“Of course not, go forit.”
Squinting in the sunlight, I looked down at the display: four messages and a missed call, all from Josh. “Shit,” I mumbled under my breath. “What does hewant?”
Josh: I just saw you go out on your horse—are you out of your mind?! Callme!
Josh: Savannah! Why aren’t you answeringme?
Josh: If you don’t answer me I’m coming to findyou!
Josh: I’m on myway!
“Savannah, you’ve gone pale, is everything okay?” Alex asked, concern lacing hisvoice.
“I just need to make a quick call, would you excuse me?” I asked him. Not waiting for a reply, I stepped away, heading back toward the horses in an attempt to hide my call from him. The last thing I needed was Josh showing up. He would know exactly where I was—we’d come to this spot as kids all the time and he knew I loved it there. I hit the call button and waited; it didn’t even ring, just went straight to voicemail. The signal out there was patchy and it was luck of the draw if your phone worked; Josh’s obviously didn’t. I ended the call and frantically typed him a message in the hope that he would get the text before he showedup.
Me: DON’T COME! I’m fine! I couldn’t answer when I was riding but I’m fine. I’ll catch up with youlater.
I hit send and prayed he would get it in time and turn around. I rolled my eyes and groaned—looking at the time of his last message, he would probably be there in about 10 minutes if he rode quickly. Although Josh hadn’t grown up on a ranch like Brody and I had, he had spent most of his summers at ours since he was about 10 and was as good on a horse as Brody was. Josh lived in a huge house just outside of Marble Falls. His parents owned a construction company, and while he had a good relationship with them, they were never home much when he was growing up, spending all their time working. As soon as Josh had been old enough, he had spent most of his free time at our place, learning to ride and fish with Brody andme.
“Savannah,” Alex called from behind me. “Do we need to head back? Is everythingokay?”
“No, no, everything is fine, just a misunderstanding,” I lied. “Do you feel like a dip?” I asked him in an attempt to change the subject. I wasn’t going to tell him Josh was potentially on his way, and I was still hopeful he would get my message intime.
“Sure,” he replied, slipping his boots off. I kicked off my boots too and slipped my toe into the water, squealing at how cold it was. I heard Alex laugh behind me and I turned, kicking some water up at him. He laughed again and eased in, standing next to me with his shoulder touching mine. “I can see why you like it here, it’s soquiet.”
I nodded as I looked around. It was my favorite place on the ranch and it never failed to amaze me; it was so beautiful and peaceful. I closed my eyes and dropped my head back. The water may have been cold, but the sun was warm on myface.
“We used to come here all the time when we were kids. We’d spend all day here, playing in the water, swimming, fishing. I lovedit.”
“We?” heasked.
“My brother and…” I trailed off, not wanting to bring upJosh.
“Your brother’s friend?” he finished for me, saying what I couldn’t. I nodded and turned to facehim.
“Look Alex, maybe this wasn’t—” He lowered his head and the next thing I knew, his lips were crashing into mine as he silenced me with akiss.
“Savannah!” I heard an angry voice yell. I pulled away from Alex and spun around to see Josh flying through the clearing on one of the ranch horses. He jumped down off the horse and marched over, anger radiating off him. “Well now I know why you weren’t answering your phone,” he snapped. Stopping right at the water’s edge, he turned to Alex. “I know you!” he exclaimed, pointing at him. “You’re the jerk from the bar the othernight.”
“Josh!” Ishouted.
“It’s fine Savannah,” Alex assured me, moving slightly so he was standing in front ofme.
Josh must have noticed what he was doing and let out a sarcastic laugh. “You think I’m going to hurt her?” Josh shouted, shaking his head. “It’s you who let a pregnant woman ride here with one hand,” he yelled at him. I sucked my breath in sharply and closed my eyes as I waited for Alex to realize what Josh hadsaid.
“Pregnant?” he asked, confused. He turned around to face me. “Savannah, what’s goingon?”
“I’m sorry Alex, I wanted to tell you, I just didn’t know how.” I dropped my eyes from his and fiddled with the bandage on my hand, shame engulfingme.
“So, it’s true?” he asked, the disbelief evident in his voice. I forced myself to look at him and was met with angry eyes. I nodded slowly. “You agreed to go on a date with me, knowing you werepregnant?”
“You were pushing me to go out with you. I told you I had a lot goingon.”
He took a step closer to me. “Why didn’t you just tell me you were pregnant? Were you planning to sleep with me then tell me the baby was mine?” he growled at me, the nice guy from a few minutes before suddenlygone.
“What? No! Of course not,” I exclaimed, taking a step back. “I’m not aslut!”
“Could have fooled mesweetheart!”