“You’re done,” Gunner growled at her. “In Hawthorne. You’re done,” he repeated.
She shrugged. “I could give two shits about this podunk town anyway. But I wasn’t gonna be run out of town with her thinking Maddox is all starry-eyed over her. She’s a means to an end. That’s all.” She turned to me, her full lips twisted into a cruel smile. “Have a nice lie.” With a parting smirk she sashayed off, disappearing from view.
I turned to Gunner in dismay, already knowing the truth from the worry in his gaze. “Is that true?” I demanded. “Did Maddox know who my family was before he met me?”
Gunner shifted on his feet.
“Gunner?” Emmie demanded in outrage. “What the fuck!”
“You’ll have to take this up with Mad,” he replied quietly. That said it all.
My world tilted and I nearly lost my footing despite standing on flat ground. Maddox had sought me out because I was a Rossi. Everything about our first meeting, hell maybe everything after it had been a lie. Hurt so visceral that it blinded my every sense made it impossible to make sense of anything.
“I want to go,” I managed quietly, the fear that I was going to lose the contents of my stomach suddenly all too possible.
“Frannie, he loves you,” Gunner shared quietly.
“I want to go,” I repeated, desperate this time.
Emmie wrapped an arm around me. “Okay, honey, we’ll go.” She guided me gently from the mall, away from the bustling people going about a normal day while my reality had changed in an instant.
“I don’t want to go home,” I told her urgently when we reached Gunner’s car.
“Okay.” She nodded. “Where do you want to go?”
“I don’t care.” I sighed, looking out the window, not sure I cared about anything other than not puking all over Gunner’s classic muscle car.
“Is May still staying with you guys?” Gunner asked Emmie, referring to Piper and Ryker’s oldest daughter who I’d heard about but not yet met. At her nod, he fired up his engine, its throaty growl nearly deafening. “I’ll take her to Max and Wren’s,” he decided.
I didn’t hear anything they said after that, my forehead pressed to the glass in a bid to remain somewhat grounded. How could he not have told me? What had he really wanted from me that day? What did he want now? Everything I knew about Maddox, everything I’d entrusted him with, my heart included, felt suddenly airborne—floating somewhere between betrayal and hurt.
When we pulled up to Max and Wren’s beautiful home, I opened the door just in time to throw up all over the gravel drive.
“What’s wrong, is she sick?” Wren demanded, materializing at my side as Max looked on in concern.
“She hasn’t looked good the last few days,” Emmie put in as both women guided me toward the house. “And she just got some surprising news. Let’s get her settled.”
“I’m fine,” I managed, frustrated that they were talking about me as though I wasn’t even there.
I lay gratefully on the soft sheets in what I assumed was a guest room as Wren and Emmie fussed over me. “Should we take her to the hospital?” Wren demanded.
Emmie sat on the edge of the bed appraising me thoughtfully. “Frannie, could you be pregnant?” she asked quietly.
“No.” My first instinct was to deny. Then reality crept in. “I mean, I don’t think so.” I thought back to that first time together. “I don’t know, maybe?” I groaned. “My cycle has always been haywire, and I just figured I’d been feeling off because of the stress of everything.”
“I’ll have Liv pick up a test.” Wren was already typing furiously on her phone. “She’s already on the way here anyway.”
I curled into the fetal position as I’d been longing to and wasn’t surprised when it brought little comfort. My friends left me to myself for a few minutes, stepping out into the hall, likely scrambling to figure out what the hell to do.
When they reentered, Liv joined them, her eyes shining with tears. “Frannie, my brother loves you,” she rushed to say, coming to sit at my side. “Emmie told me what happened. I swear I had no idea. He’s a fucking idiot, but he loves you,” she insisted urgently. “I don’t know what he was thinking.”
“It’s okay, Livie,” I told her quietly. “Let’s just figure out if I’m knocked up or not.” I offered a small semblance of a smile, wanting to assuage her torment and to appease my own gut-wrenching worry.
I’d always wanted a baby, but this was a hell of a time to consider the prospect.
She smiled through tears. “Yeah, let’s figure out if I’m going to be an auntie first.”
“Way to make it about you, Liv.” Wren rolled her eyes but her tone was teasing.