Page 23 of Be My Baby

It wasn’t a nice feeling.

“You know I always liked Millie, that’s not the issue, Max. It’s just that it’s come out of nowhere. She hasn’t been chasing you, or shown any romantic interest at all. Look at how she fell over herself about Gabe. Doesn’t this strike you as odd?”

The disappointment and confusion morphed, becoming something darker, something more painful.

Fear.

Was she right?

Was he doing something stupid, the wrong thing, by agreeing?

“Gabe aside—because we both know nothing happened there, or would ever have. What about whatIwant?” he asked quietly. “What ifIwant to do this, to have a baby with her? I’m nearly forty. What if this is my last chance to have a family of any sort, even one as screwed up as this might be?”

His mother blinked several times, then let out a long, low breath. “Oh, Max. You care about her.”

He gripped his biceps tightly. “Of course I do. That’s neither here nor there. It’s a valid reason.”

“You know exactly what I mean. Youcarefor her. You’re letting your heart decide when it should be your brain. If you do this, and she falls pregnant, what happens when she doesn’t wantyou?”

If? They alreadyhad. He didn’t let on about that little nugget of information. It might send his mother into complete meltdown.

Max ground down the instant denial that sprang to his lips. “Then we get exactly what she asked for—a baby.” He forced down the insidious voice whispering in his head that his mother was right and looked out the kitchen window to his parents’ lush garden. “A relationship with me wasn’t part of the deal. If we can create a life, one that will be loved no matter what, that’s all that matters. I’ll get to be a father, either way, and the baby would want for nothing.”

He shoved hard at the spike of pain that wanted to dig in deep at the thought that Millie might very wellnotwant him. Ever.

The loud tick of the kitchen clock overlaid the tense gap in conversation between them. He refused to give in on this. He could see his mother’s reasoning and it was valid, but it didn’t change anything.

His mother sighed softly. “Only you can know what’s right. Just know that if it happens, the baby will have all the love and support this family can offer.”

The baby. No mention of Millie. Max opened his mouth to answer. To tell her that he considered Millie part of that and she needed to include her, too.

“What baby?”

Darby’s voice had his spine snapping straight. He spun to face her, but his mother beat him to it.

“Your baby, of course. I can’t wait until our first little Grandbaby Jameson is here.”

Darby’s laugh rang around the kitchen. “You might want to discuss that name with Ryan. Although you guys have called him a Jameson since I can remember.”

She placed three more trays into the water in front of Max. He sent her a wry look.

“It’s… interesting seeing Millie here today,” Darby said, her tone curiously even.

Fishing. His busybody sister was fishing. It might have made him laugh, if his gut hadn’t already been tied up in massive knots from the conversation with his mother.

“Is it now?”

“Well, it is a little odd, don’t you think?” Darby continued.

Max lent his muscles into scrubbing the pans she’d put in front of him. She could work for anything she got from him.

“Oh, I don’t know about odd, Darby. They are friends, after all,” Mary’s calm voice replied, so he didn’t have to.

Darby was quiet for a long moment. He could almost feel her eyes drilling holes into his back as he finished up the pans. He’d stalled as long as he could, pulled the plug in the sink then turned to face her, wiping his hands dry on a spare tea towel.

She stood with her hands firmly on her hips, her head tilted to the side and an expectant, though concerned, look gracing her face.

“I know that you’ll tell me what’s going on when you’re ready, but, well… Just be careful, Max.”

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