Alec wasn’t sure where she was going with this. “There were times I wished I wasn’t a twin.”
“I can imagine. Your family does seem very comfortable getting into each other’s business.”
“That’s true,” he said.
“I’m sure you’re wondering why I brought up family, and there is no easy way to say this...” She paused, and the look on her face made him brace for the worst. “I’m pregnant. And my family isn’t the nurturing kind. I thought the man I’d slept with was Humanitarian of the Year and maybe he’d be a good parent but now I’m not sure.”
He put his foot down, abruptly stopping the motion of the swing, and looked over at her not sure he’d heard her correctly. Pregnant? He wasn’t ready to be a father. He didn’t even know Scarlet. Sure, he wanted to get to know her...but a baby?
His baby?
Someone like his sweet nephew, Benito. A child who could be the best parts of the both of them.
A baby.
A baby!
“Are you sure?” he asked.
“Would I be here if I wasn’t?” she asked.
“No I guess not. I’m... I have never thought of having kids other than in the abstract. In fact, we only slept together that one time—are you sure it’s mine?”
Chapter Five
Was she sure it was his?
What the f?—
Did he honestly think she’d come to Texas just to trap him? “Honestly, I’ve never been so insulted.”
“Fair enough, but as you said it’s not like we know each other or that we were even in a relationship.”
He sounded so reasonable and she knew he was justified to ask questions. But she’d been dealing with a bunch of crap and she wanted just once to have a man step up and not look for an out. She shook her head.
“I don’t have a DNA test in my bag but I’m happy to take one,” she said. “It’s odd that you think of all the men I know you’d be my first choice to approach with my news if I weren’t absolutely certain.”
He shifted back against the seat of the swing and she noticed how his jaw tightened. She braced herself for an angry outburst. She’d read about his twin and that he was known for his hot temper and inability to control it.
“You’re right. You weren’t even coming to see me, were you?” he asked, standing up and walking a few feet from theswing. He put his hands on his hips and stared across his large backyard; and she noticed his head was bowed slightly.
He was complicated, this twin whom she didn’t know. And she realized she had been a bit touchy about the paternity of the baby, but it was one of her hot buttons. She got up and went over to him, putting her hand on the small of his back.
“A lot of the more salacious reports about me like to paint me as a carbon copy of my father—someone who’s insatiable when it comes to the opposite sex, jumping from bed to bed—but there isn’t much I can do about it. Still, it does bother me,” she said. “To be fair my reaction to the news of this pregnancy was very similar to yours. It was only one time. But as my doctor said, that’s all it takes.”
“Yeah, I know. I never meant to insult you,” Alec said. He turned to face her and one side of his mouth quirked in a tentative smile. “Seems I owe you another apology.”
“Apology accepted,” she said. He wasn’t what she expected. There was a humbleness and sincerity to him that she’d seldom encountered.
“Alec, would you and your guest like something to eat?” his housekeeper asked.
“Are you hungry?” he asked Scarlet in turn.
“I’m not, but if you are, please eat,” she said.
“I always have a snack after a polo match,” he said. “Please bring it out to the dining area, Rosa.”
“Si, Rosa,” he said, then spoke to her in Spanish.