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“Back East. Got some things I got to take care of. They can’t wait.” He still didn’t look toward her.
“And then what?” she asked incredulously. “Will you come back?”
He shook his head. “Told you. I’m movin’ on.”
This time Calla took several steps back. How could he…? She felt like she’d just been slammed in the chest by a semi.
“I don’t understand.”
“What don’t you understand?” Mack turned her way angrily. “This was always my plan. I gave it to you straight from the beginning. You said you were okay with it.”
Calla’s jaw set. “Things changed. You know they did. What we’ve shared,” she glared at him. “I didn’t imagine that.”
Mack just shook his head stubbornly. “It doesn’t matter. None of it matters. I got a path I’m meant to walk. And it ain’t with you.”
“I’m pregnant.” The words fell out of her mouth without her thinking them through. Mack’s head jerked in her direction.
And it just kept spewing out. “I don’t know if you or Liam is the father. With the timeframe the doctor gave me, it could be either of yours. I didn’t think I could— I’ve always been irregular and—” She stopped and looked down. “Anyway, I’m not sure if I should keep it. What my dad has, it’s genetic. I could have it too, and so could the baby. I don’t know what to do.”
Finally letting it go felt like having a hundred pounds lifted off her shoulders. But God, what now? Would he be furious at her for keeping it a secret all this time?
But when Mack climbed down out of the cab, he took her face gently in her hands. “You’ll be a wonderful mother.” His voice was so soft it was barely a whisper. His eyebrows drew together. “But believe me, you don’t want me. You and Liam will raise that baby and be able to give them everything. The life they deserve.”
He was breaking her heart. Couldn’t he see that? “But—”
His eyebrows suddenly furrowed. “Should you still be doing the mustang competition?”
Oh so he cared about the baby in the abstract, as long as he didn’t have to ever see it?
She pulled away from him. “I changed my routine. I’m only doing one galloping pass and the rest is low impact stuff. A lot of experienced, professional women riders keep riding when they’re pregnant.”
She didn’t know why she was bothering to defend her choices to him. He didn’t want her. She wasn’t worth staying for.
“I’m sorry, Calla,” he repeated. “This just isn’t my path.”
She turned around and ran back toward the arena before his words could pierce her any deeper.
She heard a roar go up from the crowd beyond.
The opening ceremony was starting.
Somehow she had to put her heartbreak aside because she had a competition to win.
Chapter Thirty-One
CALLA
“All right girl,” Calla patted Painter as she munched on hay from the hay net Calla had set up in the temporary stall. “It’s almost time.”
If she kept talking to Painter and focused on the competition, there wasn’t enough space left over to think about Mack. Right?
So why did her chest feel like a melon carver had been used to scoop out her insides?
“Calla! Thank Jaysus.”
“Liam!” Calla felt tears welling up in her eyes as Liam hurried toward her in the narrow path between makeshift stalls.
She climbed over the fence gate that made up Painter’s stall and flung herself into Liam’s arms.
