The Pregnancy Proposition

After breakfast at sunrise and their depressing conversation, Mano had been at a loss of what to say to Paige. There was no convincing her to stay, no convincing her that she was good enough for him. She didn’t want to drag him into the complicated life she was living, and the finality of her words convinced him that was the end of the conversation.

They’d returned to bed for a nap and a leisurely round of goodbye sex. Mano had taken his time making love to her, knowing it was the last time. Now that it was over, he knew he had to get up and walk away from it all before he did something stupid.

Crawling from the bed, he disappeared into the bathroom to get ready for the service. His thoughts were scattered as he shampooed his hair and considered his options.

Paige was distracted and distant today, which wasn’t unusual considering they were about to sink her grandfather’s ashes into the ocean. It felt like more than that, though. It was like she was anticipating the end and pulling away from him before it was over. That was probably the smart thing to do. How much longer did he have? Not much. Hours.

She’d insisted that she couldn’t stay and that he wasn’t serious about the two of them, but he knew that he was. This didn’t feel like any other time before. Paige was different. He felt different. He just had to find a way to convince her of it. She wasn’t like the other women in his life, and he wished she could understand that. He wanted her to stay. He wanted to help her raise that baby. Their baby. One day, he hoped that he could love her so well and so completely that she could even forget about Wyatt and what he’d done to her.

A plan formed in his mind as he stepped out of the shower. He would tell her how he felt. He would say the words he’d never said aloud before. That would convince her he was serious and then she would stay. Wouldn’t she? He wrapped a towel around his waist and filled the sink with warm water to shave. Mano was rinsing the blade one last time when a strange sound in the bedroom caught his attention. It took Mano a moment to realize it might be Paige’s cell phone. No one had called her the whole week, so he hadn’t heard it ring yet.

“Hello?” he heard her answer.

He wasn’t trying to listen in on her conversation, but he found it difficult not to with only a door between them.

“Wyatt? Why are you calling me?”

Wyatt? Just the mention of the man’s name made Mano’s blood start to boil in his veins. He turned off the water to hear them better.

“Piper will be furious if she knows you’re calling me...No, I’m not at home,” she responded to him. Her voice sounded stressed. “I’m in Hawaii...Yes, Hawaii.”

Mano was nearly holding his breath as he listened to half of their discussion. Paige had sworn up and down that she wouldn’t take Wyatt back. She said she didn’t really want him involved in her life, or the baby’s life, but she’d do what was right and tell him about the child. Her extended silence meant he had quite a bit to say for a man who had vanished from her life without an explanation not long ago.

“You’re right, Wyatt, we do need to talk but not right now...No, I’ll be home tomorrow morning. You know I’ve got to bury Papa today.”

Mano could only think of one reason why Wyatt was calling Paige. He wanted her back. Unless he’d left his laptop at her apartment or something, it was the only thing he could come up with.

“I know,” Paige said. “It was extremely difficult for me. I just can’t talk about it right now. Call me tomorrow afternoon, okay? All right. Goodbye.”

Mano waited a moment, drained the sink and then stepped out of his bathroom with his towel still slung around his hips. “Did I just hear you talking to someone?” he asked casually.

“Uh, work called,” she said, the lie evident in her voice even if he hadn’t overheard the conversation. “They thought I would be b

ack in time to work the day shift tomorrow, but I told them I wouldn’t be in until Sunday. I don’t think I can go straight from a red-eye flight to work a twelve-hour shift the next morning.”

He nodded and turned back to his bathroom to finish getting ready. His mind was racing with thoughts as he dried his hair with a towel. Why had she just lied to him about who called? There was only one real answer that made sense—that she hadn’t been entirely truthful with him about her feelings for Wyatt. He’d called her out of the blue wanting to see her. Why? Had Piper dumped him? Was he going to make a play to get Paige back?

And more distressing...would Paige actually take him back after everything he’d done?

The thought made Mano sick to his stomach. Paige deserved so much better than a man like Wyatt. And yet, if he really did have a change of heart, who was Mano to interfere with that? He was the father of her child. Wouldn’t it be best for everyone if they reconciled and raised their new family together?

The only odd man out of this scenario would be Mano, but he would survive. As Paige insisted, maybe he would forget about her in a few weeks or months and continue on as though she hadn’t touched his heart. Or maybe he would throw himself into his work, heartbroken, and she’d never know it.

Either way, he knew it wouldn’t really matter as long as she was happy. A future with her baby seemed to excite her; would having an active father in the baby’s life be even better? It would certainly make things less complicated for her. She wouldn’t have to uproot her whole life to be with him. Her child would have a father. His real father. It would tie everything up into a neat bow.

It would crush Mano. Make him that much more emotionally unavailable. But that was what he needed to do. If there was a chance in hell that Paige could reconcile with the baby’s father, it would be selfish of him to go out there and declare his feelings for her and beg her to stay.

He wasn’t thinking clearly, Mano realized. He was letting emotion cloud his decision-making skills. Paige was right. It was better if she went home. He would forget. He would move on. If he did manage to convince her to stay and then one day regret raising another man’s child and uprooting her from her whole life, then what? It was better to let her life take the path she’d chosen, and that was to go home. If that meant going home to Wyatt, that was none of his damn business in the end.

With a sigh, Mano combed his hair and splashed his face with aftershave. He just needed to keep his mouth shut.

* * *

Paige clutched her grandfather’s urn as the boat took them out to the USS Arizona Memorial on the far side of the harbor. It was temporarily closed to tourists, allowing Paige private access for the ceremony. She took in the markers that identified the locations of the various boats in the harbor and the real ships still in service to the far left.

The memorial was a gleaming white building that seemed to float above the water. Beneath it, she knew, were the sunken remains of the Arizona and the sailors who lost their lives that day so long ago. Only a few small parts of the ship were visible above the waterline.

A man in full dress blues took the urn from her as they stepped off the boat and onto the dock. Mano took her arm, escorting her up the ramp to the memorial with Hoku just ahead of them. They followed a large procession that included the firing squad, the officer carrying the urn and a bugler.