Waking Up Pregnant(23)

                She swallowed, withdrawing her hands from his to tuck them around her waist. “Are you going to marry her?”

                Darcy’s emphatic pre-proposal rejection came to mind, pushing a wry smile to his mouth. “No.”

                “Okay,” she said, nodding slowly before meeting his eyes with a steel he hadn’t encountered in hers before. “Then cut her a check.”

                He stared hard at the woman seated across from him, the one he’d thought might be able to share his life. “To what, go away? Disappear?” He couldn’t even voice the next alternative he hoped to hell she wasn’t suggesting.

                Something roared inside him, as a protective instinct churned hot in his gut. “It’s my child.”

                “And we’ll raise it as ours,” she said quickly, taking his hands. “We’ll get married. Have a private adoption. We’ll craft an explanation to suit us both.”

                Adoption. Of course, that’s where Olivia’s head would have gone first. Adoption and marriage. A neat package, except for the part where she’d completely discounted Darcy as a part of the equation beyond a dollar amount on a check.

                “Jeffrey, we have something here. Something I’ve been waiting to find for a very long time. We could make this work.”

                Offering Olivia’s hand a quick squeeze, he pushed up from his chair.

                He needed to cut Olivia some slack. She’d jumped to the wrong conclusion, probably because the few details he’d parceled out pointed that way. She was trying to come up with a solution to a problem he’d dropped in front of them. It just wasn’t the right one.

                Walking over to the bank of windows, he rubbed his hand over his jaw. Darcy was right. They all needed a little time to get their heads around this new development.

                “Darcy doesn’t want to give the baby up. She was offering me an opportunity to be a part of its life. Not to...option it off. You don’t know her.”

                Olivia sat back, watching him the way he watched guys from across the conference table. Reading their tells and all the things their faces and bodies said without their mouths having to. “And you do?”

                “Only enough to say, she wasn’t here to give her child up.”

                “Okay. Then we’ll take it from there.” She followed him across the office, laying her hand gently over his arm.

                “Olivia, I don’t know what this next year is going to bring. I think it might be better for everyone if we—”

                “No. I’m not going to give up on us because things aren’t exactly the way I thought they would be.” She met his eyes. “We’re so well suited. So right. All I’m asking is you give us a chance before making any decisions. Please.”

                Jeff wrapped an arm around her shoulders. She felt stiff against him. Like an off fit in a way he’d never noticed before.

                Which he supposed made sense, considering he’d just put something between them neither of them knew exactly how to deal with. Now the least he could do was grant her request and give them a chance.





                                      SEVEN

                “You got the waitress pregnant?” Connor shook his head, rocking back on his bar stool as though the news had physically blown him over. “You’re sure? I mean, all the question marks...?”