The Ladies' Man

“You’ve been married before?” he asked, feeling slightly outraged. “Twice?”

“No.” She leaned back against the seat and groaned. “I was engaged, not married. That isn’t the point. I’m pregnant.”

“I got that.”

“There’s going to be a baby.”

That stopped him. Because until she’d said the “b” word, he hadn’t put the two together. Pregnant was a scary, dangerous condition used to trap men, but a baby was something pretty miraculous.

He felt himself smile. “Yeah?”

“Don’t you dare be happy,” she told him. “Neither of us planned this. We don’t even know each other.” She thrust the envelope toward him. “I’ve been to a lawyer. This is a very straightforward agreement. I’m not asking you for anything now or ever. In return, you sign away all rights to the child.”

“Why would I do that?”

She rolled her eyes. “Because it makes the most sense. Like I said, we barely know each other. We can’t have a baby together.”

“I’d say we already are.”

From the corner of his eye, he saw Jenny on the phone. She was quick, he would give her that.

A baby. He didn’t know what he felt, exactly, except a certainty that the kid would be a girl. As for signing away his rights, that wasn’t going to happen in this lifetime.

“We need to talk,” he said, then winced. Was Jenny spiking the beer? Was he turning into a woman?

“There’s nothing to talk about. You should look at the papers.”

He leaned toward her. “I’m not discussing this in a bar.”

She flinched. “I’m not taking you home with me. Look what happened last time.”

He wanted to tell her that he wasn’t interested in her that way—except he was. Now that he knew all his parts were going to stay in place, he could appreciate her pale skin and the way her mouth curved when she smiled. Not that she’d done so in recent memory.

“I’m not trying to sleep with you,” he said. “We can go to my place. Follow me in your car. Keep the damn engine running if you want. My point is, I’m not talking about this here.”

He didn’t mention that his ex-girlfriend was still friends with his mother and likely on the phone with her this exact second. Hence the need for speed.

Rachel considered his words, then nodded slowly. “Fine. Your place. But I want you to consider my offer. I’m not trying to trap you.”

“Good to know.”

Rachel enjoyed her little convertible and she’d always liked driving the manual transmission. Only this afternoon she couldn’t stop shaking, which made it difficult to shift.

The conversation with Carter hadn’t gone at all the way she’d imagined. For one thing, he’d kept talking about the fact that she hadn’t called him. As if he’d wanted her to.

Honestly, the thought had never crossed her mind. She’d figured he slept with different women all the time and one more wasn’t going to make an impact on his life. Had she been wrong? Did he really care that she hadn’t called?

The thought was so foreign, she didn’t know how to process it in her brain. Adding to the confusion was his refusal to instantly sign off on the baby. She’d never thought he would want to take on that kind of responsibility. Weren’t women always complaining that men hated the idea of being tied down?

She had to make him understand they weren’t in this together. Dealing with being pregnant was hard enough, and not something she’d even begun to accept, but having to deal with Carter, too, was unimaginable.

She followed his large, black truck into a pleasant neighborhood, the kind populated by young families. When he pulled into the driveway of a pretty, one-story house, she parked in front and climbed out.

For a second, she looked around and felt herself get lost in the past. This was the sort of street where she’d grown up. Modest homes filled with parents and kids and lots of laughter. Even after all these years, she could remember everything about her old bedroom. The color of the wallpaper, the bookshelves on the wall, the way her mother would tease her about the mess on the floor.

Happy memories, she thought wistfully. Happy and so very, very sad.

“Rachel?”

She looked up and saw Carter waiting by the front door. She walked up the path and into his house.

The living room was open, with cream-colored drapes and pretty sage paint on the walls. The furniture looked relatively new and not the least bit like bachelor leather.

“Have a seat,” he said, closing the front door behind her. “You want something to drink?”

“I’m fine.”

She set the paperwork on the coffee table, then sank on the sofa. Now what?

Apparently Carter didn’t know, either. He paced the length of the room, paused in front of her, started to speak, shook his head and started pacing again. She reminded herself that she’d had several days to attempt to get used to the news and she still wasn’t dealing with it. The poor man would need some time.

“I didn’t plan this,” she said by way of a peace offering. “I want you to know that. What happened between us was totally unexpected.”

He looked at her and smiled. “I know. I was there.”

Somehow, she found herself getting lost in his brown eyes. She felt a pull between them. Something strong and powerful that made her want to stand up and step into his arms. Once there he would draw her close and…

Whoa! That’s what had gotten her in trouble in the first place, she thought.

She cleared her throat. “My point is, I don’t want you to be concerned. I can take care of myself.” She wasn’t sure how yet and thinking about being a single mother made her hyperventilate, but that wasn’t his problem. “I have no intention of trapping you. You can take as long as you’d like to look over the papers.”

His expression hardened. “Let’s get this clear right now. I’m not signing away my kid.”

He couldn’t mean that. “Do you want to be a father?”

“I didn’t plan on it this week, no. But we’re talking about my child.” He gave a strangled laugh. “Who am I kidding? My daughter. And you can’t have her.”

He stopped and put his hands on his hips. From her seated position, he looked very powerful and masculine and just a little intimidating.

“You can’t mean that,” she murmured, as caught off guard by his presence as by his words. “I never thought you’d be interested. You don’t know me.”

“Knowledge isn’t required. We did it, it happened, now we’ll deal with it.”

What he said sounded perfectly logical, but this was not the conversation she thought they’d be having.

But before she could say that, the front door burst open and three women entered. One was in her fifties, the others were about Carter’s age. Rachel stood and stared at them.

Carter groaned. “Mama, this is not a good time.”