“Pffft.” She bit down on her bottom lip, color suffusing her cheeks. “I really have to get to my next flight.”
“Yeah. I should let you go.”
Neither of us moved. Not for a long minute. One hand still in mine, her other clutching my shirt. I grinned. Her mouth curved.
I was on my way to plant my lips on hers when a crackling announcement interrupted us. Mazzy jumped, her hand slipping from my chest. I took my time kissing the one I still had before letting go.
She picked up her bag and slung it over her shoulder. “This is it.”
I opened my arms. “Come here. Give me one more.”
Like last night, she fit against me just right. Short and soft, her body molded to mine like a warm candle. I pressed my nose to the top of her head, my lips to her hair, and held on tight.
“You’re really great, Mazzy Belle. Don’t forget that.”
She moved back with a sigh, flashing me a smile that shot me straight in the gut. “You’re really great too, Benny—and not just because you bought my plane ticket.” She gave my bicep a light slug. “Don’t sleep on your calling as a mortician.”
I had to laugh. “I’ll keep that on file.”
With that, she walked away, and I let her.
This wasn’t the first time I’d met a woman in a similar way—one hot night together, knowing that was all it would be. Hell, Ilovednights like that. Capsule episodes, every human emotion and experience crammed into a finite number of hours.
But this…
Well...this was the first time I felt like I’d lost something.
Chapter Six
Mazzy
Six Months Later
Mystomachwasinknots. I had no idea how this was going to work, but standing outside the rugby stadium was round one of my ideas. If this didn’t work, I’d move on to round two.
Of course, I had to figure out what round two was if it came to that.
My dad’s voice came through my phone, loud and clear. “Stop fidgeting, Mazz. Everything will work out like it’s supposed to.”
“How do you know I’m fidgeting?” I asked defensively, even though I absolutely was. If he were here, I would have been leaning against him. He wasn’t a big man, but he would have supported me like he always did.
“You’re my daughter. I know you.”
I had no argument. No one knew me better than my dad. “Blurgh. I know. I’m nervous, though. Can you really blame me?”
I probably should have found a way to get in touch with Ben before flying to Denver to...ambush him, I guess. But news like this needed to be given in person, and my dad had agreed. So, here I was, possibly minutes away from telling Ben Wells I was having his baby.
My stomach lurched.Drat. This was crazy. My bladder suddenly felt like an overfilled balloon, and my feet were doing tappy-taps on the sidewalk.
I smoothed my hand over my bump, still in disbelief it existed. I’d only confirmed my pregnancy two months ago, and even now that I was able to feel her kicking regularly, I was still in a bit of denial that this was real. In a few months, I’d have my baby in my arms.
This obviously hadn’t been in my plans. I was still in college. I had another year before I graduated, then I intended to go to law school. When I’d held the positive pregnancy test in my hands, my first instinct had been to terminate. I wasn’t in the right place to have a baby. Not even close. And a baby from a one-night stand? No way.
But I’d slept on it, becoming less and less sure with each passing day. As an international adoptee, I knew none of my biological family. I’d been well loved and taken care of by my fathers, yet had always yearned for something I hadn’t been able to name until adulthood.
A genetic connection. A tether to my ancestors. History I could touch, smell, see with my own eyes.
Maybe it was a selfish reason to keep this baby, but it wasn’t only that. I’d be able to finish my degree after she was born, and law school could wait a year or two if needed. I had astrong support system in my father. And even though I was only twenty-one, I was confident I was capable of being a mother.
