Undone by Her Tender Touch

She put her hand to her temple and dug her fingers into it, massaging the increasing ache.

“Look, Cam, I’m not moving in with you. That’s about the most absurd suggestion I’ve heard. We don’t need to talk face-to-face. Right now, I have no desire to see you. I’m in shock. I need time to figure out my options. I don’t need you breathing down my neck. If it turns out I’m pregnant, I know where to find you, and believe me, you’ll be hearing from me then. Until that point, I’d appreciate it if you just backed off.”

“Damn it, that’s not what I want. Look, Pippa, I need to know that you and the … baby … are safe. If there is a baby, I mean. The best way to do that is for you to be close where I know you’re taken care of.”

There was quiet desperation in his voice and an odd detached tone that suggested to her he wasn’t even focusing on the real issue at hand. His head seemed to be somewhere else and that annoyed her all the more.

He was worrying about her and a theoretical baby’s safety, and at this point she was just worried that there was a theoretical baby.

“I don’t care what you want,” she said evenly.

She pulled the phone away from her ear and punched the end button. Then realizing that Cam was the persistent sort, she turned it off and thrust it away.

She sat there for several long minutes, staring into nothing as she tried to absorb the implications of that broken condom. She wasn’t stupid enough to laugh it off and say something absurd like, Who gets pregnant from that one time? There were any number of pregnant women who’d naively asserted the same thing. She wasn’t one of them.

She shot to her feet, needing to do something. Information. Probabilities. She knew the timing was probably good, but she hurried to her bedroom to dig out her diary where she kept information on her menstrual cycle.

Any single, sexually active woman was a moron if she didn’t keep track of such things.

She slipped to the page where her last entry had been written and then calculated the days in her head. Then she let out a harsh groan. Could the timing have been any better? Not that she could possibly predict when she was ovulating, but if she went with averages, there was a good possibility that this weekend had been her prime baby-making window.

Okay, so it was entirely possible. The next thing she needed to do was figure out her options, if she had any.

She went back to that damnable phone, turned it on and ignored the cacophony of sounds signaling missed calls, voice mails and text messages. They were probably all from Cam. The man was likely on his way here.

She punched in Carly’s number and hoped like hell her friends were available.

A moment later, Carly’s sunny voice spilled over the line and Pippa sagged in relief.

“Pip! How’s it going? Have your lease all straightened out? I have to tell you I’m so excited for you! How did Ashley’s housewarming go? I was so sorry to miss it. I hope she wasn’t too disappointed.”

Pippa flinched from the onslaught and waited to get a word in edgewise. “Carly, are you free? I need the girls. This is an emergency.”

There was a brief silence and then Carly said, “Pip, are you all right? What’s happened?”

“I’ll tell you when we’re all together,” Pippa croaked. “Can you call the others?”

“You bet. Oscar’s?”

Pippa hesitated. “Yeah, but make sure we get a private table.”

“Do you want me to call Ashley?” Carly asked. “Is she still in Greenwich?”

As much as Pippa wanted and needed Ashley there, she wasn’t sure if it was a good idea. But she was just selfish enough to see if Ashley would make the trip in for her.

“See if she can make it,” Pippa said in a low voice. “But make sure … Tell her I want her to be careful.”

“If she knows you need her, she’ll be there,” Carly said in a comforting voice. “We’ll all be there, Pip. You know that.”

“Yes, I do, and I love you all for it.”

“Give me some time to get everything ironed out and then I’ll text you with a time everyone can meet. In the meantime you know you can come over. I only have one appointment this afternoon. You can always hang out here at the salon. I’ll even do your nails.”

Pippa smiled. “Thanks, Carly, but I’ll just meet you guys later. I need to figure some stuff out.”

Pippa could practically see her friend’s frown.

“I’m worried about you, Pip. Be careful, okay? I’ll see you as soon as possible.”

Pippa hung up the phone, relief so great she was shaky with it. She had the best friends in the world. Smart friends. They’d be able to help her figure this out.

In the meantime, she wasn’t sticking around the apartment in case Mr. Broken Condom decided to make an appearance. The very last thing she wanted right now was to face the potential father of her potential child.

Five

Pippa lengthened her stride as she neared Oscar’s. There was a mix of snow flurries and tiny pellets of sleet in the air, stinging her cheeks as she walked.

She’d hoped the cold would bring her around. Make some of the shock wear off. But she was still reeling from Cam’s phone call and all that was going to help her right now was an emergency session of the girlfriends’ round table.

She opened the door to Oscar’s and unwound the scarf she’d hastily thrown around her neck. She scanned the room, relief easing some of the awful tension when she saw her friends already seated in a corner booth way in the back. It was perfect.

As she made her way through the maze of tables, Tabitha looked up and waved fiercely. Sylvia, Carly and Ashley quickly turned. Carly rose as Pippa approached.

She got hugs from everyone and finally she squeezed into the booth beside Ashley, who looked at her with concern.

“What’s wrong, Pip? Carly called us all but she wouldn’t say what was the matter.”

“I haven’t told her yet,” Pippa said ruefully. “I may be jumping the gun here, girls. But I’m freaking out and need your help sorting through my options.”

“Oh, my God, what is it?” Tabitha exclaimed.

Sylvia frowned. She was the older and more serious-minded of the group. Not to mention ultrapractical. She’d have solid advice. Pippa would bet any amount of money on it.

Pippa drew in a deep breath. “I could be … Well, there’s at least a slim possibility that I’m pregnant.”

“What?”

Pippa winced as all four of her friends exclaimed at the same time.

Ashley’s eyes rounded and she stared at Pippa in question. “Oh, Pip, how sure are you?”

“I had a one-night stand the other night.” She glanced up at Ashley and grimaced. “With Cam. We left Ashley’s party together. He took me to his house and we had sex. Lots of sex.”

Ashley looked robbed of speech. Sylvia just kept wearing that frown. That damn disapproving frown that reminded Pippa way too much of how a mother would look. Well, Pippa’s mother wouldn’t look that way. She’d congratulate her daughter on snaring a wealthy baby daddy and then tell her to milk him for all he was worth. Not exactly mother-of-the-year material.

Oh, Miranda wasn’t evil. She wasn’t even a bad mother. She was just superficial and very mercenary. Pippa supposed she could even admire her mother for being so shrewd when it came to relationships. Miranda Laingley was out for number one and number one only. And she refused to apologize to anyone for it.

“I’m not following,” Tabitha said slowly. “Maybe I’m dense here. If you just had sex with him, why on earth are you worried about pregnancy?”