Page 49 of Had to Be You

"Listen, I didn’t want to—"

"This was my fault. It was a mistake to bring you here. I don’t know what I was thinking." She sniffed.

Was she crying?

"Laura…" He reached out to touch her hand, but she pulled it away and looked out the window.

"Can we just go? Please. Just take me home."

Fuck. Knox had always had a way with words. He was a good talker. He’d never been in a situation that he couldn’t talk his way out of. But in this situation, he was at a loss.

As they drove back to Whisper Lake in silence, Knox knew that he’d fucked up, but he wasn’t sure how to fix it. When they passed the city limit, he knew that his chances to fix this were slipping away.

"Laura, I just want you to know that I wasn’t making light of the situation. I was sincerely offering to be a donor for you. I can see how that came off wrong, but I would never want to offend you or make you upset. I was being sincere."

She was quiet for the next five minutes. When they pulled up to her house, he assumed she was going to get out, and that was the last he’d hear from her.

To his surprise, instead of rushing out the door, she turned toward him. "You were really serious?"

She didn’t look upset at all anymore. There were no traces of tears in her eyes.

"Yes." His heart was pounding heavily in his chest.

She nodded and took a deep breath. "If we’re going to do this, there have to be ground rules."

"I told you, I’ll sign whatever you want." Was this actually going to happen? Were they really going to try to make a baby?

"I know, I wasn’t talking about that. I was talking about logistics."

"Logistics?"

"Rules."

"Rules?" he parroted.

"Yes. No one can know. Not your brother. Not your cousin. No one can know about our arrangement."

"Okay," Knox agreed reluctantly.

Laura must have sensed his hesitation because she explained, "This is a small town. You’re going to leave in a few months. I have to live here. I have a business here."

It was the same reasoning that Keaton had given for not going to the speed dating event.

"I get it." He nodded.

"That means no PDA. No dating. And no hooking up at the apartment."

"We can’t hook up at the apartment?"

"No," Laura insisted. "It’s downtown; anyone could see me going in and out of there. You can come over here, but only at night. No daytimes. And you can’t come in the front door or drive here. I don’t want anyone to see your car parked outside. There’s a walking trail through the field behind the house you can take."

"Have you done this before?" For some reason, the thought of Laura sneaking other men into her house didn’t sit well with Knox, which made zero sense. She was a grown woman with a past. He’d never given anyone’s past he’d been with a second thought, much less had any personal feelings about it.

"Have I snuck around having sex with someone trying to get pregnant?"

He could hear the sarcasm in her tone, but he still waited for an answer.

"No," she finally said. "I haven’t. But those are my terms, and they are non-negotiable."

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