Daring to Fall

by Shannon Stults

  “I may have heard something like that.”

  “Oh. Well, you’ll love it.” She pointed to the brown paper bag in the seat between them that held enough food to feed an army. Harper eyed it suspiciously. Even for a really pregnant Logan, it seemed a bit much.

  “Are you sure you should be driving? Aren’t you just a week or two from your due date?”

  Logan waved off her concern and pulled away from the curb. “Aside from a little gas, I’m fine.”

  “If you say so.” Harper downed half her drink, then set it aside and pulled out a wrapped biscuit. She took a greedy bite, squelching the moan of pleasure that tried to escape when the food hit her taste buds. It was just as good as the one Cowboy had gotten her several weeks ago.

  “So how about you? You feeling better? I was worried when you didn’t show up at the shower.”

  “Yeah.” She thought about telling Logan the real reason she didn’t show, to try to suss out any information Lo might have on the woman at Byrdie’s, but she’d meant it when she told Logan to stay out of it. And the last thing she wanted to do was think about Cowboy right now. “I just wasn’t feeling well. Sorry I couldn’t make it.”

  She smiled. “It’s okay. Though you did miss the game where we all bobbed for pacifiers. And the one where we had to guess the melted candy bar in the diaper.”

  “That’s a shame.” Harper laughed to herself.

  “And you missed the presents. Thank you, by the way. Sadie brought the mommy care package by earlier this morning. I love it.”

  “It was mostly Sadie’s idea, but you’re welcome.”

  There were a few seconds of awkward silence, and Logan glanced at her from the corner of her eye. “So…this whole thing with you and Cowboy?”

  Harper sighed. “So he did tell you. Who am I kidding? Of course he did. You tell each other everything.”

  “Not everything. Just that he screwed up, and he really wants to talk to you. You want to talk about it?”

  “No.” She’d hoped they could somehow get through the entire ride without talking about it, but Logan clearly had other plans.

  “You should give him a chance to explain.”

  “I’m tired of giving him chances. In fact, I would love nothing more than to pretend for the rest of the day that he doesn’t exist.”

  Lo glanced at her from across the cab. “Yeah…that might be a little difficult.”

  Harper’s eyes narrowed. “Why?” she asked then tensed when they took a right turn. “Lo?”

  “Yes?”

  “Why are you turning onto Cowboy’s street?”

  “Um…about that.” Logan bit her lip, casting a quick glance across the cab at her. “He kinda insisted on tagging along.”

  “He what?”

  “Did I mention he really wants to talk to you? Besides, we need someone to help with the heavy lifting, and Cole’s working at the station.”

  She glared at Lo as they pulled up into the driveway beside Cowboy’s truck. “You said you’d stay out of this.”

  “No. You said not to convince you to hear him out. And I won’t…which is why he’s here to convince you himself. And before you think about jumping out of this truck, you should know I’m not above locking the door and kidnapping you if I have to.”

  Harper pulled her hand away from the door handle and crossed her arms over her chest. “You’re officially insane.”

  “No, I’m pregnant and emotional. And I’ll be damned if I’m going to sit back and watch two of my friends fall apart and ruin the best thing they’ll ever have because one of them was too stubborn to listen.”

  They watched as Cowboy came out his front door and approached the truck. He went straight to the back driver’s-side door and climbed into the seat behind Logan’s.

  Lo pasted a smile on her face as if it were any other day. “Hey, Cowboy.”

  “Hey, Lo. Midge.” Harper stared straight ahead, ignoring him.

  “Well,” Logan smiled as she backed the truck out of the driveway. “This should be fun.”

  Chapter Twenty-Eight

  The next hour in that truck was easily the longest of Harper’s life. She sat quietly in the passenger seat, mentally cursing Logan and her meddling, while Lo and Cowboy spent the drive alternating between singing along with whatever song popped up on the radio, eating their way through an entire bag of biscuits, and talking.

  Cowboy gave both women a rundown of his week hunting with Darren, Cole, and the other Tucker men, and Lo shared every detail of the baby shower the day before. They talked a little about work and what their weeks ahead looked like. Logan tried several times to pull Harper into the conversation, eventually giving up after Harper gave yet another grunt or monosyllabic answer.

  By the time they neared the antique market, Cowboy and Logan had moved onto the one topic that stressed Lo out even more than the impending birth of her child.

  “I had a nightmare that she came out, and we still didn’t have a name, so everyone kept calling her Baby Tucker until it stuck and actually became her name. Like one of those dogs you name Dog because you’re either too lazy or unattached to give it a real name.” She pulled the truck into the packed gravel lot by the antique market then turned a pair of pleading eyes to the rearview mirror. “Please don’t let my kid be named Baby,” she begged Cowboy.

  He chuckled. “I’ll do my best.”

  Lo parked the Chevy in an empty spot and cut the engine. She carefully lowered herself and her swollen belly from the cab, and Cowboy followed right behind her. Harper briefly considered staying in the truck until Logan was ready to leave, but she didn’t imagine either of them would make it that easy. She finally hopped down from her seat and came around to the other side of the truck.

  Harper stopped when she saw Lo leaning against the driver’s side door, wincing as she clutched her belly. Cowboy stood close by her side.

  “You okay? Your lower back still hurting?”

  Harper gaped at Lo. “You have back pain? How long?”

  “You mean not including the weeks since I started carrying an extra thirty pounds?” Logan shrugged. “It started a few hours ago. It doesn’t hurt, honest. It’s just a little uncomfortable.”

  “Have you asked your doctor about it?”

  “It’s fine, Harper. Everything I’ve read says it’s completely normal while I’m carrying all this around.” She pointed at her belly.

  Harper looked to Cowboy for support. “We should go to the hospital. For all we know, these could be early contractions.”

  “Or it could be gas, like I said earlier.”

  Cowboy put a hand on Lo’s shoulder. “Maybe Harper’s right. It wouldn’t hurt to run by the hospital and get you checked out.”

  “I’ve got another two weeks before my due date, remember? Which means I need to check out this market today or I’ll never get to.” She sighed. “I promise if it gets worse, we can go straight to the hospital. But until then, I’ve got a man with a sculpture to find.”

  She looked at Harper. “You two should take a look around. See if there’s anything you want for the B&B.” Logan turned toward the line of stalls and was soon lost among the others along the concrete pathway.

  Harper started in the same direction as Logan, leaving Cowboy behind without so much as a word. She knew Logan was probably right, that her small pains and discomfort meant nothing, but she still wanted to keep an eye on her friend just in case. She walked slowly past several vendor stalls—a few displaying various pieces of antique furniture, some showcasing their own art or jewelry, and one manned by a local candlemaker selling hundreds of colorful candles with meticulously detailed designs carved into their waxy structures.

  She stopped in front of one stall selling handcrafted wooden tables and chairs, among other things. Harper had already ordered a custom table for the B&B, but there was a pair of bookcases on the side that would fit perfectly in the sitting room by the fireplace.

  Harper had just run her hand over the
smooth surface of one of the shelves when she felt a familiar presence behind her.

  “You going to keep pretending I’m not here?”

  “That was the plan.” She turned to face Cowboy, hating the way his body seemed to draw her to him. As much as she wanted to fight it, there was an equal part of her—if not bigger—that longed just to be near him, to hear his voice. It had been less than twenty-four hours, and she’d already been feeling withdrawals. God, what was wrong with her? “At least until you and Lo blindsided me.”

  He shrugged, shoving his hands into his pockets. “Don’t blame Lo. It was my idea to come along. She told me you two were hanging out, and I asked her to help me out, reminded her of all the late-night craving runs she’s sent me on.” He chuckled.

  Harper turned back to the bookcase, studying it and praying Cowboy would walk away. “I talked to your mom,” she said when he didn’t take the hint.

  “You did? When?”

  “Yesterday. She saw me at Byrdie’s and introduced herself. She said you’ve been talking to her for a few years now.”

  “Yeah. I, uh…I went to see her soon after meeting my dad. We talked about everything that happened and agreed to move past it. Including telling Cam the truth about everything.”

  Harper glanced at him over her shoulder. “How did he take it?”

  “Better than expected. After four years of next to no communication, I think he thought it was going to be something a lot worse.”

  “Have you told Cole and Logan?”

  He nodded.

  “Good. I’m glad you were able to open up to them about it.” She went back to studying the bookcase in front of her. “What made you decide to forgive her?”

  He sighed. “I guess after everything with my father—my biological father—I realized she wasn’t the bad guy I’d made her out to be. I thought she’d kept me a secret from him, but really she was just trying to protect me. I can’t hate her for that. And yeah, she lied to me about my dad most of my life. But after everything that happened with you and me, I understand now that people make mistakes. And if I ever wanted to get a second chance after mine, I’d have to be willing to give her one as well.”

  Harper spun around, leaving only inches between them. “Is that why you’re here, Cowboy? To beg for a second chance?”

  “Yes,” he said without hesitation.

  “I already told you why that can’t happen. What makes you think I’d change my mind now?”

  “Because you don’t know the whole story about that night. If you’d just talk to me about it—”

  She rolled her eyes and abruptly left the tented stall behind, Cowboy following close behind her.

  “I don’t want to talk about it. I don’t want to think about any of it because when I do it’s like seeing her there all over again, seeing you choose her over me, and it guts me every time. I just want to go one day without remembering that feeling. But I can’t do that if you keep bringing it back up. So please, just let it go.”

  “You want me to let it go, fine.” Cowboy grabbed her arm and coaxed her around to face him. “I’ll never bring it up again. But only if you listen to what I have to say now. You owe me that much.”

  “I owe you?” she scoffed. “I’m pretty sure you were the one caught with another girl leaving your place after I told you I loved you.”

  “And you left town without trying to talk to me about it. You think you’re the only one who has a right to be angry? I blamed myself for three years for losing you. And I should have.” He looked up, noticing a small crowd that had stopped to watch them. His hand still on her arm, Cowboy gently led her off to the side where they would be more or less out of the way. “I knew it was my fault, that I messed up. But I wasn’t the only one.”

  “You’re saying it’s my fault?”

  “If you’d just come to me, if you’d told me what you saw instead of shutting me out—”

  “What? What would you have said?”

  Cowboy exhaled slowly, lowering his voice. “I would have told you the truth. I would have convinced you that it wasn’t what it looked like. That what happened with Anna that night had nothing to do with you and me and that it changed nothing. I would have been able to tell you that I love you, too.”

  Harper’s chin trembled. She could feel the sincerity, the pain pouring from his eyes and into hers. But she still couldn’t get over that hurt he’d caused her. She still didn’t feel like she could trust him.

  “If you’d come to me,” he said, taking a step forward, “I would have been able to fix everything. And we wouldn’t have wasted the last three years. Three years we could have been together and happy. Three years we’ll never get back. I’m not wasting any more time I could have with you.”

  Harper shrugged weakly. “So what is this magical enlightenment that would have fixed everything? Because I’ve got to tell you, I’ve spent years going through every possible explanation as to why she was at your place in the middle of the night, and I sincerely doubt there’s anything you could say that I haven’t already tried to tell myself.”

  “Anna’s my sister.”

  Except maybe that.

  “I—” She stared blankly at him, her eyes narrowing. “You don’t have a sister.”

  “Anna Gardner is my half-sister on my dad’s side…my real dad.” He lifted his UGA cap and ran a hand through his hair. “She was home from college for the weekend that day I went to talk to him. She overheard everything, and after confronting her dad she came to Willow Creek the next day to find me. I was at Wade’s, just about to go find you and apologize, when she showed up looking for me. I invited her back to my place so we could talk in private—and we did talk, for hours—but that was all it was.”

  Harper’s mind whirled as she tried to make sense of all this new information, so much so that she started to feel dizzy. “I think I need to sit down.”

  Cowboy guided her over to a small bench nearby, claiming the spot next to her. “By the time Anna left, I knew it was too late to go to you, so I waited until morning. I was going to tell you I was sorry for walking out on you, tell you just how much I cared about you. And I swear I was going to tell you about Anna. But…”

  But you never gave me the chance, his silence said.

  He was right. This was all her fault. “But I saw her at Byrdie’s. She said you missed your brunch date.”

  He shook his head. “Anna and I make it a point to meet up once a month. She comes to Willow Creek, or I go out to Augusta. Sometimes we even meet in the middle. But it’s always brunch and only so we can catch up with each other. You should’ve known better than to think it was an actual date,” he said with a rueful smile.

  She tried to take deep breaths as the world spun around her. His sister. She was only his sister.

  “So you didn’t cheat on me?”

  “No. Despite what you’ve thought, I could never do that to you.”

  Harper stared at the ground. All this time, she’d been holding on to this hurt and betrayal like jagged ice inside her heart. To find out it had all been unfounded, that it all stemmed from a misunderstanding, was like getting sucked out into the ocean by a swirling undertow. She couldn’t tell which way was up.

  “Midge?”

  Everything that had happened, the last three years of heartache, not just hers, but Cowboy’s, was all because of her. Because she’d done the one thing she accused him of, running away instead of just facing each other.

  She was pulled from her thoughts by a familiar ringtone sounding from Cowboy’s jeans pocket. He ignored it, leaning closer. “You okay, Midge? I know it’s a lot to take in.”

  Anna’s my sister. Those three words were like a life raft pulling her slowly but surely back into shore.

  “Come on, talk to me. Tell me what you’re thinking.” He rested his hand gently on her cheek, his eyes pleading as they met hers. So much. There was so much she needed to say, but where to even start?

  The ringtone continued playing
, and she nodded numbly to the source. “You should answer that.”

  He swore quietly and tore his phone from his pocket. “Hello?” he answered without checking the screen.

  The voice on the other end was loud and clear, so much so that even Harper could make out the panicked words. Is this Cowboy?

  “Yeah.” He glanced at Harper. “Look, now’s not really a good time.”

  I got this number from your wife. I think she might be in labor.

  “My wife? I’m not marr—” His eyes doubled in size. “Oh shit.”

  Chapter Twenty-Nine

  Harper raced after Cowboy toward the parking lot. They rounded yet another row of vehicles, and the red Chevy came into view.

  Logan was leaning back against the front of the truck, hunched slightly and clutching her belly. A man—presumably the one on the phone—stood at her side, his hands awkwardly raised in the air like he wanted to comfort her but wasn’t sure how.

  “What the hell happened?” Cowboy asked as they ran up. “You said you felt fine.”

  “I did. At least until about ten minutes ago.” She looked up shyly. “I think maybe my water broke. Either that or I just peed my pants in front of an entire market full of people.”

  They all instinctively looked down at her wet, black leggings, saying nothing.

  Logan’s mouth fell open. “Oh God, did I pee my pants?”

  “No, you didn’t.”

  “Right. So this is really happening. I’m about to have a baby.” She nodded to herself, rubbing small circles on her belly. “I’m about to have my baby in the middle of a parking lot at an antique fair.”

  Her hand froze, and she turned her round eyes on Harper. “I’m having my baby in a parking lot, and I still haven’t picked a name. My nightmare is coming true!”

  Logan’s breaths were coming short and fast, and Harper took her hands in her own. “Lo, listen to me. I need you to take a deep breath, okay? Everything is going to be fine.”