Page 69 of Snow in Texas

Speaking of which… “You called me Lécuyer,” he said.

“It just came out.” She blinked and her eyes were clearer. “You were just big, and scary, and so very Cajun.” She breathed a humorless laugh. “And I know you don’t like it, but you are a Lécuyer. I know to you, the ‘half’ part is what you focus on. But for me – the rest of us – we don’t see anything ‘half’ about it.”

“Hmm.” He watched her face, felt her sincerity.

“Everybody associated with this club has demons. Shit we wish we could change,” she told him, managing a bit of the philosophical club heir, despite her tangled emotions. “Nobody joins a club or marries a member because they’ve got all their shit together.”

“Yeah.”

They’d come full circle, hadn’t they? Back to the original problem. “So you’re pregnant.”

“I’m pregnant.” She offered a wobbly smile. “Sucks, doesn’t it?”

He felt his brows go up. “Does it?”

“I didn’t figure you’d be happy to hear the news.”

If he was honest, he had no idea how he felt about it. Because on one hand, he didn’t like kids and had never wanted them. But on the other hand, he’d never considered the possibility of having one with a woman he actually cared about. Who knew if there were a couple of little Colins running around in New Orleans, but he’d never dwelled on the notion. This, though…this was going to take some thought.

“What about you?” he asked. “You happy?”

Her smile was more of a grimace. “No. Not really.”

A sharp twinge in his gut, up under his ribs. Shit. He hadn’t expected that to sting.

“I decided a long time ago that kids weren’t in the cards for me,” she explained. “I’m a single, thirty-nine-year-old waitress. I’m not equipped to be a mother at this point.”

“Hold on. Single?”

She rolled her eyes. “Unmarried. That better?”

He thought about it a second. “We could get married.”

She made a disbelieving sound. “Colin, I’m not so stubborn that I’m going to deny I’ve got serious feelings for you. But you know we’re not ready to get married. Especially you.”

“What’s that supposed to mean?”

“It means you arrived in Texas with a heartbreaker reputation and no intention of settling down anytime soon. Now you want to get hitched and raise kids together?”

“Ugh. This conversation’s giving me a headache.”

“The way I see it,” she continued, and he cut her off.

“No, just stop. Because I guarantee you, the way you see it is wrong.”

“Oh yeah?”

“The way you see me anyway.” They were talking in circles, tip-toeing over what they really meant, what they really wanted, and he wasn’t going to let it continue. Enough was enough with her indecisive bullshit. “Come over here and sit with me.”

She stared at him.

Kindly, but firmly: “Jen, come sit with me.”

She complied, and when she moved to sit beside him, he caught her around the waist and pulled her into his lap instead.

“Oof,” she said with surprise, falling against his chest.

He helped her catch her balance, so she was on his thighs, an arm around his neck, her face poised just above his.

---