Page 51 of Forbidden Cowboy
She wrapped her arms around my waist from behind, and it took a second for the anger to flare in me at realization.
“Youknewshe was there!” I growled, ripping myself from her arms.
My ex-wife wore an expression of indifference.
“And if I did?”
“Get the fuck out of my house,” I growled.
“No, Wyatt, this is my home too, now. You know it’s right for us to be together, after all our history!”
“The only time in our ‘history’ that I haven’t despised you was that night at Joey Smith’s party!” I yelled back.
“Is this all because of the woman you’ve claimed is only your nanny? You know she just wants you for your money, right? She wants you to pay for Beau Carter’s hospital bills, or she wants a new car, or she just wants the excuse to live rent-free while never getting off her ass to do anything about the kid that’s supposed to be in her care! Are you going to knock her up and leave her, too?”
“And what is it you want, Eliana? Don’t I only know about Anna because you thought it was easier to mooch off of me than try and get a job? Aren’t you the one that comes back here time and again, and tries to live here for nothing?! You are nothing to me! If it weren’t for Anna, I’d make sure you ended up behind bars for all the drugs and the lying and the theft you’ve committed over the years, but youuseher as a tool to get me to do what you want! I feel sick to my stomach, because I thought you might have actually changed this time, but I can see that once again, I was just played for a fool.”
Her eyes had returned to the venomous state I hadn’t seen for weeks, and I felt truly silly at having bought her whole act. Was I that easy to convince?
“You’ll regret this. If I leave now, I’m never coming back. Anna won’t have a mother.”
“She’d be better off without one if the only option is you,” I spat.
Eliana stormed towards the door, growling about how she’d collect her things later.
“I’m going to get Anna, and I’m going to the hospital. You will get your thingsnowand be out within the hour, or I will have them donated and you will be arrested for trespassing.” I stopped and glared so she could see the sincerity in my eyes. “And one more thing. She’s not even related to her, and Sierra has been a better mother to Anna over the last few months than you have ever been in her entire life.”
I turned my back on my ex-wife, once and for all, and headed for Anna’s room.
* * *
I bundled a sleepy Anna into the truck, and was immediately grateful that she’d fallen asleep listening to something on her tablet, because the noise-cancelling headphones were probably the only reason she hadn’t woken up when Eliana and I were yelling.
At the hospital I practiced what I was going to say all the way to Beau’s room. Of course, she was going to be there, not just because it was where she always went when she needed space, but because I wouldn’t know what to do if she wasn’t. I carried Anna the whole way, her little arms wrapped around my neck, and I felt terrible for dragging her out in the dead of the night.
A nurse tried to tell me visiting hours were over, but I just kept going. She would likely call security on me, so I had to be fast. I walked into Beau’s room, expecting to find Sierra in her vinyl chair, maybe curled up on the cot in the corner, maybe even standing with her arms crossed as she faced the window, but she was none of those places.
Instead, my best friend’s eyes watched me enter his room, and I realized how rude I had been. After months of Beau being asleep, I had forgotten the common courtesy of asking to enter someone’s personal space.
“Anna,” Beau said, and his voice sounded like his mouth was full of cotton wool.
I looked at the still sleeping girl in my arms.
“Hey, Beau,” I said. “I’m sorry, man, I thought you’d be asleep.”
“I—never—want—to—sleep—again,” he slurred out, taking breaths between each word.
It sunk into my brain that I was talking to my friend. Something I had once thought I’d never do again. I laughed dimly at his little comment, but I was ultimately distracted.
“Was Sierra here?”
He nodded, his eyes knowing, and he looked towards the bedside table. A folded piece of paper was on it. I went over to it, and picked it up, shifting Anna to one arm.
It was a napkin, I could tell that much, but the light was too dim for me to make out anything else.
“Sir,” came a deep voice from the doorway. “Visiting hours are over, and I’m going to have to ask you to leave until the morning.”
I looked up to see a security guard standing there, looking like he was ready to make me leave if I didn’t go willingly. I stuffed the napkin in my pocket.