“They died.”
“In the fire?”
She nodded.
“Is that why you freaked on our first date when I talked about fire procedures in skyscrapers?” Her stomach dropped. He remembered that? She’d been nervous enough, and then he’d casually talked about how to handle fires in enormous buildings like hers. What were the chances he’d pick the one thing that terrified her the most?
And what in the hell kind of world made a fire break out in her apartment while she was pregnant?
Wait. Why had Dylan been the one to rescue her? Her turn to ask some questions.
“Why were you the one who rescued me? You live across town.”
Mike and Josie turned their attention to Dylan, who blushed. Blushed! She’d never seen anything so adorable before. He looked like a bashful eighth grader. “I was on call. I woke out of dead sleep and heard your address. Ran for it and called Mike.”
“In good traffic it’s fifteen minutes to my house from yours, Dylan!” Laura exclaimed.#p#分页标题#e#
“I made it in six.” Mike made a low whistling sound. Dylan grinned, proud of himself. “And that’s why I have that Audi,” he crowed. Josie rolled her eyes. Men.
Exhaustion seeped in some more, making Laura’s eyelids feel heavy. Too much to talk about, too little energy. “I’m sorry.”
“You keep saying that.” Dylan held a finger up to his lips. “Shh. No need.”
“One of you is the father,” Laura whispered. “I had this one day where I missed my pill. Not even twenty-four hours! But it must have been enough.”
“Or maybe I have super sperm,” Dylan joked. Mike’s glare was like a laser. Josie’s, too.
Laura smiled weakly. “We need to do a paternity test and then we can—”
“No!” Mike and Dylan shouted in unison. The confused look they gave each other shifted to a strange understanding, their faces animated with shifting expressions even as they stayed silent. It was like watching two mimes have an entire, deep discussion without saying a word.
“No?” Josie said, incredulous. “What do you mean, ‘no’? You have to know who the father is, for the birth certificate.” Protective and defensive, Josie stepped closer to Laura, as if ready to shield her from whatever the two men had in mind. Laura, though, knew what was going on.
“You really don’t want to know, do you?” she asked quietly.
Barely four hours had gone by since Dylan’s phone call, and Mike had to absorb his first encounter with Dylan since their fight four months ago, seeing the two loves of his life endangered by fire, and now he had just learned that Laura was pregnant with their baby. Their baby. All three of them. He didn’t want to view it as his, or Dylan’s. But he had no idea Dylan felt the same way!
Pointing at Dylan, he said, “You, too?”
The smile on his partner’s face was so telling, impish and serious all at once in a way only Dylan could pull off. “Me, too. She’s ours. Not yours. Not mine.”
Would Laura agree? Mike wasn’t sure. Seeing her there, on her side, radiant and scared, made him want to bar the door and protect her from whatever the world threw her way. Radiant! Hah! Now he knew why she seemed to be glowing when he saw her yesterday at Jeddy’s, through that window.
A happy pregnant woman, full of life.
Full of his child.
His daughter.
Their daughter.
“I hate to break up this lovely Hallmark moment— hey, where do I get a card for this?—but as wonderful as the sentiment is, it’s not practical,” Josie announced. Like poking a pin in a balloon, Mike felt deflated, burdened and weighed down by something he couldn’t name.
“Why not?” Dylan threw back at her. The opposite of deflated, Dylan seemed emboldened. Cocksure.
“What if something happens to Laura? You need to know who the legal father is for custody. For raising her. I’ve seen too many really screwy situations in hospitals after parents die to know that you do not want Child Services to be the one who takes your daughter away to a foster home while the legal system sorts all this crap out. Plus there are issues of inheritance.” She made a face and rubbed her fingers together. Money.
Like a bucket of ice water pitched on them, Josie’s words made him feel stone-cold sober. Crackpot idea, right? Some calm, internally-focused part of him thought it might work—not knowing. Once they knew who the dad was it would shift everything, make him and Dylan competitors, not collaborators.
“I like it.” Laura’s voice was small but strong. “If they both want to be her dad, I’m fine with it.”