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Wes joined us and joked loudly, “Damn pregnancy hormones. She’s even more of a flake than she normally is.” A few people laughed and looked at me nervously. Wes paused next to me. “Give her time to calm down. Even if she says no later, the fact that you asked—and I know you meant every word that you said—carries weight in our family. I’m sure she will come around in time.” He patted me on the back.
“You should go check on her,” Cara suggested.
“I’m not sure she wants to see me right now,” I replied sadly.
“I’m pretty sure she does. I think she just didn’t want the audience. Go talk to her, get her to tell you where her head is and why she ran away, Ethan. If you love her as you say, you need to do that.”
“Alright,” I replied in a huff and took off to find her and her brother.
I saw them talking near his truck, and he was holding the door open. I ran over to them just as she was climbing in. “Riley, don’t go.”
“Ethan.” She swiped the tears from her cheek. “I can’t believe you just did that! How could you do that?”
“Come out of there. We need to talk.”
“No! I don’t want to talk to you! I can’t believe you just did that.”
Henley put his hand on my shoulder, and I turned and glared at him. “So help me, God, Henley. If you don’t let go of me and let me talk to your sister, I’m going to knock you on your ass!”
“Whoa!” Henley said and threw up his hands. “You both need to calm the hell down.”
I reached into the truck and picked Riley up as she squealed, “What are you doing?”
“If you want to go home, then I will take you home.”
“Fine, I don’t care how I get there! I just want to be away from this,” she hissed at me.
“Are you sure, Ry? I can take you home,” Henley said, and I stared daggers at him.
“No, he should take me home so he can explain to me why he got this stupid idea in his head that we should get married. Put me down! I can walk.”
I set her down, and she pushed away and stalked to my truck. Once I was behind the wheel, she rounded on me.
“How dare you do that! Ethan, what the hell were you thinking?”
“I was thinking about the fact that I love you, Riley! That I want our child to have a family!” I turned the truck on and started to back up to turn around.
“We don’t have to be married to be a family! Jesus! That was the stupidest thing you have ever done!” She threw her hands in the air.
“Why was it stupid, Riley? I love you! I love our child! What about that is stupid?” I pulled out on the main road.
“Everything! Why would you do that in front of all those people! Oh my god! You embarrassed us both!” she screamed. “I can’t marry you, Ethan!”
I stepped on the gas, my blood pounding in my veins as the anger between us grew. “Why can’t you, Riley?”
“Because I can’t!”
“Why? That’s not a reason, Riley. I want a fucking reason!”
“Because I don’t love you! Jesus, Ethan! I don’t love you like that! Don’t you understand that? I can’t love you like that!”
I stared at her, and I knew I should have my eyes on the road, but I couldn’t look away. She’d never said that she didn’t love me, not like that.
Suddenly, her eyes enlarged as she looked past me, and she screamed, “Ethan!”
I turned to look out the front window, my eyes passing over a stop sign. A stop sign that I had completely forgotten about. Before I could think anything else, a vehicle slammed into my door, and the world went black.
