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Dakota shakes her dark head. “I don’t blame her. I left her here.” She picks at the Formica tabletop. Guilt edges her voice. “I didn’t know she was still working at the store.”
“It’s a lot for her,” I say lowly. “She’s struggling to take care of the store and then get out on the rodeo.”
Even though I’m pissed at Fallon for treating Dakota like shit, that girl’s been working her ass off. Keep the store alive. Keep Stede alive. Keep her career alive. It can’t be easy.
“She’s right about what she said about my face.” Dakota waves a hand around her black eye, the cut on her lip. “I can’t go to work until this is gone. Everyone in town will talk if I mosey into The Corner Store looking like Mike Tyson.”
Her words hang heavy in the air.
“No one can find out what happened to me, okay?” Her voice cracks. “I mean it, Davis, They can’t.”
Red stains her cheeks. And it hits me sudden and quick—she’s ashamed.
“They won’t, okay?” I exhale. A muscle jerks in my jaw. It feels like there’s a fire growing between my ribs. “Cupcake, no one will ever know.” Anyone says an unkind word about her, I’ll hunt them down. I’ll fix this. She can’t stop me.
A waitress appears to take our order and Dakota keeps her head down, long dark hair shielding her face as we both order burgers and fries.
“The baby?” I ask when the waitress leaves. The words chew up my throat like glass. “How did everything at the doctor go?”
Dakota looks pale and fragile. And then everything pent up from her visit at the doctor’s explodes out of her.
“Everything wentfucked, Davis. I have a baby inside of me. I don’t know if I’m going to love it. Or be a good mother. Everything—my entire life—is unplanned.” A shudder of a breath rocks her frame. “Babies have schedules. I don’t know what timelines to follow or what bottles to buy. All I want to do is eat. I cry all the time. My breasts are huge. I don’t have any bras. And I’m…” Her brown eyes flick to mine, drop to her hands.
“What?” I ask, feeling desperate and uncomfortable. The mention of Dakota’s breasts sends a rush of blood to my dick and I fight to keep a straight face.
“Nothing.” She takes a sip of her water. “I’m trying to survivethe now. I don’t have the bandwidth to plan months ahead.”
“And that’s okay. You have time.” I think about what she said earlier. “Eighteen weeks, that’s…”
“Almost five months.” She sighs. “Here.”
She takes something out of her purse and smooths it on the countertop between us. After a closer look, it’s a photo. A black and white blur.
She laughs bitterly. “That’s my baby. And I can’t even look at it. I don’t even want to know the gender. I don’t even want to feel my baby move. Because that means it’s real. It’s happening. Isn’t that awful?”
I take the photo and run my fingers run along the image, picking out a spine, tiny toes, a round head. A muscle in my jaw moves over and over again. The idea of Dakota having someoneelse’s child stings, but I’ll deal with it because it’s bigger than me and my fucking feelings.
“It’s not awful,” I finally say. “You’re going to be a good mother, Dakota.”
“How do you know?”
“Because I know you.”
How can she not see what a good mother she’ll be? She’s a fighter, she loves hard, and she’s loyal to the core. She gives peace to everyone who meets her.
Her child will be lucky to have her. And if he or she forgets, I’ll be around to remind him.
“What if I’m having a monster’s baby?”
“Never.” I shake my head. “You’re gonna look at that baby and not see a speck ofhim. Because it’s going to be all of you, Dakota.”
She rubs her eyes. “I don’t know, Davis. I was so optimistic things in my life would work out. I feel like a failure.” Defeat and sadness wash over her face. “I’m not brave, and I’m not strong. I’m not sure I ever was.”
Fuck, do I feel that.
I lean forward and take her hand. Dakota stiffens, but her eyes grow soft. “Bravery is being scared and doing it anyway,” I say. “You don’t have to feel strong. You’re allowed to not want this, to be fucking pissed off and sad. But I see you, Koty. And I won’t let you fall.”
Dakota bites her lip, her eyes wide. “You won’t?”
