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Kind of out of left field, but sweet. She leaned in and kissed him. A quick one, thanks but no thanks to the squirmy puppy in her arms. “Be right back.”
SAM
At the soundof Leigh’s patio door closing, Sam pulled his cell from his pocket. Seven text messages and one voicemail. He dragged his fingertip up the phone screen. All texts sent by the same person—Michelle Sato. Since he rarely got voicemails, he’d bet it was also from Michelle. He just didn’t know why. He was about to find out.
He opened the lock screen and went to the messages first.
Hi Sam, it’s Michelle Sato, from the sports nutrition convention in Toronto. Can you message me back as soon as possible?
Sam, it’s Michelle again. I’m not looking for a booty call or a relationship or to rag on you for ghosting me. Just to talk. Thanks.
It’s Michelle again. Maybe you honestly don’t remember me. I’d send you a selfie but I’m not looking my best at the moment. Get back to me, please. As soon as possible. If you don’t remember who I am, just say so.
Hey, is anybody there? Is this still Sam Jacobs’ cell number? I hope so, because it’s important that I reach him. If it’s not Sam’s number anymore, can you quickly reply and let me know. Thanks.
Just text me back. A quick message to let me know that you’re alive and on the other end of this number.
Look, I’m not going to tell you I have some horrible dick-shriveling disease. But I do need to get in touch with you.
Check your voicemail. I really want to talk to you and it’s urgent, but I don’t want to put this stuff in a text. If I don’t hear from you soon, it’s going to be too late.
Damn, this girl really wanted to get in touch with him. Cryptic messages aside, she clearly wasn’t taking his lack of response as an answer. If he wanted his phone to stop buzzing with notifications from another woman, he’d have to hear her out. Starting with the voicemail.
He tapped the necessary buttons and put the cell to his ear.
“Hi, Sam, this is Michelle Sato. I hope you remember me—we met at that sports nutrition convention in Toronto last fall. We hooked up a few times that weekend. I thought it was pretty hot, but I don’t have a base of comparison, so maybe it was crappy sex. Maybe that’s why you didn’t return my text a few months ago. Whatever, none of that matters now. Look, I know I’m about to do a huge number on your head, and I’m sorry for that. I did try to contact you a few months ago, but like I said in my texts, you didn’t answer. So, yeah, here goes. I’m at Grand River Hospital right now, having your baby. Yes, I’m sure it’s your baby. It’s 8:00 p.m. Saturday night, and the nurse just told me I’m fully dilated and ready to push, so this will be my last message. Please come to the hospital so we can talk. I hope you get here before it’s too late.”
The semi-dark living room might as well have been a black hole. If what she’d said was true… No. It couldn’t be. Not now. Not fucking now.
After getting the “Hey, you’ve probably got HPV” call, he’d had every test in the book. Been cleared of any and all other possible health issues. Unfortunately, there was no male-oriented test for the possibility of accidentally impregnating somebody. But it had been months since he went without a condom. He’d thought for sure he was out of the woods.
What kind of woman waited until she was in labor to announce she was pregnant? Only she hadn’t waited. She’d reached out to him in the spring.
His cocky player side had seen Michelle’s text with news of relocating to the area and assumed she wanted to get together. A nope for him. He’d deleted her message without answering.
He could do the same now. Delete and ignore. Pretend he’d never received the messages. Assume she was either lying or incorrect. Forget everything he’d just heard.
He’d never be able to forget. One way or the other, he had to know. “Shit.”
“That doesn’t sound promising,” Leigh said as she entered the living room. “Neither does the look on your face.”
“I wish you weren’t right.” He rose and crossed the room to stand in front of her. Everything he was about to do felt wrong. “A former acquaintance I met at a nutrition convention is in the hospital. She’s fairly new to the area and didn’t have anybody else to reach out to.”
“Oh, no. I hope it’s nothing serious?”
Oh, it was serious, all right. Way too damn serious. “From the messages, it sounds like she’s going to be fine. But she asked if I’d go to the hospital tonight to see her.” Since Leigh’s hands were full of puppy, he cupped her face and looked deep into her pretty, honest eyes. “I’m so sorry about this.”
“That’s sweet, but I’m not upset or angry. Horny, yes. But not angry.”
Laughter erupted from deep in his chest. Only Leigh could make him laugh like this. “You’re amazing. Thank you.”
“We’ll have other nights together, Sam. Plenty of them.”
“More than we can count.”
Her eyebrows rose. “Considering you’re a math genius, that’s going to be a lot of nights.”
“Definitely.” Pulling her as close as possible without suffocating the puppy, he sealed their mouths together in a kiss to last him the rest of the night. Relinquishing her luscious lips took actual effort. But it had to be done. So did taking a hard step backward. “I don’t know how long this will take, or if I’ll get back here tonight.”
