Baby By Christmas (The McIntyre Men Book 5) Read online

  “That bad, huh?”

  Allie glanced at Logan and a prickle of apprehension tickled the back of his neck. It was weird that she hadn’t at least mentioned her boyfriend to her brother. They were close. That seemed like the kind of information they would share. But then again, pregnancy seemed like something she’d have shared with Adam him, too.

  Unless…unless there was no boyfriend. An icy finger traced a path up his spine. He shivered in reaction. What if she’d gotten pregnant during a one-night stand with a complete stranger?

  He spent a minute counting in his head the exact number of months he’d been gone. The number of months it had been since he’d been with Allie. Their night together had been in the middle of March. He did a quick count in his head. Nine months.

  Panic rose inside him, and he tried to push it down. It was almost exactly nine months. He didn’t know much about pregnancy or babies or any of that, but he didn’t think she could be up and around if she was nine months pregnant, could she? Women didn’t drive around picking people up at airports when they were that close to giving birth. Did they?

  It couldn't be his. She must have gotten pregnant after he’d left.

  Instead of bringing relief, that thought stung. He hadn’t stopped thinking about her in all this time. Apparently, she’d got over him in a hurry. But that was a good thing, right? Because that meant things shouldn’t be awkward. At least not too awkward.

  The notion calmed him down a little. Sleeping with his C.O.’s sister was one thing. If Adam found out about that, he’d kick his ass all the way back to Afghanistan. But knocking her up? That would be even worse. If he had been responsible for that one, Logan was pretty sure he’d go missing and no one would ever find his body.

  Captain Adam Wakeland was an intimidating man. Logan wasn’t afraid of him, but that was because he had no reason to be. He and Adam understood each other. They’d become best friends.

  He didn’t think the man who knocked up Adam’s sister was going to fare very well. Not unless Adam decided he was worthy of his little sister, and from what he knew about Adam, he doubted many people would pass that test.

  “I’ll take the bags,” Adam said. “Lexie, go ahead, get in and relax.”

  Logan handed over his bag. Ordinarily he would have argued and insisted on helping, but he wanted a second with Allie.

  She climbed into the driver’s seat and fired up the car and Logan climbed into the back. From the speakers, Bing Crosby promised to be home for Christmas.

  “Listen,” Logan began, and Allie turned around to look at him from the front seat. He swallowed hard but hurried on. “I don’t want you to worry. We don’t have to tell your brother or anyone else about that night. I’m not gonna ruin whatever you’ve got going with…you know, the guy. The baby’s father.” He gave her what he thought was a reassuring smile.

  Allie pinched her nose between her fingers, lowered her head, and blew out a long breath. “Were you dropped on your head as a child? Or did that guy at the bar cause brain damage after all?” she asked after a long pause. The trunk slammed and Adam started walking around the car. “It’s your baby, you idiot.”

  Logan was stunned into silence. And then Adam was opening the door. “Want me to drive, Lexie?”

  “It’s fine.”

  “Are you sure, cause I can—”

  “It’s fine. Get in.”

  Oblivious, Adam climbed into the front seat and cranked up the volume a little. “I love this song,” he said and then he was crooning along.

  Logan’s heart clenched so hard he thought he might be having a heart attack. He took a deep breath and the pain let up, but his pulse pounded at a rate that was much faster than usual and he was sure Adam and Allie could probably hear it from the front seat. He wanted to tell her that was impossible. To ask if she was sure. He wanted to ask how the hell any of this could be happening when he had worn a condom every damn time they’d had sex that night. He wanted to dive out of the car and run into traffic on 281-North, because he was pretty sure he had a better chance of surviving being hit by a semi at full speed than he did of surviving Adam’s wrath when he found out the truth. But he didn't do any of those things; instead he sat in the back seat of the compact car, and tried to imagine himself with a baby in his arms.

  * * *

  Chapter Four

  * * *

  Allie punched her pillow and tried for the hundredth time to fall asleep. Sleeping during pregnancy hadn’t yet been easy. She almost always felt dead on her feet by dinnertime, fell into bed for a few hours only to wake up for good by 3 a.m.

  This time, the things keeping her awake were different. It wasn’t the impossibility of finding any comfortable position, or the worry about her ability to be a single mother.

  This time, every time Allie closed her eyes, she saw Logan. She remembered the night she took him to her hotel room in vivid detail. She could still remember the smell of his cologne and the feeling of his razor stubble against her face when he kissed her. She remembered his smooth hard chest and the calloused texture of his strong hands as they ran over her body.

  And then she’d remember what an ass he was at the airport and it would cancel out the rest.

  She ran her hands through her hair in frustration and gave up on going back to sleep. Why did it have to be him? And why did he have to show up now and throw her entire world into upheaval? At Christmastime?

  She was going to have a baby in a matter of days, and the last thing she needed was more anxiety in her life.

  Footsteps sounded in the next room. It would eventually be the nursery, but at the moment, it was occupied by Logan Edwards. Adam had claimed the den, downstairs because it had a TV. It would have looked odd if she’d argued against that arrangement.

  Logan was up and pacing. She shook her head, thinking about that. About Logan in the next room surrounded by her baby’s stuff.

  His baby’s stuff.

  She felt a little bad for him. She was sure this wasn’t the way he’d pictured his homecoming. He’d probably imagined another bar, another girl, another night of crazy sex with absolutely no consequences. For him.

  She sighed. She hadn’t wanted him to find out about his impending fatherhood like this. She was planning to tell him. She’d tried to find him when she’d realized she was pregnant, and when that hadn’t worked, she’d called Adam’s ex-wife Riley. Riley was a private investigator who did not live in Big Falls, which was a plus.

  Riley was good and she was discreet. She was also still on the case. Allie supposed she’d better call her and let her know that her ex had dragged home the object of her manhunt.

  Allie had thought that by the time Riley tracked Logan down, she’d have figured out the right way to break the news to him. And you better believe the right way wouldn’t have included the phrase, It’s your baby, you idiot.

  The baby kicked her hard.

  “I might not have got off on the right foot with your dad, peanut.” She rubbed her belly and the baby kicked again. She had started trying to interpret the baby’s kicks, and she was pretty sure this one was telling her to go and fix things. There was no sense waiting to talk to him. They were both awake in the middle of the night worrying about it. Better to pull the bandage off quickly, right?

  She forced herself to sit up, which was more of an effort than she cared to admit. Her movements couldn’t be described as graceful these days.

  She’d seen a video once of an elephant that had flipped onto its back and couldn't manage to roll over again. She was pretty sure she looked similar to that. She pushed over onto one side, trying to gain enough momentum to roll upright. It took a couple of tries, but eventually, she managed it.

  She crept across the floor, as quietly as an elephant can creep, and out her bedroom door. There, she waited, listening for noises that would tell her if her brother was awake downstairs. That was the last thing she needed. Adam used to sleep like a rock, but his time in the Army had changed that.
/>   Allie’s home was a two-story farmhouse just off Main Street. She had bought it at a foreclosure auction a year ago, and ever since, she’d been working to fix it up and make it her own. Her bedroom and the nursery/guest room were on the second floor. Adam was staying downstairs in the den. She used to have her studio set up in there, but this year she’d rented space on Main Street. Excellent location near the park, super convenient for outside shoots.

  She listened carefully. There were no sounds from the first floor, and she was reasonably sure that even if her brother was awake, he wouldn’t hear her tiptoeing around upstairs. If he did, she’d just tell him it was one of her nine thousand nightly bathroom trips. Ah, the joys of pregnancy.

  She paced to Logan’s door and stood there for a minute, trying to get the nerve to knock. Her stomach flip-flopped and her brain started trying to talk her out of this. It was the middle of the night. This conversation should be saved for the light of day. She knew those were all excuses, that she was really just chickening out, but she didn’t care. She hadn’t even thought about what she was going to say. And obviously winging it wasn’t working for her. This had to be planned and done right.

  Then the door opened and she was standing face to face with the man she’d been thinking about all night. Hell, for the past nine months.

  His dark hair was wet and as tousled as a military haircut could get, which meant that it was lying flat in some places and sticking up straight in others. His blue eyes were darker than usual. That playful sparkle was gone, and without it, they were the color of midnight. He looked tired and worried.

  She had the crazy urge to smooth his hair, to run her hand along his freshly shaven cheeks, but following urges like those was what had got her into this mess in the first place.

  “Want to talk?” he asked.

  All thoughts flew from her head. He’d taken a shower and the smell of his body wash hung in the air, clouding her brain and making her remember the last time she’d been close enough to smell that woodsy scent.

  She cleared her throat and tried to ignore the fact that her face felt as hot as the surface of the sun. “Unless you’d rather wait. I understand if you’re too tired or something….” Her voice trailed off.

  “I couldn’t sleep anyway.” He held the door open and she stepped inside. It felt weird. The once-cozy nursery seemed suddenly foreign. He’d only been occupying these walls for a matter of hours, but the room no longer felt like it belonged to her.

  She crossed the floor and sat down on the edge of the futon. There was no point in small talk. They both knew what this discussion was about. She took a deep breath, and began. “I know this must be awkward for you, Logan. I didn’t expect to see you tonight, and I never intended to just blurt out the news like that. But it is what it is.”

  Logan crossed the room and sat down on the other side of the open futon, but he didn’t say anything. The blankets were still strewn across the mattress, a clear indication he’d been tossing and turning as much as she had.

  She didn’t want to look at the bedding, didn’t want to think about the fact that she was sitting a foot away from the bare-chested, sexy man who had fulfilled her every fantasy just a few months ago. And every night since. So instead, she kept talking.

  “This must be a shock. I don’t blame you if you’re knocked for a loop. I was too when I first realized we’d made a baby. I’ve had time to get used to the idea but you’re still in the early stages. I imagine you have questions. I had a thousand.”

  He cocked his head to one side. “I can only think of one, at the moment. Are you sure it’s mine?”

  She stared at him, blinked twice. “Ouch.”

  “I’m sorry. That’s offensive. Rude. But on the other hand, I barely know you, and—”

  “I’m sure it’s yours.” She didn’t give him details. He didn’t need to know her entire sexual history. Not that the list was that long. All he needed to know was that he was the father.

  The expression on his face told her he wasn’t convinced. He couldn’t doubt her word on this—could he? “If you have something to say, just say it.” She was getting angry.

  Logan pursed his lips, considering his options. “It just seems…convenient.”

  “Are you friggin’ kidding me? Convenient? I’m pretty sure if you had an eight-pound human sitting on your bladder and kicking your kidneys twenty-four-seven, you might not think convenient was the best description––”

  “I just mean, we only had sex once—”

  “Six times.”

  “Seven, if you count that…um, but what I meant was, one night. We were only together one night. And we used condoms. It just seems… unlikely I got you pregnant. That’s all.”

  “This was a mistake,” Allie said.

  Logan nodded and the look on his face was so condescending that she wanted to slug him. “I thought so.”

  She glared at him. “No, you moron. Trying to talk to you, that was a mistake. Inviting you to stay here, that was a mistake. You don’t seem to have the brain capacity to understand your role in all this, and that’s fine. Until you showed up today, I was prepared to do this entirely on my own, and that plan hasn’t changed.”

  Logan held up his hands in mock surrender. “Hold on, you told me to tell you what I was thinking. That’s all I was trying to do.”

  “Yeah, well, I didn’t realize you were thinking stupid things.”

  He smiled. “Do you realize how many times you’ve called me stupid in the last six hours?”

  “Do you realize how many times you’ve been stupid in the last six hours?”

  “Give me a break. I’ve been awake for a day and a half, and the first person I recognize on American soil tells me I’m about to become a father. It’s a lot to process.”

  She took a deep breath and blew it out. This day hadn’t been easy for him. And it was probably natural that he’d doubt her. In his defense, she did hop into bed with him in record time, so he probably had no reason to think it wasn’t a regular occurrence for her. Not that she should be finding excuses for him. The man was infuriating. She took another breath and willed herself to get through the rest of the conversation and get it over with.

  “If you could try not to call me a liar for a few minutes, that would probably help the conversation along,” she said.

  “I never called you—”

  “First of all, as I’ve already pointed out, we had sex more than once. A lot more.”

  “Yeah,” he said. A lopsided, absent smile pulled at one side of his mouth. “I didn’t even know it was possible to have that much sex in one night.”

  “Secondly,” she said, trying to keep herself on track, “we did use condoms, but one must have broken or something because, here we are. And third, our evening together was on March twenty-ninth. Which means my due date is tomorrow.”

  “Tomorrow?” he looked at her with eyes as wide as the full harvest moon.

  “Yes. Tomorrow. But Doc Sophie says I’m not showing any signs of impending labor yet. First babies tend to go past the due date.”

  “Wow.”

  “So, you’re right that it’s statistically improbable that during the one night we were together and using condoms I would get pregnant. But there wasn’t anyone else, Logan. Not for a long time before and not since. And it’s even more improbable that I’d run into you nine months later, on the eve of my due date. And it’s really freaking crazy that you turned out to be my brother’s friend who also just happens to be spending the holidays in my baby’s nursery. But guess what? It’s all true, so there it is.”

  He didn’t argue anymore.

  “I don’t have anything to hide, Logan. Order a damn paternity test once the baby’s born, and find out for yourself. Or you know, don’t. Don’t have the test done. Don’t believe me. It doesn’t matter. I don’t expect you to be involved anyway.”

  For the first time since she’d told him the baby was his, he seemed like he might believe her.

&nbs
p; “So…what do we do?” he asked.

  “We don’t do anything. You hang out for the next two weeks and pretend everything is normal. I’m going to do my best to get this baby out of me and that’s it. My plan hasn’t changed. I don’t want, need or expect anything from you. I just thought you deserved to know.” She had been staring at the floor. Intentionally not looking at him. But she chanced a glance in his direction. The look on his face was hard and unmoving and she wondered if he was back to not believing her.

  “What makes you assume that I wouldn’t want to be a part of my kid’s life?”

  Allie shrugged. “I don’t know. Maybe the fact that you’ve been trying to deny it’s yours ever since I told you. Or maybe just that you were trying to pick me up five minutes after we met. And when you saw me again at the airport, you went right back there. How do you expect to do that with a baby on your hip?”

  “You didn’t exactly make the pick-up that much of a challenge. Don’t start judging me for things you actively participated in.”

  Allie suppressed the urge to growl. But barely. “I was just trying to say, you don't have to feel responsible. You don’t have to be involved. You definitely don’t have to tell Adam. He never has to know. I’ve prepared for this. I can do this on my own.”

  “Are you done?” Logan asked. His voice was tense and she could tell he was clenching his jaw. It wasn’t what she’d been expecting. He looked like a man facing his executioner, determined, resolved and ready to accept his punishment.

  “Yes. I’m done.”

  “Good. What the hell is wrong with you?”

  Allie’s eyes widened. “Excuse me?”

  “You just assume that I have no problem lying to my best friend? That I have no problem sitting here for the next two weeks, watching you carry my baby while I pretend that I had nothing to do with it? You assume that I’m going to cut and run just because you tell me it’s okay?”

  “Oh, I’m sorry, did I somehow misconstrue the last fifteen minutes of this conversation? You know the part where you were calling me easy and saying the baby isn’t yours? Suddenly, I’m the bad guy for trying to give you a way out?”