Page 65 of 40 and (So Over) Fixing It
“I’m going to have a baby.” Saying it out loud jolted her—and woke her up from the daze. “I’m going to have a baby.” A flutter of excitement started in her belly. She took a small sip of tea, hoping it would stay down. “What am I going to tell Carter?”
Lily took the barstool next to her and thought about that for a moment. “I don’t believe a baby is a reason to get married. You should get married because you love someone, not because the baby forced you to. So the question really is, how do you feel about Carter?”
If she’d been a cartoon character, she was pretty sure little hearts would pop up all around her head. “I think I love him.”
A huge grin took over Lily’s face. “I knew it!”
Erin frowned. “But…he’s already a father. He has Thad. What if he doesn’t want any more kids? We didn’t even discuss it.” She hadn’t even considered it a possibility.
“Discussion or not, it is what it is. He’s going to be a father again. And you’re going to be a mom.”
This wasn’t a dream; it was real. She was pregnant. “I can’t talk about this on the phone. Maybe I could video chat with him tonight.” Just the thought made her nausea lift its ugly head.
Reaching for her phone, Lily smirked. “I think we can do better than that.”
ChapterTwenty-Six
He hadn’t heard from Erin all day. A Saturday, so she should have been home. She hadn’t mentioned any big projects going on that would have required her attention this weekend. So where was she? His text this morning hadn’t gotten a response. He’d tried calling at lunchtime, and still noth—
“Carter! Aye, Carter!” Snapping fingers appeared before his eyes. “You ’wake in there?”
He jerked back from the hand so close to his face and blinked. “What?”
Gavin clucked at him. “I’ve been talkin’ out of my arse for five minutes. Don’ mind me, though. Arsehole.”
Normally you could barely hear the Scottish accent unless Gavin wanted you to, but right now his brogue was sharp. Carter shook his head. “I guess I zoned out. Sorry.”
“What’s gotten into ya?” He frowned, swirling his Macallan in its square cut-crystal glass. “Yeah, I crossed the feckin’ Atlantic Ocean because of work, but part of me only wanted to check on ya.” His partner stared him down, green eyes glaring. Not the green eyes he wanted to be staring into, though.
He missed Erin.
“Ya’ve been downright moody lately.” Gavin considered that, his head tilted to one side. “It has to be a lass. Who did Emma hook ya up with this time?”
That he could answer. “It’s not someone Emma hooked me up with, thank God. Which is probably why it worked.”
“Ha!” White teeth gleaming, Gavin raised his Scotch whisky and toasted the mystery woman. “Good. Emma has terrible taste in women.”
“Probably because she’s not interested in them.”
Gavin chuckled into his glass.
“It’s Erin.”
Eyes narrowed, his friend seemed to shuffle through his memory. Carter knew when he hit on it because his eyes went wide. “The lass ya needed to apologize to?”
“That one.” Then he found himself spilling out the story of Erin and the past five weeks.
By the time his words petered out, Gavin’s eyebrows were at his hairline. “What the hell is with this lil’ town? Every time one of ya goes to stay, ya get hitched up.” He got a thoughtful look on his face. “Maybe I need to go. Do ya have any idea how slim the datin’ market is for someone our age who doesn’t want a twenty-year-old?”
“I was letting my sister hook me up with women. I do have some idea how slim the dating market is.”
Gavin laughed. “That ya do.”
A waiter interrupted, noticing their need for refills, offering cigars. Harrington’s was an exclusive smokeasy in the Flatiron District with an old-world aesthetic that Carter found soothing—usually, at least. Today he doubted anything could quiet the uneasiness inside him.
Looking over the proffered selections, he and Gavin both chose an Olivia Serie V Melanio and went through the ritual of lighting, carefully nurturing the smolder until the cherry was evenly lit and they could sit back, relax, and enjoy the delicate caramel flavor of the tobacco. It wasn’t something Carter did often, but occasionally when Gavin was in town, they would visit. Today Gavin had insisted, and now Carter knew why his friend had brought him down here.
To talk.
