Claim My Baby (Crescent Cove 2)

Oliver gazed at me as if I were speaking in tongues. How he could be so vexed was beyond me. He’d seen the evidence. For pity’s sake, he’d pulled parts of it out of my damn body.

“Broken condom, remember?”

He didn’t say a word. I wasn’t even sure he was still breathing. And despite the near darkness, I would’ve sworn he’d gone pale.

“I didn’t want to wait to tell you. I just found out tonight, before Seth called me about the baby. The other baby. Not ours. God.” I let out an awkward, semi-maniacal laugh and pushed a hand through my hair.

I wished I’d pulled on a hat before I headed out to the hospital. This wind was brutal, and we were standing outside on a property that backed up to the frozen-over lake. If that wasn’t enough, it had started to snow again, the flakes clinging to my cheeks and chin. Even my eyelashes. I blinked them away, hoping the view had changed.

Nope. Oliver was still standing motionless.

Dread curled around me like smoke, acrid and bitter in my throat. I glanced at my car, half tempted to climb in and drive away. But he was blocking me. I couldn’t escape.

“Oliver, for fuck’s sake, say something.”

He didn’t make me wait long. And when he spoke, I wished he hadn’t.

“This is all Seth’s fault.”

“Excuse me?” I crossed my arms over my front, but it wasn’t lost on me that I was protecting more than myself now. “If you’re going to start with some nonsense about if Seth and Ally hadn’t made you go to Vegas, none of this would have happened—”

“What are we going to do about this?” he interrupted.

Which was even worse than the last thing he’d said.

I narrowed my eyes. “If that means what I think it means, we aren’t doing anything. I’ve already made up my mind to have this baby. You don’t have to be involved. Judging by your reaction thus far, it may be better if you aren’t.”

God, that hurt to say. But it was better than risking him hurting our child with callousness.

He puffed out a frosty breath. “It’s freezing out here.” He glanced at me and gripped my arm. “Your coat isn’t even buttoned. Let’s get inside.”

I shook him off. “Perhaps we shouldn’t discuss this now. Your nephew was just born this evening. If we’re going to say cross words, maybe this isn’t the time.”

“Cross words?” Even without looking at him, I knew he had cocked that damn eyebrow. “Am I wrong in thinking we’re equal participants in this, or does one of us have a right to be angry and I missed it?”

“Don’t take that paternalistic tone with me. You’re the one who blamed our child on Seth and then asked what we were going to do, as if this is a problem to be taken care of. Sorry that I don’t view my baby the same way a Hamilton does a piece of property.”

He removed his hand from my arm. “You’re hearing me all wrong.”

“Oh, I’m hearing you wrong. You aren’t saying the wrong things, it’s just my interpretation.” Typical.

Jeez, maybe he was even partially right in this case. At this moment, anything other than joy from him felt like a dismissal. A denial. I couldn’t deal with it, not when I was this vulnerable and determined to protect the fragile life growing inside me.

The life I had just barely found out about. These feelings were all so new and jagged.

“Let’s go inside.” His voice had cooled substantially.

I understood this was a shock. It hadn’t been a stroll through the park for me either. But if he thought I’d give him an inch when it came to the welfare of my kid, nope. He was liable to say things he might not mean once he’d had time to think, but sometimes first reactions came from the gut.

And my gut said to protect my child at all costs.

“We don’t have to talk about this tonight, if you need some time to process.” I planted my feet and gazed straight ahead at his snow-covered Porsche.

A Porsche, for God’s sake. That was the kind of money he had. My parents had done well for themselves before they’d chucked it all to live in a home on wheels, but this was next level. His home was fancier than I was used to, as was this cabin most likely, though it looked quite rustic from the outside. Still, this was a Hamilton property, so it had to be nice.

“Do you want that badly to get away from me?”

His quiet question tore open a hole inside my chest, as did the way he’d tucked his hands in his jacket pockets.