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“Wouldn’t it be good for our baby to have their mother and father together?” Dylan said.

“There’s a big difference between my pregnancy hormones clouding my judgement and us being a couple,” Lucy said. And between being with someone because you wanted to be rather than just because they’re having your baby, she thought.

“Ohhhhh, last night was your pregnancy hormones?” Dylan confirmed.

“Yes, I looked it up. It’s pretty common among pregnant women that their pregnancy hormones go nuts and make them really fancy the father of their child,” she explained quickly. It was hard to concentrate with Dylan staring at her.

“Isn’t it quite common for a woman to find the man she’s having a baby with attractive? Even before and after she’s pregnant?”

“I’m just explaining what happened.”

“You said you fancied me,” said Dylan, his face breaking into a grin.

“To explain what happened yesterday.”

“And you Googled an explanation for you fancying me?”

When the only response was Lucy putting her face in her hands, he relented slightly, “OK, OK. So, to recap, we slept together last night purely because of your pregnancy hormones.”

“Yes,” Lucy confirmed with what she hoped was a nonchalant shrug. She was feeling very warm all of a sudden.

“So, how does that explain my involvement?” Dylan asked, deadpan. “I mean, I don’t have pregnancy hormones. Or do I? Do you want to Google that as well?”

“Dylan, you’re not taking this seriously.”

“You’re right, I’m not. What happened last night was that we had the best day together, and you finally let down your barriers enough to let me in. If that’s something to do with your hormones, well, thank you hormones, but I think you’ll find that you will still fancy me after this baby is born.”

“That’s rather presumptuous of you,” said Lucy.

“We’ll see. I’m going to head out for my run now, if that’s all right.”

“Um, sure,” said Lucy. She felt completely discombobulated. What had just happened? Dylan had somehow got her to admit that she fancied him. She’d also given away the fact that she’d been googling about how much she fancied him. This wasn’t how she’d expected this conversation to go at all.

She watched wordlessly as Dylan put on his running shoes and headed out.

At least there hadn’t been some big emotional scene with him moving out, but she couldn’t help thinking that Dylan had a plan — and she was in danger of falling for it.

Chapter 22

It seemed Dylan was determined not to let what had happened between them affect things, which Lucy was very grateful for. He gave her space for the next couple of days, working in the flat more and spending time at the gym and going out for a drink with Michael in the evening. By Thursday morning, Lucy was looking forward to spending time with him on their shopping trip. She’d missed him, and it almost seemed like what had happened on Sunday night had been a figment of her crazy pregnancy imagination.

“I promised you could drive my car at some point,” Dylan said, offering her the keys to his precious Audi after they’d helped open up the coffee shop for the day.

“Really?” said Lucy.

“Yes, really,” Dylan said. “Just don’t let me regret it.”

“I’m making no promises,” Lucy said, skipping off down the garden path.

“She’s got a powerful engine,” he warned.

“Stop fussing.” Lucy got in the car and moved the driver seat forward so she could reach the pedals.

She couldn’t resist giving the engine a little rev, and was rewarded with a wince from her passenger.

The drive to Plymouth passed without incident, presumably due to how tightly Dylan was clutching his armrest. It was definitely fun to drive his car.

They parked up and walked to the shops. “Where do you want to start? We have no plan at all,” Lucy said.