Emma was about to request a dry red to go with the lamb when she realized she wasn’t allowed to drink. The last week of her life had been so different it was easy to forget about her situation. “None for me, please. I’d just like some seltzer with a twist of lime.”
Jonah ordered a single glass of cabernet for himself. When the waiter came to take their order a few minutes later, she made her selections and he opted for the stuffed lobster starter and the sautéed duck breast with brandied balsamic glaze.
Emma was surprised by his flawless French accent as he ordered. As the waiter stepped away, Jonah turned to her with a mildly amused expression on his face. “What? Do you think that just because I wear jeans every day and play video games for a living that I wasn’t properly educated in expensive British preparatory schools like most ridiculously rich kids?”
Emma frowned and looked down at the glass of seltzer in front of her. She was bad at making presumptions where he was concerned. He was just so different from what she was used to. It made her wish she did have wine to drown her embarrassment. “No, I’m just a little surprised—and jealous—of how flawless your accent is.”
“Yo
u should hear my Japanese.”
She looked back up, truly stunned this time. “You speak Japanese?”
“If you want to be successful in the Japanese video game market, you have to. I also speak Spanish and I’m learning Mandarin as we expand further into the Asian markets. I’m an accomplished pianist and was the captain of my rowing team at Harvard, although that was just to appease my parents. I would’ve much rather been indoors playing games or romancing the ladies. As you can see, there’s a lot more to me than meets the eye, Emma. The same could be said of you.”
“What do you mean?” she asked, feeling suddenly anxious at the turn of their discussion. “I’m just boring, uptight Emma the accountant.”
“You’re selling yourself short. For starters, you’re great at keeping secrets.”
Emma stiffened in her seat and swallowed hard. “Secrets? I don’t—”
Jonah raised his hand to silence her protests. “Now that we’re away from New York and the prying eyes of anyone that might care besides the two of us, I can say as much. And you can finally be truthful with me. Because you’ve known. All this time, you’ve known who I was and you didn’t say anything to me about it.”
The steely edge in Jonah’s voice sent her spine straight in a defensive posture. When she looked into his eyes, however, she didn’t see the anger she expected. Just hurt. The jovial, carefree CEO had a tender spot and she’d managed to find it without trying.
“We had something special and you don’t seem to care about it at all. Why didn’t you tell me the moment you realized who I was?” He slipped his hand, palm down, across the white linen tablecloth to expose his half of the tattoo, then wrapped his fingers around her hand.
It was happening. The moment she’d been dreading since he walked into his office and turned her world upside down. “I couldn’t,” she said in a hushed whisper.
“You absolutely could! You’ve had dozens of opportunities to speak up.”
“No.” Emma pulled her hand away into her lap and sat back to regain some of her personal space. “Up until this moment, we weren’t just Emma and Jonah, we were the Game Town auditor and the CEO of FlynnSoft. Yes, I knew the moment I shook your hand, but I wasn’t sure what to do. I know it’s hard for you to understand, but I wanted to do my job first. I’ve been doing my damnedest to finish this audit, despite your constant distractions, so I could put it behind me and finally come to you and tell you the truth about everything.”
Jonah nodded, acknowledging her struggle. “You mean about the baby.”
* * *
Emma’s green eyes widened in panic and Jonah felt his own pulse speed up in his throat. She wasn’t expecting him to say that at all. He’d uncovered all her secrets, it seemed.
“How did you...?” She shook her head in denial.
“I saw you in the gym the other night after work.”
She continued to shake her head, letting her gaze drop to her lap. “I knew I heard someone as I was leaving. It was stupid of me to wear that outfit, but I didn’t even think about it as I packed it. No one was around and I’ve really just started to show recently, so I didn’t think anyone would notice. Especially you. You were supposed to be out at dinner.” She glanced up with an accusing look in her eye.
Jonah felt his chest tighten more and more the longer she spoke. Not because of her pointed look, but because up until this moment, the baby had been a suspicion, not a fact. Yes, she skipped the wine, but she could just not like it. Yes, she had a little tummy, but she could’ve overindulged. He was no expert where pregnant women were concerned.
Now it was confirmed.
He was going to be a father. A father. He’d taken every precaution, and yet fate had laughed in his face and put him in this position anyway. He reached out to brace his hand on the edge of the table and squeezed his eyes shut. “My dinner meeting got canceled, so I came back to lift some weights. I’m usually alone in there. And yes, I sure as hell noticed. I noticed the tattoo and I noticed the...stomach. I wasn’t sure until now, but I noticed.”
Emma slumped back against her seat and dropped her face into her hand. “This wasn’t how I wanted you to find out, Jonah. I’m sorry. I wasn’t keeping it from you forever. I was going to tell you.”
Jonah’s head snapped up and his gaze pinned hers. “Were you?” He wasn’t so sure. Sometimes she looked at him as though he were something stuck to her shoe, not the father of her child.
“I swear I was. Like I said, I wanted to finish the audit, do my job without any whispers of impropriety, but then yes, I was going to tell you who I am and that I’m pregnant. If I’d known how to contact you two months ago, I would’ve done it then, but by the time I figured it out, I was already involved in the audit. That said, I’ve been scared to death to tell you the truth.”
Jonah swallowed hard and furrowed his brow. He was far from a hulking, intimidating person that people were scared of. He picked up his glass of wine and took a large sip to slow his spinning brain. “Why?”