“I can’t . . .”
He squeezed her closer. “I’d never ask that. I’d never want that.” Even if he couldn’t see himself with her for the rest of his life, he’d want this. He’d want it with her. She was going to be a fantastic mother. He could only hope she let him stand beside her every step of the way.
She blew out a breath. “Okay. We should go back inside.”
They should. Except he didn’t want to let her go. His arms locked in protest at the thought. “We should.” He bent his head down and kissed the top of hers. “Try not to worry.”
“Kind of hard when everything changes after tomorrow.”
“You might think this is me just blowing air, but it’s going to be fine. Everything will work out the way it’s supposed to.”
Pulling away from him, she took a step back and smiled. “Thank you.”
“For what?”
“Not exploding in anger.”
He laughed. “I’d be a total asshole if I did that. It takes two to make a baby, Maz, and I clearly remember having my dick inside you without a condom on.”
She glanced around. “Can we keep this between us for now? Until we know?”
“Of course. But in case you’re wondering, I’ll stand up no matter what you decide. I want to be involved as much as you’ll let me.”
“Okay.”
“For now.” He gripped her elbow and steered her toward the admin building. “We should go see if dinner has arrived yet.”
Her hand came up to cover her mouth, and the color leached from her face. “I don’t think I can eat pizza.”
“Hmm . . . I’m sure we can find you something else to eat.”
“I think I saw some crackers in one of the cupboards. They might sit better in my stomach than anything else I’ve tried today.”
“Crackers, it is.” And the first thing he’d do when they got inside was research what pregnant women with morning sickness should eat.
27
Mazey pulled into her driveway and glanced into the rearview mirror to see Rylan’s truck pull in behind hers.
Damn it. He hadn’t gone home first. She told him she was fine, and he could go home to change before they went out to pick up a pregnancy test. Obviously, that had fallen on deaf ears.
She understood his concern, she was a little worried herself. She hadn’t managed to keep any food down since Sunday night. And pie and ice cream weren’t exactly nutritious for her or the baby. And she’d barely snacked on the meat and vegetable platter they’d put together, so that didn’t count as a nutritional meal for growing a baby either.
Ifthere was a baby.
Pressing a hand on her stomach, she switched off the engine and stared at her house.
She would need more room. If she was pregnant, her little house wouldn’t hold up to the number of things a baby would generate—would need. The tiny second bedroom barely held a desk and chair. She didn’t even have a bed in there because she knew it wouldn’t fit more than a twin and would probably require moving the desk out to get it in there.
She’d have to think about finding somewhere permanent now.
Somewhere bigger. More suited for a family. Something like Rylan’s house.
Her door flew open, making her flinch and twist away except she hadn’t released her seatbelt and couldn’t move far.
“Hey. Are you all right?” Rylan crouched down, leaned in, his gaze studying her face. “You’re not going to be sick again, are you?”
Oh man, she hoped not. She’d eaten nothing since the crackers had come back up last night. She hadn’t wanted to risk it and draw attention to herself. She probably could have lied and said she had the stomach flu, but then Cochran would have sent her home, and that was the last thing she’d wanted. If she were at work, she had plenty of things to distract her from the merry-go-round of thoughts in her head.
