Page 46 of Nobodys Baby But Mine (Chicago Stars 3)

“You’re thirty-four! Thirty-four! Were you ever planning on mentioning that to me?”

“When was I supposed to mention it? Should I have told you when you were stalking me in my classroom, or when you were screaming at me over the telephone? How about when you pushed me on the airplane? Or maybe I should have let you know after you locked me up in your house? Is that when I should have told you?”

“Don’t try to weasel out of it. You knew it was important to me, and you deliberately misled me.”

“Deliberately? Now there’s a big word for a dumb jock. Do you think it’s cute putting on that asinine hillbilly act and making everyone think you’re a moron? Is that your idea of a good time?”

“What are you talking about?”

She spit the words at him. “University of Michigan. Summa cum laude.”

“Oh, that.” Some of the tension left his body, and his weight eased on her.

“God, I hate you,” she whispered. “I would have had a better chance at a sperm bank.”

“Exactly where you should have gone in the first place.”

Despite his words, he no longer sounded quite so angry, but acid churned in her stomach. She knew she had to ask him, even though she dreaded hearing the answer, and she forced out the words. “What’s your IQ?”

“I have no idea. Unlike you, I don’t keep it tattooed on my forehead.” He rolled to the side, which allowed her to struggle to her feet.

“Then your SATs. What were they?”

“I don’t remember.”

She regarded him bitterly. “You’re a liar. Everybody remembers their SATs.”

He swiped at some wet leaves on his jeans as he rose.

“Tell me, dammit!”

“I don’t have to tell you anything.” He sounded annoyed, but not particularly dangerous.

That didn’t calm her. Instead, she once again felt a swell of hysteria. “You tell me right now, or, I swear to God, I’ll find some way to murder you! I’ll put ground glass in your food! I’ll stab you with a butcher knife while you’re sleeping! I’ll wait until you’re in the shower and throw in an electrical appliance! I’ll—I’ll club you in the head with a baseball bat some night when you walk in the door!”

He stopped brushing his jeans and gazed at her with what looked more like curiosity than apprehension. The fact that she knew she was only making herself appear more irrational further inflamed her. “Tell me!”

“You are some bloodthirsty woman.” Looking faintly bemused, he shook his head. “That electrical appliance thing… You’d need an extension cord or something to reach all the way into the shower. Or maybe you weren’t planning to plug it in.”

She gritted her teeth, feeling prodigiously foolish. “If it wasn’t plugged in, it wouldn’t electrocute you, now would it?”

“Good point.”

She took a deep breath and tried to regain her sanity. “Tell me your SATs. You owe me that much.”

He shrugged and bent over to pick up her glasses. “Maybe fourteen hundred, or somethin’ like that. Mighta been a little lower.”

“Fourteen hundred!” She punched him as hard as she could, then stomped away from him into the woods. He was a hypocrite and a fraud, and she felt sick down to the very depth of her soul. Even Craig wasn’t as smart as this man.

“That’s dumb compared to you,” he called after her.

“Don’t ever speak to me again.”

He came up next to her, but didn’t touch her. “Come on, Rosebud, you’ve got to settle down enough so I can take you apart for what you’ve done to me, which is a whole lot worse than my damned SATs.”

She whirled on him. “You didn’t do anything to me! You’ve done it to my child, don’t you see that? Because of you, an innocent child is going to grow up to be a freak.”

“I never told you I was stupid. You just assumed.”

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