“I know exactly what’s between us,” Kate said and slapped one hand to her belly.
He covered her hand with his. “Now I do, too. And I promise you, I’m not going anywhere.”
“Am I interrupting something?”
At the sound of the deep voice, both of them turned to face the older man approaching.
“Dad?” Kate looked at her father in surprise. She’d been so caught up in Sean, she hadn’t heard anything beyond the thundering beat of her own heart. “What’re you doing here?”
Harry Baker was a tall man, with steel-gray hair, piercing blue eyes, a barrel chest and heavily muscled arms from years of working construction. Normally easygoing and friendly, at the moment Harry’s features were tight and grim.
“Raul called,” he said, answering Kate while keeping his gaze on Sean. “Asked me to come help him install the new windows on the third floor.”
Kate nearly groaned. She’d forgotten that her father would be on the job site today. Frankly, with Sean around, it was hard to concentrate on anything else. If she’d remembered, she could have prepared Sean. Heck, prepared herself for a confrontation that had been building for months.
She took a breath to steady herself. Her father had been after her for months to tell Sean the truth and to stop working. Ever since her mother had died, when Kate was twelve, Harry had been everything to Kate. He’d raised her, taught her, loved her and worried about her. Having her pregnant and unmarried chipped at something inside him, and Kate knew it had taken every ounce of his self-control not to call Sean himself and tell him what was going on.
“That’s right. I forgot.” There was too much going on, she told herself. But with most of the crew busy finishing off the main kitchen and digging out the basement to make room for the large utility ramp they’d be installing, Raul did need the help.
Her father was glaring at Sean, and she knew he’d come looking for them deliberately so he could have a talk with the man who’d impregnated his daughter. God, she felt as though she was living in a nineteenth century romance. The men in her life were suddenly becoming cavemen, and there were definite signs of testosterone poisoning.
“Well, Dad,” she said, keeping her voice light and a smile on her face, “this is Sean Ryan.”
“I guessed as much.” He didn’t smile in return.
Sean offered his hand. “Good to meet you.”
Kate watched as the two men took each other’s measure during the space of a handshake that looked more like a contest of wills than a polite greeting. This was so not a female moment.
As if agreeing with her, Sean said tightly, “Kate, why don’t you go on back to the hotel while your dad and I have a talk?”
Exactly what she’d been planning to do until Sean suggested it. “Stop telling me what to do.”
“Kate, go away.”
She looked at her father. “You, too, Dad?”
Neither of the men was looking at her, and that only infuriated her well beyond what little patience she had left. She might as well be at the hotel. These two had already dismissed her. “Fine. I’m going back to work.”
“Be careful,” Sean warned.
“For heaven’s sake...” Her mutter carried even while she walked away.
Sean spared her a single glance, then turned his focus back to the man staring at him. Awkward, he told himself, but no getting around it.
“I didn’t know she was pregnant,” Sean said, once Kate was out of earshot.
“I know.” Harry’s eyes were narrowed on him. “I disagreed with her on that, wanted her to tell you, but she’s a strong woman. Hardheaded, too.”
“Yeah, I know,” Sean said. “I like that about her.”
Harry snorted and relaxed his stance enough that Sean was pretty sure he wasn’t about to be punched. Funny how facing down the father of the woman you’re sleeping with could make a man feel like a teenager caught breaking curfew.
“Kate’s a grown woman and her decisions are her own, no matter how I’d like to think different.”
Sean thought he could see the man’s point of view and now that he knew he was also going to be the father of a daughter, he had to wonder if he’d be as reasonable as Harry Baker was in the same situation. Of course, Sean’s daughter would never be in this situation because he was never going to let a man near his girl. But for now, he had to reassure Kate’s father.
“She’s not alone in this,” Sean told the other man quietly. “Now that I know about the baby, I’m in this and she’s not going to shake me loose.”
Harry tipped his head to one side and studied Sean. His eyes were sharp, and Sean thought he probably didn’t miss much. Made him uncomfortable having that steady gaze fixed on him, but he stood his ground and waited.
“Good to know,” Harry said with a nod. “But I’m thinking it’s my daughter that brought you here.”
Sean frowned. He had come to see Kate. To see if he had imagined the connection between them—which he hadn’t. Hell, his mouth was still burning, his body still sizzling just from that one short, furious kiss they’d shared. He didn’t know what the hell was between him and Kate, but he did know they had to figure it out before he talked to her father about all of this.
Instead, he said only, “It’s my hotel, Mr. Baker. I’ve got to keep an eye on the progress.”
Shaking his head, Harry mused, “You check out every hotel with a kiss?”
Sean scowled and rubbed one hand across the back of his neck. “Yeah, you saw that.”
“I did. Look, what’s between you is private.” Harry folded beefy arms across his wide chest and stood like a man braced for a fight. “But I’ll say I want my pregnant daughter married.”
Married? Amazing how that one small word could hit a man like a bucket of rocks. Nobody had said anything about getting married, Sean thought. He could understand how Harry felt, but marriage was something that seemed so...forever. But so, his mind whispered, is a baby. A child. Linking him and Kate always.
Hell, he hadn’t had enough time to think things through. To make a plan. To figure out what his response should be. There was too much going on in his head right now to make sense of much of it. But he did know he wanted his kid. He wanted the chance to prove—if only to himself—that he wasn’t the same man he once was. That he’d grown and changed.
Harry was still talking, though, so Sean listened.
“This is the first real sign of life I’ve seen in my girl since she lost her husband.”
“Husband?”
Harry’s eyebrows lifted. “Didn’t know about Sam, eh? Well, not surprising. My girl isn’t what you’d call a big sharer.” He frowned to himself. “Losing Sam threw her hard. She doesn’t really talk about it, but I can see it. She changed after Sam. Locked herself down.” He paused and gave Sean another long look. “Until you, that is.”
Sean didn’t know what to say to that. She’d never mentioned being married. Being widowed. Why the news hit him so hard was beyond him. But just knowing she’d once been another man’s wife was hard to deal with. What was he like, the mystery husband? As he wondered, he remembered their conversation last winter and how she’d only been with one other man.
He groaned internally. Hell, no wonder she’d been so defensive of a man who hadn’t been much of a lover. He’d been her husband. She’d loved the guy and clearly remained loyal to him even now. There was a tightness in Sean’s chest he didn’t care for, so he rubbed his fist against his breastbone in a futile effort to ease the discomfort. Weird position to be in, he thought as he recognized what he was feeling. Envious of a dead man.
“She and Sam talked about having a family, but then he was gone and Kate sort of...” Harry paused then said, “Shut down. Like she pulled away from life because it was just too painful. But since you, and now the baby, she’s been different. More like herself than I’ve seen in a while.”
Was she still in love with the long-gone Sam? Sean didn’t much care for that thought and didn’t care to explore why the idea bothered him as much as it did. He had his own past, didn’t he? He hadn’t told her about Adrianna and the baby. Hadn’t opened up his soul.
Passion had brought them together, and Fate had thrown them both a curve by creating a child to mark the occasion.
What the hell was he supposed to do with this information?
He was going home in a couple of days. He had to be in California for the launch of “The Wild Hunt.” But how could he leave Kate and his child behind?
* * *
“Are you crazy?” Kate demanded a few hours later. “I can’t go to California. We’re in the middle of a job!”
Sean folded his arms across his chest and leaned one shoulder against the doorjamb. His eyes were cool, almost amused, and that just fed the outrage rushing through her. Sean and her father had walked in from their forest meeting like old friends, each of them smiling, until they caught sight of her. Then the two of them had presented a united front of keeping her in the dark.
Had they cooked this up between them?
“I told you that you couldn’t march into my life and start issuing orders,” she reminded him. “And if you and my dad think you can make plans for me like I’m a child who needs two strong men to take care of me, then you’re both crazy.”