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I chuckled. “Okay, I believe you.”
“I’ve never lied to you, Ethan. I won’t ever lie to you.”
Oh, the urge to ask her if she loved me was on the tip of my tongue, but I didn’t want to hear her say no.
“So continue with your story.”
“After he brought me home, I went out to buy a test. It was positive, and I knew I needed to tell you, but you weren’t all that receptive to seeing me.”
I winced. “Riley, I apologized. I’m sorry. I was trying to let you go and protect myself. I was an ass, but I was doing what I thought was right.”
“I know you were, and I’m sorry that I blew that up. What is your girlfriend going to say about this?”
“Sam is not my girlfriend.”
She spiked a brow. “Oh really? I saw her kissing you on the porch.”
I sighed. “Riley, I was trying to move on. Sam and I had an arrangement. She’s in my class. She knows all about you, and she’s still in love with her ex-husband. She lives in New York.”
“It’s just sex between you two?”
“Itwasjust sex between us.”
Riley frowned. “What’s that supposed to mean?”
I reached over the couch and gently pulled her hand toward me. I took the glass out of her hand and set it on the table. Then I got as close to her as I could. “Whatever it was that I was doing with Sam is over. Just like I hope that whatever you were doing with Joe is over. Riley, I know you don’t love me, but can you give me a chance to show you that I can give you a good life? That I can give our baby a good life?”
“Ethan, what are you asking?”
“I’m asking you to give us, you and me, a chance. I’m not asking you to marry me, Riley, so don’t freak out, but I’m asking you to consider taking a chance on us. Can we see if we can build a relationship that will help us create a solid foundation for our child?”
Her eyes bounced back and forth between mine. “I don’t know, Ethan. I won’t lie to you and tell you that I haven’t secretly dreamed that you would drop down on one knee and propose, but I can’t say that I want to commit to you as someone I am in a relationship with either.”
I grinned. “You actually thought about me proposing?”
“Yeah, in a perfect world, we’d be head over heels in love, and we’d get married, raise a family, and live happily ever after, but this isn’t one of Daniella’s novels. This is real life. I’m not sure I’m capable of that. You know me.”
I put my finger over her lips. “I do know you, Riley, and I know that if you gave it a chance—a real chance—then you’d see I am right.” I lifted her chin with my knuckle. “Just give it a chance, Riley. Can you do that for me? For our baby?”
She sighed. “I can try.”
I leaned forward and pressed my lips to hers, then shifted my face slightly to the side as I kissed her again. Another kiss and Riley was starting to lean toward me. Her lips parted, and I wasted no time slipping my tongue into her mouth. She whimpered and, a split second later, began to climb over my lap to straddle me.
