“Um, well ...” Her skin paled as she fidgeted with her hands. I’d never seen her be so nervous. “Could we maybe not do this on the street? We could go for lunch, or something.”
Oh no. I’d seen this before. She was happy to see me and nervous to talk to me about something?
She wanted to ask me out, didn’t she?
“I don’t really do lunch with women I ...” I trailed off. This was always the worst part of it. I hated when a woman caught feelings and I had to find a way to gently turn them down.
This time was going to feel worse than others.
Ididthink about her, though. If there was one woman that I ever could consider saying yes to, it was Grace Day.
I wouldn’t, though. That wasn’t what I did.
“Can you make an exception this once?” she asked.
Dammit.“I don’t make exceptions. I’m sorry, Grace.”
Her jaw tightened. “I promise, I?—”
“Grace, I said it would just be for fun.” My chest ached at the words, but I needed to say it anyway. “I won’t go to lunch with you. And I won’t be anything more with you.”
She blinked as my words hit her. “I’m not ... I’m not asking you out.”
“It’s okay if you were. It happens to the best of us.”
Her cheeks darkened. “I’m seriously not.”
“Then what else could you be doing? You’re nervous and won’t meet me in the eye. It’s like you know you’re breaking a rule. This isn’t the first time a woman was with me and?—”
“I’m trying to tell you I’mpregnant, Dean.”
My breath caught in my throat, all of my words forgotten. “What did you just say?”
She took a breath before repeating the very words I’d hoped to never hear. “I’m pregnant.”
No. No way.
I stepped back from her, squeezing my eyes shut. I could remember every second from our two times. They played back in my mind like they’d happened just the day before.
But they weren’t the day before. It was three and a half months ago.
A lot could happen in that time.
“It’s not mine, is it?”
Grace’s lips pressed together. “That’s your first thought?”
“It’s a fair question.”
“I hadn’t been with anyone in months before you, and I haven’t been with anyone since. The baby is yours, Dean.”
“Shit.” The words came out before I could stop them and I paced around the street. “Shit.”
She didn’t say anything for a good minute before she finally sighed. “Are you done?”
I paused and looked at her. Now that I knew she was pregnant, I could see the differences. Her cheeks were rounder, and her figure fuller. I didn’t know much about pregnancy, but I could see her stomach poking out from her T-shirt more than it had when I first met her.
What the fuck had I gotten myself into?