Debra Cowan - Whirlwind Reunion

After applying a fresh layer of honey, she bandaged him as quickly as possible, not wanting to feel any of those flutters she had felt the other day. A sigh eased out of her and she stepped back. “All done.”

“Good. When can I get out of here?”

It was impossible not to take that personally. “Today.”

“Did Russ or Pa bring me any clothes?”

“Yes.” She went to the other bed, fetching a gray shirt and a pair of old boots his brother had brought from the Triple B.

Matt declined her offer to help him dress, for which Annalise was glad. Gathering up the soiled linens she would later boil, she stepped around his cot and into the front room to deposit them in a burlap bag.

“Why did you come back to Whirlwind, Annalise?”

She froze at the question as much as the bleakness in the words. Turning, she looked into his blue eyes, hard with scrutiny. She had to speak around the catch in her throat. “Because this is my home.”

“You sure didn’t mind leaving it seven years ago.”

He now wore the shirt and she couldn’t stop her gaze from going to the tuft of dark hair visible in the unbuttoned placket of the garment.

“My plan all along was to come back and you know it,” she said.

“Did you leave a man back there, like you did here?”

She stiffened. The hurt slicing through her quickly turned to anger, but she didn’t let him bait her. “You can have your bandages changed by whomever you prefer. No need to come back here unless there’s a problem.”

“All you ever cared about was medical school.”

“That isn’t true.”

“Well, it damn sure wasn’t me. Or what we had.”

“That’s what this is really about, isn’t it?” Annalise wasn’t reminding him that the other thing she’d cared about was their life together. She curled her hands into fists. “Because I didn’t change my plans after you proposed.”

“No.” He didn’t hesitate, but she didn’t believe him.

“You knew I intended to come straight back to you—back here after medical school, but after you proposed, with my father already gone, you thought I would stay in Whirlwind and give up my dream of becoming a doctor.”

“I never said anything like that.”

“You didn’t have to say it. You made it abundantly clear once I was out of sight. You acted as though I didn’t exist.”

A muscle flexed in his jaw as he slowly got to his feet. “I cared for you,” he ground out. “And our baby.”

“Our baby!” She shook with outrage, disbelief. “You didn’t care enough even to acknowledge my letter about the miscarriage.”

“You’re a fine one to point the finger.”

“What’s that supposed to mean?” she asked hotly.

“If you’d cared about me or what we had, you wouldn’t have lied about the baby.”

“Lied? About what?” Incensed, she marched over to him. “You think I wasn’t expecting?”

“No, I believe you were.”

“Then what?” Her heart pounded hard in her chest.

“I think you knew before you left Whirlwind that you were carrying my baby and in your letter you tried to make me believe you didn’t.”

Her breath jammed painfully in her chest. “You think I knew and went to Philadelphia without telling you?”

“Yes.”

How could he believe such a thing? “Well, I didn’t know.”

“You’re the daughter of a doctor.” He took an aggressive step toward her.

She moved back, not out of fear, but from sheer reflex.

“You helped your pa from the time you were ten, and you knew more than most about medical things. How could you not realize?”

“I was distracted by my grief over my father’s death. If there were signs of a child at that time, I didn’t catch them.”

The skeptical, scornful look on his face set off her temper.

“You are a piece of work, Matt Baldwin! Why would I lie?”

“Because if you’d admitted back then that you knew, you would’ve had to stay.” His voice rose, too. “You wouldn’t have been able to traipse halfway across the country, putting our baby at risk.”

Pain and guilt knifed through her.

“If you hadn’t been so all-fired set to get to medical school, our baby would be alive. You as good as killed him.”

Before she even realized it, her hand flew up and she slapped him. Hard.

He grabbed her wrist, his expression stunned.

Tears blurred her vision. “How dare you.”

Her hand print glowed red on his jaw. The blame was already carved into her heart, but coming from Matt, who had never even acknowledged their child? How could he have said something so cruel? Was there nothing left of the man she’d loved? If so, she couldn’t see it in those steel-cold eyes, the rigid jaw.

She was shaking so hard her teeth chattered. Very quietly, she said, “Get out.”

“You bet.” He released her with a curse.

She registered the heavy thud of his boots on the floor, the slam of the door as her entire body went numb.

He’d brought up the past and she hadn’t been able to keep her mouth shut. She wished she had because now she was forced to admit what she had denied for seven years. She’d never gotten over him.

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