Vegas Pregnancy Surprise

“I don’t know where she is. I don’t even know her last name. And that’s where I’m leaving things.”

That one night with Molly was enough. The last thing he needed was a relationship, not just because of the distraction it would provide, but because of the expectations involved. A woman in his life would want time. Energy. And that would divide him between the company and his personal life. Right now, that was a division problem he couldn’t solve.

Conner stumbled to a stop. He grabbed Lincoln’s arm. “You had a one-night stand? You?”

“It wasn’t just a one-night stand. It was…” Lincoln searched for the words to describe that night two months ago. The intoxicating magic of the woman he had met, how she had brought out a side of him he had thought he’d lost three years ago, how she had made him forget—

Forget who he was. Forget the burdens he’d carried for so long. Forget his guilt, his regrets. Forget the Curtis empire, and its expectations. For one night, he could just…be.

“It was so much more,” Lincoln finished. “At least until I got back to reality.”

In the two months since he’d seen Molly, he had tried to forget her by pouring himself into his work. By tightening an already tight schedule, filling already full days. Developing expanded product lines, pushing his team to create newer and more improved systems than the company already had.

Yet a part of him kept going back to that night, to those questions neither of them had asked, because they’d agreed never to know the answers. Was that all this was? A puzzle he needed to solve?

“Either way, it doesn’t matter. The night’s over. In the past.” As he said the words, he cemented his resolve to keep the memory there. He had no room for a relationship right now.

He, of all people, could not afford a distraction like that. He had only to look at the empty office beside his own to remember why.

“If it’s so ‘in the past,’” Conner said, using air quotes, “then why is she still on your mind?”

“She’s not.” Linc scowled.

Conner looked at Linc. And chuckled. “Uhhuh.”

Lincoln gazed out over the city, at the miles and miles of brightly lit buildings, stucco-coated homes, and beyond that, the vast, empty desert. Vegas stuck out among all the nothingness like a wild rose in a field of plain, practical wheat. How apropos, really, of the way he lived his personal life. That one night had been an aberration—and that was the way it would stay.

Lincoln Curtis lived his life in straight lines. It was the only way he knew to maintain control. To keep himself from thinking of the promises he’d made so many years ago. Promises he had broken.

Linc pivoted away from the window and faced Conner. “The past is over, Conner. I’m all about focusing on the future. And my future is contained inside this business.”

Chapter Two

MOLLY sat in her car and cried.

No job. No husband for support. No possibility of either in the near future.

And a baby on the way.

If she could have written a script for her life, she couldn’t have imagined a worse ending for this day. Within two hours, her entire world had been turned upside down.

Lack of funding…positions cut…difficult decision to make…we’re so sorry…wish you well…

She could still see the faces of the administration officials as they told her they were letting her go, with the promise that if funding improved, she would be the first kindergarten teacher hired back—

Next fall.

From there, she’d gone to her doctor’s office, sure he’d tell her she’d misread the pink lines, or bought a faulty kit, or had a hormonal spike. Instead, Dr. Carter had walked back into the examination room, a wide smile on his face. “Wonderful news, Molly. You’re pregnant!”

She’d started to cry. She’d cried while he wrote her a prescription for prenatal vitamins, while she made her next appointment, and all the way home.

Oh, God. What was she going to do? How was she going to deal with this?

It still didn’t seem real. Didn’t seem possible. The words you’re pregnant swirled again in her head, and sounded like they had been spoken to someone else.

Pregnant.

Now she sat in her driveway, allowed the last few tears to fall, then wiped her face and made some decisions.

Number one. She needed a job. She had a mortgage, and even though Jayne was paying rent, without the regular income from teaching, very soon there wasn’t going to be enough money to pay all the bills. Not to mention the need for health insurance to cover her pregnancy. In seven months, Molly would have another life to provide for, and that meant putting aside as much money as she could between here and then.

Another life.

The words hit her again, and she still couldn’t quite comprehend her situation. A baby.

The one thing she had dreamed about for so many years, imagined having when she’d married Doug—

But then Doug had made it infinitely clear children weren’t on his agenda, not now, not later, not ever. That had been the beginning of the end for them, the moment when she’d realized she’d married a man who didn’t share any of her dreams for the future.

Now she had the future she wanted. Except she was alone. And about to become penniless. Not the dream she’d envisioned. How could she, of all people, have ended up in this position?

She’d always been so careful with her life, so conservative. The one time she’d stepped out of those boundaries she’d ended up pregnant, alone and unemployed.

Boy, karma had a heck of a sense of humor.

Molly sighed. She reached for another tissue in her purse and faced issue number two.

The baby’s father.

She might not want to see him again, might want to pretend that night in Vegas never happened, but she couldn’t.

She had to tell him. Somehow. And sometime in the next few months.

How would Linc react? She didn’t know him well enough to predict how he ordered his coffee in the morning, much less something as huge as this.

Oh, what had she done?

Either way, whether he wanted anything to do with the baby or not, she had to know, if only for the baby’s sake, who this man was. What if there was a medical problem? What if their child asked her a question someday down the road?

She thought back to that crazy, heady night two months ago. Did Linc ever think of her? Did he ever wonder whether there had been consequences to their temporary insanity? If he saw her again, what would he do? Say? He’d probably forgotten all about her, and if he saw her again wouldn’t even remember her name, much less what had happened between them.

With a man that handsome, in a city like Las Vegas, the chances were good that he had dozens of women in his life. Molly could have just been one more in a long string of quick dates.

Or not.

She had no idea what kind of man he really was because they’d agreed to keep everything easy, fun. No personal details, no heart-to-heart connections, no relationship-building.

Did she want to see him again? That was a bigger question. Did she really want to face her dumbest decision again? No.