Total pages in book: 144
Estimated words: 135382 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 677(@200wpm)___ 542(@250wpm)___ 451(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 135382 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 677(@200wpm)___ 542(@250wpm)___ 451(@300wpm)
She was something magnificent and it would take a better man than he to bring her to the place she needed to be.
He turned and promised himself this was all for the best.
He left the cabin quietly and got into his Jeep. At least he’d remembered the damn condom. One problem they wouldn’t have.
He told himself it had been one night. But he would remember it for the rest of his life. As for Steph, what could go wrong for her? She would move on, and that was a good thing. Before long she would forget she’d ever met him and get on with her life unencumbered by anything that happened that night.
* * * *
Seven weeks later
Steph stared down at the pregnancy test. “Well, fuck.”
Chapter One
Dallas, TX
9 months later
Stephanie stood on the threshold of the big Mediterranean house the O’Donnell family called home and wondered for the thousandth time if she was doing the right thing. She’d already upset Liam and she was going to cause problems with his friends.
Mostly because Liam had gotten a look at the baby in the car seat at her feet and reached the proper conclusions. There had been no questions, no casual wonder about how she’d come to be in Texas with a baby she hadn’t mentioned before. She’d hoped someone would ask the question. Who’s the dad? She would have mentioned she wasn’t sure and moved on.
Nope. Li was far smarter than that. He’d taken one look at her baby boy and vowed to kick his father’s arse, as he put it. And he’d known exactly who that was.
“It’s going to be okay,” Avery said, tugging on her hand as Liam hauled the car seat up.
“How old is this kid?” Li complained. “He feels like a toddler.”
“Two months.” It was hard to believe two months had already past. She’d dreaded having him and now she wanted time to slow down because he was growing far too fast. It was odd how her world had shifted in two months and three days, how the center had changed and she was better for it. “He weighs fifteen pounds already.”
“Bloody Aussie.” Liam smiled down at her son. “Hey, boy, I’m your Uncle Li and I’m going to kick yer daddy’s arse.”
Liam walked inside and Avery closed the door behind them.
She clearly hadn’t thought this plan of hers through long enough. But then she’d been far too terrified to be worried that someone might find out how foolish she’d been. “Please. Brody can’t know. He doesn’t want to know. He doesn’t…he doesn’t want me. I chose to have Nate. Nate’s mine and no one else’s.”
Avery laughed, the sound musical to Steph’s ears. “Oh, dear, I’m afraid that boy belongs to all of us now. Come on. Let’s figure this out. I’ll make sure Li doesn’t get on a plane tomorrow. Now, what kind of trouble are we in?”
So much trouble. “Like I said, someone’s trying to kill me and I’m not sure why. I didn’t know where else to go. I probably should have called, but I left my cell behind and didn’t want to spend the money on another one.”
Running a clinic in Africa didn’t pay well. She’d pretty much put everything she had into that place. Outside funding was rare and always spent on upgrading her tools. She was constantly begging for old equipment because a twenty-year-old CT scan was better than no CT scan.
“You shouldn’t have gone anywhere else,” Li replied. “You did the right thing. You came home. We told you after your mum died and you were alone that we were your family now. You always were family to us. Did you think we didn’t mean it?”
Tears pierced her eyes. Where was inner tough chick when she needed her? She seemed to have gone dormant in the months since Steph had felt that first kick to her stomach—from the inside. She’d gone all gooey and emotional, unable to hide those parts of herself that had been shoved down before. “I think I hate bringing trouble to your doorstep.”
Liam lifted Nate out of his carrier, hefting him up to his chest. “This boy here ain’t a bit of trouble, are you? What a handsome young man. And you’re strong, aren’t you? Look at that. Two months old and he’s holding his head up like a champ.”
She was grateful for the chance to smile about something. “Yes, he’s strong for his age. And big. I had to scramble to find clothes for him. I’d only bought newborn onesies. I didn’t realize how big he was going to be.”
“And you had him in the field?” Liam asked the question with a soft tone that didn’t fool Steph one bit. At some point, Liam O’Donnell had decided she was the little sister he’d never had, and he could bring the hammer down.