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Bailey
> “I’ve been here a month, don’t you think it’s time you went back to your own home? Dad told me you didn’t even spend this much time here when you were in high school.”
Dad. It was crazy weird to toss that word out there in everyday conversation when I would have given anything to have been able to talk about my dad when I was growing up. I’d loved my mom more than anything in the world, but I’d missed out on so much by not having him around. When she was diagnosed with breast cancer my senior year of high school, I let go of my yearning to know about my father and focused on taking care of her. I changed all my plans and switched to a local college, staying at home instead of in the dorms so I could care for her.
Things were looking up by the time I graduated with my bachelor’s degree and teaching license. Mom was nearing the five year anniversary of her last chemotherapy treatment, and I quickly landed a position at the elementary school I’d attended as a child. Then we got the call that changed our lives—again. The breast cancer hadn’t come back, but she was diagnosed with leukemia, a side effect of the original treatment she’d received.
It was a battle she lost this time around, and she made a deathbed confession that left me reeling. She’d never told my father about her pregnancy. When they met, he’d been a widower with a young son, and she was fresh out of a broken relationship. They found comfort in each other while they healed, but it had never been a love match. She’d discovered she was pregnant after she’d moved away and decided it was better to keep the ties severed and uncomplicated.
When she realized she wasn’t going to survive the leukemia, she hired a private investigator to locate him so I’d have the chance to meet him, if I wanted to. Less than three months later, here I was, sitting on the couch with my older brother in our dad’s home in Nebraska—still struggling with the fact that my mom had kept me from them my entire life.
“Hey.” Jack flicked my ear to gain my attention. “Do you want to get rid of me so much that you’re going to ignore me now?”
“Sorry,” I sighed. “I got lost in my head for a minute there, thinking about my mom.”
His grin quickly turned into a grimace. My mom was a topic of conversation we avoided since he and my dad pretty much hated her for the decision to keep her pregnancy a secret. But, they respected my grief and the fact that, no matter what, she was still my mother, enough to keep their opinions mostly to themselves. As much as I loved her, I couldn’t defend what she’d done. Not after what she’d cost all of us.
I needed to steer the discussion back on track because I didn’t want to ruin everyone’s dinner. “So what were you saying that was so important you needed to inflict bodily harm on me?”
He raised his hands up, palms facing me, an innocent expression on his handsome face. “Who? Me? I’d never hurt my sister.”
“Uh-huh,” I drawled, slugging him lightly on the arm. “Lucky for me, I never said anything about not hurting my brother.”
“Hey!” he protested, rubbing the spot I’d hit. “No fair. It’s a good thing I’ve got reinforcements coming.”
“Reinforcements?”
“That’s what I was trying to tell you. You finally get the chance to meet my best friend, little sis. But don’t worry, I warned him to keep his hands to himself.” He winked, and I forced a laugh.
Unless his name was Wyatt Kincaid, Jack didn’t need to worry about his best friend ever getting the chance to touch me. That man had somehow managed to worm his way into my subconscious in the hours we’d spent together my first night in town. I’d spent every night after dreaming about him and the things he’d done to my body. “You don’t need to warn all your friends away from me. I’m a grown ass woman. I can take care of myself.”
“I’m sure you can with most guys, and I have a friend or two who I might, maybe, consider not killing if you decided you liked them. But you’ll just have to trust my judgment when it comes to my friends.”
I rolled my eyes at his superior tone. “I’m sure I can resist the temptation of your best friend without your help.”
“It doesn’t mean I’m going to stop giving it,” he murmured, standing up and dropping a kiss on my head at the sound of the knock on the front door.
“Perfect timing!” Sharon called, as she and my dad carried serving platters to the dining room table. Their home had an open floor plan, with the living room flowing into the dining room. The kitchen was separated from the living space by a granite island surrounded by bar stools on three sides where we’d eaten most of our meals. Apparently the arrival of Jack’s best friend warranted a more formal meal.
I was staring at the pot roast, my stomach churning as the smell of cooked meat wafted my way when I heard my brother teasing his friend.
“Flowers? You shouldn’t have, man,” he joked. “Although I’m sure Sharon will appreciate them.”
“They’re not for Sharon.”
That voice. It couldn’t be. I stood up from the couch and swiveled my head to find him standing in the doorway staring at me with heated eyes, a bouquet of blue and burnt orange colored flowers in his hands. Jack’s best friend was Wyatt, the man I’d given my virginity to a month ago?
Holy shitballs.
“What do you mean ‘they’re not for Sharon’?” Jack scratched his head, clearly confused. “Who else would they be for?” His gaze followed Wyatt’s line of sight, straight to me.
“They’re for Bailey.”
“Why would you bring Bailey flowers?” Jack asked, his eyes darting between me and Wyatt while we stood there staring at each other.
Something seemed to click in place, and his eyes narrowed in suspicion, “What the fuck, Wyatt?” His hands were clenched so hard at his sides that I could see the whitening of his knuckles from where I stood. “I warned you before she even came into town,” Jack growled. “My sister is off limits to you. No flowers. No dates. No hookups. So stop fucking looking at her the way you are right now because I’m about thirty seconds from throwing your ass out with all of the broken bones we talked about.”
I stepped forward, intending to step between the two men—to intervene with my brother on Wyatt’s behalf. Jack didn’t know that we’d met before, and Wyatt hadn’t known I was Jack’s sister. The last thing I wanted was for them to fight over me. I didn’t make it far before my head began to swim and my stomach, which had only been slightly upset minutes earlier, heaved. I felt the blood drain from my face as chills raced along my skin.
Crap! I wasn’t sure I was going to make it to the bathroom in time.
I turned and raced from the room, heading down the hallway as quickly as I could. Throwing the door open, I fell to my knees in front of the toilet and puked up my guts. At least, that’s what it felt like I was doing. I’d never felt this badly before, not even the one time I’d had food poisoning from bad seafood when I was in college.
“Urg,” I gagged in embarrassment when I realized Jack and Wyatt were standing in the doorway staring at me. Or more accurately, my brother was staring while he held Wyatt back from entering the bathroom.
“Don’t just stand there, boys. Get out of the way unless you’re going to help.” My dad yanked on their collars like they were still little boys and dragged them backwards until Sharon was able to get past them.
“There’s no way I’m going in there,” Jack replied. “I don’t want to catch whatever Bailey’s got. You know how much I hate to puke.”
“It’s okay, honey,” Sharon cooed as she grabbed a washcloth and ran it under cold water.
Wyatt was still trying to push his way into the bathroom. “You’re not going to catch what she has.”
I moaned in gratitude when Sharon wiped my face with the cool washcloth, but it turned into a groan of mortification when Jack piped back up again. “How the hell do you know I won’t catch it?”
“Because she’s pregnant, you asshole.”
“Pregnant?” Jack and I repeated in unison.
My dad let go of the guys and came into the
bathroom, squatting down so we were face-to-face, his eyes full of concern. “Is Wyatt right? Could you be pregnant, baby girl?”
My gaze darted over his shoulder to Wyatt, and images of our night together raced through my head. My cheeks heated at the carnal knowledge in his eyes. I dropped my head, staring at the floor while I did a quick calculation of the days in my head. Then I admitted a truth I hadn’t considered until this moment—to my dad and to myself. “Yes, it’s possible.”
“Don’t say it like being pregnant is the end of the world,” Sharon chided. “Having a baby is the beginning, silly girl.”
“How the fuck did you make the leap from her puking her guts up to a possible pregnancy?” Jack asked Wyatt. “And why did Bailey look at you the way she just did before answering the question?”
“It’s okay, Bailey,” my dad reassured me, pulling me onto his lap and wrapping his arms around me. “I promise everything’s gonna be just fine.”
“Because the baby is mine.” I felt his body stiffen at Wyatt’s response.
It was as though time stood still for a minute, and nobody knew how to react to Wyatt’s announcement. Sharon wasn’t at a loss for words long, though.
“You got to see Wyatt naked?” She patted me on the back. “Nicely done, baby girl. I’ve been trying to check out his family jewels for years, and you were able to get up close and personal with them. Good job!”
