He’d had enough experience to know that telling a woman she was tired was treading a thin line. But she didn’t react negatively. Instead, she pressed her mouth together and nodded.
“There’s something I need to tell you,” she said, swallowing hard. “And I’m not sure you’re going to be happy about it.”
Logan frowned. “What is it?” he asked, shifting in his seat.
She took a deep breath, then rolled her shoulders back. “I should just get it over with, right?” She gave a little laugh, though there was no humor in her eyes. “So here it is. I’m pregnant. Ten weeks, if my calculations are right. And there’s been nobody else.” She blew out some air, her mouth forming a perfect ‘o’. “So yeah, it’s yours.” Looking down, she turned her hands over, scanning them as though they held all the answers.
Logan blinked, his mouth dropping open at the sudden onslaught of information. He felt as though he’d been kicked in the gut. “No,” he said, his voice thick. “That can’t be right.”
“Three pregnancy tests tell me otherwise.”
His body felt as light as air. As though it could rise up to the sky at any minute. His heart hammered in his chest like he’d just received a shot of adrenaline through his ribcage.
Courtney Roberts was pregnant.
And the baby was his.
“Shit.” He shook his head. “I’m sorry.” He wasn’t a damn ogre. He’d been brought up well enough to know that contraception was as much his responsibility as it was hers.
And that’s why he’d always been so damn vigilant about it.
“The night you were sick,” he said, realization washing over him. They’d made love in her bed unexpectedly.
“I think so. We didn’t use anything, did we?”
He tried to think, his mind searching through the images of her naked in his arms. Of the sound of her breaths, the smell of her skin. Had he grabbed a condom from his wallet the way he always did?
He couldn’t remember using anything.
“What do you plan to do about it?” he asked her, still mentally beating himself up at being so irresponsible and landing them both here.
“I’m keeping the baby,” she told him, her voice soft. “But I’m not expecting anything from you. I’m not trying to trap you.”
“I know that.” He frowned, because this was so messed up. “I didn’t think you were. I’m just trying to take this all in. I had no fucking idea.”
She nodded, giving him a tight smile. “It’s a lot to think about.”
“It sure is.” He felt like his entire body had been bitch slapped a hundred times.
“And if you want to leave to go think, I’m okay with that. I was blindsided, too. It took me hours to even take a second pregnancy test. But I’ve had some time to take it in. I’m kind of ahead of you.”
He shook his head. “I don’t need to go. I just need to…” He sighed. “I have questions.” So damn many. “Is it okay if I ask them?”
“Of course.” She nodded, her face open.
“When did you find out?”
She ran the tip of her finger along her lip. “Last week. A few days before I messaged you.”
“And you didn’t suspect before? You have to have missed at least two periods, right?” He tried hard to keep his voice non-accusing. Because this wasn’t her fault. If anybody was to blame, it was him.
She was sick when they made love. He had no excuse for forgetting to protect them both.
“I had a small bleed the first month. I assumed that was my period. And this time there was nothing. It took me a few days to even think about the possibility of being pregnant. As far as I knew, I’d had a period since we were last together.” Her words were as soft as the clouds above them. “But then it still didn’t come, and I had to drive to Maple Cross to buy a pregnancy test because I couldn’t buy it in the drugstore in town.”
“Because people would talk,” he murmured.
“It’s stupid, right? Because they’re gonna talk like crazy now. As soon as they find out. Courtney Roberts is having a baby, even though her husband’s cold in the ground. It’s like an early Christmas gift for the town gossips.”
A surge of anger washed over him. Because she was right. People would whisper behind her back. They’d watch her with raised eyebrows, and exchange glances with each other every time her belly got a little bigger.
“If anybody gives you a hard time they’ll have me to answer to.”
She arched an eyebrow at him.
“I mean it,” he told her, his voice low. “You’re having my baby. I’ll take care of you.” His eyes clashed with hers. “We should get married.”
She barked out a laugh, and he felt like he’d been slapped.
“Oh god, that’s so sweet,” she told him. “But we already agreed a relationship between us would never work. You’re in Boston, I’m here. And I can tell from the look of shock on your face that you never planned on having kids with me. So thank you for being gallant, but no. We really shouldn’t get married.”
He hated that she was right. Another man – a better man – wouldn’t take no for an answer.
But he wasn’t a better man. Never had been. He was selfish and single minded, as well as a damned workaholic. Exactly the kind of man no kid deserved to have as a father.
But this poor kid didn’t have a choice.
“You need to know I’ll do whatever it takes,” he told her, his expression serious. “I can pay for your medical care, buy things for the baby. Whatever you both need.”
“You don’t need to make any promises now,” she said, her eyes as cool as the water in front of them. “We have months to sort everything out. You probably need to talk
