He hadn’t heard her right. Gunner shook his head.
Sydney’s lips tightened. “Don’t look at me like I’m crazy. We both know you just heard what I said.” She spun away. “Jerk.”
He rushed toward her and spun her right back around. His hands were wrapped around her shoulders, but he kept that grip as careful as he could. “Say that again.”
“Jerk?”
“Sydney—”
Her breath blew out. “I’m pregnant.” Her gaze held his.
Right then, he finally understood what people meant when they said the world seemed to stop for them.
His eyes dropped to her stomach. Flat, smooth. He shook his head.
“Tina says I’m in the first trimester, and if I go back and count to when we were together in Baton Rouge—”
“I didn’t use any protection.” He’d been so desperate for her.
And...he knew everything about Sydney. Just as she knew everything about him. They had blood work run all the time for the EOD. They’d both been all clear in terms of health, and he’d been desperate, so desperate, that he hadn’t held back long enough to protect her. “I’m sorry, I—”
“I’m a big girl, you know. I could have told you to stop. I wanted you, just the way you were.” She paused, then whispered, “With nothing between us.”
The woman was about to shatter his control, and he’d been trying so very hard to stay in control. For her.
“This is why you fainted,” he said. Sydney’s pregnant with my baby. The joy was there, building in his chest, but he didn’t know how she felt. And—
Slade.
Slade wasn’t going to handle this well.
“This is why I fainted,” she agreed.
He wanted to drop his hands, to caress her stomach. Slade was going to be furious. He’d betrayed his brother, taking a risk that he should have never taken but...
My baby.
He couldn’t stop the spread of joy.
“I thought you deserved to know.”
The fire tonight hadn’t just put her life at risk. It had put their baby’s life at risk, too.
“Looks like you’re going to be a father,” she whispered, and she stepped back from him.
He didn’t know what to say. In that heavy silence, her lips trembled and she gave a little nod. Then she was walking away, heading into the guest room. Of course, Sydney knew where his guest room was. She’d been in his condo many times over the past two years, and the place always felt better, brighter, when she was there.
“Looks like you’re going to be a father.” Her words rang in his ears.
In that instant, he thought of his own father—the way the guy hadn’t been able to get away from him fast enough. His father had ditched him and hadn’t looked back.
He’d ditched Slade, too. Gunner’s grandfather had taken him in. Had raised them both, in that house with the threadbare carpet and the sagging roof. His grandfather had taught them to fish, hunt and hike.
They hadn’t had much money. No fancy clothes or cars.
But...
Grandfather took care of me. Loved me.