“Oh, no.” Laramie smacks her hand over her mouth. “I thought that was fake.”
“What?” McKenna and I ask at the same time.
“The wedding. I remember bits and pieces of you two standing before Elvis, but I thought it was just from the pictures we have of you two and him.”
“I asked Colby about it, and he said he couldn’t remember either.”
“What?” McKenna asks again.
I drop to my knees in front of her, where she’s sitting on the edge of the bed, and take her hands in mine. “We’re married, baby.” I smile up at her.
“No. Rip. No. We can’t be married. That’s not how this works.” She stands, stepping around me as she begins to pace the room.
“McKenna?” Laramie tries to get her attention, but she’s in the zone as she paces back and forth across the plush carpet.
“I’ll handle this. I mean, I can’t practice in Nevada. Hell, I can’t even practice in Texas yet, but I’ll handle it. I know Gramps has connections. He can file the petition for dissolution.”
“No.” I stand up and face her, my arms crossed over my chest. “We’ve made love since then, Kenna. That’s not going to work.”
“Fine. A divorce then. I’ll be sure it’s discreet, and it will be quick.”
“No.”
“What now?” she asks, throwing her arms up in the air. She stops pacing and stares at me.
“No. I don’t want you to handle it. No, I don’t want a dissolution. No, I don’t want a divorce.”
“Then what do you want, Rip? We can’t just ignore this. It’s not going to go away.”
“I don’t want to ignore it either. I want you to be my wife.” My eyes hold hers, and that’s the only reason I see it. That’s when I see her prepare for a fight. One I’m more than willing to give her. I’ll fight for us.
“No.”
“Yes.”
“You don’t want this. It was a drunken incident, and I’m going to get us out of this.”
“McKenna, I need you to listen to me. I don’t want out of this. I want you. I want you to be my wife.”
She’s shaking her head before I’m even finished talking. “If this is about the baby, you’re off the hook there too. You don’t owe me anything. I refuse to rope you into this life that you didn’t ask for.”
“Baby?”
Her eyes widen, and I turn to look at Laramie. She gives me a subtle nod. “You’re pregnant?”
“I’ll handle that too,” she assures me.
“Excuse me? What the fuck does that mean?”
“Nothing. I’m not doing that. Just that I can do this on my own.” I turn to look at my sister. “Are you really pregnant?”
“Yes.”
“How long have you known?” I ask, turning my attention back to McKenna. She’s clammed up, tears rolling down her cheeks, her arms tucked around herself.
“I thought I might be, so I came over. I didn’t want to take a test alone. It turns out my suspicion triggered a suspicion for Mac. I convinced her to take one of the many tests that I stopped and bought on my way here.”
I take a step toward McKenna, and she takes a step back, so I stop my movement. “What makes you think I would ever let you do this on your own? That baby is mine.” That’s when it hits me. What if it’s not mine? No, that’s not the kind of person she is. It’s on the tip of my tongue to ask her, but I bite back the words.
“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.”