“Yes?” she answers, her voice bright and cheery and I clench my fist. Oh, she’s been waiting for this damn call since I left the studio. I swear to God, I could strangle her with my bare hands right now.
“What have you done?!”
“I don’t know what you’re talking about, Pip-Squeak.”
“The hell you don’t,” I growl, glancing up at the restaurant again. “What kind of game are you playing? What happened to the three other guys I picked?”
“You were never going to go out with any of them,” she scoffs like it was obvious and I should have known better. “You and Wyatt belong together but the two of you just needed a little push so… I pushed.”
“This isn’t a game, Eden,” I snap, pinching the bridge of my nose as I try to slow my heart rate. How could she think this was a good idea? She knows about everything that happened between Wyatt and me so I just can’t understand why she would think that her plan would work. She scoffs.
“I never said it was.”
“What the hell am I supposed to do?”
She sighs. “Go on the date, Piper. It’s not that hard to figure out.”
“I can’t go in there!” I screech, gesturing wildly to the restaurant. A few people walk by my car and flash me a look before looking away.
“Are you really going to stand your husband up?” she asks, her voice full of faux shock and I grit my teeth. This is insane. She has lost her ever-lovin’ mind if she thinks I’m going to go in there and have a date with Wyatt.
“What would I even say to him, Eden? The last time he saw me was before he was deployed and now I’m just supposed to show up and go ‘hey’ like the last ten years didn’t happen?”
As she scoffs again, I can almost picture her rolling her eyes at me. “Oh, I’m sure you guys will have lots to talk about and then, you know, ask him if he wants to have a baby with you.”
“What? No!”
“Oh my God, stop with the dramatics and trust me when I say that I have a good feeling about this.”
I shake my head. “You went too far this time, Eden.”
“No,” she murmurs. “I think I went just far enough and look, if this doesn’t work out, if the two of you don’t end up in wedded bliss again, I’ll never push you to go on another date.”
“Really?”
“Yep. Now, get your butt out of the car and into the restaurant. You don’t want to leave your man waiting.”
I scowl as I glance up at the restaurant. “I just want you to know that I’m still really pissed at you.”
“I can live with that. Bye, now.” She hangs up before I can say another word and my stomach flips as I turn to the restaurant. I hide my face in my hand and let out a little growl. I can’t believe I am about to march in there and come face-to-face with Wyatt for the first time in ten years.
Oh, God, I’m going to throw up.
My hands shake as I reach for the door and open it, stepping out into the dense Louisiana heat. Closing the door behind me, I lean back against the car and press my hand to my chest as I stare up at the restaurant, trying to come up with something to say to him that won’t sound callous or flippant after everything we’ve been through. I mean, I can’t just walk up to him and say “hi”, can I? There is so much to say, so much to apologize for but I’m not sure that I’m ready to tell him any of it. The things that happened back then… I don’t want him to know any of it. I don’t want him to see me that way but what else can I say?
When I left him, I told him that I had found someone new but that couldn’t have been further from the truth. There’s never been anyone else for me and even the few guys I’ve dated since leaving him haven’t been able to breach the barrier around my heart that is Wyatt Landry. He has owned me since we were two little kids, too naive to know how special and meaningful our love was. Truth be told, it took leaving Wyatt and spending the last ten years without him to truly understand the magnitude of our relationship and the love I have for him. I wish I could say I had a plan when I left but I didn’t. At that point, I wasn’t thinking clearly and by the time things did become clear, too much time had passed for me to just run back to him. The damage was done and I had to live with it. Pushing off the car, my heart thunders against my ribs and my legs feel like Jell-O as I make my way across the parking lot.
“You can do this,” I whisper to myself as tears sting my eyes and a memory from the first time I met Wyatt flashes through my mind. Aunt Myra was guiding me up the steps to her house after picking me up in Shreveport and Wyatt was running through his yard next door with one of his friends. Right in the middle of their game, he stopped and stared at me before flashing me a half smile and waving. It was such a simple gesture but after all of the horror I had just been through, it was… everything and I can’t help but picture what it’s going to be like when I get in that restaurant and he sees me again. Anger, maybe? Shock? I can’t imagine that any part of him will be happy to come face-to-face with me again but ever since Eden brought it up, I’ve been wondering why the hell he never signed the divorce papers I sent him. At the time, I thought I was doing him a favor but now, I don’t know.
When I reach the front door, I pull it open with trembling hands and step inside as my head screams at me to turn and run back to the safety of my car. But it’s not really safety, is it? It’s cowardliness. And weakness because every cell in my body is urging me forward, pushing me to close the distance between Wyatt and me like it knows where it belongs even if my head can’t get on board. I glance up from the entryway and suck in a breath. Oh, God, there he is… He’s looking down at his phone with a scowl and my belly flips as my heart races and the memory of his kiss tingles on my lips. It’s been so long since I have seen him and the years have certainly been kind but guys always get all the luck with that kind of thing. His hair is longer, falling into his face and he brushes it back. My fingers itch to run my fingers through it like I used to when we were younger and my chest aches as memories flood my mind, barely giving me a chance to recognize one before the next is invading my thoughts.
Gulping in air and trying my best not to throw up as I start walking through the dining room, my heart beating so fast that I’m afraid I might pass out. A memory of the first time he kissed me pops into my mind and I shake my head, remembering how awkward it was since we were only thirteen but also, how special it was in spite of all that. We were back behind Aunt Myra’s house, hiding in the oak trees and when I looked over Wyatt was staring at me with this look on his face that I had never seen before. The next thing I knew, his lips were pressed to mine and my heart was thumping. When we pulled apart, he smiled at me and I couldn’t stop the giggle from bubbling out of my lips. The next day he asked me to be his girlfriend and that was it for us. We were no longer two separate people. We were Wyatt and Piper, one solid unit.
Something on his phone makes him smile and his full lips quirk up on one side as warmth floods my body and I fight back a smile of my own.
Oh, that smile…
It’s one of my favorite things on this earth and I forgot how much I missed it, or blocked it out in an effort to survive without him. His smile widens and he shakes his head before typing out a message and I have to force myself to keep my eyes open as the memory of those lips dragging along my skin burns its way into my memories. My skin tingles with awareness and my belly flutters with nerves as I close in on the table and will him to look up at me so I don’t have to be the first one to speak. Just as I stop by the seat across from him, he sets his phone down and glances up. Recognition flickers across his face and his eyes widen as he falls back against his chair and his lips part.