Page 20 of A Baby for the Mountain Man

“I promise, you are.”

“But it wasn’t even two weeks ago.”

“The doctors have really sensitive tests.”

“But we used a condom.”

“They don’t always work.”

We fall silent as I struggle to make sense of what she’s said. Sophie is… pregnant. She says I’m the father. That protection doesn’t work. That the doctors have really sensitive tests.

Tests you would probably only take if you had a reason to think you might be pregnant.

That’s when it hits me. The bag in the backseat of her car. The prenatal vitamins. The baby shoes.

They weren’t for her friend. They were for her.

“Were you trying to get pregnant?”

She releases a shaky breath. “Yes and no.”

“I don’t understand.”

“Yes, I was trying to get pregnant. But, no. I wasn’t trying to get pregnant with you.”

I clamp my eyes shut and pinch the bridge of my nose. “I’m sorry, I’m going to need you to explain that to me.”

“Well… a few months ago, I decided I wanted to have a baby. Dating hasn’t been going well. It’s never gone well. And one day I figured I should stop waiting for the right guy and justgo ahead and have a baby. So, I made plans to be… artificially inseminated.”

My eyes fly open then, and my hand falls to my side.

“I went in for my appointment a few days ago.” She’s still clasping her fingers together in her lap. “As part of the pre-insemination check-up they ran some tests, and, well, I’m pregnant.”

“You’re pregnant.”

She nods. “I know it’s a lot to process. I’ve known for a couple of days and I still haven’t quite wrapped my head around it. I know this isn’t something you were planning. And… you don’t have to be involved unless you want. Though, I’d love it if you were. You have no idea how long I’ve…”

She shakes her head. “Well, I just thought you should know.”

“You’re pregnant,” I say again. It feels like a hand is squeezing my lungs, making it impossible for me to breathe. “I’m sorry, how am I supposed to believe you didn’t plan on this?”

She sucks in a breath, and I wince. I really shouldn’t have said that. I may have been thinking it. But I shouldn’t have said that.

“You really think I would trick you into… getting me pregnant? Why? So I could force you to marry me or something?”

“You wouldn’t be the first woman to do that.” Again, I’ve said something I shouldn’t. I clamp my mouth shut before I can say anything else incredibly stupid.

“How… dare you.” She unbuckles her seatbelt. “The fact that you think I would ever do something like that—to you or anyone…” She shakes her head. “Don’t worry. I’ll find my own way back to the airport.”

Sophie throws open the door, jumps out of the truck, and stalks off. I’m torn between going after her and apologizing andstaying where I am to process the bomb she’s just dropped on me.

In my shock, I choose the coward’s path. I stay exactly where I am, playing our conversation over in my head over and over.

Sophie is… pregnant. With my child. A baby we conceived during one of the most incredible nights of my life.

“She’s pregnant,” I say out loud, trying the words for myself. Nearly choking on them as I do. “She’s having my baby.”

The horror I expect to feel doesn’t come. Instead, as I say the words again, the fear that has been threatening to strangle me from the moment she told me loosens its hold.

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