Page 48 of Keeping Happily Ever After

“Are you going to expand on that little detail?”

He bit his bottom lip and slowly looked up. “I did the math.”

Of course he did. That’s what Nick did. Math.

“The times don’t work out. I dated Jessica, if you can call it that, only for a few weeks. But it was before. If Amelia is mine, it’s probably some kind of miracle.”

“You haven’t done a DNA test?”

She knew the answer.

“I can’t.” When he looked up into her eyes, there was so much pain on his face. “If I know she’s not mine, then…what will happen to her? They’ll take her away. Jessica is obviously not fit and Lacy, well, she couldn’t get rid of her fast enough. No,” he said resolutely. “She’s better off with me. No matter what.”

Steph let it all settle in. She couldn’t disagree with him. Still, there had to be another way. And if he planned to be this baby’s father, he was going to need help.

“Enough about all of this,” he said before she could take the conversation further. “Tell me what’s going on with you. Did you ever buy that little piece of paradise you were talking about?”

They spent the next few minutes talking about Lynx Creek and her plans. She’d just started telling him about Travis—well, notallabout Travis. She purposely left out the details on how the man made her want to tear all her clothes off with just a glance and how when he spoke to her, his voice low and sexy, her body reacted and there was a very specific spot between her legs that ached with need. Yes. She left allthosedetails out.

Not that it mattered. While they were talking, Steph’s phone rang with an incoming video call—as if the man’s ears were burning. Her face flushed and Nick laughed.

“Is that your guy now?”

“He’s not my guy.”

“He’s your contractor guy,” he said pointedly.

“True. But that doesn’t mean he’s my guy.”

“Sure.” Nick nodded. “Either way, I’d say it looks like I have myself some competition.”

Steph tipped her head toward the baby in his arms. “I’d say you do, too.”

ChapterSixteen

Almost an entire weekhad passed since Jeremy had seen Bella. Or spoken to her.

They’d exchanged a few text messages, but something kept him from picking up the phone and calling her. He knew he should. Hewantedto. More than anything, he wanted to hear her sweet voice. Well, maybe not as much as he wanted to see her. Touch her. Hold her in his arms. Tell her that he was sorry for being such an asshole, that he never should have suggested in any kind of way that she shouldn’t go to the city and follow her dreams.

What had he been thinking?

He hadn’t.

No. Hehad.

He’d been thinking of her and him. And their future together. A future that involved them actually in the same city. Once the idea was planted in his head, Jeremy couldn’t think of anything else besides being married to Bella. Why shouldn’t he have what everyone else had? The happily ever after. The forever.

And kids.

Hope and Levi were about to be parents and soon the others would be, too. And he and Bella…

Shit.

They wouldn’t have anything because he was too thickheaded to accept she had dreams and hopes of her own.

“Davis.”

Ed Walker’s booming voice preceded him as he entered the station lounge.

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