Happily This Christmas (Happily Inc #6) - Susan Mallery Page 0,104
to care about you, and you can’t trap him into loving you. After everything I’ve been through, I’m back where I was fifteen years ago. Loving someone who doesn’t love me back.”
* * *
THREE DAYS AFTER the fact, Garrick realized that maybe giving Wynn time had been a bad decision. He hadn’t seen her at all, and the only response to his text suggesting they talk had been a quick This isn’t a good time for me.
He knew he’d screwed up big time, but he didn’t know exactly what he’d done. Was it wrong to want to have kids with her? Shouldn’t she see that he was trying to give her exactly what she wanted? He thought she was amazing and wanted to raise children with her. How was that bad?
He decided enough was enough and went next door to talk to her. Whatever was going on needed to be fixed. He missed her and wanted them to go back to where they had been.
But when he knocked, Hunter answered the door. A Hunter who seemed older and bigger and didn’t look happy to see Garrick.
“Is your Mom around?” Garrick asked, offering an easy smile.
“She doesn’t want to see you,” Hunter said flatly. “So you can’t come in.”
The slightly threatening tone was nearly as surprising as the message itself. Wynn didn’t want to see him?
“She’s still upset?” he asked.
Hunter rolled his eyes. “Yes, she’s still upset. I don’t know what you did, but it’s bad. My mom cried. She never cries. Even when I totally screw up, she doesn’t cry. When she found out about what I did with faking her signature on the JROTC application, she didn’t cry. So whatever you did, you’d better fix it and fast.”
With that, he closed the door in Garrick’s face.
Garrick stood on the porch for at least a minute, trying to figure out what had just happened. He’d known Wynn was upset, but he hadn’t realized how serious the situation was. Hunter was right—he had to fix it and fast. But first he had to figure out what he’d done wrong.
Women, he thought grimly, as he made his way back to his house. What had God been thinking?
He sat on the top step of his front porch and replayed his last conversation with Wynn. He’d said only nice things about her, he’d offered to have children with her—children that she wanted. So why wasn’t she speaking to him? No, why was she crying?
The front door opened and Joylyn came out. “Hey, Dad. Elijah’s finally sleeping, so it’s safe to come inside.”
He glanced at her. “That’s okay. I’m going to sit here and think.”
Joylyn sat next to him, wincing slightly as her butt hit the wooden porch. “Fresh air. This is nice. I’m not sure I’ve been outside since we left the hospital. Maybe tonight we’ll sit out back by the pool.”
“Sure. Good idea. We can barbecue something for dinner, if you’d like.”
“Water buffalo?”
He stared at her. “What?”
She smiled. “Just making sure you’re listening.” The smile faded. “Dad, what’s going on? You’ve been acting weird for a couple of days now, and I haven’t seen Wynn even once. Did you two have a fight?”
Interesting question, he thought. “I don’t know.”
She rolled her eyes. “That is such a guy answer. What did you do?”
“Maybe I didn’t do anything. Maybe I was just being a great guy and she completely overreacted.”
Joylyn stared at him without speaking.
“Fine,” he said between gritted teeth. “A week or so ago Wynn mentioned that she regretted not having more children. There were reasons, but now with Hunter growing up, she wishes she had a bigger family.”
“And?”
“And after you had Elijah, I came home and told Wynn I wanted to have children with her. I said she was a great mom and I would like the chance to be a father again and we should have a family.”
Joylyn drew her brows together. “So you proposed?”
“What? No. I said we could co-parent. We live next door, and it would be easy for us to...” His voice trailed off as he realized how ridiculous he sounded.
His daughter stared at him. “You offered to co-parent with her?”
“It’s what she wanted.”
Joylyn waved to the house next door. “Based on the fact that you’re sitting here and she’s in her house, it wasn’t what she wanted. Really, Dad? Co-parenting? Not, ‘I love you more than life itself, let’s get married?’”
He’d been able to ignore the proposal comment, but this one required a response. “Why would you say