Wild Bride Read Free Page A

walked over and sat on her bed.
    “Are you okay?” He sat next to her.
    “Yeah.” She looked down as his hands took hers.
    “I…” he started. She looked up at him. “I didn’t mean for this…”
    She chuckled. “Yeah, neither did I.”
    “Well, since it did…” She watched him swallow. “Will you marry me?”
    She couldn’t stop the burst of laughter that had built up in her chest. “Hell, no.” She stood up and turned on him. “Seriously? Why would I follow up a stupid mistake with an even bigger one?” She turned and started listing off all the reasons it was a very bad idea. By the time she’d run out of steam, he was nodding and slowly getting off her bed.
    “Well, if you need anything.” He avoided looking at her, and she knew that she’d hurt him. At this point, she didn’t care.
    There was no way she was going to marry Billy Jackson, even if she was having his baby.
     
    Six months later…
    Shortly after that night, she’d traveled to Vegas after finding out from Billy that Travis, Billy’s longtime best friend, was there. She’d hoped to try and convince him to come back into town, to help her make things right, but instead he’d shunned her and she’d returned home empty-handed and empty-hearted. Not that she was in love with Travis Nolan. But he was the one person throughout all the years who had always been there when she needed someone. Even when he was engaged to wiry Alexis West, he’d been there for her. She’d loved knowing that she’d been with Travis the entire time he’d been roping Alex along. But after his mother had gone crazy, Travis had left town. She hadn’t seen again until Vegas.
    Now, there was no hiding the fact that she was pregnant anymore. Even her parents knew, though they had never actually asked outright.
    She’d stopped smoking and only occasionally walked around with a lite cigarette hanging from her mouth, just to keep gossip down to a minimum. She’d even pretended to drink beer and act a little drunk in front of her friends.
    Travis had come back into town and just the other night she’d made a fool out of herself on his front porch. She knew she was being childish, but it had stung that he’d turned her away so easily.
    That night, she’d stood in front of the mirror naked and had lost it. Her body was a mess. So, she’d done the only thing she could think of—she’d dressed as sexy as she could and thrown herself at what she had assumed was a sure thing, only to be thrown out like a used tissue. She’d said and done some things in the last few months that she wasn’t too proud of, but she had no control over herself when it came to rejection.
    She hated knowing that Travis had moved on with the bookworm, Holly Bridles, who had broken Savannah’s nose a few months back. Her mother had driven her into Houston and they’d preformed a minor surgery to fix it as best as they could. Still, she thought that after the baby was born, she’d fly to LA and have a professional do a better job on it.
    To be honest with herself, at this point in her life, she doubted she could deal with Travis anymore. His father had just passed away and left him with a mess around town. Everyone was talking about all hoops he had to jump through just to get his hands on his family’s money. She sighed and leaned back in the seat of her Jeep.
    She knew the gossip that was going around town about her and Travis. Some claimed it was his baby, and she’d let the gossip continue unchecked, if for no reason other than she just didn’t have the strength to fight against a whole town at this point.
    Okay, it might also have been that she didn’t want people to know it was Billy’s child. After all, since that night when he’d found out, he’d done little to prove to her that he was going to be a man and step up, other than throwing out a hasty proposal. He’d been seen around town with his friend Corey, chasing after every available girl above the age of