Despite feeling like roadkill, Ryan smiled. “The date was free. I told her she should have held out for at least fifty thousand. After all, there had to be something significantly wrong with you for your own aunt to have to pay someone to marry you.”
Predictably, Todd bristled. “She’s my aunt by marriage and there’s nothing wrong with me.”
He and Todd were enough alike that Ryan had to agree. Despite only being cousins, they were so similar in appearance that they had often been asked if they were twins. But for once, he and Todd were going to part company. On the issue of Julie Nelson, Ryan could only have regrets.
“You’re going to have to forget her,” Todd said.
“I will.” In time. The question was, how long would it take?
“Look at the bright side. If this went as badly as you said, I don’t have to worry about the other Nelson sisters wanting to marry me. So you’ve derailed Aunt Ruth.”
“She’ll come up with another plan. You know she wants to see us both married. You got picked first because you’re a whole couple of months older, but my time is coming.”
He had the sudden thought that if he had been picked first, then his date with Julie would have been real. He would have gone, expecting nothing, determined to get rid of Julie as quickly as possible, and she still would have won him over.
He felt both sad and angry at the thought. Yes, he’d screwed up. He was willing to admit that, even crawl a little. Why was she so stubborn? Was the situation really that unrecoverable?
He already knew the answer and, as he only had himself to blame, he had nowhere to put the excess emotion.
“I’m going to the gym,” he said as he stood. Maybe a couple of hours on the running track or in the weight room would allow him to sleep tonight. Or at the very least, forget for a few minutes.
But before he could leave, the door to the conference room opened and his secretary stepped in.
“Sorry to interrupt, but there’s someone here to see Ryan. A Julie Nelson. She says it’s important. Should I show her in?”
Todd looked at Ryan. “She must have checked out your latest financials and realized it’s a hell of a lot of money.”
“Shut up,” Ryan said without looking at him. “Yes, Mandy, please show her in.”
Seconds later Julie walked into the room. His chest tightened and he felt as stupid and clueless as a high-school sophomore on his first date. Relief, desire and excitement battled for his attention.
She was gorgeous—tall and blond with blue eyes that flashed her every emotion. Right now they held a combination of controlled rage and contempt.
“Good morning,” she said, her voice as low and sexy as it had been every night in his dreams. The navy power suit she wore concealed more than it showed, but he remembered the curves and soft skin underneath. Dear God, he remembered.
She glanced from him to Todd, then smiled coldly.
“There’s enough similarity in your appearance for me to know who you are,” she said. “The infamous Todd Aston III. It’s my lucky day. Two snakes for the price of one. The liar and the man afraid to do his own dirty work. Your mothers must be so proud.”
Todd raised his eyebrows and nodded slightly. Ryan knew his cousin well enough to read his thoughts. Todd was impressed that Julie wasn’t stupid and wasn’t begging. If Julie had known that, she would have probably told Todd he needed to date a wider range of women.
Ryan liked that he could predict what she was going to say—only the talent wouldn’t have much use. From the looks of things, she hadn’t dropped in to forgive him.
“I didn’t expect to see you again,” Ryan told her.
“It’s all about net worth,” Todd said, staring at Julie. “Isn’t it?”
“I’d wondered why your aunt felt it necessary to offer money to get someone to marry you,” Julie said calmly. “I’d thought the reason might have something to do with a physical impairment. Now I realize the flaw is in your personality. How unfortunate and much more difficult to fix.” She looked at Ryan. “I need to speak with you privately. Now is a good time for me.”
Todd stood, then raised both his hands in the air. “I’ll leave,” he said to Ryan. “Later you can try to explain what exactly it was that you missed.”
With that he left. Ryan pointed at the empty chairs around the table. “Have a seat.”
She hesitated, then sat down. He could feel the anger radiating from her.
“I called,” he said, knowing it was pointless, but still compelled to make the effort.
“I got the messages.”
“And the basket?”
“That’s not why I’m here.”
“You never said thank you.”
Her eyes widened in outrage. “Excuse me? You’re the one who lied. You made horrible assumptions about me and you lied about who you were and what you wanted and you’re trying to take me to task because I didn’t send a thank-you note?”
“I…”
She stood, which forced him to his feet.
“You lied,” she repeated. “I don’t do liars. I could have handled pretty much anything else, but no. That would have been too easy.”
“You were there because of the money,” he said, in a feeble attempt to defend himself. Apologizing hadn’t worked—maybe she would respond to an offense better than defense.
“Oh, please. I was there because I recently discovered I had a grandmother and I’m still thinking I want to have a relationship with her. It was never about the money and you know it.” She folded her arms over her chest. “That’s what gets me the most, Ryan. You know all of that. We had a great connection. That night was…” She paused and swallowed. “Forget it.”
“Julie, don’t do this. Don’t shut me out. You’re right. It was a great night. Magic. That doesn’t happen very often in my life. What about yours? Are you really going to walk away from that because of a mistake?”
She glared at him. “A mistake is losing your keys. You lied about who you were with the express purpose of hurting me. Magic or not, those aren’t qualities I look for in a man.”
Right. “So why are you here?”
She sucked in a breath, then stared him in the eye. “I’m pregnant. We had sex and we didn’t use anything. Didn’t even discuss it, which is pretty dumb, but there we are. My excuse is I haven’t been in a relationship for over a year and wasn’t on anything. I won’t presume to know what your excuse is.”
He heard the words, but they didn’t mean anything. His body froze and his brain stopped working.
Pregnant…as in pregnant?
“How?” he asked before he could stop himself. He shook his head. “Never mind. I know the answer to that.”
“How comforting.”
Pregnant. He couldn’t comprehend what that meant. Sure, having kids had always been something he’d known would happen eventually, but now? Like this? With a woman who hated him?
The timing sucked the big one, but a baby? He found himself kind of liking the idea.
Julie sat down. She would have preferred to stay standing, but these days she was always at risk of being a little woozy. Some women could go their entire pregnancy without feeling symptoms. She’d managed to get her first one less than a month after conception. Was that just her luck?
Only she couldn’t be upset. Even as Ryan stood there looking shocked and ready to bolt, she couldn’t be unhappy. Not about having a child.
“I wasn’t sure if I should even tell you,” she said, probably shocking him with her honesty, but she had no choice. She was a big fan of the truth. “I’ve debated for the past two days. But you are the father and you have the right to know.” She drew in a breath. “Just so we’re all clear, I’m keeping the baby.”
“I’m glad.”
Really? Color her surprised. But then what did she really know about Ryan?
Except that he was a liar, of course.
“You can sign away your rights and I’ll take full responsibility,” she said, wondering if he would. It was the easy out, the most practical. Most men would jump at the chance. A week ago, she would have assumed she would have jumped at the chance.
But something had happened. The second Dr. Greenberg had said she was pregnant, Julie’s heart had nearly burst with joy. She’d never much thought about having children. They had been far in her future. Yet knowing there was a life growing inside of her had changed everything. In that moment, she’d suddenly felt her life had meaning and purpose, which theoretically it had had before, but not in such a big way.
A baby. No, a miracle.
He braced his arms on the table and leaned toward her. “No,” he said clearly. “I will be a father to my child.”
Great. Because morning sickness wasn’t enough of a hassle. “You don’t have to do this to look good. No one needs to know.”
His dark gaze locked with hers. “I will be a father to my child,” he said again, his voice low and forceful. “I want to.”
He looked good. Too good. She hated that she still found him tempting. She wanted to lean toward him as well, so their mouths were close. She wanted to breathe in the scent of him and touch him and be touched. She wanted him to make the bad parts of their last time together go away so they could have the good parts again and again.
“Obviously we’ll have to work something out,” she said calmly so he wouldn’t guess what she’d been thinking. “As I’m less than a month along, we have time to deal with all this.”
She rose and pulled a business card out of her jacket pocket. She’d put it there earlier and had written her home number on the back. Of course she’d hoped he would agree to walk away from the child, but based on how her luck was going lately, it hadn’t seemed likely.
She held out the card.
“That’s it?” he asked.
“What do you mean?”
“You have nothing else to say? Nothing else you want to talk about?”
She set her card on the table and shrugged. “There isn’t anything else. I’m pregnant. That’s for me to deal with. When there’s a child, you can get involved. Between now and then, I suppose we’ll talk.”
“You mean I’ll call and you’ll ignore my messages.”
She thought about the times he’d phoned her office. “I won’t ignore them this time.”
“I’m not sure I believe that.”
She picked up her purse. “I’m not the one who lies.”
“Are you ever going to let that go?”
“No.”
He took a step toward her. “Julie, we’re having a baby together. You have to forgive me sometime.”
“Actually, I don’t,” she said, then turned on her heel and left.
Six
Ryan spent the afternoon in his office, not working.
Pregnant. He knew he’d been there and he knew what had happened, but it still seemed impossible that a single night could produce a baby.
Todd walked in and slumped on the leather sofa by the window.
“So what did she want?” he asked, then shook his head. “No, wait. I want to guess. She’s forgiven all and desperately wants to be with you.”
“Did she act like either of those was true?”
Todd shrugged. “She was mad, sure, but was it real or an act? Come on. We’ve seen it all. Some of them are better than others.”
At one time Ryan would have agreed with his cousin. Recently he’d become convinced there weren’t any honest women left. But he’d been wrong.
“She’s pregnant.”
Todd straightened and stared at him. Then he swore and flopped back on the sofa. “You’re totally screwed,” he said glumly. “Doesn’t it just figure. She wins in the end.”
“No one’s winning,” Ryan said. “We’re dealing. She asked me if I wanted to sign away rights.”
“And in return she’d ask you for nothing?” Todd shook his head. “I won’t believe it until I see the paperwork myself.”
“I told her no.”
“Of course you did.”
“This isn’t what I would have planned, but now that it’s happened…” He didn’t know what to say. In truth, the thought of a kid of his own was appealing.
Todd frowned. “Don’t go all father and son on me.”
“I wouldn’t mind a daughter.”
Todd groaned.
Ryan grinned. “Look at the bright side. I read somewhere that a child gets most of its intelligence from the mother. Julie’s bright enough that her kid could grow up to save the world.”
“You need saving right now. You barely know this woman and now you’re having a baby with her? If she offered you an out, you need to think about taking it.”
“No.”
“Look what happened last time.”
“This is different. I won’t be a stepfather. I’ll be involved from the beginning. We’ll make decisions together.”
“You sure about that?”
“Julie has every right to be pissed at me.”
“I don’t agree but we’ll go with it,” Todd said. “Fine. She’s pissed and are you so sure she’ll get over it? Or play straight with you? Are you even sure the kid is yours?”
Ryan stared at his cousin. “Have you always been such a cynical bastard?”
“We both are.”
“Not anymore.”