“What is it?”
Sighing, she sets her wine glass down on the table. “That’s the reason my ex and I split. He wanted to have kids and I… don’t.”
Well, shit.
“And this was going so well,” she says, pain in her voice and when I meet her eyes, she blinks away tears. I drop my head as my stomach tightens and my limbs feel heavy. “I’m so sorry. I have to go.”
Without another word, she grabs her bag and stands up, not even sparing me a glance as she marches toward the front door with determination in every step. I shake my head and scrub my hand over my face before grabbing my bottle of beer and chugging half of it.
“Oh,” someone says and I glance up. The waitress stands next to our table with a tray in her hand.
“Could you just throw those in boxes and I’ll take it to go?”
She flashes me a sympathetic look. “Sure, sweetie.”
While she hurries off to fulfill my request, I lean back in my seat and finish off my beer before gazing out at the rest of the dining room. The couple at the table across from me keep looking over at me with sympathy on their faces but I ignore them as I start picking at the label on my beer bottle.
God, this is so fucking stupid.
My mind goes back to earlier when I promised myself if this date didn’t work out, I would delete my account and I pull my phone out of my pocket to do just that when I see the message from a woman named Eden.
Jesus Christ.
Apparently I’m a complete idiot because as I read her cute little introductory message, I can’t help but wonder if I should keep trying. I mean, yeah, dates one and two didn’t end well but I was really starting to like Violet and I think there could have been something there if the whole kids thing hadn’t gotten in the way.
Shit…
Am I really going to keep doing this?
Isn’t this the goddamn definition of insanity?
Staring at her message, I shake my head and click reply as every cell in my body screams that it’s a bad idea but I can’t stop now. Not when it feels like maybe I was finally getting somewhere.
Besides, third time’s the charm, right?
Chapter Six
Piper
“Good morning,” Eden practically sings as she breezes into the office and I turn in my chair, arching a brow as I raise my coffee cup to my lips and take a sip. What the hell is she so cheery about this morning? Eden usually isn’t much of a morning person. She points to the steaming mug in my hand. “Please tell me there’s more of that.”
I nod as I study her. “In the back.”
“Thank God!” she exclaims, dumping her stuff on her desk before slipping behind the curtain that hides things like our microwave, fridge, and coffee maker.
“Late night?”
She steps back into the office with a grin on her face that completely gives her away as she leans back against the door frame and lifts the steaming mug of coffee to her lips. “Yeah… I saw this commercial for a dating site last night and decided to sign up.”
“And that’s why you have that stupid grin on your face?” I ask, narrowing my eyes. A blush creeps up her cheeks and I shake my head. “Oh my God, you already met a guy, didn’t you?”
She nods. “Yeah, I did. God, Pipes. He’s just…” She struggles to find an adequate word and finally just clenches her fist in front of her as she makes a noise of frustration.
“Yeah?” I ask, forcing a smile to my face as I try to ignore the pang in my chest. It’s certainly not Eden’s fault that my life has turned out this way and I’m not going to do anything to bring down her stellar mood. Even if I have been in a funk since I realized how much having a baby was going to cost me.
“Oh, by the way…” Eden says and I glance up at her. “I was thinking about your baby issue…”
Sometimes, I swear this girl can read my mind. I nod and take another sip of my coffee. “And?”
“And I really think you should just find a guy, tell him you’re on the pill, have some meaningless fun, and when you get pregnant, you can just break things off.”
I scrunch my nose up. “That’s… dishonest and also a really good way to end up with an STD, Edie.”
“I know,” she sighs, her body deflating. “I’ve just been trying to come up with any other options for you. I still think you should try signing up for this site I found last night. You never know, babe. You could meet your soul mate.”
Turning back to my computer, my chest aches something fierce at her words. I’ve already met my damn soul mate and I fucked it all up. God, I wish I could go back to that day and make a different choice. Shaking my head, I push the thoughts from my mind and turn back to her.
“I’m not looking for a soul mate. I already had one of those.”
“Who says you just get one?” she asks and I have to stop my body from recoiling as I imagine another man filling Wyatt’s place. It’s… just not possible.
“Me.”
“But you could finally be happy again, babe.”
I shake my head. “I just don’t see it happening. Wyatt was… is still…”
She shakes her head as she sets her cup of coffee down on her desk and grabs her phone. “Forget about him. You have to see this guy I was talking to last night. I’m telling you, he’s the complete package and oh so very yummy. Wouldn’t that be better than being alone and miserable?”
I roll my eyes as she rolls her chair across the hardwood floor to my desk and thrusts her phone in my face. I scoop it up and glance down at the screen, sucking in a breath as my stomach flips and a fist grips my heart and squeezes. My head spins and each breath I take rings in my ears.
“Eden,” I breathe, my voice barely audible as a couple tears slip down my cheeks. I glance up at her and her eyes widen as she reaches for me.
“What is it?”
I glance back down at the screen. “It’s Wyatt.”
“Yeah, I know his name,” she says, rolling her eyes at me like I’m the world’s biggest idiot. “I can read.”
I shake my head. “No, Edie… that’s my Wyatt.”
“What?” she hisses, grabbing her phone and looking at his photo before looking back up at me as my heart thunders out of control in my chest. He looks even better than the last time I saw him… God, how long has it been? Four years ago? I shake my head again, unable to believe it hasn’t been longer. Each day without him feels like an eternity and I have carried this gnawing ache around with me since the moment I walked away from him.
My mind drifts back to the first time I met him after I went to live with my Aunt Myra. I was in a bad place then, walking around in a fog of pain and fear and then he was there, shining through the darkness like a beacon. He became my savior, my best friend, and the absolute love of my life.
“Piper?” Eden whispers and I glance up. Her look of concern grabs my attention and I look down at my lap only to realize that I’m trembling as more memories from my childhood come rushing back. There was once, just after I moved in with Aunt Myra, that Wyatt took me down to the pond behind our houses to go swimming. Back then, I was afraid of everything, even my own damn shadow, so when he jumped off the dock without me, I stood there frozen and shaking as I stared down at the calm water beneath me, fear gripping my heart. Wyatt circled back around to see where I was and when he saw me standing up on that dock, he raced back to me and held my hand as we jumped in together. That’s always the way it was between us - I was scared of everything and he was my white knight - but that’s always where our biggest problem lied. When he deployed, I didn’t know how to just exist without him and…