Circle of Friends, Part 3 Page 4

  “No,” she said, her voice low and annoyed.

  “You let yourself have sex with me without protection or birth control?”

  She opened her mouth and then closed it. “Not on purpose,” she told him. “It wasn’t as if I’d planned the night. It just sort of happened. I lost my head.”

  And that was going to be his fault.

  “I don’t do this sort of thing very much,” she said, obviously still annoyed, although he couldn’t figure out what her problem was. He was the injured party here.

  “Meaning?” he asked.

  She glanced around, then lowered her voice. “I’ve only been with two other guys and I was engaged to both of them.”

  “You’ve been married before?” he asked, feeling slightly outraged. “Twice?”

  “No.” She leaned back against the seat and groaned. “I was engaged, not married. That isn’t the point. I’m pregnant.”

  “I got that.”

  “There’s going to be a baby.”

  That stopped him. Because until she’d said the “b” word, he hadn’t put the two together. Pregnant was a scary, dangerous condition used to trap men, but a baby was something pretty miraculous.

  He felt himself smile. “Yeah?”

  “Don’t you dare be happy,” she told him. “Neither of us planned this. We don’t even know each other.” She thrust the envelope toward him. “I’ve been to a lawyer. This is a very straightforward agreement. I’m not asking you for anything now or ever. In return, you sign away all rights to the child.”

  “Why would I do that?”

  She rolled her eyes. “Because it makes the most sense. Like I said, we barely know each other. We can’t have a baby together.”

  “I’d say we already are.”

  From the corner of his eye, he saw Jenny on the phone. She was quick, he would give her that.

  A baby. He didn’t know what he felt, exactly, except a certainty that the kid would be a girl. As for signing away his rights, that wasn’t going to happen in this lifetime.

  “We need to talk,” he said, then winced. Was Jenny spiking the beer? Was he turning into a woman?

  “There’s nothing to talk about. You should look at the papers.”

  He leaned toward her. “I’m not discussing this in a bar.”

  She flinched. “I’m not taking you home with me. Look what happened last time.”

  He wanted to tell her that he wasn’t interested in her that way—except he was. Now that he knew all his parts were going to stay in place, he could appreciate her pale skin and the way her mouth curved when she smiled. Not that she’d done so in recent memory.

  “I’m not trying to sleep with you,” he said. “We can go to my place. Follow me in your car. Keep the damn engine running if you want. My point is, I’m not talking about this here.”

  He didn’t mention that his ex-girlfriend was still friends with his mother and likely on the phone with her this exact second. Hence the need for speed.

  Rachel considered his words, then nodded slowly. “Fine. Your place. But I want you to consider my offer. I’m not trying to trap you.”

  “Good to know.”

  * * *

  RACHEL ENJOYED HER little convertible and she’d always liked driving the manual transmission. Only this afternoon she couldn’t stop shaking, which made it difficult to shift.

  The conversation with Carter hadn’t gone at all the way she’d imagined. For one thing, he’d kept talking about the fact that she hadn’t called him. As if he’d wanted her to.

  Honestly, the thought had never crossed her mind. She’d figured he slept with different women all the time and one more wasn’t going to make an impact on his life. Had she been wrong? Did he really care that she hadn’t called?

  The thought was so foreign, she didn’t know how to process it in her brain. Adding to the confusion was his refusal to instantly sign off on the baby. She’d never thought he would want to take on that kind of responsibility. Weren’t women always complaining that men hated the idea of being tied down?

  She had to make him understand they weren’t in this together. Dealing with being pregnant was hard enough, and not something she’d even begun to accept, but having to deal with Carter, too, was unimaginable.

  She followed his large, black truck into a pleasant neighborhood, the kind populated by young families. When he pulled into the driveway of a pretty, one-story house, she parked in front and climbed out.

  For a second, she looked around and felt herself get lost in the past. This was the sort of street where she’d grown up. Modest homes filled with parents and kids and lots of laughter. Even after all these years, she could remember everything about her old bedroom. The color of the wallpaper, the bookshelves on the wall, the way her mother would tease her about the mess on the floor.

  Happy memories, she thought wistfully. Happy and so very, very sad.

  “Rachel?”

  She looked up and saw Carter waiting by the front door. She walked up the path and into his house.

  The living room was open, with cream-colored drapes and pretty sage paint on the walls. The furniture looked relatively new and not the least bit like bachelor leather.

  “Have a seat,” he said, closing the front door behind her. “You want something to drink?”

  “I’m fine.”

  She set the paperwork on the coffee table, then sank on the sofa. Now what?

  Apparently Carter didn’t know, either. He paced the length of the room, paused in front of her, started to speak, shook his head and started pacing again. She reminded herself that she’d had several days to attempt to get used to the news and she still wasn’t dealing with it. The poor man would need some time.

  “I didn’t plan this,” she said by way of a peace offering. “I want you to know that. What happened between us was totally unexpected.”

  He looked at her and smiled. “I know. I was there.”

  Somehow, she found herself getting lost in his brown eyes. She felt a pull between them. Something strong and powerful that made her want to stand up and step into his arms. Once there he would draw her close and...

  Whoa! That’s what had gotten her in trouble in the first place, she thought.

  She cleared her throat. “My point is, I don’t want you to be concerned. I can take care of myself.” She wasn’t sure how yet and thinking about being a single mother made her hyperventilate, but that wasn’t his problem. “I have no intention of trapping you. You can take as long as you’d like to look over the papers.”

  His expression hardened. “Let’s get this clear right now. I’m not signing away my kid.”

  He couldn’t mean that. “Do you want to be a father?”

  “I didn’t plan on it this week, no. But we’re talking about my child.” He gave a strangled laugh. “Who am I kidding? My daughter. And you can’t have her.”

  He stopped and put his hands on his hips. From her seated position, he looked very powerful and masculine and just a little intimidating.

  “You can’t mean that,” she murmured, as caught off guard by his presence as by his words. “I never thought you’d be interested. You don’t know me.”

  “Knowledge isn’t required. We did it, it happened, now we’ll deal with it.”

  What he said sounded perfectly logical, but this was not the conversation she thought they’d be having.

  But before she could say that, the front door burst open and three women entered. One was in her fifties, the others were about Carter’s age. Rachel stood and stared at them.

  Carter groaned. “Mama, this is not a good time.”

  “You’re one to talk about timing,” the older woman said, pushing past him to stand in front of Rachel. “A man who gets a woman pregnant without meaning to
should talk about timing. Apparently he’s very good at it.”

  Mama? As in...his mother?

  She was about five foot two, with short blond hair and Carter’s eyes. Tiny, but Rachel could feel the energy pouring off her. The other two women were taller and pretty, but they were a little intimidating, too.

  “H-how did you know?” she asked, not sure she wanted the answer.

  Carter slumped into one of the club chairs opposite the sofa. “Jenny called her. Rachel, this is my mother, Nina Brockett, and two of my sisters, Liz and Merry. You don’t need to know who is who because they won’t be staying. Mama, this is Rachel.”

  “Of course we’re staying,” his mother told him, then turned to Rachel. “You should sit.”

  “Why would the bartender call you?” Rachel asked, wondering if this would ever make sense.

  “Jenny’s a friend of the family,” Nina told her.

  “We stay in touch with most of Carter’s old girlfriends,” one of his sisters offered. “There have been lots, but you’re the first one to get pregnant.”

  Jenny from the bar was his ex-girlfriend?

  “She’s married,” Carter said, as if he could read her mind. “I doubt you can make your escape now. You might as well sit.”

  “Of course she should sit,” Nina said, moving next to Rachel, taking her hand and urging her back on the sofa. “She needs to rest. She’s going to have a baby.”

  “The baby is maybe four cells big,” Carter told her. “I doubt it’s going to tire her out.”

  Rachel looked at him. “You went out with Jenny?” she asked, feeling herself blush. “She pretended not to know who you were. She made me describe...”

  She suddenly became aware of the other three women in the room and sank onto the sofa.

  “It doesn’t matter,” she whispered.

  “That Jenny has a real sense of humor,” Carter muttered.

  One of the sisters smiled. “She’s great. Carter was an usher in her wedding and she was a bridesmaid in mine.”

  This was way too much information, Rachel thought frantically, glancing at the door and wondering if she could make a run for it. This wasn’t happening. She hadn’t just met Carter’s mother, two sisters and his ex-girlfriend.

  Nina patted her hand. “You’ll be fine. This is shocking now, but that’s because Carter didn’t tell you about us. Why my only son wouldn’t mention his family to the mother of his child, I don’t know. But I’m only the mother. No one tells me anything.”

  “Save me,” Carter muttered as he rubbed his temples. “Mama, you’re not helping.”

  “Of course I’m helping,” his mother insisted. “I want to help. It’s what I do best. So, what were the two of you talking about when we got here?”

  Rachel glanced at the envelope on the table. Suddenly Carter’s unwillingness to walk away from his unborn child made a little more sense.

  “That’s private,” Carter told her.

  “You might as well tell us,” one of his sisters said. “We’ll find out anyway.”

  “No, you won’t,” Carter told her. He looked at Rachel. “If you want to make a run for it, I’ll cover your back.”

  “She’s not running,” Nina said and it was only then Rachel realized the older woman still had a firm grip on her hand.

  Rachel tugged it free. “Carter and I have some things we need to work out,” she said weakly.

  “Of course you do.” Nina smiled at her. “You’re a nice girl, I can tell. You didn’t mean to get pregnant. But it happens. So we’ll deal with it.”

  We? No, no. There was no we. “Technically, I’m the one who’s pregnant,” she began.

  Carter’s gaze narrowed. “And I’m the father.”

  “I’m not denying that,” Rachel said, bristling. “I’m the one who came to you.”

  “I would have been happy to do things the other way,” he reminded her. “You didn’t call.”

  The sisters looked at each other. “Really? You went out with Carter and didn’t call the next day?” one of them asked.

  “Ah...”

  “The women always call,” the other sister said. “Some of them won’t stop calling.”

  “Ah...”

  “It gets embarrassing,” the first one continued. “I want to take them aside and tell them to have a little pride.”

  “It’s not their fault,” Nina said with a proud smile. “It’s my son.”

  Rachel raised her eyebrows. “Really?”

  Carter groaned. “Ignore them. I mean that.”

  “Maybe I want to hear about ‘the women.’”

  “You don’t,” he told her. “Trust me.”

  “About the baby,” Nina said, breaking the mood. “We need to talk.” Nina patted the back of her hand. “I understand. If you young people insist on putting the cart before the horse, then they need to turn the horse around.”

  “What?” Rachel and Carter asked together.

  Nina glanced between them. “Isn’t it obvious? You have a baby coming. You need to get married.”

  CHAPTER FOUR

  CARTER STOOD. HE’D been willing to let the moment run its course. Thirty years of being his mother’s son had taught him that was the easiest way to deal with her. He would listen and then do exactly what he wanted. But mother or not, she’d just crossed the line.

  “Okay, that’s enough,” he said flatly and walked to the door. “Great to see you all. Thanks for stopping by.”

  His mother was about a foot shorter, but that never seemed to bother her. She rose and walked over until she was in front of him, staring up, glaring.

  “Carter Brockett, I’m serious.”

  “So am I, Mama. This isn’t about you. This is between me and Rachel. We’re going to deal with it and we don’t need your help.”

  Her brown eyes narrowed. “You’re going to have a baby, Carter. This is serious.”

  He knew she meant well. He knew she loved him and would gladly throw herself in front of a train for him. But sometimes she was the biggest pain in the butt.

  He bent down and kissed her. “I know, Mama. Trust me, okay?”

  She sighed heavily, then nodded. As she stepped out of the house, his sisters trailed after her. Merry grinned.

  “You’re in big trouble, now,” she murmured as she passed.

  “Thanks for the support.”

  “Any time.”

  He closed the door behind them.

  Rachel still sat on the sofa, although she looked a little shell-shocked. His family had that effect on people. He’d seen it many times.

  He walked into the kitchen and got her a glass of ice water, then returned to the living room. She stared at him, her green eyes wide, her mouth slightly parted.

  “You doing okay?” he asked.

  “No.” She took the glass he offered. “Who were those people?”

  He sank back into his chair. “My family. Most of them, anyway. I have another sister around somewhere. She must not have been home or she would have been part of the parade, too.”

  “You have three sisters, right?”

  “I’m the youngest and the only boy. My dad died before I was born so it was just me and them. A world of women.”

  She sipped the water. “When you said women were the cause of all the trouble in your life, I thought you meant romantically.”

  “That would have made things too easy. I’m surrounded by them. Even my dog, a stray Lab who showed up one day all skinny and pathetic, is female. Welcome to my world.”

  She managed a small smile. “It’s not so bad. Your family obviously cares about you.” She took another drink. “Did Jenny really call your mother to tell her what she’d heard?”

  “Oh, yeah. Jenny stayed pr
etty tight with her and my sisters. As have a lot of my ex-girlfriends. They show up at holidays or parties. I never know when I’m going to run into one.” Or twenty, he thought grimly. Why couldn’t his ex-girlfriends be like other women? Bitter and vindictive. Right now the idea of someone slashing his tires was a whole lot easier to deal with than someone like Jenny, who simply stayed in his world.

  Not that he didn’t like Jenny—he did. She’d married a great guy, but damn, whose side was she on? Calling his mother and telling her Rachel was pregnant.

  Rachel set down her glass and glanced at him. “I didn’t get pregnant on purpose.”

  “I know. Neither of us planned on that. We just weren’t thinking.”

  She ducked her head, but he saw her smile. “I was kind of swept away. Nothing like that has ever happened to me before.”

  “Me, either.”

  She looked up and rolled her eyes. “Oh, please. I might not know you very well, but I’m getting a clear idea about your past. You seem to have women lined up around the block.”

  “Sure, a lot of relationships, but that kind of heat?” He shrugged, trying to remember the last time he’d felt it. “It doesn’t happen very often.”

  “Are you just saying that?”

  The uncertainty in her voice added to her charm. They were already in so much trouble, Carter almost felt still being attracted to her couldn’t make things worse. Except he knew it could. A relationship would only complicate the situation. Better to keep his head and think clearly. If only she didn’t smell so good.

  “I don’t do lines,” he told her. “You’re beautiful and sexy and funny. You dress like a nun and you have a body made for...ah, making love,” he said, self-editing to something less graphic. “What’s not to like?”

  “Wow. When you say it like that, you were lucky to have me.”

  He smiled. “Yes, I was. Only now there are consequences for us to deal with.”

  “The baby.”

  “Right. Rachel, I’m not giving up my daughter.”

  “You don’t actually know the baby is a girl.”

  “Yes, I do, but that doesn’t matter. We’re going to have to work something out, because I won’t sign those papers.”