She couldn’t help laughing too. “I guess some things don’t change, do they?”
“No, I guess they don’t.” He smiled, and then he hugged her once more. “And I mean it—it really is good to see you again.”
Closing her eyes, she held him tight. “It’s good to see you too.”
Chapter Three
Matt stood at the kitchen counter, chopping up vegetables. His folks would be here soon. So would Dara. But he didn’t want to think about that right now. For the moment, he focused—tried to focus—on preparing dinner.
Last night’s migraine still thrummed in the back of his skull and fucked with the edges of his vision, but most of the pain was gone. He figured he’d enjoy that while it lasted—dinner with his parents usually triggered another one, even when he wasn’t breaking the news that Dara Marley was having his baby.
This wasn’t going to go over well.
But there was no avoiding it, so they’d start with dinner and figure out where to go from there, and for now, he concentrated as best he could on preparing that dinner. In the year since he’d “retired”, he’d finally taught himself to cook. Like, actually cook—things that required more than one step and an appliance other than a microwave. There’d been a few months of setting off smoke alarms, ruined cookware and meals not fit for human consumption, but with some guidance from his sister, his mother and Google, he’d finally gotten the hang of it. In fact, he enjoyed it. Though he’d never have his own cooking show, he could guarantee his guests a decent meal without fear of giving them all food poisoning.
When he built his new house, he intended to have a kitchen with more counter space, newer appliances and none of this country-style wallpaper that was slowly starting to curl around the edges. On the bright side, from the thick white paint on the cabinets to the temperamental electric stove that had probably been here for twenty years, this kitchen’s style was the farthest thing imaginable from the top-of-the-line stainless-and-granite setup he’d had in his Chicago penthouse. Sometimes he needed that to remind him that that life—and all its chaos and heartburn—was behind him now.
This place wasn’t perfect, but it was damn good for decompressing. It seemed kind of silly to be renting a place when he could quite literally buy every structure within fifty miles of Aspen Mill, but it all came back to the reason he’d retired—stress. This was a roof over his head and a kitchen where he could get better at cooking. When he could finally cope with simple decisions like window and appliance configurations without breaking a sweat, then he’d start scoping out properties and talking to contractors and architects.
In the meantime, this rented house with its modest, ugly little kitchen was fine. Especially for hosting potentially explosive dinners with his parents, the childhood best friend they’d never liked and some news that would make them either ecstatic or furious.
Matt stopped cutting and exhaled. This was really happening, wasn’t it? As much as he’d tried to distract himself, reality was that the clock was ticking down to go time, and they’d be here soon.
His stomach was all in knots at the prospect of sitting down with his parents and Dara, but it wasn’t just that. He was all in knots over the idea of Dara being here. In town. In his house. In his life. It hadn’t even fully registered that she was carrying his baby. Or maybe he’d just gotten over any issues he might’ve had about that back when she’d asked him to donate sperm in the first place—he’d known for many, many years that she might one day be pregnant with his kid, so the potential shock had long ago worn off.
But just thinking about when he’d heard her voice in the barn yesterday, when he’d turned around and looked at her for the first time in a decade…
His stomach somersaulted. She couldn’t have shocked him more if she’d simply appeared out of the ether. Hell, for all intents and purposes, that was exactly what she’d done. One minute, she was as gone as she’d been for all this time. The next, there she was.
And she’d come with not just news, but news. And now they needed to break that news to his parents while he was still reeling from the fact that she was suddenly back in his life.
So much for that stress reduction that had been going so well for the past year.
Matt closed his eyes and took a deep breath. Okay, so maybe he wasn’t as blasé as he thought about her being pregnant. After all, now she was asking for more than just a DNA contribution this time.
He rubbed the stiffening muscles in the back of his neck. While his brain played and replayed every possible worst-case outcome for this evening, one quiet but relentless question glowed in his mind like a goddamned check-engine light.