Page 78 of Ghosted By Texas

“He asked you to marry him,” she spit out fully, as if I hadn’t just contradicted his proposal.

“I know. I was there.”

“Right, but I’m saying that he never asked Jordan to marry him when he thought she was pregnant with his kid. Even when he thought that’s what was going on, the minute he found out that you were pregnant, he asked you to marry him.”

“Probably because it was already a given that they were supposed to marry,” I supplied, since she seemed to have forgotten about their stupid marriage pact.

“So, what? He was going to have two wives?”

“Those people in Utah do it, why not?”

Clea laughed at me. “Those people in Utah? Really Becs?”

“Yeah, I’m not trying to be some sister-wife and making charts for who gets the asshole on which night. Plus, she would have seniority and I’m not playing second fiddle next to crazy-town who tried to fake a pregnancy when she doesn’t even have a uterus.”

Clea’s eyes grew saucer-wide at my callous description. I pretended not to notice while adding on to one of my nightmare scenarios.

“Can you imagine? What if no one knew about her medical shit and she tried to cut me open and steal my baby like in those Lifetime movies or something?”

“I would never allow that to happen,” Clea promised.

“Agh! Shit!” I yelped as I noticed Austin standing there in the mirror’s reflection. He glared at me, as if I had grown two heads and both of them were hideous.

“You think I’d ever let anything happen to harm you or our baby?”

I was in a mood because I had to attend my best friend’s wedding while forever-months pregnant with a full bladder, because it was perpetually full these days. And I was going to be a single mom in a matter of weeks. It was depressing and I was taking it out on Austin and anyone else who would accept my stupid, hormonal abuse.

“You harmed me, and you did it for her, so yeah.”

“Son of a bitch!” He groaned before giving his attention to Clea instead of me. “This is for you. A gift from your groom. Your something blue,” he told her before stomping out of the room in a tizzy.

“You could have said something,” I fussed at my best friend. She had been facing the door and knew he was there.

“I gave you the eyes!” She insisted.

“What? No, you didn’t. Your eyes always look wild.” She had given me the eyes, but I thought she was scandalized over something I said. “What am I supposed to do with that?” I doubled down as if I wasn’t wrong.

I tried to distract her by pointing in the mirror. She looked amazing. We were wearing almost the same dress. Well, it was exactly the same style, but hers was made for skinny people and mine was made in whale size, or pregnant belly size, as Clea told me I needed to refer to it. The only difference, other than mine having way more belly room, was that hers was more of an ivory while mine was pure white, which I thought was kind of backward, but whatever. It was her wedding.

“Here, let me put this on you,” I offered as I held up the gorgeous necklace her groom had just made his brother drop off for her. It was a platinum chain with a sapphire stone that was surrounded by a bunch of diamonds in the shape of a heart. Too cute.

“There’s something here for you as well,” Clea informed me as she opened a box up. “This is also your something blue,” she told me. What the hell I needed something blue for was beyond me. She put the necklace around my neck, and I looked into the mirror to see what it was. The pendant that dangled off the chain was an angel with her hands spread out around a blue stone. I imagined that represented me and my baby boy.

“Thank you, this is beautiful. You didn’t have to,” I cried and swiped at the stupid tear that threatened to ruin my makeup.

“I didn’t do it,” Clea informed me.

“Then who?” I tried to take it off because I didn’t like accepting gifts from unknown people. When I thought it was a thank you gift for participating in my bestie’s wedding, I’d been willing to take it. Not that she needed to get me anything to be in her wedding, but you know. Who was I to break traditions?

“Leave it!” She ordered. “He’s trying to make amends. Let him. For your peace of mind and the baby’s.”

Oh! It had come from Austin then. God, I was stupidly in love with that man, but my worries about him never went away. I wish I could chalk them up to my weird irrational fears, but with everything we’d been through, I was afraid it just boiled down to not wanting to repeat history.

“Yeah?” I finally managed to get out. “What if he flakes on us after the baby comes?”

“Then we bury him where no one will ever find his corpse.”

“I have a shovel,” a gravelly voice called out from the door. Oops, someone else we failed, or at least I failed, to notice.

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