A Baby for the Boss(39)

“Who said I would?” Shaking her head, she said, “You keep putting words in my mouth. So why not just stop trying to think for both of us? Telling you about the baby was the right thing to do. If you want to see our child, that’s your choice. But you don’t call the shots here, Mike, and I think you should leave.”

He didn’t want to. But staying here angry wouldn’t help the situation any. He needed some air. Needed to think. But when he walked out of her house and heard the door slam shut behind him, Mike acknowledged that the real problem was that he needed her, too.





Eight

“You’re pregnant?”

Jenny sighed and waited for her uncle to finish ranting. Right after Mike left, she had driven south to her uncle’s house on Balboa Island. She’d needed...support, and she’d known she’d find it here. At least, she would once her uncle was finished calling down curses on Mike Ryan’s head.

Her gaze tracked the older man as he paced around his living room. Just as when she’d told Mike about the baby, she’d come expecting this exact reaction. The man had never forgiven Mike for accusing Jenny of trying to use him. And this situation wasn’t making her uncle any fonder of Mike Ryan.

“He turned on you, didn’t he?”

Jenny winced and her uncle saw it. His gaze narrowed and his features tightened into lines of fury.

“I knew it. That son of a bitch.”

She sighed a little.

“When you told him about the baby, he accused you of trying to trap him into marriage, didn’t he?”

Well, she could lie to her uncle or she could tell the truth and confirm his opinion of Mike. Jenny thought about it for a second, then decided she didn’t need to protect her baby’s father. “Yes, he did.”

“Still thinks you’re trying to wangle a deal for Snyder Arts?”

“I guess,” she said on a sigh.

“Idiot,” Hank muttered.

Before he could get going again, Jenny started talking. She wanted to say something that she should have said years ago. “Uncle Hank...”

The tone in her voice must have alerted him to a change in subject. He looked at her, concern shining in his eyes. “What is it?”

Lamps on the tables tossed golden light around the room. Outside, lights in homes and boats flickered in the darkness. This was home. Had been since she was a girl. And the comfort she felt here was something she was still grateful for.

She smiled a little. “I wanted to tell you something. When I first realized I was pregnant, I thought about all the responsibilities lying ahead. And I understood how you must have felt when my parents foisted me off on you.”

“When they—”

“I just want you to know that I don’t blame you for not wanting me, back then. I mean,” she hurried on as Hank’s forehead furrowed and his eyes narrowed, “I was twelve and you were alone and had your life and I was a—”

“Gift,” Hank finished for her while she searched for the right word. “You were a gift,” he repeated as if making sure she understood exactly how he felt. “My sister and her husband were fools then and they’re fools now—wherever they are. They didn’t know what they had in you.”

Stunned silent, Jenny could only watch him as he approached and cupped her face in his big hands.

“You opened up my life, Jenny. Of course I wanted you. You’re my family. You’ve been a joy, always. You’re my daughter more than my niece. And now, you’ve given an old man something to look forward to—you’re going to make me a grandfather.”

Her vision blurry from behind a sheen of tears, Jenny could only look up at the one steady presence she’d known her whole life.

“No more of this not-wanting-you stuff, okay?” he asked. “Don’t you ever even think it. Understand?”

She nodded because she didn’t trust herself to speak. Her heart was too full to allow for mere words to explain what she felt.

“Good,” he said with a sharp nod. “We’ve got that settled once and for all. But as for Mike Ryan...”

“Uncle Hank, this isn’t all on Mike. I’m a big girl—”

“You’re too trusting and he’s a man used to taking what he wants. That’s the issue here,” Hank muttered darkly. He paced again as if he couldn’t stand still another minute. “Thinks because he’s richer than Croesus he can just call the tune everyone’s supposed to dance to.”

Jenny rolled her eyes and he saw that, too.

“I’m wound up and I know it,” he said, “but with reason.”

“I appreciate it, really I do,” Jenny told him and walked across the comfortably furnished and oh-so-familiar room to his side.