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Before Gerard, she was desperate. She didn’t mind admitting it. Having a baby was priority number one, and she didn’t care who she had to bribe to get one. Now, the little one growing in her belly was her world. She would protect him, but at the same time, it terrified her to raise him alone.
“Maybe I’m still desperate but in a different way,” she muttered.
Malcolm was just about to shut her door after he assisted her into the car. “Did you say something?”
“No.”
He shut the door, and she watched him pile their purchases into the trunk. What couldn’t fit there, he placed in the back seat. She should slow down. Her money wouldn’t last forever, and babies were expensive.
A short while later, they arrived at her cottage. As she waddled to the door, Malcolm’s hand didn’t stray far from her back. He held out a hand. “Here, let me unlock it.”
“It’s okay. I can do it.”
“Lachelle.” He wiggled his fingers, and she shook her head at him, laughing.
“Fine. Go ahead, crazy. I’ll play the helpless preggo woman to make you
feel better.”
“So ungrateful,” he teased.
They joked some more as he unlocked the door, and just when she would have stepped inside, a strong wind blew her hair into her face. She reached up to brush it away, shivering. A shadow blotted the bright sunlight, and she froze.
Malcolm’s mouth grew slack, and his eyes widened at something behind her. She didn’t have to ask to know what was there. Slowly, she turned around. Her heart stopped. Gerard stood a few feet from them, a silent giant.
He was thinner and paler than the last time she’d seen him. His hair needed a cut and his jaw was covered with a coarse messy beard. This was the Gerard she’d fallen in love with, rough around the edges, barefoot, worn clothing. At the same time, he didn’t exactly look well, as if the last months of struggle had taken their toll.
Gerard’s silver eyes bore into her, and she realized Malcolm still rested a hand at her lower back. She tried to inch away without him noticing just in case Gerard started something. He’d always had trouble keeping control of his emotions when it came to her.
“G-gerard,” she breathed.
“He’s one of them,” Malcolm said. To his credit, Malcolm didn’t sound disgusted, more like awe and a bit of fear. “You know him, Lachelle?”
Malcolm really didn’t know who she was.
“I…”
Gerard’s gaze slid down her body and halted on her protruding belly. “You’re pregnant.”
He stormed forward. She stumbled backward a pace, and Malcolm, not knowing what Gerard intended, jumped in front of her. Gerard brushed him aside like a flea, almost as if he didn’t see Malcolm. The big guy spread long fingers over her belly, and the baby leaped inside her womb. Could he tell it was his daddy?
Gerard’s gaze rose to her face, shock in the beautiful eyes. “It’s mine.”
“How can you tell?”
“He’s…the dad?” Malcolm stumbled over his words for a few moments. She couldn’t make out what he said until he took in a deep breath and blew it out. “Then, you’re the one. You’re the ex-cop that was in the news that time. I didn’t pay a lot of attention to it. I figured it was all happening so far away. As long as none of it came to our town, we were fine.”
She waited for his condemnation. Malcolm went quiet. For his part, Gerard had totally dismissed her friend as irrelevant. Gerard stood too close, her belly mesmerizing him. She wondered where his mate was and wanted to ask, but the words wouldn’t move past her lips.
Of course, she could look at his ring finger to see if there was anything there, but that wouldn’t prove a thing. The shifters put bonding far above regular old human laws of marriage. Stupid Kelly might be waiting in the car.
She almost laughed at the thought, that Kelly had driven Gerard to see her. Not in a million years. Plus that wind before said Gerard had flown there. Typical of him to drop out of the sky, she mused, and wished she could see him fall just once more. God, how she’d missed him.
“What are you doing here, Gerard?” She didn’t dare look up at him, or Malcolm would see how her love for Gerard gushed up the moment he landed. In seconds, he ruined all she worked so hard for over the last few months. “If you’ve come to give me some type of news, I don’t need it. Nessa and I stay in touch, and she hasn’t informed me of anything I might find interesting. Kelly must be waiting…”
She rambled and couldn’t get control of her tongue. He should go, but it might be too late to salvage the relationship with Malcolm. He knew now, her baby was only half human.
Malcolm handed over her keys. “I should go.”
