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“Goodnight, Kane, thanks for the ride!” she shouted as she got the door open.
“Winnie, Goddamnit, I said wait!” I slapped a palm down on the door, preventing her from slamming it in my face. “Please, talk to me. Just let me explain,” I begged her.
“Explain what, Kane?” She whirled on me angrily. “I find it hilarious you want to talk now but you had no problem taking off without talking to me before. I don’t know how many times I called you, texted you, asked about you and I didn’t get any explanation from you or anyone else, and now I don’t think I care to hear one.”
She tried again to close the door but I kept my boot firmly shoved in the opening, preventing her from shutting me out. “I know I hurt you, Winnie, and I wish I could take that back but I couldn’t see another way, you have to believe that.”
She opened her mouth but was cut off when a ball of fur came streaking out the door and leapt onto my leg, digging into my jeans with sharp claws. “Mister, get back here,” Winnie hissed, trying to pull him off me.
“Hey there, buddy, I missed you.” I reached down and he retracted his claws as I pulled him into my chest and began scratching in between his ears. He began purring and bumped my chin with his fluffy head like he was saying he missed me, too.
“You can’t have him back,” Winnie said petulantly. “You left us, I mean, him and now he’s mine. I’ve decided to keep him.”
“Wouldn’t dream of ever separating the two of you, baby,” and I wouldn’t. Mister would absolutely be living with me again but Winnie would be coming with him if I had anything to say about it. I leaned forward and he jumped out of my arms and back into Winnie’s house. When he was out of sight, she glanced back up at me and she sighed as the anger left her.
“I don’t want to fight with you, Kane. It’s been a long day and I’m exhausted. Right now, all I want to do is go to sleep, can you please let me do that?”
It wasn’t a lie just to get rid of me, I could see the dark circles under her eyes and the way she shifted back and forth like her feet ached. The urge to take care of her rode me hard but she needed some time and it was the least I could give her.
“Okay, Winnie, lock up and set the alarm.” I shoved my hands deep in my pockets to avoid reaching for her and she gave me a sad smile before closing the door. After hearing the locks click into place, I walked back to my truck.
Glancing back, I saw the curtains fall closed. She may not have been ready to talk to me yet but she wasn’t completely unaffected. A plan unfolded in my mind as I drove home, there was only one possible outcome and that was her being mine forever.
31
Winnie
Igroaned, reaching for the annoying buzzing sound on my nightstand and dislodged Mister from his perch next to me. He flipped his tail at my face and hopped off the bed. “Sorry, buddy,” I apologized but he ignored me and walked out of the room, clearly not accepting my apology. Cats.
“Mom, why are you calling me so early?” I grumbled into the phone as I plopped back onto my pillow. I never liked having to wake up but it was even worse now, the baby disliked mornings as much as I did.
“Hi, sweetie! What are you still doing in bed? Do you feel all right?” She had been hovering around me almost as much as Dad and Uncle Jim. My morning sickness was still going strong and I could tell she hated not being able to do something about it.
“Normal people usually like to sleep in on their days off.” I yawned, taking stock of my body. Thankfully I wasn’t nauseous at the moment, it seemed to wait until I was ready to take my first bite of breakfast to really kick in.
“Is that Winnie?” Dad shouted. “Daylight’s burning, honey, you don’t want to waste it all in bed!”
“Cyrus James, stop listening to my phone calls!” Mom shouted back. I cringed and pulled the phone away from my ear but it didn’t help much as I could still hear every word they said.
“If you don’t want me to participate then why are you using the damn speakerphone?”
“I use the speakerphone so I can multitask while I talk, thank you very much. Now go away so I can talk to my daughter.” My dad grumbled something in the background about how I was his daughter, too, because he definitely participated in making me. Ewwwww, maybe I wouldn’t have to wait until breakfast to be sick.
“Sorry about that, sweetheart, your father’s an unreasonable man. Now the reason I was calling is to tell you that I won’t be able to drive you to your appointment today. Summer called in sick and I am going to need to take over her shift. But don’t you worry because I’ve already made arrangements to make sure you get there safely and back.”
“What arrangements?” I asked warily.
“What’s that, Cy? Sorry, honey, I have to go, your father’s waiting on me in the car. I love you, bye!”
I looked at the phone that had gone black since my mother hung up on me. That was beyond suspicious and Dottie James was well known for her meddling, which made my stomach flip over with nerves.
After lying in bed for another ten minutes, it was clear that I wasn’t going to be able to fall back asleep. I pulled myself up and went to get ready. While I was washing the shampoo from my hair in the shower, I thought about what Kane might have said had I given him the chance. Part of me was curious to find out where he had gone but the other part wanted to stay mad.
I stepped out of the shower and put on my robe so I could go eat some breakfast and feed my ornery cat. “Mister, time to eat, buddy—aghhhhh!” I screamed, clutching my robe tightly to my chest. “Damnit to hell, Kane, what’re you doing in my kitchen?”
The infuriating man in question was sitting at my small table leisurely sipping a to-go cup of coffee asmycat scarfed down his breakfast on the floor next to him. “You were in the shower when I came in, I thought I would wait out here until you were done.”
“But, but—” I looked around my house like that would answer what the hell was going on.
