Say You'll Stay

by Michaels, Corinne

  Angie takes Logan’s hand. “How about we all go watch a movie? I’m here for another week because someone.” She looks around tapping her chin. “Is turning eleven soon. I wonder who that could be?”

  Logan rolls his eyes. “You need to work on your acting skills, Auntie.”

  “I’ll give you acting skills.”

  “Don’t give them to me!” he gasps. “You need them.”

  We all burst out laughing as Angie starts to chase him. “Come here, you little monster!”

  They both head inside, and I sit here wondering what to do. I feel so lost right now. The dust has settled for the most part with the boys, but Zach and I are clearly not even close. No matter what, we need to talk again.

  I take out my phone and text him.

  Me: We should talk.

  I stare at the phone, willing it to respond. I haven’t heard from him since he left with Wyatt.

  Zach: I know.

  That’s it? I try to keep myself calm. I don’t have the energy to exert on this.

  Me: Tomorrow?

  Zach: Yeah, tomorrow. How are the boys?

  I look toward the sky and pray. “Please don’t let me lose this man again. Please let us find a way to work it out.”

  Me: They’re both okay. Logan is worried you’re angry with him.

  His response is instant.

  Zach: Never. I’m angry with me. I’m angry with us. Tomorrow we’ll talk.

  I type out my response. It sits on my screen as I debate whether to send it. This isn’t something we should talk about via text, but I have to tell him I love him. I need him to know that even though we’re both feeling a lot, that hasn’t changed.

  Me: I’ll miss you tonight. Please know that no matter what, I love you.

  I press send and close my eyes.

  I sit, holding on to my phone and waiting for it to buzz.

  But it never comes.

  I think I’ve lost the love of my life—again.

  “J UST WHEN WE THOUGHT ALL was working out for them. We didn’t even have time to make them a back-together cake,” Mrs. Rooney’s voice filters through the hallway. “Bless her heart. She must be a wreck.”

  “She hasn’t even been out of bed yet,” Mama says.

  Oh dear Lord. I better stop this train before it goes off the rails. I enter the kitchen, and it’s filled with food. I’m talking a bakery’s worth of cakes and pastries. Angie sits at the table, digging in and writing things down. “What is all this?” I croak.

  “Good morning, sunshine.” Angie tries for chipper, but it’s fake. She knows I’m far from feeling like sunshine.

  I look over at the four other women in my kitchen. Mrs. Rooney, Mama, Mrs. Hennington, and my third grade teacher, Mrs. Kannan. This cannot be good.

  “Oh, sugar,” Mrs. Rooney says with her lips pouty. “I’m so sorry about you and Zach.”

  I look at her with wide eyes. “What?” How in the hell?

  “We heard all about what your fight was about.” Her hand rests on my arm. “You must be devastated.”

  “Completely wrecked. I mean, she looks like it,” Mrs. Kannan comments.

  I woke up ten minutes ago. What the hell are they expecting? I also didn’t expect a confectionary parade in my house. I rub my eyes, hoping it’ll cover the eye roll as well. I need coffee to deal with this.

  Mrs. Hennington steps forward. “You’ll always be like a daughter to me.”

  “Thanks. I think.” I shake my head. “We’re fine, though. I mean we’ll be fine, we just need to talk.”

  They talk as if I’m not there. “Do you think she’ll find another man at her age?” Mrs. Kannan questions. “She’s still pretty and hasn’t gotten too many extra pounds, but she’s not a spring chicken either.”

  “I’m right here,” I remind them.

  “Zach looked terrible last night.” Mrs. Hennington sighs while turning back to her friends. “I was so happy they’d finally found their way.”

  I stand here like a voyeur of my own life.

  “We didn’t even get to enjoy their reunion before they screwed it up,” Mama says. “I swear that girl has always been too smart for her own good.”

  “I heard she kept some big secret from him.”

  “Hello!” I yell. “Can hear you!”

  Mrs. Rooney looks over at me then back to their little hen meeting. “He wasn’t Mr. Perfect either though, Macie. I mean that boy of yours needed a good whipping a few times.”

  I can’t listen to this but trying to get them to stop is useless. He’ll call today and then this can all stop. I look over at Angie who is stuffing her face. She shrugs unapologetically. “I want to hire all of these baking goddesses.” Gobs of cake fall from her mouth.

  “You need a trough.”

  I plop down in the chair next to her. “Have you tried this?” She shoves the fork in my face. “Eat this. It’s orgasmic.”

  I take a bite of Mrs. Hennington’s cheesecake. I’d know it anywhere. It tastes like heaven. “This is why I bake.”

  “This would be why I would be a thousand pounds,” Angie admits while popping another forkful in her pie hole. “God.” She moans. “I could die happy in this sugary heaven.”

  I lean back and try very hard not to listen to what they’re saying. According to them, Zach never returned back home last night. Of course I slept with the phone in my hand, praying he’d call. I also went to the creek, but he wasn’t there. I feel off balance.

  Me: Please tell me you’re okay. I want to talk sooner rather than later.

  “You’ll be diabetic if you stay here.” I laugh through the words.

  Angie eats while I wait for the phone to ring.

  “Presley.” Mama takes my attention from the phone. “The town wants to do something nice for you.” She smiles at her friends.

  “For what?” I’m so confused.

  “Well.” Mrs. Rooney walks over. “For your breakup of course. No woman should go through being broken hearted at your age.”

  The fact that I somehow manage to not make an outward groan should earn me a medal. “We’re not broken up. We have plans to talk.”

  “Really?” Mama asks. “Then why did Macie rush over here to tell me that she saw Felicia moving boxes back into his place.”

  My heart drops to the floor. He wouldn’t take her back. There’s no way. This is insane and wrong. “Mrs. Hennington.” My voice cracks. “Are you sure?”

  “I’m sorry, dear.” Her gaze drops to the ground. “I asked her what in the hell she was doing, but she said Zach would be letting me know soon enough. I didn’t see him, but it was clear she was hauling her stuff back in.” She releases a sigh through her nose. “I have half a mind to throw him off my land.”

  “How?” I manage to mutter. “I mean, there has to be a mistake.”

  She rubs my back. “I wish there were.”

  Well, fuck that. I’m not going to sit back this time. He can’t tell me he’s here for me, that he loves me and wants to build a house, and then go to Felicia after our first fight. There’s no way. She has to be confused. He wanted a day, well, I wanted a life.

  Zachary

  I STARE AT THE TEXT from last night and hate myself for not responding. After I sent the last text, I chucked the phone across the room. I didn’t want to see what she said. Between the throbbing headache from drinking so much and the ache in my chest, I knew I couldn’t.

  Presley has no idea how crushed I am. A baby. Our baby. The one thing I’ve never given anyone else because I couldn’t imagine have a child with anyone but her. She never said a word to me, and for that, I can’t talk to her right now.

  “You should call her,” Trent urges. Both of my brothers have been with me all night. I was so fucked-up, throwing things around the house, they didn’t trust me not to get in a fight with the rest of the furniture. So they brought me to Wyatt’s cabin where there’s less of anything, let alone anything breakable.

  “And say what?”

 
; “Tell her you’re sorry and that you love her. I don’t know! You cried all goddamn night about how much she means to you. You know that you’ll never stop loving her, right?”

  I nod.

  “Then don’t be a dick!”

  “She lied!”

  “So what?” Wyatt chimes in. “So fucking what? She’s Presley Townsend. The girl half the men in this town would give their left nut for. We won’t even talk about what that means to you.”

  Trent hums in agreement.

  My younger brother starts in again. “I’m not making excuses for her, I’m sayin’ you know her and the shit she’s been through.”

  “You think it’s okay she kept this from me?” I throw back at him. “You’d be perfectly okay with knowing all this time spent . . .” I groan. “God! I don’t even fucking know what I’m mad at right now! I just know that my whole goddamn life I’ve spent trying to get over her.”

  “So, you’re over her now? You don’t want her? Are you really willing to give her up?” Wyatt smiles, waiting for my answer. “Can you handle watching some guy’s hands roaming all over her while she dances at the bar?”

  I see red. “Fuck you.”

  “I don’t think so. If you love her, then stop being a bitch about this. She lied to you, I get it. She’s been in a really bad place.” He slips into a more neutral tone. “I didn’t know her husband killed himself. She must’ve gone through hell. It explains why she was afraid to tell you this too, man.”

  I grasp all this intellectually, and then there’s the fact that she’s been pissed off at me for a long time. I’ve never doubted we’d work through this, but she has. She wasn’t sure that we would find the love we once had. Or if it was all in our heads. I knew though.

  “What the hell does that mean? Afraid to tell me?” I ask him.

  “You left her. Todd left her. She lost everything. She gets you back. What the hell do you think was the next possible outcome to her?” He cracks his neck. “Please, make the wrong choice. Let her go. See what happens.”

  Trent stands, walks over, and slaps the back of my head. “You’re an idiot.”

  “You’re both assholes.”

  “True.” He chuckles. “But at least I know that if Grace ever really was going to walk away, I’d chase her.”

  He’s so full of shit. Grace has been gone for months, he just won’t see it. He’s the last person I’m taking love advice from. Wyatt gives me a look that lets me know we’re on the same page.

  “How did you find out about the baby?” Trent asks.

  “Doesn’t matter.”

  The point is that she kept it from me. I found out, and that’s the damn issue.

  Wyatt stares me down. “I think it does matter.”

  “You would.” I raise my chin. “Imagine knowing the girl you love, want to marry, would died for, kept this goddamn secret for so long. I deserved to know about that baby.”

  Wyatt hops to his feet and walks over. “You’ve always been the slowest out of the three of us. Yet, you managed to get the girl.” He huffs out a frustrated breath. “I know what it’s like to watch someone you love look at someone else. I lived it. I know what it feels like to not be able to say what you’re thinking, because you know when you do, life will change.” He snaps his fingers. “Just like that. You want to play games with her? She’ll find another player. There are plenty in the lineup.”

  He walks out of the door of his own house, and Trent shakes his head. “He’s been in love with Presley since the first time he laid eyes on her, but she found you first. I don’t know what you’re expecting from him. He’s kept away because he’d never get between you two, but I’m not sure that if you walk away, he will anymore.”

  “He’d be dead to me.”

  “Why?”

  “Because she’s mine.”

  “Right now she is.” Trent rests his hand on my shoulder. “But not if you let her go.”

  I lean back in the chair as Trent leaves the house. I don’t know what to do anymore. It’s been almost twenty-four hours since I saw her. She’s consumed every moment of my thoughts since I left her. Then I think about Logan and Cayden. How broken those boys were over the truth. How broken I am over the truth.

  Did she do it because she wanted to hurt anyone? No. I’m fully aware of why she kept it from me. It doesn’t hurt any less though.

  I sit there, thinking back on how we’d dreamed of having a baby. So many nights we spent talking about our life and how it would be.

  “Two boys and a girl.” Presley looks over with stars in her eyes.

  “I want all girls,” I tell her, and she rolls back over with a smile.

  “You would, Zachary Hennington. You would.”

  I’d give her whatever she wanted as long as she doesn’t quit smiling like that. I’m a lucky bastard.

  “How about we compromise?” I ask her.

  She looks over as she contemplates. “What kind of compromise?”

  The thing about her is that she knows me well enough to know that I’d cave to her. But she lets me have this for a little while. Not as if I have any control over it anyway.

  “Two boys and two girls.”

  “Four babies?”

  “Why not? I have two brothers and you have one. It would be better if we have an even number.” Which is true. Wyatt is always the one that Trent and I team up against. Last night we almost got beat with the spoon because we hung him on the flag pole. Land of the free is what we told Daddy. He laughed, but Mama was yelling about boys and her hair.

  Presley tilts her head and looks at the sky. “I don’t know. I mean, that’s a lot of names. We only have two picked out.”

  She’s crazy, but I love her. “We know the first girl will be Sadie and the first boy is Colton.”

  “Right, but that was a month of fighting—”

  “And making up,” I remind her.

  “Which was fun.” She smirks. “But. Two more names would be a lot more fightin’.”

  I love when her accent grows strong. Presley is a siren. I can hear her call no matter where I am. On the field I go into a tunnel. Focusing only on the batter, the ball, the runners. I hone in and live in that moment. Unless she speaks. I don’t know what it is, but she’ll break my trance with one word. And if she’s upset, her accent goes deep, and it’s all I hear.

  “And a lot more making up.”

  “If I forgive you.” She cocks her head.

  “You always do,” I remind her.

  Presley groans. “Stop being so damn cute.”

  “What about . . . Noah and Holly?” I offer.

  She rolls her eyes. “Those are the same names you always say!”

  “What are yours?”

  I already know what she’ll pick. “Sydney and Dawson.”

  “Like that damn show you watch?” Hell no. “I’m not naming my son after some guy on a creek.”

  “You live on a creek!” She scoffs and crosses her arm. “And I like his name. It’s Pacey that I like-like.”

  I swear she knows what to say to get me jealous. Of course she likes some damn TV star. She forces me to sit through an hour of that crap show every week. I swear. Then we go onto another show right after it. She, Grace, and Emily have a weekly date, but somehow I get drug into it.

  “We’re not naming my boy either of those.” I stand firm.

  “Fine.”

  “How about Babe for a boy and Penelope for a girl?”

  Presley stares at me like I’ve lost my mind. “I’m going to pretend that you’re kidding about Babe. Naming him after a famous ball player won’t make him one. And Babe is what we named the potbellied pig we just got. So, no.”

  “All right, you pick a girl’s name and I’ll pick the boy. Whatever the next name is, we go with.”

  “Okay, for a girl I pick Violet.”

  I could handle that.

  “For the boy, I pick Logan.”

  She smiles. “I like that. Colton, Sadie, Logan, and Violet To
wnsend-Hennington.”

  “What?” I damn near lose my mind. “What the hell makes you think you’re not taking my last name? What the hell is that two last name crap?”

  Presley rolls on her back, looking at me with a grin. “A woman has every right to hyphenate.”

  “I’ll show you hyphenate.” I drop down and kiss her breathless. She squirms beneath me and I fight ripping her clothes off right here in the middle of the outfield. This girl has no idea what she does to me.

  I grip my phone in my hand, squeezing until my fingers turn white. I need to make a choice. Is this worth living the rest of my life without her?

  “Go home and shower,” Wyatt says, throwing the door open after he’s cooled off. “Then find your balls and get your head out of your ass, possibly in that order. Because I promise you this.” He steps forward. “If you don’t go after her, I will, and I’m not going to play fair this time. I’m going to show her why I am the better brother, and why she should’ve been with me the whole time.”

  My anger rises and I go toe to toe with him. “You listen to me,” I say pointedly. “I haven’t let her go, so don’t make me lay you out. Keep your damn hands off her.”

  “Then go hold on to her.”

  I walk past him, bumping him with my shoulder.

  “Chump.” He laughs as the door slams behind me.

  I walk to my house while my mind ping pongs back and forth over what the right thing is. It’s one thing to understand why she did what she did, it’s another to accept it. Then there are the boys and what they’re going through.

  Maybe now just isn’t the right time for us.

  Maybe there will never be a right time.

  I could’ve been there for her through it all. The part that pisses me off the most is the time we’ve wasted. I’ve spent my whole life thinking about her, even when I was trying to forget. I sabotaged every relationship because no one could measure up. She didn’t have to love anyone else. Another man didn’t have to give her the comfort she sought. I would’ve been there.

  Instead, she kept it to herself and used it as an excuse. What else is she keeping from me?

  I get to my house and groan. I don’t have the patience for this. Felicia stands against the door as I approach. I used to look at her and see beauty, now I see how blind I was. She’s the polar opposite of Presley in every way. Felicia spent hours getting ready when we’d go out. Where Presley takes five minutes. Felicia wasn’t well loved around the town, but I chalked it up to them not knowing her. I think it was me who didn’t know her. She had me fooled, but now, I’m seeing things I never noticed before.