Pregnant by the Maverick Millionaire(23)

As soon as she could.

Kade felt he was living the same life he'd lived with his father, not  sure how the next move would affect him. Every day was new territory for  him and he felt as unsettled as he had when he was a child.

Quinn's fist smacking into Kade's biceps rocked him back to the here and now. "What the hell was that for?"

"I talk to both you and Mac but neither of you listen! It's like talking to a blow-up doll."

"You should know," Kade grumbled, rubbing his arm.

Quinn's fist shot out again but Kade stepped back and the fist plowed  through air. Kade sent Quinn a mocking glance. "Too slow, bro."

Quinn picked up his beer bottle, sipped and after lowering it he spoke again. "You concentrating, dude?"

"Yeah." Kade leaned against the kitchen counter and crossed his legs. "Speak."

"Your dad is having an exhibition in a couple of weeks, downtown."

So? His father was a well-respected artist and frequently held  exhibitions in the city. James didn't invite him to any and Kade didn't  attend. It worked for both of them. "Not interested."

"The exhibition is called 'Retrospective Regrets.'"

Kade didn't give a crap. His father wasn't part of his life, hadn't been  part of his life for a long, long time. And he liked it that way.

"I just thought you might like to tell him he's going to be a grandfather."

He hadn't wanted a son so Kade doubted he'd be interested in a  grandchild. But maybe he should give James the benefit of the doubt?  Maybe he'd changed. Kade cursed at the hope that flickered.

"I'll think about it."

Quinn knew better than to push. He just shrugged and lifted his beer  bottle in Brodie's direction. "What are you going to do about her? Are  you going to marry her, live with her, demand joint custody?"

Kade wished he knew. "I definitely want joint custody, everything else  is up in the air." He rested his beer bottle against his forehead and  sighed. "It's all craziness."

"Well, I suggest you figure out what you are before the news of your  impending fatherhood hits the papers. If you don't know they'll decide  for you."

Because the media's focus had been on his dates and the future of the  team, so far he and Brodie had managed to dodge that bullet, but Kade  wasn't under any illusions they'd keep the baby a secret indefinitely.

Quinn grinned. "On the plus side, my BASE jumping and having to talk  myself out of being arrested aren't quite so bad when you measure them  against the fact that another Maverick-teer is going to become a father,  barely a month after Mac."

Kade would cross that burning bridge when he came to it. And talking  about daredevil stunts... "Talking of, are you insane? You could've been  killed!"

"Only if my chute didn't open," Quinn cheerfully agreed. "Then I would've made a dent in the concrete. Splat!"

Kade sent Brodie an anxious look, grateful she hadn't heard Quinn's  cavalier attitude toward death. "Not funny, Rayne." Kade stopped,  whirled around and slapped his hand on Quinn's hard chest. He scowled at  his best friend. "Brodie lost everyone she loved in one accident. Don't  you dare be glib about death, yours or anyone else's, around her! Got  it?"

Quinn rubbed the spot on his chest. "Jeez, okay! Got it."

Kade walked away and Quinn scowled at the ceiling.

"I'm running out of friends to play with," he muttered.

* * *

Later in the week, after a night long on pleasure and short on sleep,  Brodie stood at the center island in Kade's kitchen, and scowled at her  daily calendar on her tablet screen. Her schedule was utterly insane and  she would be rushing from one appointment to another, all with men  looking for a happily-ever-after. Didn't they realize the closer and the  more perfect the relationship, the more pain they could expect to feel  if the relationship went south? The end always hurt the most when the  connection felt the best. Argh...she normally never thought about how  her clients progressed after she matched them. Damn this situation with  Kade for making her so introspective!

Kade, on his way up from the gym, walked past her to the sink and filled  a glass with water. He whistled when he caught a glimpse of her  schedule. "And I thought I had a hectic day ahead."                       
       
           



       

"Crazy, isn't it?" Brodie sipped her coffee and scowled at the screen.  "I won't take all these men on as clients, some I'll be able to help and  some I'll discard because, well, they'll be idiots."

Kade rested the glass on his folded arm. "Why matchmaking, Brodie? Why earn your living from something you don't believe in?"

Why would he think that? "But I do believe in it. I do believe people  function best when they are in healthy, stable, supportive  relationships. Being alone sucks."

"But you avoid relationships. You are alone," Kade pointed out.

"Yeah, but that's the choice I've made." Brodie picked up a banana from  the fruit bowl and slowly peeled it. "I know it's ironic that I,  commitment-phobic as I am, own a matchmaking service."

Kade put his hands behind him and gripped the counter. "Okay, so why do you?"

Brodie looked across the loft to the rainy day outside. She took a bite  of the banana, chewed it slowly and then placed it on the side plate  next to her half-eaten toast. Should she tell Kade? Was she brave enough  to open up a little more? She rarely-okay, never-spoke about Jay. She  had trained herself not to think about him. But Kade was the father of  her baby and she almost trusted him. Well, as much as she could.

"In the car crash, I didn't only lose my parents, I lost my best  friends, as well. Chelsea and Jay. We were all in the car. I survived,  and they didn't. We were like you and Mac and Quinn-inseparable." Brodie  swiped her finger across the program to close her calendar. "Jay and I  always knew that, one day, we'd move on from being best friends. Three  weeks before the crash, we finally admitted we loved each other. We  started sleeping together, everything was new and bright and wonderful."  Her voice cracked and Brodie cleared her throat.

Kade took a step forward but Brodie held up her hand to stop him. If he  touched her she would start to cry and she had clients to see. "I lost  my world in the space of three minutes. But I was so loved, Kade. So  damn much."

"And you don't want that again?"

"I can't lose that again. I'll have this child and that'll be enough.  This child arrived by sheer fluke and I've accepted that the baby is  life's way of forcing me to love again. To love in a different way."

"And will that be enough?"

Brodie lifted one shoulder in a tiny shrug. "It has to be. It's all I'm  prepared to risk." Her smile felt a little shaky. "I am going to be the  best mother I can be. I am going to be your friend, your lover, for as  long as that works or until you meet the woman you can't live without."  Brodie rubbed her hands across her eyes. "I hope you find her, Kade. I'd  like you to. I think you deserve her."

"And I think you deserve the same."

"I wouldn't be that lucky, not twice. Life doesn't work that way."  Brodie pushed her tablet into its case and sighed. "I have to go. Busy  day."

"It's barely seven, Brodie, and I need to talk to you about something else."

Brodie frowned at his tone. Being bossed around so early in the morning really didn't work for her. "Okay, what?"

"So gracious." Kade walked across the kitchen to take a mug from a  shelf. He jammed it under the spout of his coffee machine and pushed a  button. Brodie tapped her fingers against the counter, listening to the  sounds of the beans grinding. She was feeling exposed and hot, like her  skin was a size too small for her body. That's why she didn't usually  talk, she reminded herself. It made her feel sad and funny and...weird.

"I'm going to need to tell the press something about us and soon."

"Why?"

Kade looked at her over the rim of his mug. "We spend a lot of time  together and someone is going to realize that. And when you start  showing, they'll go into overdrive. Wren suggests we hit them with a  press release and cut off the speculation. So what do you want to be  called? My girlfriend, my partner, my common-law wife?"

Brodie grimaced as he said the word wife and Kade scratched his head. "Okay, so not wife. What?"

This was far too much to deal with so early in the morning. "I don't  like titles. I don't believe in them. We are what we are..."

"I'll just tell the press that. It'll work," Kade said, sounding sarcastic.

"I don't know, Kade!" Brodie cried. "Tell them we are friends, that we  intend to remain friends, that we are having a baby together! That's all  the information they are entitled to. That's all the information we  have."