“Read the box next time you pick some up,” she said, still appearing far too calm, too undemanding, to be telling him what he thought he was hearing. “They’re ninety-seven percent safe. Which leaves three percent for us to fall into.”
No.
“Added to the fact that, once I thought back on it, I realized the wrapper you took from your wallet didn’t look exactly new.”
It hadn’t been. But the damn things didn’t come with “use by” dates. For a reason.
“How long was it in there?” she asked.
He shrugged, uncomfortable. His private life was off-limits. Period.
Or it had been until last month, when he’d pulled down the zipper on the front of his jeans in the Performing Arts Center. Every swearword he could think of—his time in prison had given him quite a repertoire—passed through his mind. Attached to each one was a barb aimed directly at the guilty part of his anatomy.
“I don’t know,” he finally said. “A year, maybe more.”
Like, maybe three more. It’d been a long, long time since he’d relaxed enough to give in to a sexual urge.
“A year’s worth of being smooshed and sat on could definitely do it,” she said.
Damn, the woman sounded as though they were discussing nothing more earth-shattering than a rained-out game of Little League. Didn’t she get it? They had an untenable situation on their hands.
Matt didn’t even know how to be a friend. There was no way he could be a father.
“I…” He paused, wondering what to say to her, to make her understand.
“Don’t worry.” She jumped into the pause. “I’m not asking anything from you. I don’t want anything. What happened last month was a one-time, no-strings-attached episode. And that hasn’t changed.”
Episode. They’d had some of the most incredible sex of his life. They’d apparently made a baby. And she called it an episode?
Was that all the baby was to her, too? An episode? Easy come, easy go? The thought made him feel a little sick.
He opened his mouth to tell her so.
Whoa. He stopped just in time.
A few minutes ago he’d been looking for a way to bail. He could hardly blame her, a single woman with a prominent position at a prestigious college, for wanting to do the same.
Admittedly, bailing was a little more convenient for him than it would be for her.
“Do you mind if I ask what your plans are?” He’d pay whatever expenses she incurred. Money was the one thing he had to give.
For the first time since taking a seat, she looked down, and he saw the chink in her armor. Was oddly relieved to find it there.
“I haven’t really made any plans yet,” she told him. “I’m still getting used to the idea that I’m going to be a mother.”
Going to be a mother. Why did his mind keep repeating everything she said? You’d think he was dense or something.
“You’re planning to have the baby, then?”
Her head shot back up. “Of course. And before you ask, I’m not even considering the alternative, so you can save your breath.”
“I wasn’t going to ask.”
CHAPTER TWO
IT WAS GOING much better than she’d expected. And worse. She’d prepared herself for anger, denial, blame.
What she hadn’t prepared for was a thoughtful, concerned man. Inexplicably, his humanness made the whole thing so much harder to get through. He was supposed to be little more than a fly at her picnic. She’d swat him away and get on with it.