For Their Baby. Kathleen O'Brien
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strategies, but unable to see the full board. He had no idea what her ultimate gambit was. Surely a polite neutrality was the best first move. No need to assume the worst.
“Would you like to sit down?”
Kitty turned. Her green eyes were bright, sparkling under the overhead fixture. Anger? Or tears?
“No. Thank you.” A hint of a smile played at her full mouth, and it wasn’t a reassuring look. “You might want to, though.”
Ah. Not good news, then. Of course not.
“Thanks for the warning.” He tilted his lips in an equally mirthless smile. “I think perhaps you’d better get to the point.”
“So you can make your reservations? So you can meet your date?” She glanced toward the door. “Is she your girlfriend?”
“I don’t see that my relationship with Marta is relevant.”
“How serious is this relationship? Was she your girlfriend when you…eight weeks ago?”
“Again,” he said, though he had to work to keep a patient tone, “I think you’ll need to establish the relevance before—”
“You want relevance?” She hadn’t ever unfolded her arms, and he saw her fingers tighten until the knuckles were white. “Okay, I’ll give you relevance.”
He waited. The room was so quiet he realized neither one of them was breathing. “I’m pregnant.”
THE NEXT AFTERNOON, Kitty nursed a glass of ice water in the restaurant of her hotel, trying to occupy herself by mentally critiquing the bartender. Unfortunately, because the hotel was half empty and down on its luck, nothing much was happening except the occasional request for an after-work beer.
She’d considered booking a room somewhere glitzy—a fancy hotel that would show David Gerard she wasn’t someone who could be pushed around. But that idea had evaporated after a nanosecond. She didn’t have much left in her savings, and she had no idea whether David was the type who might tell her to go to hell, and take the baby with her. She had to hang on to every penny.
Still, she had to do something to take her mind off the fact that he and his lawyer would be here in about five minutes. She was determined not to spend the time second-guessing what they might say.
She needed, more than anything else, to stay calm.
But…how could she have been such an idiot? How could she have let herself end up in such a wretched mess? Everyone knew sex with strangers was dumb. Everyone knew condoms weren’t foolproof.
Everyone except Kitty Hemmings and David Gerard, apparently. She’d seen the shock in his eyes when she announced that she was pregnant. And then she’d seen the cynicism, the disdain, the quick up-and-down glance that said he thought she was lying.
If only she were.
The last thing in the world she wanted was to have a baby right now. With her life so up in the air, no roots under her feet. With a man she barely knew. A man who thought she was, at best, a little island tramp and, at worst, a sociopathic gold digger.
But she was going to have a baby, and it was his, and he’d have to come to terms with the idea, just as she’d had to.
The restaurant door opened, letting in a long rectangle of light briefly, then shutting it out again as it closed. David was here.
Her heart lurched a little, partly fear, partly just the same reaction any female would have to someone that good-looking. And of course he’d brought the tallest, best-dressed lawyer in San Francisco, doubling the intimidation factor.
She held up a hand to help them find her, although she knew her green hair was as good as a neon sign. David glanced at the other man, who slowly nodded, his gaze piercing even from ten yards away.
She felt a blush creep over her cheeks.
Temper, temper. Getting mad at David wasn’t just counterproductive—it was unfair. He hadn’t forced her to have sex that night. Far from it. She was honest enough to admit it had been entirely her idea.
And he certainly hadn’t poked holes into the condom. He was just as shocked and confused as she’d been when she found out a couple of weeks ago. By bringing a lawyer, he clearly just intended to protect himself. What was wrong with that?
In the end, wasn’t that what she was doing, too? The only difference was, she was also protecting her child.
“Kitty.” He had reached the table, and managed to summon up a smile. That was nice, anyhow.
“David.” She didn’t rise or hold out her hand because it felt wrong. Everything about this meeting felt wrong.
“Kitty, this is my attorney and friend, Colby Malone. He’s advising me today.”
Malone didn’t seem to have any scruples about the standard courtesies. He probably dealt with awkward situations every day. He held out his hand with such authority it didn’t occur to her not to take it. “Hello, Ms. Hemmings. I hope you don’t mind if I sit in on the meeting.”
She shook her head. “No, of course not. Whatever.”
Both men sat, and Kitty shifted her glass over, just for something to do with her hands. What a pair. Their pictures were probably in the dictionary, illustrating the phrase “looks like a million bucks.”
Malone smiled at her, his eyes cool but kind. “Ms. Hemmings, David is—”
“No.” David lifted his palm. “Colby, thanks, but…let me.”
Malone hesitated briefly, then leaned back in his chair, putting his elbows on the padded arms to signal his easy agreement. “Of course. Sorry.”
David cleared his throat, then began.
“Kitty, I—”
The waitress, of course, took that moment to come by. The men ignored the woman’s flirtatious blinks and calmly ordered coffee. Kitty decided to get an order of unbuttered toast. For the past few weeks, her stomach had been unsteady, not just in the mornings and not just when she was arranging the future of her unborn child. She’d always heard what a tough time her mother had with pregnancy, and apparently she’d inherited the problem.
In fact, it was when she puked on Sugarwater’s best beach bar customer that she’d lost her job.
“Kitty.” David turned to her one more time. “I want you to know, right from the beginning, that if this baby is mine I don’t intend to shirk responsibility.”
She pressed her hands together in her lap. “If?”
David was careful not to glance at Malone, though Kitty could see that the other lawyer was listening very carefully to this part. He looked as serene as ever, but Kitty could sense the spiked awareness. He was ready to intervene should David utter a syllable that wasn’t in the script.
“I have to assume you’ve come to me because you’re looking for some kind of financial commitment. And if the baby is mine, you’ll get one. I don’t walk away from my mistakes. But first I’m going to need indisputable proof that this is my mistake.”
Malone’s eyes flickered. He might as well have groaned out loud. He obviously knew, even if David didn’t, how damned rude that sounded.
She felt her throat tightening. “No, David. First you need to wrap your mind around the idea that this is a child, not a mistake. And then, you need to take your legalese baloney and—”
“Ms. Hemmings.” Malone smiled again. “I think what David is trying to say—”
“I know what he’s trying to say. He’s trying to say I’m such a tramp the baby could be anyone’s. But I’m not, and it isn’t.” She looked at David. “Unless…you don’t have me mixed up with Jill, do you? I was the first one.”
Neither man looked