by C. A. Harms
No wonder she was so shy and quiet.
But today, she opened up and I was thankful for our quiet day. I fell a little more in love with my sweet little friend and yes, I considered her a friend.
After sitting in the bank for more than twenty minutes I debated on stopping at the store to pick up something to make for dinner. Pulling out I got a call from Wyatt and smiled so big my cheeks ached.
“Hey, you,” I said after tapping the button to bring the car through my Bluetooth.
“Where are you?” No hey babe, no missed you, just a demanding time about my location.
“On my way home.”
“Sadie, the roads are getting bad.” I could almost picture the frown I knew was on his face. “The trucks can’t clean the roads off fast enough and I got word from the guys at the station that there has already been several calls coming in about accidents.”
“I’m fine Wyatt,” his concern was sweet but honestly, I was fine.
“Just leave your car in town and I’ll come get you,” I heard the jingle of keys and Gus barking in the background.
“Will you calm done, I’m already driving in your direction.”
“Then pull off on the side.”
“I am not leaving my car alongside of the road.” He was overreacting.
“Damn it,” he mumbled. “Gus, no,” he covered the phone, and I could hear him calling out for Gus. He’s good about running outside the second the door comes open. He didn’t care if it was raining, snowing or hot as sin, he loved the outdoors. Most days he takes off toward Grady’s to play with his little girl but Wyatt seemed overly annoyed tonight.
“He’s fine, I’ll be home in like five, maybe one minutes.” The further I drove the worse the driving conditions became. The roads had not been plowed, the visibility was terrible and I could feel my car pulling all over the road.
“Sadie,” Wyatt said my name and I don’t know why but I looked toward the touch screen that displayed the call. “Babe?”
“Yeah, I’m here,” I said and lifted my gaze back toward the road. At that point everything happened so fast, the large movement in the road, something mixed in with the snow fall frightened me. An animal, probably a deer or moose, but either way I swerved to miss it. Suddenly I was sliding, and I felt myself start to panic.
“Shit,” I screeched, grabbing the wheel and turning it slightly to try to stay on the road. Tapping the brakes only made things worse and suddenly I was heading in the direction of the ditch. A loud crunching noise, the sound of breaking glass and then I was upside down before proceeded to my side. The car stopped, and the seatbelt holding me to the seat felt so tight against my chest.
Wyatt, yelling my name echoed through my now quiet car and it took me much too long to remember what had just happened.
“I’m here,” my voice was low and pained.
“Baby, I coming.” He sounded out of breath. “Damn it, Sadie, talk to me.”
I blinked feeling something tickling on my face. Lifting my hand, I wiped the spot and when I pulled my hand back there was blood smeared on my fingers. “Wyatt,” everything hurt, my head, my arm, my chest.
“Stay with me.” I closed my eyes, and I must have groaned because once again Wyatt hollered out my name.
The flash of lights shined through my car and I felt relief wash over me. He was here.
“Hello,” a male voice shouted. “Are you okay?” It wasn’t Wyatt and I let my emotions get the best of me. I started to cry, unable to stop myself and feeling my body hurt even more.
Looking down at my arm that’s when I saw the blood staining the light blue material.
“Over here,” another voice hollered, the flashing of red and blue lights ricocheted off my shattered windshield and I could feel myself fading in and out. “Looks like it just one inside,” I tried to call out, but even breathing hurt.
“Sadie!” It was coming from what felt like miles away but I could hear my name being called out. Voices all around me, people talking, the sounds of metal against metal, small fragment of glass falling from somewhere and hitting my lap and even the side of my face.
“Sadie!” Again I heard my name and this time it was closer.
So much activity around me but I couldn’t focus for more than a few seconds before fading out again.
Then I felt hands on me.
“Give me the brace.” It was Wyatt, his voice sounded hoarse and panicked.
“I’m okay.”
“Shh, hold still, babe.” Then something wrapped around my neck and the sound of Velcro. “I’ve got you.” And I knew he did.
I was slowly removed from the car, strong hands holding me, and not just Wyatt’s.
Being carried and then lowered to a firm surface before strapped in securely. “Are you coming with?”
“Yes.” I tried to open my eyes when I heard Wyatt again.
“I’ve got your truck,” I wasn’t sure who it was but Wyatt agreed and then I’m being lifted and the sounds of doors closing, before I again felt a hand touch my face. I didn’t have to look to know it was Wyatt, I’d know his touch anywhere.
Chapter Thirty-Nine
Wyatt
* * *
I sat at the side of Sadie’s hospital bed, my hand resting on her thigh. Staring up at her I remembered what I felt when I pulled up and found her car smashed and flipped up on its side. Pure panic, my body moved before I had time to think and I practically rolled down the large deep ditch where her car had landed.
We’d been here for hours, they’d run testes and took her downstairs for several scans that the results have not yet come back for. Or at least no one has come in to tell us what the hell is going on.
All I do know is I am sitting in a room with Sadie’s parents on one side and Anna and Beau sitting a few feet behind me and we are all silent. Staring at the woman I love waiting for her to wake up and say something, anything.
“I’m fine.” Those were the last words I’d heard but the fact was none of us knew if that was true.
“Wyatt?” I looked up at the sound of my name just as my mother walked into Sadie’s room with Will close behind. I knew there were several others waiting outside int eh waiting room but them being here, it did something to me. Tears clouded my vision and I hung my head, resting it on the side of the bed. Feeling Sadie’s leg against me I my entire body began to shake as it all hit me.
I could have lost her.
Someone rubbed my back, my brother knelt at my side and when I turned to face him I saw a different side of him. In this situation he was the strong one, he was the one choosing to hold me up and a pride I’d never felt before took over. “She’ll be okay,” he assured me, patting my knee, “okay.”
“Hello everyone.” I sat up tall and looked passed Will to see a doctor and a nurse standing in the open doorway. Looking around the room and everyone that waited, obviously confused at who to address. “I’m Dr. Benson.”
Walking into the room a little more, Burt stood and held out his hand. “I’m Mr. Micheal and this is my wife.” Sadie’s mom was confined to her wheelchair so he offered her a nod and then again looked around at everyone else.
“Everyone in here is family,” Burt surprised us all and again emotions threatened to take over my control.
“Then I assume it’s okay to discuss Sadie’s condition freely?”
“Yes,” he said, looking at me and holding my gaze.
“Sadie’s a very lucky girl, the outcome could have been so much worse.” He tapped on the tablet in his hands, focusing on it as he spoke. “Her left arm is broken, she has twenty-two stitches in her shoulder and eleven on the side of her head, most likely from the windshield and the side window that broke as the car rolled.”
I closed my eyes, keeping my hand on her, needing to feel her against me.
“She has a concussion, and we’ve given her something light to help with the pain and to help her rest comfortably.”
“Something light?” I didn’t want
her in pain, given her whatever she needed to feel nothing. I wished I could take her place and be the one in here with bandages and swelling.
“Yes, and its completely safe for the baby too.” The room grew completely silent, you could’ve heard a pin drop.
“Baby?” It was Anna who finally spoke and I noticed then that Burt was staring directly at me and no longer the doctor. “What baby?”
“Wyatt?” It was a plea of clarification that I couldn’t offer.
“Did no one know that Ms. Michaels is pregnant?”
All I could hear was the swooshing sound in my ears as the blood rushed through me. My ears felt hot, my vision blurred and I closed my eyes to gain some sort of control.
“Wyatt?” I opened them once more and found Burt still staring at me as he waited for me to explain.
“I didn’t know,” I confessed. “I don’t think she did either.”
“It is early so that’s understandable.”
“How early?” I looked away from Burt and watched the doctor looking over something on his tablet once more.
“By the sonogram I’d say maybe eight to ten weeks, give or take.”
I swiveled around in my chair, my focus landing on Sadie and then to her stomach, hidden beneath the blanket. She was pregnant, with our child, and I could have lost them both. I took in a slow shuddering breath. Conversation continued around me, but I zoned out.
I was gonna be a father.
Hours passed, most slipping away with the promise of returning tomorrow. My brother took my mother home, after they both said goodbye. My mother holding my face in her hands and without saying a word, she expressed so very much.
Anna didn’t want to leave, but Beau convinced her and after they both told me congratulations they walked out. Anna stopped in the doorway, looking back toward the bed and I could see the hesitation in her eyes. “I’ll call you if she wakes up, promise.” With that she nodded her head and then she was gone.
I’d already called Grady and he’d agreed to go to my place and get Gus, his little girl squealing in the background demanding he would sleep with her in her bed. I knew he’d be taken care of.
Burt and Cybill where the last to go, as he wheeled his wife out the door, he paused and held my stare. “You take care of my daughter, and my grandchild.”
I nodded, to spent to say anything. I was still reeling with the news that Sadie was carrying my child.
Sometime through the night Sadie woke and I hit the button for the nurse.
They looked her over, offered her something for the pain and she shook her head saying she was okay.
After the woman excused herself I slid in close once again and linked my fingers through hers. Bringing our joined hands to my lips I kissed her fingers and held them against my lips still saying nothing.
“You were right,” her voice was barely above a whisper but in the quietness of the room I heard her clearly. “I need a new car, mine is shit in snow.”
I chuckled, not feeling the least bit in the mood for it, but honestly this woman was amazing. After what she’d gone through and that is the first thing she said when waking up after hours of induced sleep.
“Babe, your car looks like its went three rounds in the demolition derby. It’s done.” She wrinkled her nose and I stood, leaning over her body to press a soft kiss to her lips. “And we’re buying you a tank to drive.”
She smiled against my lips but I wasn’t joking. I would never again go through what I went through during that call and after. It was without a doubt one of the scariest moments of my life and now it wouldn’t be just Sadie in the car.
My entire life would be inside whatever vehicle she drove so if I had it my way she be in the biggest, sturdiest fucking automobile out there. Even then I knew I’d be pacing the floors until they were home with me.
“On second thought, I think I’ll just drive you around myself.”
Lifting her good hand, she placed her palm to my cheek and kissed me once more.
“I love you.” That word wasn’t strong enough. What I felt for her was so much deeper than love.
Chapter Forty
Sadie
* * *
I laid in the tub with my palm rested on my bare stomach. Lost in thought, feeling amazed by what lays beneath my hand.
I didn’t notice Wyatt standing in the doorway until he spoke.
“What are you thinking?” I smiled at him, and he moved in closer kneeling next to me, placing his own hand where mine still remained. I had no idea how long he’d been watching me.
“I still can’t believe it.” The second he told me while I laid in the hospital bed shortly after I woke up several night ago, I thought I’d been hallucinating. But when he repeated the words and then placed his hand on my stomach I knew I hadn’t imagined his words.
We fell asleep in that very position, my hand and his resting on my stomach and the next morning they did another sonogram just to ensure everything was okay. That’s when it hit me, when it hit us both.
I was pregnant and I had no idea. I’ve never been regular and we’d used protection, granted I understood those things failed but it was still a shock.
“I’m happy.” I’d always wanted kids. Granted I thought I’d be married and maybe have time being a newlywed before being thrust into motherhood, but I didn’t regret that we’d leaped forward to this stage.
I was going to be a mother. And Wyatt a daddy.
Looking away from where our hands rested I found him staring at my belly. “Are you happy?”
“I have never been happier.”
I wanted to touch him, but with one hand in a cast, and resting on the side of the tub, I remained where I was. His fingers linked through mine, covering the very spot I baby grew.
I’d spent the last several days since coming home from the hospital being pampered and spoiled by Wyatt. He barely let me feed myself and normally his hovering would have drove me nuts but due to the circumstances it was actually very sweet.
Anna had told me about him crying at my side when his mother and brother showed up the night of the accident and it practically broke me. I think it shifted something between him and may father too because when he stopped by the day after I’d come home there was a newfound peace between them. An acceptance, and my father even gave Wyatt a manly hug before leaving. It was a huge turning point and when he sat back down on the couch at my side he looked just as shook by it as I felt.
My life had changed so much since returning to Mason Creek. To which none of it I had expected. I always knew it was home, where I would remain and maybe one day meet a guy and raise a family but I never expected that to happen after colliding outside a coffee shop with the one guy I hoped to avoid.
I never expected to have that same man become my landlord and I surely never expected to fall in love with the one that broke my heart so many years ago.
But the universe had a different plan for me. I have to believe that coming back here, and all that followed was meant to be. I have to believe that the hardships that happened after Wyatt left me standing on my front porch all that time ago were lessons to be learned. It all made me stronger, and yes it all ran full circle back to this point.
Had you asked me months ago to go back to that day and relive every single moment over again I would have told you to go to hell. Yet now, knowing that this is where it would all lead me I’d repeat it all over again. Because this, my life and the man I have, the child we’ve created, it’s all the best possible outcome.
Gus lay on the floor at my feet. It’s the place he’s been almost daily since I came home. It’s like he knew and he was protecting his baby. It was sweet really and the big monster had grown on me something fierce. He no longer hassled me, but in his defense, I knew now it was him being playful. I was just a mess and I blame it all on the sexual frustration I felt for his daddy back then.
Miley had been handling the shop, with it being winter things were a little slower so it was easier to o
perate on one. Tate had also been offering her help so she can have lunch and breaks throughout the day. We shortened our hours too.
Wyatt offered her the cottage as the same price she paid for her tiny apartment outside of Mason Creek and she’s still been hesitant about taking the space. I think she felt like she was taking advantage but honestly I would love having her so close.
I was relaxing on the couch, a romantic comedy that I’ve seen a hundred times playing on the television. I could feel myself dozing off, and I knew I should get up and do something, but my body had refused to move. I’d noticed that I was tired all the time and yes prior to the accident I’d felt it too, yet then I blamed it on the late night activities that Wyatt and I participated in. When in fact it was those late night activities that led to the true reason I always felt so drained.
It still surprised me beyond belief that I was pregnant.
Everyone had falling into the idea very quickly and I already had two very happy grandma’s that have begun to spoil their impending grandchild. It was sweet really.
The doorbell rang and Gus perked up immediately. Grabbing the blanket that was wrapped around me securely I tossed it to the side and got up off the couch. Suddenly thankful that someone had decided to stop by and give me a reason to get up and do something other than be lazy.
Wyatt would say resting was good for me and it was exactly what I should be doing, but I was bored out of my mind doing nothing all the time.
As I walked across the living room and peeked out of the front door, I smiled when I saw Beth, Wyatt’s mom and his Aunt Mabel I smiled, opening the door to allow them to come inside. The cool air hit me, giving me the instant chills.
Beth had really embraced the grandma role and I loved that is gave her something to be excited about. A few times she’d mentioned how Wyatt’s father would have loved being a grandpa and that look of sadness would return to her eyes, that broke my heart.
