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Quinn’s sound of exasperation forced her to refocus. ‘Why don’t you tell me what’s really on your mind, Magenta?’
Quinn was waiting for answers and she had none. This is a dream, she wanted to blurt out. I’m locked in a dream and I can’t get back. ‘The pregnancy was a shock to me,’ was the best she could manage.
‘A shock to you?’ Quinn queried. ‘This is a baby we’re talking about. How can you talk about the creation of a child as a shock and expect me to be reassured?’
‘Because I can handle it.’
‘You can handle it,’ Quinn repeated angrily. ‘This is my child too, Magenta. Do you seriously expect me to take a back seat and leave every decision to you?’
She hadn’t factored Quinn wanting a child into her thinking. She hadn’t thought about shared responsibility at all.
‘What gives you the right to do this on your own?’
She knew no other way. Since forever it had been Dad and her—the two of them. She had been raised in a single-parent family. ‘I love my baby,’ she said simply. ‘And I never intended to hurt you.’ Some things were impossible to lie about or to hide.
CHAPTER SEVENTEEN
IT WAS the first time Magenta had heard Quinn so impassioned on any subject. He would fight for his family and stand firm as a rock in the face of any difficult decision. Under any normal circumstances, that was just the kind of father she would want for her child. But she couldn’t make any promises to Quinn in this strange world of imagination and dreams.
‘Have you nothing to say?’ he said sharply. ‘Why is that, Magenta? Have you got what you came for?’ he said suspiciously. ‘Are you planning to leave now and take our child?’
‘Please don’t make this ugly Quinn.’
‘It is what it is,’ he rapped. ‘A woman I thought I could trust—a woman I care about—cannot be honest with me. What am I supposed to think? That you’re a single woman who has always longed for a child, maybe? Who knows what lengths you’d go to?’
‘Don’t!’ Of course she had heard of men being used as sperm donors—usually with their full permission—but doing such a thing herself had never occurred to her. ‘I could never be so cold-blooded.’ And when Quinn made a sound of contempt, she exclaimed, ‘I love you, Quinn! How is that using you?’
‘You love me?’
The tone of his voice chilled her to the bone. ‘Yes, I do.’
‘Then your idea of love and mine are poles apart. To me, love means trust—sharing.’
‘I love you and our baby.’
‘Words come easily to you, Magenta.’
She exhaled in a rush, shock hitting her in the chest like a punch.
‘Let me replay this for you,’ Quinn said in a chillingly calm voice. ‘You come into my office and announce that you’re pregnant—then you barely draw breath before telling me that you don’t want anything from me. How convinced would you be of my integrity if the tables were turned, Magenta? What gives you the right to make the rules?’
She didn’t want to fight, but she was in no position to make promises of any kind when she inhabited a parallel universe. And, even supposing she could revisit this world in her dreams, would a hook-up on some cosmic interchange ever be enough for them? It was hardly a sound foundation for a family.
‘Good to see you’re ready with your answer,’ Quinn snarled.
She blocked his path to the door. ‘Please don’t walk out on me, Quinn.’
‘Don’t lie to me.’
‘I have never lied to you.’
‘Then open up, Magenta!’ Quinn roared this as he seized her arms. For a moment she thought he was going to shake her, but instead he loosened his grip and whipped his hands away, murmuring furiously, ‘What’s happening to me?’
You too? she felt like saying. But if Quinn was also a visitor to this strange dimension it really would be too much to take in.
Exhaling heavily, Quinn turned away, and he remained aloof from her for a long while. When he finally turned back to face her, he was calm again. ‘Forgive me,’ he said levelly.
‘There’s nothing to forgive.’
‘Shock, surprise—the force of my feelings. Whatever the excuse, I shouldn’t have lost it like that.’
‘We’re both on a steep learning-curve here.’
‘And I like to think I have all things covered.’
‘But not babies?’ Magenta suggested softly.
‘Not babies,’ Quinn agreed, giving her an assessing stare. ‘Are you going to be all right?’
‘Of course I am. I’m going to be a mother.’ She couldn’t keep the joy out of her voice. Just saying the words made her feel privileged, happy—ecstatic. The difficulties could be overcome, would be overcome.
