“Yes. This is your baby, but you don’t owe me anything. I have a good job lined up as soon as I get those stupid test results, and I can do this on my own. I refuse to let my child live in an environment like I grew up in. I don’t want to trap you, and I won’t. I won’t keep you from the baby, but you have no obligation to me.”
“McKenna, do you hear yourself? Baby, can we talk about this? I love you. I’m not standing here out of obligation. It’s my fucking heart, the one that you and now our baby owns that’s talking to you right now. I love you.”
“I’m sorry. I can’t do this.” She backs away. “I need time. I just— I need to go.” She turns and races from the room.
“Kenna!” I shout, moving to go after her when my sister’s hand on my arm stops me.
“Let her go. She just needs time to process this. You know her history, Rip.”
“I do. And she knows me. She knows that I love her. Fuck me, I love her, and I love that baby. I don’t want a divorce, Lara. I want her. I want our family.”
“Come here.” Laramie pulls me into a hug, and I flinch when I hear the front door slam closed.
“Go with her. Please? I don’t want her driving upset.”
“Are you sure?”
“Please, Lara. She’s pregnant. Don’t let her drive upset.”
“Okay.” She turns to look at the bed.
“Leave them. Just go,” I say, running my fingers through my hair. “Please, just stay with her.”
“Okay. I’ll text you in a little while.”
“I love them.”
“I know you do. She just needs some time.”
“I’m going too.” I move toward the door, but she stops me.
“No. Stay here. I have to go before she leaves.”
I nod, dropping down to the bed. Resting my elbows on my knees, I cover my eyes with the palm of my hands and fight the urge to race after her. I don’t understand what just happened. I came in here excited to tell her we were married. I knew I would have a fight on my hands, but I got a hell of a lot more than I bargained for.
I’m not just a husband. I’m going to be an uncle and a daddy.
Chapter 28
McKenna
I hold it together until I get to my car. As soon as the door shuts, I lose my battle with my tears, and a sob rattles from my chest. My heart is shattering, and somewhere deep inside, I know it’s my own doing. I know that I’m being irrational, but I can’t seem to stop.
I might have been young, but I heard the fights. I heard the harsh words my father would scream and yell at my mother. I remember him looking me in the eye and telling me I was a mistake, that I ruined his life.
My rational brain knows Rip is not that man, that he would never, but the little girl in me who had to hear her father tell her over and over again that she was a mistake, she can’t seem to take a deep breath.
I refuse to trap him.
It’s too soon. He needs time to think about this. And we’re married? Talk about adding to an already huge pile of shit.
“McKenna.” Laramie scares the hell out of me when she beats on the passenger-side window. “Let me in.”
“No.”
“Come on, Mac. I told him to stay in the house. Open the door. It’s just me.”
I click the lock and she climbs in. I’m quick to lock us both back inside my car. “Tell me what you’re thinking.”
“History repeating itself.”
“McKenna, you know Rip is better than that. He loves you.”
“I know. I love him too, but my dad, he loved my mom. Once upon a time.” I laugh humorlessly. “It was not a fairy-tale ending for them.”
“Mac, I know you’re upset and that a lot has been tossed at you in the last hour. I know you need time to process this. I’m here for that. Whatever you need. But as your best friend, not as his sister, but as your best friend, I want you to really think about this. Think about how he treats you.”
“I know he loves me. I can feel it.”
“If you trust in his love, trust him to make the best choice for him. I’m not sure if you saw him in there, but he was giddy with happiness. He wants you to be his wife, McKenna. Did you catch that part of the conversation?”
“I heard him.”
“What do you want?”
I don’t even have to think about my answer. “I want him to want to marry me, not because of a drunken mistake but because he chose to do so. That he made a conscious decision to ask me to be his forever, not that he was tricked into marrying me. We were drunk, Lara. Hell, we didn’t even remember it. None of us did. How is that a good foundation for a marriage?”