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Her chin went up, and he knew she would never tell him. For his entire life, when she didn’t want to, she didn’t say anything. It made her a good at keeping secrets and an annoying sister.
Turning, he slammed out of the office and stomped down the street to the bank.She was leaving? Now? She had to have known she was leaving when she had asked him out. Why did she even do that? Payback for the day on the farm? She said she liked that.
Once through the door, he saw her sitting behind her desk in her office. Math strode past the receptionist and walked into Tess’s office, shutting the door behind him. Maybe slammed it.
“You’re leaving?” he asked, glaring down at her.
She looked up at him in confusion. “No?”
“Mandy said you are leaving for a job,” he replied, wondering if his sister might just be spreading gossip.
Her gray eyes were big, but her voice remained calm. “Oh, that. I had a job offer, yes. I turned it down.”
Not gossip at all, then. It had been true; Tess had been thinking about leaving the entire time. “When?”
She set down her pen and closed the file she was working on. “Today. I called them first thing this morning.”
“Why did you ask me out if you were thinking about leaving?” Math crossed his arms over his chest.
The last few days had been amazing, and he wanted nothing more than for this to last forever. He had found the perfect woman, and now she had been thinking about leaving him the entire time. Had it just been a cruel joke on him?
Leaning back in her chair, she looked up at him. He could tell she had her emotions in check today, though she looked like she hadn’t slept, which made him wonder exactly when she had left his bed. “Because I wanted to see if we could get along first. Or if you really hated me like you kept saying you did.”
“I did not hate you.” He knew he had, for a while.
“You wanted me to leave town, Mathias. You said it multiple times. I wanted to see if the real you was the one who wanted me gone or the one who I truly enjoyed spending time with,” she stated.
“Why? Why did you even care if you were just going to leave?”
She flinched slightly but recovered quickly, leaving just a stony expression. “Because, Mathias, I am carrying your baby. I wanted to know if you would even want to be a part of her life.” Her words hung in the air.
Math went still for a moment before his knees gave out, and he sat heavy in the chair across from her. He couldn’t breathe.Pregnant? No wonder her family was unhappy with her.Was her family so cruel that they would make her miserable from hundreds of miles away?
“What?” was all he could think to say.
“My birthday.”
“We used a condom. I know we did.” In his mind, he saw her walking to get it and walking back in nothing but her glorious skin.
“I was on the pill also. Mandy verified it.”
“She said congratulations; she thought I already knew. A big congratulations to me.” He looked at the ceiling and closed his eyes. Pregnant.
“I can still take the job. I had thought you would be happy. I will just call them and say I can start in a few weeks.” She picked up her pen and started to tap it on the desk. “Forget I told you. We will be fine. I do not need you. Just forget it.”
His eyes snapped to hers. “I cannot just forget it, Tess. You’re carrying my baby.”
“We don’t know that for sure, Mathias. It is probably someone else’s anyway. Just go about your business as usual. You can leave now.” He knew she was lying. The baby was his. He didn’t get up.
“This job you were thinking about taking… Were you planning on never telling me and just moving away? Taking my child with you?” He could already see Tess holding his baby in her arms.
“If you were the jerk I thought you were, then yes, I was considering it.” She started shifting papers on her desk. She didn’t look at him.
“The jerk you slept with?” He sneered, because that was what happened that night, just sex.
“Hadsexwith, Mathias,” she corrected and picked up her pen.
“Still.” Her calmness was getting on his nerves—nerves that were suddenly far more frayed than they had been.
