The Bachelor's Baby(24)

*

Linc was having a day. Half the crew he’d hired to roof the barn had turned up hung over. He sent them home out of fear for their safety. The April day was dry at least, overcast, but threatening snow. A fierce breeze cut down the valley and went through the bunch of them perched on the rafters with no way to deflect it. He would have left the job for May if he didn’t have hay arriving next week. Instead he bit out orders and kept the men hard on task.

Then the truckload of fencing arrived. It was the wrong gauge wire. While he was off the roof, he went inside to make a bologna sandwich where he discovered he was not only out of bread, but figured out what the scritching noise in the ceiling was: a mama squirrel and her batch of babies. Fan-freaking-tastic. He didn’t have time to deal with that and certainly couldn’t get into town for groceries today.

Back on the roof ten minutes later, he was cold, hungry, and surly as an early spring bear.

When a blue sedan came down his driveway, it was an interruption he didn’t need. All he could think was a peeved, What now?

Meg climbed out of it. Meg with her catwalk ensemble and creamy complexion that she turned up to the roof. The wind picked up her loose red hair and made it snap like a flag. “Linc?”

He was thinking, You said you wouldn’t call, which had been aggravating him, especially because she had ignored his last email. Now he really wished she had called before showing up because her timing was lousy.

“Hey, Meg.” One of the guys paused to salute. “Didn’t know you were home.”

Linc clenched his teeth as he waited out the small town niceties of asking after family before he interjected a, “What can I do for you?”

“Can I speak to you a minute?” Her face was as hard to read as her voice.

“What’s it about?” He looked around at the progress they’d made with the steel panels. Not nearly enough. He imagined she was looking for a rain check on that auction lunch, which he couldn’t accommodate. Definitely not today and probably not this week. “Now’s not a good time. Can I call you after dark and we’re done for the day?”

She had her arms folded against the wind and only lowered her chin so he saw even less of her expression. Her hand went to the car door, then she looked back up at him, seemed to hesitate, then, “Please?”

With a muttered curse, he told the men he’d be right back and made his way off the roof. Dropping to the ground, he grunted at the ache in his back and tried to work the stiffness out of his muscles as he stalked over to her and jerked his head toward the house.

“What is it?” he said shortly, hearing how gruff he sounded, but seriously. He had things to do and this was why he didn’t get involved. He didn’t like when women felt they had rights to his time.

She flicked him a wary look as he held the door for her and he hated himself a little. He’d liked her. They’d had fun that night and she didn’t deserve his brisk attitude.

Muttering another curse, he strode through the house with his boots on straight to where he’d taken out a can of soup earlier then decided he didn’t have time to heat it. He’d eat it cold while they talked, he decided, digging up the can opener from the drawer.

“Well?” he prompted.

She stayed on the mat by the door, arms still hugged tight across her middle, a hurt look on her face.

Remember when I said I was lousy at relationships, Meg?

“Look,” he tried. “It’s been a shitty day and I’m an ass when I’m hungry. If you want to do lunch in Great Falls we can, just not for a few days. I have to get that roof on.” He grabbed a spoon and dug into the can. It had a layer of yellow fat on the top that he tried not to think about. He scooped a gummy bite into his mouth.

“No,” she said with a catch of a humorless laugh in her voice. “I’m not here about…that. Not exactly. I mean—” She lifted a hand in a gesture of helplessness. “I’m pregnant.”

The bite of cold chicken and rice congealed in his mouth.

And she was telling him because…?

He swallowed the lump and it stuck in his throat. “I wore condoms.”

“Not the whole time.” She flicked a blushing, you-know-what-I-mean look at him.

Okay, they’d messed around a little that last time, maybe enjoyed a few strokes bareback. He’d never done anything like that and it had been an impulse as they got carried away, both still half asleep. But it had only been a few before he’d grabbed a brain and covered up. Hell, he’d have been completely empty of sperm by then and you didn’t get a woman pregnant like that anyway. That was urban legend stuff.