Total pages in book: 116
Estimated words: 114068 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 570(@200wpm)___ 456(@250wpm)___ 380(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 114068 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 570(@200wpm)___ 456(@250wpm)___ 380(@300wpm)
I wait for Tim to chastise his son for talking to his mother like that.
Instead, he looks blandly at me, his nose red from the tequila he’s been swigging like it’s his job.
“Preston, have a little respect, okay?” Wheeler says. “Mom’s just excited.”
“For what?” Preston tips back his empty glass, crunching loudly on the ice. “What’s this big news?”
If he was sitting next to her, I can tell she’d give him a hard shove. Is he the type of guy who’d shove her back?
“I’m pregnant.”
Dead silence. Frannie’s eyes look blank in the growing darkness. Preston stares. Haines fights a smile. Tim blinks. Blinks again. The fire crackles behind us.
Then, suddenly, Tim shatters the silence by banging his fist on the table and shouting, “Fuck! You gotta be fucking kidding me! What the hell are people going to say?”
There’s something about the way he spits out the words, his tone suddenly harsh and venomous and loud, that almost makes me jump. I don’t, because I’m not afraid.
But Wheeler is. She actually jumps, her shoulders up by her ears, body stiff, like she’s bracing herself.
Oh no.
No, no, no. She’s got nothing to be afraid of. Not when she’s with me.
“Tim,” Frannie says. “Please calm down. I’m sure that’s an explanation—”
“For what? Her having a fucking kid with a fucking stranger?” Tim stands, staring me down. “Where do you get the balls to—”
“Love your daughter the way she deserves to be loved?” I stare right back. “That’s how I was raised, Tim. I’d never, ever talk to her the way you just did. Same as I’ll never talk to our kids that way. No one deserves that kind of disrespect.”
“Dad.” Even Preston sounds nervous now. “It’ll be fine. I’m sure she’s not keeping it—”
“I’m keeping it.” Wheeler’s voice shakes, but she still speaks. “Duke and I made that decision together.”
Tim bangs his fist on the table again. “You wanna talk about disrespect? How do you think this is gonna look? You’re a stranger—”
“He’s no such thing.” Wheeler squeezes my hand. “Duke is my best friend.”
Frannie’s quietly wiping the tears from her cheeks. “Are y’all going to get married?”
“They’d better be!” Tim roars. “It’s the only way our friends won’t think our daughter’s a total—”
“Do yourself a favor and don’t finish that sentence.” My voice is deadly calm. I feel all eyes at the table move to me. Glancing at Frannie, I see her eyes glimmer with shock. They’re not used to Tim being put in his place.
Wheeler looks up at me. “Thank you.”
“Again, I will not tolerate that kind of disrespect in our home,” I continue, looking at Tim. His gaze simmers with barely contained rage.
“Dad, we haven’t talked about getting married yet,” Wheeler says carefully. “But we’re in love. Duke loves me like no one ever has. He’s a good friend—”
“And a shitty excuse for a man if he doesn’t put a ring on your finger.”
“That’s our decision,” Wheeler shoots back. “Baby or no baby, we’d be together. We’d be building a future—a life—together.”
“Never wanted something more,” I say.
“You.” Tim jabs his finger at me, spit flying from his mouth. “You’d best do what’s right here. I’ve got nothing to say to any of you until that happens.”
Then he turns, pushing back the picnic bench so that everyone on that side of the table lurches forward.
“Dad, you’re going to regret this tomorrow,” Haines says.
“Fuck off,” Tim replies.
Standing, I keep my voice even but loud when I say, “Sit down, Tim.”
He pauses, then looks at me over his shoulder.
“I’m not asking,” I continue. “Listen to what your daughter has to say to you. It’s important. She loves you, and she wants to include you in this very happy moment in her life.”
He looks at me. And looks. Jaw set. Nostrils flaring.
“You walk away now, you’ll never be welcome in this house again. Which would be a shame, considering this is where we wanna raise your grandbaby.”
Tim has the grace to look ever so slightly sheepish.
“Fine,” he says at last and sits back down.
So do I, and I calmly reach down to grab my napkin off the ground. “Another thing. You ever speak to my girlfriend that way again, we’re gonna have a problem. A big one.”
Tim waves his hand and mutters something.
“Did you hear me?” I ask.
He gives me a nasty look. “Yes.”
“Good.” I put my hand on Wheeler’s leg. “You were saying?”
Her eyes are full. For a second, I panic. But then she’s putting her hand on my leg too. She’s smiling—it’s a small one, but it’s still there—and it hits me that the tears in her eyes are happy ones.
Grateful ones.
Relieved ones.
Wheeler doesn’t need a protector. She’s strong enough to fend for herself.
But I’ll always come to her defense anyway. I’m her man now, and it’s just what I do.
It’s what I’ll do for the rest of my life.