Page 18 of Savage

“Thank you. I’m serious, Donna. I want to help you. I want you to think about what you want and let me know, okay?”

The silence stretched between them. After what seemed like an eon, but was about thirty seconds, she nodded.

“I need you to say it, babe.”

“I understand.”

“Good. Now, what I want you to think about, I mean really think about is do you want to keep the baby.” She started to say something, but he lifted one finger and continued. “I’m not done. I’m not asking if you want to terminate the pregnancy. You said no, that’s fine. We’re moving on. I’m asking if after the baby is born, do you want to keep it. To raise it and know that you will likely look into a face that, at least a little, reminds you of their sperm doner. There are other options. Options that could have you in the kid’s life or not. And don’t give me an answer now. Think about it. In the meantime, we need to see about getting you medical care. Damn, I wish Kinard had made this trip.” The brother wasn’t a women’s doctor, but at least he would be able to give them an idea of Donna’s general health and tell them what they should do. Hell, maybe he should call him and find out.

He watched as she blinked several times then took a deep breath, never looking away from him.

“Okay. You’re right. I need to think about that. I hadn’t even gotten that far.” She looked away for a moment then back at him. “What else?”

“I’m going to make a couple of calls later. We’ll figure out what we need to do to make sure you get the care you need. If you decide you want to go home to wherever you came from, I’ll help you get there. From the way you spoke yesterday, it seemed like you didn’t have anywhere to go. That’s okay too. I’ll take you back to Arizona with me, if you want to go. I’ll give you a bedroom and we’ll figure things out.”

Donna tilted her head and watched him, the look that reminded him of a beaten dog almost vanishing as she watched him, a question in her eyes.

“Why?” she said when he stopped talking and looked back down at his plate. He still had a few bites left.

“Why what?” he asked before taking a bite.

“Why do this? Why help me? You don’t know me, this isn’t your kid. Why would you do this?”

Savage tilted his head to one side, watching her a moment.

“You need to actually eat, not just push that around your plate and if you want an honest answer, I don’t know.”

Donna pulled her plate close again and took a bite but when he said he didn’t know, she looked up at him and frowned.

“Don’t think I’m lying to you. I’ll do my best not to do that. There may be things I can’t tell you, and I’ll not lie to you then, I’ll just say I can’t tell you. We’ll get more into that later. As to why I want to help you? It feels right.”

She opened her mouth to say something, he wasn’t sure if it was a question or to protest in some way, and he didn’t care, he wasn’t finished. He pointed to her plate and continued to talk as she took another bite.

“Something about you yesterday spoke to me. I couldn’t have walked away without talking to you, and once I did, I was kind of a goner. Something in me needs to help you, at least as much as you’ll let me.”

“What do you want in return? You can’t just want to help me and not get something back.”

A couple of the guys wandered up, got plates, then looked around and sat at another table, as if they realized this was a private discussion.

“I’d like to say I’m that altruistic, but we both know that’s not reasonable.” He looked down at his own plate for a moment before lifting his gaze to watch Donna once more. “I’m trying to find a way to put this that doesn’t sound self-serving. There are a lot of things I want from you, but I don’t expect them. I will help you if I get none of what I want.” He gave her a wry half smile. “I told you yesterday that you’re welcome to go with anyone you want, and it’s true, I won’t stop you if you decide you want to hook up with one of my brothers, though I recommend you pick one of the single ones if you do. I hear some of the wives can be touchy as hell if you touch their man. That said, I hope you don’t. I hope if you want something, to be comforted, held, taken care of in any way, you’ll come to me.”

She stopped eating and stared at him for a moment, a frown marring her brow. Savage wanted to reach out and smooth the wrinkles from her skin but held back the desire. She may not be comfortable with such a casual touch, not yet but he hoped to get her there.

Yes, he’d held her not an hour ago while she’d cried and let out all her pent-up emotions, but this was different, this would be a casual touch and he didn’t want to frighten her. She’d been through enough of that.

“Come to you? You mean you are still interested? Even with…” She used one hand to motion toward her own body. Savage assumed she meant even with her being pregnant.

“Babe, just give me a chance and I’ll show you how interested I am.” Despite his trying to hold it back, the words had come out as little more than a growl.

Her eyes went wide. “Oh.” She dropped her gaze back to her plate. “I thought you wouldn’t want to touch me again, not once you found out.” Her voice had gone soft again and he barely heard the words.

“I’m not sure where you got that idea, but we can discuss that after you finish eating.” He gave her plate a pointed look, took his last bite then turned the subject to something more pleasant. “Tell me more about you. You said you’re from Kansas? Where about?” This had been a tense discussion and he wanted her to have a chance to relax. Maybe she would eat more on her own if she wasn’t stressed about what they were talking about.

“Dodge City.” She lifted one shoulder and let it fall. “What about you? Where are you from?”

Savage didn’t like to talk about himself but since he was asking about her, it seemed only fair, especially since he wanted her to trust him.

“I’m from California. Though I don’t normally admit to it,” Savage said after a moment.

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