Page 6 of Trusting a Warrior

Think you’ve watched one too many episodes of Law & Order, my girl.

At last she leaned her hip against the counter to take a breather, the pesky nausea rearing its ugly head once again. Fishing a sleeve of saltines from a shelf underneath the register, she took a few discreet nibbles before washing the cracker down with a gulp of ginger ale.

She saw Geo watching her and sighed. “Morning sickness—it’s not just for mornings anymore.”

“Ah.” He nodded. “Congratulations.”

“Oh, Mama ain’t happy.” She had no idea why she’d said that, and her cheeks heated with embarrassment. “Sorry. Forgot we’re not talking.”

He shrugged. “I never said I wouldn’t talk. It’s up to you. If you want to talk, I’m all ears. If you don’t, I’ll just drink.”

They spent a moment appraising each other. He was olive-skinned, with dark hair and eyes. Italian, she suspected, with that last name—Monteverdi—but his husky voice held a faint hint of the South.

He wore his hair close-cropped, and his ears stuck out just a tad to frame a pleasant but unremarkable face. His eyes, though, were anything but ordinary. A deep brown surrounded by thick black lashes, they held a wealth of self-confidence tinged with an arrogance that sent an unwilling quiver down Lani’s spine. Pair that with muscular shoulders, bulging biceps, a torso without a hint of fat on it, and she just knew...

“You’re a team guy, aren’t you?”

To her enormous satisfaction, she could tell she’d surprised him.

“Good guess,” he said slowly. “You married to one?”

“Almost. My ex-fiancé is a PJ attached to Team Three.”

“Ex?” When his gaze dropped to her stomach, Lani could feel herself flush.

“Baby’s not his, and yeah, it’s quite the mess,” she said, then caught herself and snapped, “Why am I even talking to you? I thought we weren’t gonna do that.”

She spun away to draw the man at the other end of the bar a beer. Stomping back over to her register, she fully intended to ignore Geo, but he said, “You know, sometimes it’s easier to talk to a stranger than it is to friends. Just saying.”

Biting her lip, Lani finished ringing up Beer Guy, then busied herself wiping down the bar. Geo didn’t say anything more, but she was aware of his steady gaze. At last she grabbed a couple of lemons and a knife, plopped her cutting board down in front of him, and began slicing them into wedges.

“Most of my friends were other team wives, so my ex—Rhys—took them with him. I haven’t heard from any of those women in months.” Chop, chop, chop.

“What about the baby’s father?” Geo asked softly. “Is he in the picture?”

She barked out a bitter laugh. “I don’t even know his real name.”

Before she knew it, she was telling him about that stupid weekend hookup at a house in Malibu, a house she’d driven back up to one weekend to see if she could track the guy down, only to find out it was an Airbnb and the owner wouldn’t disclose her renters’ names or contact info.

“I asked her to pass along a message to call me, but so far nothing.”

She appreciated the lack of judgment, and pity, in Geo’s eyes. “That’s rough,” he said. “What’re you going to do?”

Thoughts of all she’d lost welled up again. Without answering, she walked over to greet the small, rowdy group of people who’d just arrived. As she worked filling their drink orders, she couldn’t help but glance at Geo.

He didn’t have his nose buried in his phone, like virtually everyone else did. Instead he sat loose and relaxed, glass in hand, watching the room. And her.

Those confident eyes. The quiet and sincere interest on his face. He raised an eyebrow as she approached him again.

Sometimes it’s easier to talk to a stranger...

“I want to keep the baby,” she said abruptly. “Maybe I’m crazy, but I want it.”

He’d just opened his mouth to reply when Lani’s morning sickness suddenly roared back with a vengeance, the intensity of it warning her that this time crackers and ginger ale wouldn’t be enough. Gagging, she bolted toward the employee lounge next to the bar and the restroom there.

She barely made it to the toilet, where her stomach emptied itself in heave after wrenching heave, her whole body shaking with the spasms. A warmth knelt behind her, then gentle hands gathered up her hair and held it high.

“Oh, God,” she choked out. “No!”