Page 55 of Until Waverly

“I’m almost positive the reason you saw what you thought you saw was because Mack helped me get a reservation for her husband’s birthday. A husband she is very much in love with and happily married to.” I pressed my lips to her forehead. A welling of sadness swallowed me up. I wanted to cry and laugh. To hate Waverly for keeping us apart while also loving her so goddamned much. “Now a good time to talk to me, sunshine?”

Her bottom lip, so like our daughter, quivered. Her blue eyes went glassy, filling with tears threatening to spill at any moment. I loved her so fucking much, but she could frustrate me like no other.

“Oh, Jackson,” she cried. “We should talk.”

“Yeah, we fucking do.” There was one thing about Flame. Although the outside was warm and inviting, it was obvious Mack didn’t want people loitering around. There were no chairs or tables. Not even any music had been pipped outdoors. I glanced back at the parking lot and the number of cars beginning to fill the lot. I took her hand in mine and started for where I’d parked the Comet. “Let’s go sit in my car. Alandria’s safe inside with our family.”

Waverly’s gait was slow, as she limped with each step.

“Do you want me to carry you?” I enjoyed having her in my arms.

She nibbled on her bottom lip and shook her head.

When we arrived at the car, I opened her door first then edged around the front of the car to the driver side. Once we were inside, she fiddled with the hem of her dress. “I don’t know what to say.”

“Tell me,” I snapped, then cleared my throat. “Sorry. Please, Waverly speak to me. Make me understand what happened.”

So, she did.

She started with the night she came to Flame, excited about being pregnant but also worried about how I would take it. She even had the pregnancy test to show me in case I had any doubt. Once she’d arrived, she went to the bar knowing what time I’d be getting off, then saw me with Bridget. From Waverly’s eyes, she thought I’d either cheated on her or was cheating on Bridget. I had a reputation, and Waverly wasn’t the first girl I’d had sex with, but she was the the first woman I ever loved.

Would ever love.

“Why’d you think I was cheating?” I asked, needing to hear her words. She couldn’t meet my gaze. Pink tinged her cheeks. “Wave?”

She coughed as if she was embarrassed admitting the truth. Finally, when the silence was about to kill me, she turned to face me. “Your brothers... There is a lot of gossip about them and the constant rollover—”

“Of pussy at our house.”

She nodded.

Fuck.

“I’m not a cheater,” I said, realizing how little we knew about each other. We were going to have to change that. “I’d never fuck around on you, sunshine. It goes against everything I am. Just know, you’re it for me.”

Her soul-shattering sobs filled the car. I could’ve said a lot of shit things to Waverly, let out all my resentment and anger at what she’d done to me. How she’d painted me and kept me away from my daughter. But I didn’t because I knew she was beating herself up. Her bum ankle was also becoming a problem for me, preventing me from dragging her ass across the seat and straight into my lap.

“Shh,” I attempted to comfort her, my fingers dancing around in the strands of her hair. “Come on, sunshine. I need you to stop crying before you make yourself throw up.”

“You must hate me,” she wailed. “I’ve been so stubborn. Foolish. I’d say I’ve been a vindictive bitch too!” Pure heartache shone brightly in her eyes as tears ran down her cheeks.

“Stop it,” I snarled. No one talked badly about Waverly, not even herself. I wouldn’t allow it.

“No, Jackson. You should despise everything about me. I kept an enormous secret from you, then our daughter from you and my family because I thought the worst of you. God, I’m so stupid. I’m sorry. So freaking sorry.”

When she finally calmed down, my shirt covered in tears and snot, her eyes were all puffy and swollen while her nose was bright red and running. Honestly, Waverly had never looked more beautiful to me than she had right then.

Rummaging around in the glove compartment, I found a stack of old fast-food napkins. “Use these,” I murmured stuffing the crinkled paper into her hands.

“Thank you,” she mumbled around the tissue before blowing her nose. Once she was done, she tucked the used tissue under her leg. She glanced at her reflection in the rearview mirror, trying to check herself.

“You look fine. Beautiful even.”

Waverly snorted while trying to fix her destroyed makeup.

“Better?” I asked when she finally glanced at me again.

“Not really.” Waverly let out a shaky breath.

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