I nodded, but it was Will who answered. “Apparently, according to Scott, Cannel gave Scott a look. A look that ‘pitied’ him. Or whatever. Pretty much, he made up a reason to do it, then used that to harass her over the last week. But after questioning at the police station, it was understood that he didn’t want her to be happy because she reminds him of Brianna, his ex-wife, and my superior officer. They don’t look anything alike except they both have the same eyes.”
“Have you checked him for a mental illness?” Trinket asked, looking alarmed.
“Actually, that’s what they’re doing now.” Will turned and pressed a kiss to my forehead. He then turned and pressed one to Ashlie’s and Petra’s, who were both passed out against him on the other side. “Because seriously, that’s not how things work. There’s always a reason and giving someone a ‘look’ doesn’t usually count.”
Trinket shook his head and then stood up, pointing at the girls. “You want them to go to bed?”
“No.” Will paused. “I’m just going to leave them here. They like sleeping on the couch.”
After all of my brothers left, which was about fifteen minutes after his parents and mine left, Will finally turned to me and said, “I’m a dumbass. I don’t want to be without you anymore.”
I snorted. “I’ll give you tonight. But I’m not moving in with you until we’re married.”
His eyes narrowed. “You want to get married?” he teased. “How about tomorrow?”
I snorted. “Sorry to break the bad news, buddy, but you’re going to have to propose. I want big. Breathtaking. Write it in the sky kind of big. Then I’ll say yes, and we’ll have a long engagement because I want a big ass wedding. One with suits, and formal dresses, and shitty food that is just enough for people to eat and not be starving, but still have to go grab a Whataburger later that night.”
His eyes were large as he said, “Really?”
“Really,” I confirmed.
He sighed. “I guess I could do that.”
I leaned my head against his chest.
“And when you ask the right way, I’ll say yes.”
He sifted his fingers into my hair as he said, “Yay.”
CHAPTER 23
If the world didn’t suck, we’d fall off.
-Text from Cannel to Will
WILL
It took us months to be able to go over a bridge again.
And it wasn’t just the girls.
If Cannel and the girls were in the car, we just took alternate routes to places. That, or they all closed their eyes and covered their faces with their hands until I told them they could open them again.
Though, after talking to a few people, I’d decided that today was the day that we were no longer going to pretend.
Today, we were going to face our fears.
That was why I had a pack of motorcycles behind us, my parents in front of me, and my three girls in the car with me.
There was going to be no getting out of this.
“Oh, fuck!”
I looked in my rearview mirror at Petra. “Petra,” I started. “You did not just say that word!”
“What?” Ashlie asked. “What’s the… oh, fuck.”
Cannel sighed, looking back at the two girls in the back seat.
She’d been on her phone, as had the girls, and it’d taken them until we were almost on the bridge before they noticed what we were doing and where we were going.
Where we were going was going to the bridge.
The one that had caused all of these nightmares.
But at the end of the bridge, there was something special waiting.
Something that would…
“I’m pregnant!”
I slammed on the brakes, causing, I was sure, a few curses to come out of the men on bikes behind me.
I pulled over before we got onto the bridge and then threw the truck in park, before turning to Cannel.
“I’m sorry, but what?”
“I’m pregnant.” She was hyperventilating. “We should turn around. I don’t want to accidentally kill our kid before we even have it.”
I felt my eye twitch.
“How long have you known?” I asked curiously.
I wasn’t mad.
I’d had the thoughts that she might be.
I mean, we hadn’t used birth control in the beginning.
After that one time in the very beginning, we’d raw dogged it quite a bit. So it was bound to happen.
The only thing was, I’d been expecting it for months. Waiting for her to tell me. Yet she hadn’t.
I sighed as I stared at the other side of the bridge.
Realizing that we needed to get this over with for everyone’s sake, and my sanity, I put the truck back into drive and started forward, going slow.
“Don’t close your eyes,” I ordered. “And while you’re looking down praying, make sure you look at the bank.”
Her breath hitched, but I watched her peek open her eyes.
“Someone is asking someone else to marry them?” Petra asked.
I sighed.
“Goddammit,” I grumbled.
“Will…” Cannel whispered, emotion filling her voice.