On the other hand, he wouldn’t expect a woman like Gia to stick around unless he got his shit together. She needed more, deserved more, than him. Raising a child would be hard, and she would need all the support she could get. This rift with her family was going to hurt her for always. He knew what it was like to live without a family, and he couldn’t allow Gia to give up her whole life because of something he’d done to her. That’s not how love worked. Not for Creed.
Decision made, he snatched her phone off the nightstand and padded silently out of 1010. And when he reached the porch railing, he leaned hard on it and scrolled through her contacts until he found the one he wanted.
With one last glance over his shoulder, and a wary ear out for Gia, he made the call.
****
A pounding knock at the door woke Gia from a bottomless sleep, and when she cracked her eyes open, she squinted at the direct sunlight that pelted against her eyeballs. Willa had just thrown open the windows. She stood there with her hands on her hips, chest puffed out, inhaling deeply.
“Willa,” Gia muttered, “you’re supposed to inhale fresh air out of an open window. You’re standing in front of the window unit, and the air coming out of it smells like mold.”
She inhaled loudly again. “You smell mold. I smell a morning full of promise. Just look at that sunshine, Gia. Today is going to be phenomenal. I just feel it in my bones.”
“Your bones are wrong.” Gia flipped over like a flapjack and pulled the pillow over her face. Creed really didn’t love her back. She squeezed her eyes tightly closed and clenched her teeth against the pain that realization caused.
The pillow disappeared from her face, and Gia groaned. She’d forgotten what an obnoxious morning person Willa had been at slumber parties growing up.
“You want to come play with my worms?”
“No.”
“You want to take Spike on a walk together?”
“No.”
“You wanna get buck-wild and take a trip to Minden with our mates?”
“No. Wait, what?” Gia sat up and stared at Willa who was lying like a star beside her, taking up three-fourths of the bed. She had a dreamy look in her soft brown eyes.
“I’m going to tell my dad I’m a bear. I’m kind of nervous, but Matt will be there, so I know everything will be okay. I won’t have to carry around this guilt anymore, plus I’ll get to show Matt my horticulture trophies. He’s going to be so attracted to me. I’m definitely getting laid.”
“Uh, I can hear that you get laid every night, Willa. You two are ridiculously loud. Horticulture trophies aren’t going to get you extra points.”
“Shhh, Gia, you don’t even know. Matt eats that nerd shit right up. He even got my glasses fitted with regular lenses so we can role-play like I’m my nerdy human self again.”
Gia tried not to smile and failed. “You two are so weird.”
Willa scrunched up her nose and whispered, “We are awesome.”
“I said weird, not awesome.”
“Potato, pototo, tomato, tomoto.”
“God, I missed you.”
Willa shrugged and licked the tip of Gia’s nose. “I know. For our trip, I come bearing gifts.”
She pulled a can of squeeze cheese from her coat pocket and handed it to Gia, who was very busy wiping Willa’s lick off her nose. “What’s this?”
“It’s cheese that you squirt like whipped cream. Festus will love it.”
“Stop giving my child silly names.” Gia scrabbled with the seal until she growled and gave up, handing it to Willa who could use her mighty werebear strength on it or whatever. “I told Creed I loved him last night. He didn’t say it back.” It felt good saying that out loud to Willa and sharing the burden with someone she trusted.
“Oh, shit,” Willa said softly. She popped the cap and squirted a stream of yellow into her mouth, then handed it to Gia, who did the same.
“This is gross,” she said, squinting her eyes at the ingredients on the side.
“No more filet mignon for you, Gia. You’re in the trailer park now. Best get used to the food of my people.”
Gia laughed and gave the cheese another try. She highly doubted this fine delicacy was reserved only for the trailer park, though. Maybe it would taste better on a cracker.
“He does love you, though. You know that, right?” Willa asked suddenly.
Gia stared at the sagging ceiling and sighed. “He said hardly two words to me after I said it. I think I scared him off. It was too much too soon. I jumped the gun and messed everything up. He doesn’t feel the same way, and now I’ve ruined any chance of us ever getting there. He doesn’t look at me the same way Matt looks at you.”