Page 9 of Salvation

A noise I’m quite certain I’ve never made before escapes my lips.

“Oh my – you’re pregnant!?” I lunge forward, nearly knocking my coffee over. “Why didn’t youtellme?” Then another thought hits me, and my eyes widen. “Who-"

“Shh!!” She looks around, but thankfully, there’s no one in here save for an elderly woman reading in the corner. “Quiet! Not many people know yet. I just found out.”

“Does Viv know?” My brows scrunch, and I speak in a much quieter tone this time.

“No.” She shakes her head. “And I’d like to keep it a secret for a little while longer.”

“Hey,” I squeeze her hand back, “I understand.” My smile turns wicked, and I fail at keeping my features neutral. “My god baby is going to be one spoiled son of a bitch.”

She laughs deeply in return, a watery smile of her own greeting mine. She goes to open her mouth once more, but the bell chimes again. Signaling someone else had joined our space. Whitney abruptly stands, nearly knocking over her chair from the force, and lets out a breathless greeting, “Hey.”

“Hey,” A deep voice echoes from behind us.

I don’t get the chance to question her behavior or the odd tension radiating in the air because when I turn, a familiar blue gaze lands on me.

“Holy shit. Little Lake?” The man wastes no time in coming around and scooping me up in a bear hug.

I try my best not to roll my eyes at the old nickname. “I’ve missed you too, Wyatt," I say, squeezing him back.

Wyatt Conway is Wesley’s older brother. Age has only made him more handsome. His eyes are the same blue as Wesley’s, but the curly hair that now falls to his shoulders is a few shades darker. It makes me a bit envious that a man was gifted with something most women pray for. The two brothers could pass as twins if you weren’t around them so often, the smallest features telling the two apart. Wyatt has always looked more like Ana, whereas Wesley looks like his father. We grew up together as well but were never nearly as close as Wesley and I were. He treated me like a little sister. He often was just in the background, off working or helping his mom where it was needed around the house. After his dad passed, he rarely ever spent any time at home. As soon as he turned of age, he moved out and took over the family ranch.

He sets me down, holding me at arm’s length. “Mom didn’t say anything about you coming home.”

“She didn’t know,” I explain.

His brows raise at that, but one look from Whitney lets him know it’s best not to question anything.Instead, he pivots the conversation,“Give me a call in the morning tomorrow. You’ve got to come see the ranch. I’m meeting someone now, but I just wanted to stop in for a coffee.”

With that, Whitney comes back into view and hands him a cardboard cup.

“On the house,” she says, not meeting his eyes.

Their exchange is tense, and it feels as if she’s just trying to get him out as soon as possible.

He huffs, sliding a bill into her hands. “Keep the change.”

Wyatt’s always been one grumpy motherfucker too, especially after their dad passed. But if you’ve known him for as long as I have, you know just how cuddly and warm he is on the inside. Seems Whitney is one of the few he chooses to tolerate, whether she knows it or not. After he leaves, I face Whitney.

“That was…weird?”

The nerves she had when he was here vanished, replaced by something I can only read as annoyance.

She huffs out a laugh before flipping the open sign to close and locking the door. “Don’t even get me started on Wyatt Conway.”

Chapter 10

Wesley

Blake and I sit at one of the booths in the bar. It’s the middle of the afternoon, so business is slow. Just a few regulars pouring in for lunch. Everyone knows my dad makes the best burgers in town, so we often decide to show up on the weekends when we are both free. Blake and I just turned 15, and now we’re in our first year of high school. I had asked her to help with my English homework, even though it wasn’t hard by any means, and I truly didn’t need the tutoring.

I just…wanted to see her. And to get her out of the house. Her parents were constantly fighting, and Blake didn’t like to talk about it much, but I could tell it was taking a toll on her. So, I did it, and often. For both my sake and hers, even if she spent half the time yelling at me for barely paying attention to her instructions.

I hate to admit it, but I loved to get a rise out of her, to make her face flush in frustration. I have never looked at her theway I do now, but one day, something just sparked and never went away. She had met me early for breakfast one random morning so we could walk to school together, and I decided then and there she was the prettiest thing I’ve ever seen. It’s as if she’d transformed overnight. Pretty really didn’t even begin to cover Blake’s features. All the guys at school saw it too, and as much as I hated it, I understood why it was so easy to lose all train of thought when around the girl sitting right in front of me. She was oblivious to it all of course, because Blake didn’t see anything she didn’t want to, and because she truly had more going on in her life than the average teenager should have to deal with.

Dad interrupted our bickering as he set down Blake’s burger and fries for us to share. “You can try Blake, but you’ll never be able to replicate that brain of yours.”

She beamed back up at him, playing into the teasing tone. “I wouldn’t dare.”

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