My knees nearly buckled, and I felt Tanner grab me to hold me up.
I needed a few moments to get my thoughts together. “She’s known about this for a month, and she couldn’t find the time to tell me? How about the morning after the celebration? When I was alone with her?”
Timberlynn glared at me. Her empathy was clearly now pure anger. “She was trying to be thoughtful of your pain over your father, Dirk.”
I huffed, even though I knew deep inside that her words made sense.
Timberlynn shook her head as she went on. “She planned on telling you that morning. But you decided to take a phone call from Kaylee, instead.”
That moment came back to me in an instant. I knew something was wrong with Merit that morning from the way she acted. The way she got up and threw out her breakfast and left so quickly after I took Kaylee’s call. It had been wrong of me to take the call, I saw that now; hell, I figured that out not long after Merit stormed out.
Shit, and that was the phone call where I told Kaylee I’d help them with the baby crib.
But I’d been afraid to have the conversation I knew I was going to have with Merit, and honestly, I’d felt relieved when the phone rang, regardless of who it was.
Damnit. I knew something was wrong. But I didn’t have any time to dwell on that as Timberlynn kept talking.
“Then, later that same day, you made your declaration to Brock about how Merit was the last person you wanted to be in a relationship with. Imagine hearing that from the man whose baby you’re carrying. Tell me, can you honestly blame her for not wanting to tell you?”
I opened and closed my mouth a few times as my gaze bounced between the two women. “I didn’t know she was pregnant at the time.”
“Oh, okay. Then all is forgiven, is that it? If you knew she was pregnant, you wouldn’t have admitted to not wanting to be with her?”
“That’s not what I meant,” I stated.
“Sure sounded pretty damn clear to me,” Timberlynn said, her arms folded across her chest and a look of anger on her face.
“Okay, let’s calm down, Timber,” Tanner said.
Lincoln spoke up next. “Dirk, the important thing right now is what are you going to do?”
Suddenly, my anger was back. Who exactly I was angry with was a mystery to me. I glanced past Timberlynn and Lincoln to see Stella and Ty Senior walking toward us. It was obviously my turn to go see Kaylee and the baby.
“Dirk?” Lincoln prompted again. “What are you going to do?”
I said the only thing I knew to say at that moment. I needed to be alone and think before I made any decisions. “Nothing.”
Timberlynn let out a disbelieving laugh. “Nothing?”
I dropped my eyes to hers. “Nothing.”
I moved to walk around them and made my way to Kaylee’s room. I needed time to process all of this. I had no damn clue what in the hell I was going to do. My instincts told me to run. Run away? Run to Merit? Leave Hamilton? Hell, I was good at that. Leaving. What would my father think of the direction my thoughts were going? He’d be disappointed, to say the least.
I turned and looked back at Tanner, Timberlynn, and Lincoln when a thought occurred to me. “Does Kaylee know?”
Timberlynn shot me a dirty look. When it was clear Timberlynn wasn’t going to answer me, I looked at Lincoln.
Her eyes looked so sad as she slowly shook her head. “No, Merit didn’t want her to know.”
Relief washed over me that at least one of my friends hadn’t betrayed me.
I nodded and turned to walk away.
“You’re doing it again,” Timberlynn stated as Stella and Ty Senior both stopped and surveyed all of us. It was clear they had noticed the somber mood, when it should have been a time to celebrate. Stella’s gaze bounced from me to Timberlynn with a confused expression on her face. Even I could hear the disdain in Timberlynn’s voice.
I stopped but didn’t turn around as Timberlynn drove the knife in even deeper with her next words.
“You’re choosing another woman over Merit, once again. Kaylee is simply your new Kaci. Don’t you see that?”
“Timberlynn!” Lincoln cried out in a shocked voice as Stella frowned and looked between us.
I closed my eyes tightly before opening them again, and I continued to walk down the hall toward Kaylee’s room. With each step, I fought the urge to turn and leave. I touched the doorknob of Kaylee’s room and Timberlynn’s words replayed over and over again in my mind. I dropped my hand to my side, turned, and left.
Chapter Twenty-One
MERIT
I walked into the barn and the smell of alcohol hit me like a brick wall. Kimberley, Dirk’s mother, had called and asked me to come quickly. Apparently, having a drunkard father made one qualified to help all men who drank themselves silly. Never mind the fact that it was only one in the afternoon—Dirk was supposedly drunk out of his mind.