Fortune's Christmas Baby (Fortunes of Texas)

“You need to go see him.”

That got her attention. And gave her strength, too. Head shooting upward, she gave her roommate an authoritative stare. “Absolutely not.”

“He has a right to know.”

Putting her bare foot up on her chair, she hugged her knee with both arms. “No.”

Carmela didn’t speak, but Lizzie could feel the other woman’s striking gray stare burning into her, escalating the confusion roaring inside her.

Because as certain as she was that she was not going to see Nolan Forte ever again—in that lifetime or any other as far as she was concerned—she was equally aware that in some universe he had a right to know that he was a father.

Worse, and much more angst-producing, was the fact that Stella had a right for him to know. In case, someday, he wanted to know her.

Or had family that did.

Like her, he’d apparently had no family close enough with whom to spend the holidays the previous year. Aunt Betty, her only living relative, had been on a cruise with Wayne, Betty’s companion of thirty years. Nolan hadn’t mentioned anyone, nor said why he hadn’t been with them.

She hadn’t asked.

There hadn’t been time. Or it had seemed that way. With less than two weeks to spend with him, she’d been far more interested in their shared interests, in just “them,” than she’d been in any peripheral details.

When she’d found out they had a very real repercussion from their time together, she regretted that she knew almost nothing about him.

Funny, when they’d been together she’d felt like she knew him as well as she knew herself. Felt like they’d been connected before birth, destined to find each other.

Instead, she’d found herself pregnant by a ghost.

One who’d disconnected the number he’d given her. Or had given her a false number to begin with, which was more likely.

One who’d never used the number she’d given him. Not once. Ever.

“He made it very clear that he didn’t want to hear anything I might have to say to him ever again,” she dropped into the tense silence that had fallen between her and Carmela.

Her roommate wasn’t eating, either, or sipping from the wine she’d poured. Carmela was worried about her. She got that.

Truth be known, there were days when she was kind of worried about herself. But it had been a rough few months, having her blood pressure shoot so high the day she’d gone into labor that she’d had a seizure, prompting an immediate cesarean section. Trying to take care of her baby on her own as much as she could afterward, worrying when her blood pressure kept spiking and when Stella failed to gain weight. She’d wondered, a time or two, in the dark of the night, if they were both going to die.

They hadn’t. She’d completely recovered from the pregnancy and postpartum-induced blood pressure issues. And Stella was a picture of perfect baby health.

But now Nolan was back in town.

The truth bobbed around in the outskirts of her awareness, as though testing her for reaction. She wasn’t going to react, plain and simple.

“There is no way in hell I’m going back to that club,” she said now. Despite that declaration, she couldn’t help wondering how long he’d been in Austin, in her neighborhood.

He hadn’t bothered to call. Or stop by.

It wasn’t like he’d have forgotten where she lived. Unless he was a moron as well as a jackass.

He’d known she was a virgin. He’d made a big deal about how much it meant to him that he was her first time. Had made her feel so special. Cherished.

And then...he’d discarded her like she meant nothing at all.

Not even enough to deserve a real phone number. Or name.

She and Carmela had both spent months, on and off, searching the internet for any information on Nolan Forte. All roads led back to one place. His band’s website.

At Carmela’s urging, Lizzie had sent messages to the email listed on the site, with no reply.