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I pushed onto my feet, needing space. “So this whole time I’ve just been this charity case among you three?”
“No, not at all.” Callie got to her feet, and my eyes immediately went to her stomach; she wasn’t showing yet, but I was dying for the day she did. I watched her relentlessly, making sure she was okay, safe, healthy. She wasn’t just my best friend; she was like my sister. I loved her like a sister.
I tried to let that connection calm me down. Callie would never do anything to hurt me; she only ever cared about me and wanted to make sure I was okay.
“I’m sorry, I’m just…” I shook my head. “I don’t like being at his mercy, or that he’s had the upper hand this entire time. It makes me feel helpless and angry. He has probably loved the fact that he was helping me or doing me a favor for three months.”
Tears were burning the backs of my eyes, and all I wanted to do was scream.
“I’m going to head into town, I need some fresh air,” I said, about to grab my coat.
This not having a car thing sucked.
Callie rushed around the couch. “But I thought we were going to go shopping to look at baby décor for the nursery?”
Shit. That had me pausing. I really wanted to help her pick out the theme for the baby’s room.
“Well then, let’s get out of here. I just need to move. I feel like I’m coming out of my skin.”
Callie grabbed her purse and coat before turning toward the front.
“Laur, I hate that you’re upset. I only wanted you to feel confident that you can stay put and not have to move right before winter.”
We walked outside and rounded her huge rig.
“How exactly do you think Killian took being told he had to let me stay there from Wes? I think the fact that he told me he was moving in the day after becoming president shows he didn’t take it well. He was riding out Wes’s order until he was in charge. Now, he doesn’t give a shit what Wes said, and I wouldn’t stay regardless. I just want my own place.”
Callie started her car, a somber expression tugging her smile down into a frown. We drove in silence, and with each minute that passed, I faced the window fighting angry tears.
“Green would look good.” I smiled, holding up the letter F. I had a name picked out that I wanted to try. I doubted Callie or Wes would take my suggestion, but I was going to slowly push my name into their minds until they thought they were the ones who had come up with it.
Callie smiled, touching the letter and grabbing a few others.
“Felicia?”
I laughed. “No, and your blood test said it was a boy, I thought.”
She shrugged and turned. I inspected her cut. She had a hoodie on underneath it; the leather vest went over it, and her dark hair was braided to the side. I had never envied her for wearing a property patch, but something was squirming under my breast, as though the feeling wanted to reach through and grasp the leather for ourselves. Just to belong to someone. To have someone love me and claim me.
“What if it’s wrong and it’s a girl?”
I shook out of my thoughts and grabbed a rose gold L.
Callie’s eyes widened before she laughed. “No, whatever you’re thinking, the answer is no.”
“Lauren is such a cute name for a girl.” I batted my lashes at her, which made her laugh again.
She shifted to the side, and I noticed we had a few women in the store looking over at us. This was normal to me now; it took a while, but Callie’s cut caught people’s attention. It was like a cloak of danger that Callie wore with pride, along with the massive rock on her finger, boasting of her marriage to one of the most feared men in Rose Ridge. That or they were eyeing the bearded man standing by the exit with his hands across his chest.
Wes still had Callie tailed by members of the club, and I knew Killian would never challenge that. Not when Callie was pregnant.
“Excuse me.”
A woman wearing a sheer scarf over a black turtleneck came over, gently putting her hand on my arm, while eyeing Callie furtively.
“Is there something I can help you find? Are you looking for a gift for someone…”
Callie gave me a quick glance before smiling at the woman.
