“I’m so, so sorry,” she choked out, voice hoarse and raw from breathing in smoke, but more from her own remorse. “I should have told you a long time ago, but I was just being stupid. I didn’t know how to handle it and now I get why you didn’t tell me about everything. Once you don’t say anything it just...snowballs.”
Dylan blinked hard and maintained his distance; unlike Mike, he seemed hardened. Which was weird, because she would have expected the opposite, that Dylan would be easier to reconnect with. “Why did you freeze?”
She didn’t expect that question. More tears. “You mean in the fire—Oh! My cats!” Panic filled her again, the baby’s heartbeat racing. Damn it! Staring deeply into her eyes, Mike inhaled slowly, her own body instinctively following. The act of being this connected made her heart slow down, his kind eyes extending an olive branch of forgiveness, of love and understanding.
It almost made her feel like this wasn’t hopeless.
Almost.
“The baby is telling us something, Laura,” Josie said, her voice pinched and worried. “Now really isn’t the time. And your cats are fine and peeing all over my apartment right now. I grabbed them from the bushes and threw them in my car and took them home for Dotty to terrorize.”
“Dotty’ll have them in line in no time,” Laura murmured. Yawn. What time was it?
“Laura?” Dylan asked, his voice gentle but firm. “What happened to your grandparents?”
Josie grabbed his bicep and pulled him aside. “Would you shut up about that? It upsets her.”
“No, no, it’s OK. I can talk about it. A little.” The horse hooves picked up their pace but not too much. Man, she had missed these guys. Even now, here in a hospital bed, her home probably destroyed by the fire, her cats becoming subs to Dotty’s dom, it felt so...right to have Mike and Dylan here.
“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.
“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!