Page 53 of Stowaway Whirlwind
The only time I’ve felt like smiling since we came outside is when I tell them, “I’m on Lily’s birth certificate. Unless I’m court-ordered to take a paternity test—which we’re hoping to avoid—legally, I am her father.”
To Goldie, Dolly asks with wide eyes, “Didn’t you meet like a day or two before you gave birth?”
Goldie bites her bottom lip and nods. “Davis filled out her birth certificate with his informationwithoutmy permission while I was asleep.”
Dolly tsks and cuts a narrowed gaze at Wyatt. “Sounds like something you would do.”
Wyatt cracks a grin and says with zero shame, “Yeah, it is.”
Goldie drops her face in her hands, crying softly when she gives them more backstory about her relationship with Colton and her fear of them painting her out to be an unfit mother. Ofthem winning their case if the judge thinks Lily would be better off with them instead of her when she’sshacking upwith a random man. Ever since Mrs. Fitzroy threw that phrase at her, it’s been on an endless loop in her head.
Dolly tries to stand from her chair to go to her, but I get there first, plucking Goldie out of her seat and sitting with her on my lap. Tucking the blanket tighter around her, she curls into me, her tears wetting my collar.
I make eye contact with Wyatt over the fire, his expression menacing as he fists one hand on his lap and uses the other to link hands with Dolly. “You know what you need to do, brother.”
Yeah, I do.Standing with Goldie in my arms, I ease her to her feet, then kiss her when she tips her chin up, her beautiful eyes so sad. I cup her face, deepening the kiss for a few moments before sliding my hands down her arms to hold her hands, then dropping to a knee before her.
One of the women gasps as Goldie brings her trembling right hand to her mouth while I hold onto her left. “Goldie—”
Her face falls, and she pulls her hand away. “Oh my god, this is crazy. Get up.”
I don’t. “If we get married, we’ll have a stronger legal standing with the court.” I throw in offhandedly, though I’m anything but, “And you wouldn’t have to work at the diner or anywhere else. I’d take care of you like I have been so you can stay home with Lily.”
She scrunches her nose. “As romantic as that sounds,” she says with a hint of sarcasm, “what happens in ten years when you realize you’ve made a mistake marrying someone you’ve known all of six weeks—five of which you weren’t even here—and want a divorce?”
“That’s not going to happen,” I rumble, reaching for her hand. “Rule number three: divorce is not an option.”
“Good rule,” Wyatt murmurs in the background.
I lower my voice for only Goldie to hear. “Need me to remind you what I said yesterday?”
Goldie swallows. “Yesterday?”
“In the living room.” I raise my brow.
“That was just…pillow talk,” she says warily, leaning back.
“Pillow talk?” I damn near shout, getting to my feet when Goldie yanks her hand away again and steps back quickly. “You think that was just—is this a joke?”
“Come on, kids. Let’s leave them to it,” Ms. Ellie says, ushering the hushed group away from the fire pit toward the house. Ms. Judy twists her hands and glances back at Goldie nervously.
“I would never lay my hands on her the way…” I trail off, speaking to Ms. Judy. Goldie doesn’t know about the abuse Dolly and her mother suffered at the hands of Dolly’s father before they escaped him, and it’s not my place to tell her. “Not in a million years. You have my word.”
Ms. Judy nods and allows Ms. Ellie to guide her away with her arm around Ms. Judy’s shoulders.
I approach Goldie slowly after the group is inside the house. Once I’m within arm’s reach, quick as a whip, I grab her by the waist and pull her into my chest. “Don’t think for one second that it was just pillow talk when I told you that you’re mine in every way. What we have is real.”
Goldie twists away and pushes her hands in her hair. “No! We weren’t thinking clearly. You’ve been home for two days, Davis. Two!”
Needing to hold her in my arms, I advance on her, and she quickly steps back away from the fire pit toward the shadows of the trees lining the back of Wyatt & Dolly’s property. For every one of my slow steps forward, she takes one step back.
“Goldie,” I growl.
“No! You’re going to listen to me. Here’s what’s real—If I go along with your plan and say yes to your crazy proposal…if we get married and I let you ‘take care of me’ instead of going back to work, and we have another kid or two…what happens when you meet someone youactuallywant to marry? When the whirlwind Ms. Ellie was talking about fizzles out, and you realize you’re tied down to me?”
“That’s it! I’ve heard enough.” I rush her, and at the last second, she squeaks and spins to sprint away from me, deeper into the dark woods. Bless her heart—with her short little legs, she doesn’t get too far ahead of me before I catch her around the waist, and we tumble to the ground. I crash to my knees and throw my hand out to break our fall so Goldie isn’t flattened to the leaf-littered dirt beneath my weight.
Goldie rips my hand from her waist, snarling like a feral animal, and crawls away on hands and knees, kicking her leg back to nail me in the chest with her new brown leather western boots that are sexier than any pair of high heels. I dodge her kick, then lunge forward to grab her around the hips, prop her up on her knees, then press a hand to the middle of her back to pin her chest to the ground.
