CHAPTER EIGHT
COULD THIS REALLY be happening?
He was going to be a father?
No words were spoken on the ride home, but it was a far from quiet ride. Rapid chaotic thoughts ricocheted in Simon’s mind. Pregnant? They were pregnant? He was going to be a father?
How could this be? Well, he knew exactly how it had happened. In fact, he could replay the night of conception scene by vivid scene in his mind. And that’s how he knew it was possible.
And here he touted himself as such a cautious man. A man who planned for things and didn’t take unnecessary risks. Long ago, he’d sworn to himself that he was never going to have kids. He couldn’t take a chance that he would mess them up as badly as his father had with him.
And what had he done? Broken that promise to himself.
He didn’t even remember the elevator ride from the underground garage up to the penthouse. He unlocked the front door and stepped aside to allow Pepper to enter.
“Pepper?” When she turned to him with a stunned look still in her eyes, he said, “We need to talk.”
She nodded before heading into the living room. She perched on the edge of the couch for a few seconds. Then she stood and moved to the window. She didn’t say anything, leaving it up to him to start this difficult conversation.
“Did you know?” He wanted to think she hadn’t purposely been keeping him in the dark, but he had to know for sure.
“Is that what you think? That I was keeping this great big secret from you?”
“You kept refusing to go to the doctor. If you already knew you were pregnant that would explain it.”
“No.” Her voice was adamant. “I didn’t know until the doctor told both of us. If I was trying to keep it a secret, do you think I would have asked you back to the exam room?”
She did have a good point. But he wasn’t ready to accept that he was going to be a father. Not yet. “And the baby... You’re positive it’s mine?”
Her gaze narrowed into a glare. “Unlike you, I don’t immediately jump from one relationship to the next.”
He supposed he might deserve that comment. Until now, he’d never had a reason to remain in a relationship. But everything was changing rapidly and he was struggling to keep up.
He raked his fingers through his hair, not caring what it looked like. “What are we going to do?”
“We? When did you and I become a we?”
“When your pregnancy test came up positive.”
She crossed her arms. “I can do this myself.”
He restrained a sigh of relief. On the ride home, he’d thought about their circumstances and he’d come to one conclusion. He was not under any circumstances following in his family’s misguided steps and getting married out of some misguided sense of obligation.
His mother had been pregnant with him when she’d married his father. It had been the single biggest mistake of both their lives—at least that’s the way he saw it. His mother might have a different opinion. But no matter what, a baby would not change his stance on marriage—it wasn’t for him.
“You don’t have to do it alone,” he said. “But I’m not getting married.”
“Neither am I. Not a chance.”
He had to admit that he was shocked at her adamant response. “I didn’t know you were opposed to marriage. Or is it me that you object to?”
“Why does it matter? It’s not like you’re offering.”
It was true. He shouldn’t care. He took off his suit coat and tossed it over the back of the couch. He paced back and forth. This bickering wasn’t getting them anywhere. They had to make a plan.
He may not be into marriage, but that didn’t mean he was walking away from his obligation. He definitely wouldn’t do that. He wasn’t sure he was father material. In fact, he was quite certain he was a less-than-ideal candidate. But he could and would support both Pepper and the baby. It was more than his father ever did for him and his mother.
The memories came flooding back. His father was a man with two faces. The smiling, charming man for friends and acquaintances. But behind closed doors, his father was a totally different man. Nothing was ever good enough f