Their Baby Bond

In her driveway, he didn’t switch off the ignition. “I’ll wait until you’re inside.”

It was almost dark now. “Are you sure you don’t want to come in and have that bowl of stew?”

“Having supper with you wasn’t about the stew in the first place. It was about clearing the air.”

“We haven’t done that.”

“I think we have. You want to stay friends with Nina, and you don’t want to feel awkward around me. Does that about sum it up?”

That was essentially what she’d said and he’d obviously been listening. “I suppose.”

“Look, Tori. There has always been chemistry between us. I stayed away from you when you were seventeen and eighteen because you were too young to handle what I wanted. Now—”

“I’m old enough to handle anything,” she interrupted him with spirit.

“Yes, you are. But you’re also going to be a mother. Where can a man not interested in a permanent relationship fit into that mix?”

The question was almost a challenge, as if he was daring her to say she wanted a roll in the hay, a quickie in the afternoon at his apartment, a hot, short interlude while her baby slept in the room next door. Of course she couldn’t say any of those things. She thought more of herself than that. She thought more of the child she was going to adopt than that. She’d never had a hot affair, and she’d only ever had one relationship—her engagement and marriage to Dave.

Reminding herself that Dave had left, just as her father had left, she replied, “A man doesn’t fit into the equation at all.”

Then she flipped open the handle on the door and put one foot on the running board. “Thanks for coming along with me tonight, Jake. And for…clearing the air. I’m sure neither of us will feel any awkwardness now.”

As she climbed out, slammed the door and hurried up her front walk she heard Jake call, “Tori, wait.”

His command echoed in her ear. Still, she ignored it and practically ran inside.

She wasn’t about to lose her heart again to any man—not even to Jake Galeno!

Chapter Four

T ori had just slipped on a dress with a peasant top and an ankle-length red, turquoise and yellow skirt the following morning when her phone rang.