone the way I fuck you.” I clench and moan. “You’d like that, wouldn’t you?” His voice is all gravel. “I wouldn’t care. You’re mine, Willa. And I don’t give a fuck who knows it.”
Like he can read my mind, he leans over my back and grits out, “You want it all, Willa? The house? The babies? The ranch?”
“You want me, Willa?” “Yes.” I cry out against the soft fabric, nodding frantically as he slams into me. I want him so badly it hurts. “Good. Because I’m sick of holding back with you. You’re not going anywhere. You belong here, with me.”
“Right? I’m definitely in my country-boy era.
“Will you take back my feminist card if I tell you I really just want to live in that little house on the ranch, teach guitar lessons, get titty-fucked in the hot tub, and have a bunch of adorable babies?”
“I’m—fuck—I’m scared, Willa. I’m scared you’re too young. That you haven’t lived enough. That you’re too far out of my league. I’m scared I won’t be enough for you and you’ll walk away. And I’ll be stuck here in the shambles again. And so will Luke this time.”
I chuckle and smile the rest of the way to the hospital because there is only one person in the world who could make me laugh in a moment like this. It hits me hard as we drive in a companionable silence that Willa is that person. My person.
“She’s pregnant.” I can feel my dad’s stare, see him take a thoughtful sip out of the corner of my eye. “Did I let you watch the bulls get turned out with the heifers too much as a child, boy?” I groan. “You got something against condoms?” “Dad.” “Some sort of breeding kink I don’t know about?”
“Then stop Eeyoring around out here with me, you grumpy dumbass. I’m going to bed. Y’all kids exhaust me.”
“Did you sleep out here?” “Yes.” “Why?” “Because I didn’t like the idea of you being alone.” “Ugh.” Her eyes shut and her head tips back. “That’s really romantic.”
“You’re going to collapse a lung talking in run-on sentences like that, baby. And there’s no one I’d rather be trapped with.”
don’t care. Don’t you get it? I’m in love with you, Willa. Prickly legs, random carrots in your purse, pregnant, not pregnant. I want you.”
“What did you wish for?” I ask him, needing something lighthearted. Thinking it will be something ridiculous. Something frivolous. Instead, he delivers a gut punch. One soft cheek hitches up, and he glances back down into the dark well. “I wished for Willa to come back.” My eyes burn when I pull him into me, feel his tiny arms clutching at my waist. And my voice cracks when I say, “Me too, pal. Me too.”
Willa: How is Cade? Summer: Full hermit-mode. Back to hating everyone. Please come fix him. Willa: I’m on my way.
The sheepish grin he gifts me has me smiling back at him. His bright blue eyes, sun-kissed cheeks from a summer spent in the sun . . . I’ve never fallen harder or faster for a single person in the world than I have for Lucas Eaton.
“See, Dad? I told you not to be sad. I told you she’d come back. Our wishes came true! She loves us too much to leave.”
With a deep sigh, he starts, “Thank you. Thank you for being the first person in my life to put me first, to give me options. I’m not sure I deserve that gift, but I know that I’ll never forget it for as long as I live.”
“I’m glad you aren’t sad about the baby because I’m not either. But I want to be clear that you have options. All the options in the world. And I’ll be here with you, no matter what. I want to come home to the sound of you and Luke laughing. I want to listen to you play the guitar while I cook dinner. I want to leave you Post-it notes for a long time. I don’t want you to feel stuck with me.”
“My dad knows you’re pregnant.” “Okay.” “He asked me if I have a breeding kink.” My hands come up to cover my face and laughter shakes my body. “No, he didn’t.” “He did.”
“You feel right in my life. In Luke’s life. We just . . . make sense to me somehow. And another little person will too. Nothing about that feels wrong to me. The only thing that doesn’t make sense is that fucking carrot.”
I’d do it for everything she’s given me in such a short time . . . A love Luke has never known. A reason for me to smile again. A person to talk to after so many years of silence. A love I’ve never known. One I’m not so sure I deserve, but one I’ll spend the rest of my life trying to preserve. But I’ll get to that part later.
“I love you too, baby,” is what I get out, just before she pulls the black cowboy hat off my head and plunks it on her own. Leaning back away from me, she gives me a playful little smirk. I quirk a brow in her direction. “You know the rule, Red?” “You wear the hat, you ride the cowboy.”
I should have put it on her forever ago. I should have put it on her the first day I laid eyes on her in that coffee shop.
And I realize in that moment maybe I am heartless after all, because the beautiful girl with the copper hair grinning back at me right now is the one who stole it.
Whoever said pregnancy is beautiful can die a fiery death, as far as I’m concerned.
“Hey, Willa,” he says, turning my way. “Hey, Luke.” I wink at him. “Can I ask you something?” “Always.” His wide blue eyes take on an uncertain expression, and his lips press together. “What is the baby going to call you?”
“Do you think . . .” He peers back up at me now. “Do you think it would be okay if I called you mom too?”
Cade: Why is my child’s birth part of a group text?
