Unfinished Business

7

I wake up to bright lights, wincing at the sheer pain it brings to my eyes. There's a monitor beeping soundly beside me, and when I lift my arm to cover my face, I feel a needle sticking inside of it. I groan and throw my head back on the pillow.

Great.

The hospital.

Everything that happened before I passed out begins to flood back into my head. Wyatt and his new wife? Fiance? One of the two. I have a fucking migraine from trying to process all of the hurt and feelings swarming inside of my chest, but before I can contemplate them for long, I hear movement beside my bed.

Loretta is tapping her foot on the floor, arms crossed over her chest. "Are ya gonna eat now, or what?"

"Oh my god," I groan, not even caring that I'm talking back to her. "Can you just be nice to me for one second? Please? And for the record, I don't want to speak to you right now."

"And why is that?"

"Because you knew! You knew he was married and didn't tell me. You've been placing these false hopes in my head that we could fix things and we fucking can't, Loretta! There's no coming back from this in a town that gossips for a damn living. You knew, and you didn't tell me. Why?"

She points to the table beside my bed that has a turkey sandwich on it wrapped in plastic. "I'll explain when ya eat."

Grabbing the sandwich hastily off the table, I unwrap it and take an angry bite, earning a satisfied grin from her. "Wyatt ain't married yet. He's engaged. And that girl he's with..." She shakes her head. "She ain't the one."

"Oh, come on. Did you see her? She's the perfect southern belle he's been waiting his whole life for. He wanted someone to go to church with every Sunday. He wanted a girl that knew her way around a farm, and we both know that isn't me. He may have made me fall in love with the country lifestyle, but no matter how much I try to fit the mold, I can't."

"She may seem like a southern belle, but I can see straight through it. Knew somethin was off when he brought her round for the first time. I did some investigatin and found out her parents are investors. They damn near own half of main street. Rumor has it, they're wantin to build more property."

"And what's so bad about that?"

Loretta leans forward and places her elbows on her knees. "Because expandin' means takin' land off of Wyatt's farm."

I wrinkle my nose up in confusion. "Wyatt's? The farm is his now? I thought his parents owned it?"

She points to the sandwich again, so I roll my eyes and take another bite. "Bill got diagnosed with cancer three years ago and passed last year. His mother turned it over to him."

Gulping loudly, tears are pricking into the backs of my eyes at this newfound information, and the desire to go to Wyatt and wrap him in the biggest embrace is almost unbearable. I remember going over to his parents house for dinner and relishing how animated his dad always got as he told stories about Wyatt as a little kid. He was so loving, and he was proud of Wyatt and everything he did.

"I had no idea," I whisper.

"And Caroline didn't even go to the damn funeral. That just shows ya how much she cares."

"Did you tell Wyatt this information? Does he know that her parent's just want some of his land to expand into?"

She gives me a pointed look. "Do ya not know me? Of course I spoke my mind. I don't allow her ass to go inside The Starlighter. Ya know how Wyatt is though. Stubborn as a damn bull. He don't wanna believe it."

It hurts to know that he's still deciding to stay with Caroline after finding out this information. It means he must genuinely care for her, and the thought eats away at me. I haven't cared for anyone in the way that I do for Wyatt, but I guess I'm not expecting him to feel the same way after what I did.