“I’d like us to have the chance to get to know one another. See where this can go.”
She let out a huff of a laugh. “You’re only doing this because you got me pregnant, though.”
“Not true, but even if it was, so what?” It wasn’t. I’d been biding my time. From the minute I’d seen her walk into that bar it was like everything had narrowed down to just her. She’d been on my mind every damn day since. I was hearing her laugh in my dreams. Relay would call it an obsession, and maybe it was, but I liked what I knew of her and I wanted to know more.
“I’m not trying to trap you, Bolo.”
“Never said you were. I wanted more than one damn date, Devyn. You’re the one who got cold feet.”
She opened her mouth, then snapped it closed. “I’m keeping the baby.”
“Never even thought otherwise.”
She frowned at me, like I was a puzzle she couldn’t quite figure out.
“What?”
“You’re…not what I expected.”
I chuckled. “You thought I’d run. Why’d you even tell me then?”
She rolled her eyes. “My mom said it was only fair to let you know.”
“She sounds like a smart lady,” I told her. “I can’t wait to meet her. So… What’d you say?”
She frowned. “You’re sure?”
“I’m not asking you to date me.” I would, but knew she’d bolt out that door behind me faster than I could finish the sentence. She was a skittish one. I needed to play this cool or she was going to run. That was the last thing I wanted. Even if it didn’t work out between us, I refused to have a kid out there who I didn’t know. Who didn’t know me. But I would rather have us be a family.
I’d already been thinking that I was getting too old for the partying lifestyle. I was tired of it. Not of my brothers, our MC, or anything. I’d kill for them. But I was thirty-five and I’d started to think of what came next.
She shook her head in disbelief. “You haven’t actually even asked if it’s yours.”
Seemed she was ready to finally acknowledge that this could be a legitimate question a man might have, though I hadn’t been thinking of it that way. She also seemed to have forgotten she’d just gotten mad at me when I first came in and accidentally implied that the baby might not be mine. I wasn’t about to point any of that out though. “You think it’s mine?”
“I know it is,” she said with a sigh. “You’re the first guy I’ve had sex with in…an embarrassingly long time.”
That wasn’t anything to be embarrassed about in my opinion, but I didn’t say that. Devyn had a fiery temper—which I really liked about her—and I was trying to not step directly on a landmine while I was trying to persuade her to get involved with me.
“That’s all I need to know.”
“You don’t even know me, Bolo.”
Because you ran away when I tried to get to know you. But we seemed to be throwing all rationality out the window. Proceed with caution.
She threw up her hands. “I don’t even know your real name. But you’re just trusting me when I say this baby is yours?”
That was what I meant about her temper. She was grateful I believed her, but still a little mad about it, too. Women were a confusing addition to our species, but fuck if humanity wouldn’t suck without them. “I’m good at reading people. You’re trustworthy.”
That took the wind out of her sails. “Thanks…I guess.” She looked at me helplessly. She wasn’t sure how to handle any of this.
I was right there with her and just doing my best not to fuck it up. “What do you think?” I prompted again.
She was silent for longer than I liked, but she finally nodded. “Yeah. Okay. We can…get to know each other.”
“Need to know my baby mama,” I said with a grin.
She glared at me. “Shut up.”
