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“Then maybe you should leave her alone,” Caleb said. He came around from behind the counter. “She wants more than you can give her. It’s time to accept that.”
“What if I could give her everything she wanted?”
Caleb eyed him. “Then it would be up to her whether she wanted to take it or not.”
“I love her,” Wyatt said slowly, leveling with the man.
Caleb straightened his spine. “Go on.”
“I hurt her, and you don’t like me very much because of that, and neither does she. She might never forgive me, but at the very least, I want to tell her that she’s my world, even if I’m not hers anymore. I want to make her happy, to never make her cry again, and I want to spend the rest of my life making her smile.” He locked eyes with the other man. “But I need your help to do it.”
Caleb was silent for so long that Wyatt thought for sure this was a lost cause, but finally he said, “What did you have in mind?”
Chapter Twenty
Not opening that door last night had been one of the hardest things she’d ever done. When he’d stood out there for a good half hour, trying to get her attention, that had been hard enough to ignore. Then when he said those perfect words through her door, begging her to give him another chance, she’d had to practically sit on her hands to keep them from opening that door for him.
Every other time he knocked, she’d let him in. Every other time he’d asked, she’d given him what he wanted. But not last night. Last night, she’d stood strong.
Being strong had never been so hard.
She blinked down at the forms she had to fill out, her eyes blurring with tears like they’d been doing nine times out of ten these past few days. It was maddening and frustrating, and she could only blame it on the baby, though, in all reality…it was because of Wyatt.
She’d loved him. She’d lost him. It hurt.
There was no denying it anymore.
Swallowing hard, she checked off the box that had her relationship status as single, and then x-ed out the spot where she was supposed to enter her spouse’s information. Nothing like forms at an OB/GYN office to really grind in just how alone in this you were. She lifted her head, glancing around the room to see if anyone else was as uncomfortable as she was.
A couple sat in the corner, holding hands and reading a Parents magazine. Another couple sat a few seats over from them, but the woman was on her phone, and the man stared blankly at the wall. In the other corner of the room was a young woman with her mother, both looking as unhappy to be there as she was.
She was the only one alone.
Guess she better get used to that.
Swallowing hard, she pressed a hand to her still flat stomach. You won’t be alone. I’ll always be there for you, and I’ll do my best to make sure you never lack for anything. I swear it. With that silent promise, she picked up the pen again and started jotting down her address. She might not have Wyatt, but she had her family, herself and this baby and that was enough.
It had to be enough.
When she and Wyatt had first started seeing one another, she’d seen how this would end. She’d always stood a higher risk of falling than he did. Even when he confessed to wanting more from her than a fling, she’d known that eventually this would end with her alone and sad. She just hadn’t expected to lose something bigger than herself when she lost him. She just didn’t expect to fall this hard, and to be in this much pain.
She missed him so much that there was an unending emptiness inside her where he used to be. Every night that she slept alone, she relived what being in his arms, safe and cherished had been like. Every night she came home to an empty living room was a night she remembered how full it had been with him inside it, helping her cross another item off her list of things to do to truly live. He’d shown her so much. Given her so much.
Now she had to let him go.
She had to lose him.
Guess she’d have to get used to that, too.
Shaking her head at her morose thoughts, she returned her attention to the three-page form, finishing her address. The door opened behind her, and she heard a collective gasp. She didn’t even look up. She had to finish this before they called her name—
“Is that Wyatt Hamilton?” the guy who’d been studying the wall whispered to his companion.
Kassidy stiffened.
No…he couldn’t be here.
She hadn’t told him her doctor’s name. There were at least a hundred OB/GYNs in the city. For him to have narrowed it down to this one office, in such a short time…
