Prescription: Baby

The words were out before he could stop them. “No,” he drawled coolly. “I guess proud Katie Topper doesn’t need a thing.” He hardly knew where the words came from, but she sure hadn’t given their night together any thought.

She looked startled. “What’s that supposed to mean?”

“Nothing,” he muttered.

But when she snagged the coat from the crook of his finger, swirled it around her shoulders and hugged it to her belly, Ford had another gut feeling his deepest suspicions weren’t unfounded. He glanced from the hem, which brushed her ankles, to the shoulder seams halfway down her arms. Even though the ill fit made her look petite and feminine as hell, Ford swore to himself that he wouldn’t react. Then he went for broke. “I know this sounds crazy, Katie, but are you pregnant or something?”

She gasped, then stomped her foot on the pavement, fisting her hands. “I knew you’d guessed, Ford! Why didn’t you just say so? Yes. Yes, it is true, Ford. I’m pregnant! I’m pregnant!”

The sudden outburst, so like Katie, ended as abruptly as it began, leaving noticeable silence in its wake. The hospital was hushed, and the winter night too cold for the insects whose wings usually hummed under the street lamps. When Ford drew air into his lungs again, the inhalation seemed to whisper as if telling a secret. He started to suggest they get in her car so they could run the heater while they talked, but he couldn’t risk being in such a small, enclosed space with her. In close proximity, he’d either throttle her or do what he shouldn’t allow himself to do before this was settled—make love to her.

A baby. He’d handled so many, but was the woman in front of him really carrying his? He could so easily imagine how Katie would look, full with his flesh, his blood. The thought startled him. He didn’t know exactly when, couldn’t pinpoint the moment, but he’d given up thinking about becoming a father. He was thirty-six and single, too damn old. He knew he couldn’t settle down with any of the women he’d known. He didn’t much like them. But now…

She’d paled, her translucent skin turning the color of paper. “Uh…how did you guess?”

Images were still filling his mind, of watching her belly becoming rounder, of holding the baby in his hands. “I’m surrounded by pregnant women sixty hours a week, Katie, just as you are.” And yet it was more than that, as if he were simply in tune with Katie.

She nodded, suddenly looking small and strangely miserable, nearly swallowed up by his coat, and yet as she spoke, she thrust her chin upward in an imperious way he found truly annoying under the circumstances. “I…I’m sorry. I should have called.”

No kidding. “If you’re trying to piss me off by saying that, Katie,” he warned, “you’re doing a fine job. You’re sure it’s mine?”

As the remaining color drained from her face, making the freckles on her nose more visible, he realized he didn’t feel as guilty as he should have about wounding her pride, not when she hadn’t even bothered to call him. Her voice was a near whisper. “Of course it is, Ford.”

“No man in Houston?”

She looked totally taken aback. “No.”

“No man here?”

Her eyes narrowed, glittering. “No!”

He forced himself not to acknowledge his relief. “But I didn’t rate a phone call?”

“I’m here, aren’t I?”

“Only because you were called in for an emergency.” He couldn’t help but point it out, barely able to believe her silence or the fact that he was going to be a father. “For all I know, you were considering taking that job in Houston. Cecil said they offered you one. Maybe you’re still planning to go back?”

“No. I’m staying.” She stared at him a second. “At least I think so.”

As if he’d force her to leave. “Were you going to tell me?”

Her lips parted with shock. “What do you think?”

“I don’t know, that’s why I’m asking.”

“Yes.”

A stranger seemed to get hold of him, one with less pride than Ford usually possessed. Or more anger. “But you didn’t tell me, did you, Katie?”

“You’re not making this easy, Ford.”

“I don’t intend to.”

“I was nervous,” she explained, and as she stepped defensively back, he reached out, wrapped a hand around her upper arm and drew her toward him. Too late, he realized he’d brought her just inches away. For an instant, Ford almost forgot the conversation. It took everything he had not to kiss her, but he could never allow himself the pleasure, not when she hadn’t even called him. She wanted him to kiss her, though. That was the hell of it. Her mouth puckered. Her lips parted. And as pleased as he was to see desire spark in those come-hither green eyes, it threatened to gentle his emotions, so he loosened his hold.

She wrenched away, rubbing her upper arm as if he’d done real damage, which he hadn’t. “Never grab me like that.”

“I’ll never touch you again. I promise.”

He immediately wished he hadn’t spoken. Not that it mattered. Her eyes said she knew it was a lie. “I was going to call you from Houston,” she told him. “But this seemed like news I should deliver face to face. And the weekends I did drop by the hospital, you were off.”

“Yeah,” he muttered. “I guess you made sure of that. But you could have driven to my place.” He glanced away, fighting emotions he couldn’t even begin to untangle. They’d been together only one night, he’d desperately wanted her back in his bed for months, but now they’d be tied together for life. Life was a long time. Even with a woman whose body he craved as much as Katie’s. “When did you find out?”

“I guessed weeks ago, but I just kept thinking….”

He thrust a hand angrily through his thick dark hair, rumpling it. “Thinking you weren’t pregnant?” Damn it, didn’t she mean hoping she wasn’t?

When she nodded, he tried not to react, but he was remembering their first kiss in his kitchen, the party plates and streamers still in the next room. After all the time they’d worked together, how could he have so completely misjudged her? Hadn’t she wanted this baby? Even for an instant?

Her voice was stern. “I’m keeping it, Ford.”

Relief flooded him, but the way she’d said it… “You’d consider something else?” He knew she’d never guess at the anger rushing through his veins, but he couldn’t stop the fingers that tightened over hers. Then he suddenly lost it. A hand was in her hair, skimming the waves, tightening on her scalp and defying her by pulling her to him again. His voice was raspy. “Of course you’re keeping this baby, Katie.”

Her eyes, a fraction away, blinked rapidly, almost as if she was fighting tears. “I am?” The voice was faint, curious. “I thought you might have a problem with this…uh, Ford.”

“Hell, yes, I have a problem with this. I’m in shock. This is totally out of the blue. But I save lives, Katie. I don’t take them. Who do you think I am, anyway?”

“That’s the point, isn’t it?” she returned, backing nervously away, cuddling his coat more tightly around her. “We’ve worked together a long time, Ford, but we don’t even know each other, not really.”

Well enough to make a baby. “Maybe not. But it looks like we’re going to.” His eyes lowered to her lips, and he realized that three months had done nothing to erase the memory of their taste. Soft, plump and lightly glossed, he knew them well. He’d suckled and bitten and nipped, and they’d held fast, kissing him back.

The huskiness of her low voice brought him to his senses. “You don’t have to be involved, Ford.”

Usually he was expert at pushing people away. Yes, Ford Carrington had turned that into a fine art. “Keep dreaming, Katie,” he found himself saying, “I’m going to be involved. Oh, I understand. Before you left, you said you didn’t want me in your life—”

“Whoa!” she burst out. “You said you didn’t want a relationship. It was mutual.”

“We agree on that, anyway—” His barely perceptible drawl grew thicker and more pronounced. “It was very definitely mutual, Katie.” As his eyes traced her lips, there was no denying he wanted her sexually. But he needed to think about this. A baby? He’d avoided this situation for years. Could he give a child what it needed?

“Ford—” She was trying to stay calm. “I don’t think you understand. We come from completely different backgrounds. My papa’s really religious, and now I’ve got to tell him I’m having a baby when I’m not even married. He’s not the kind of man who’ll be able to accept that I…”

“Slept around?”

“It’s not like I do it all the time! This wasn’t supposed to happen! We used protection!”

“The condom broke.”

She stared at him a long moment, her breath the only thing that moved, clouding on the night air. Nervously, she licked her lips, and he could see her throat working as she swallowed, the wildly beating pulse at her neck giving away her emotions. Finally, she whispered, “You didn’t tell me?”