“May I ask what you find so funny?” she asked stiffly.
He forced all the humor out of his face, suddenly realizing he was laughing as he maneuvered around a minefield. “It’s just . . . I’ve used protection every time we were together, Katie. I was careful. Even if there had been a mistake, we’ve barely been having intercourse for two weeks. I mean . . . I know these tests are supposed to detect things early, but Jaysus . . . this early? I don’t think so.”
“Oh, you don’t think so, huh?”
He just stared at her for a moment, doing the math in his mind repeatedly, but no matter how he worked the numbers, it didn’t make any sense.
“You can’t be serious, Katie.”
She pushed off his chest roughly and stood. “You saw that little ‘plus’ sign as clearly as I did. How much more serious can it be?” she asked in a high-pitched voice.
“So there was no one else?”
“No.”
“No one in California, before you came to Vulture’s Canyon? Wouldn’t that make more sense, timing-wise, than you thinking the father was me?”
She crossed her arms under her breasts. “Either it’s you, or I’m the latest candidate for immaculate conception.”
“But—”
“It’s all pretty clear-cut,” she bit out. She paused when she saw his face and seemed to reconsider. “Look . . . I know what’s confusing you. I can explain—”
“I think I might have an idea of what’s going on,” he interrupted.
“Really
?”
He nodded grimly. “You’re upset about what I said last night.”
Her mouth dropped open. Understanding began to dawn slowly on her face.
“That’s what you think? That I’m saying you’re the one who got me pregnant because I’m trying to get the commitment out of you that you weren’t willing to give last night?” she asked shrilly.
“No,” he said as he stood. He put out his hand to touch her, but Katie backed away from him like she thought he suddenly had gone rabid. “I just meant that you’re probably still upset about what I said. On top of that, you find out about the pregnancy, and . . .”
“I go so mad out of my love for you that I make up a lie in order to trap you, saying you were the one to get me pregnant?” she finished for him.
“No, I just mean that under the stress of the moment, your mind might have leapt to what you wanted the truth to be instead of the logical answer.”
“No, my mind leapt to the truth. Period.” More drops skittered down her face, but her tone and her stiff posture told him that unlike the earlier ones, these tears were of the outraged variety.
“Katie . . .” His mind grasped for the right words, but he felt himself sinking. “Didn’t you hear what I was saying before you brought this up? I don’t care if the baby isn’t mine. I’m going to be here for you either way, if that’s what you want.”
Her eyes seemed to overtake half her face.
“Let me guess. You want to be there for me as a friend?”
He fell back on the couch, feeling utterly slain. Jaysus. Talk about being clobbered. What had happened to the golden, peaceful morning, to the pleasant, growing anticipation of seeing Katie walk through that front door? He’d wanted to make her smile, and now look at what he was doing.
He put his forehead in his hand. “Just tell me what it is you want me to say, Katie. If you want me to say the baby is mine, I will. God knows I deserve it. I’m the one who has taken advantage of you.” He grimaced when he recalled the extent of how much he’d taken advantage of her sweetness . . . how much he’d reveled in it. “I’m the one who has been drowning my sorrows in these woods. When the alcohol wouldn’t do it anymore, I became addicted to you.”
“That’s what this is all about?” He looked up, alarmed by the fact that her voice had gone flat and hollow. He’d much prefer it being so high with fury that it was about to pass out of human hearing range.
“What do you mean?” he asked slowly.
“You’ve been thinking all this time that making love to me was the equivalent of getting trashed on whiskey? You consider me to be . . . what? . . . the drug that helps you forget Eden?”