Page 9 of Texas-Sized Scandal

She’d completely spaced on the fact that the pregnancy tests were still lined up on the counter.

“So, this is why you are dumping me?” he asked, gesturing to the tests.

“No, maybe. I just know that you’re not interested in a family and unless all seven of those are defective, I’m definitely pregnant and it’s your baby.”

“This changes everything,” he said.

“It most certainly doesn’t,” she said. “If you had felt differently, you would have already said so.”

He shook his head. “No, I wouldn’t have. We were talking possibilities. This is a reality. And there is no way I’m going to be that guy—the one who walks away from his kid. Oh, damn, this kid isn’t going to have it easy.”

She didn’t know what Slade was referring to exactly, because he’d only once mentioned how hard his childhood was and somehow that was why he didn’t want children. “Our child will be fine. We need to make choices that are best for the child, not what we want.”

Because what she wanted was for Slade to suddenly confess he loved her and then demand a large fairy-tale wedding before she got too big for her dream dress. But thatwasa fairy tale and she knew it. Even if he did those things, she wouldn’t be able to believe him. He’d been trying to talk her into continuing their affair, not starting a family.

“You’re right. But everything we’ve seen with our work on the Coalition for Families shows that kids have a better quality of life when both parents are actively involved. We need to be making decisions together.”

He had a point, but she wasn’t ready to deal with this with him. Or anyone else. Her sister was still saying that Slade wasn’t the right man for her. She’d had several concerned texts and emails from women and men on the various committees she served on, all warning her that Slade was bad news. And he was standing here looking panicked, yet trying to convince her that the child she carried should have both parents.

She just wasn’t ready to deal with this. Not today.

Her phone started buzzing again, and she glanced down at it, shaking her head. Another media request for an interview. Slade came over and looked down at the phone.

“How many of these have you had today?”

“A million. That’s an exaggeration, but it feels like that. I don’t know what I’m going to do,” she said. “I can’t keep dodging them forever, and wearing a disguise every time I leave the house isn’t going to work either. Eventually they’re going to notice I’m pregnant and I don’t know what to do.”

Slade put his arm around her, and she let herself be pulled into his embrace, resting her head against his shoulder as he rubbed his hand down her back. His spicy aftershave made her pulse beat a little heavier, as did being held in his arms.

She wished she didn’t react so quickly to him each time he touched her. It made it hard for her to keep her perspective and be sensible.

He tipped her head with his finger under her chin and then rubbed his thumb over her jawline, which sent a tingle of awareness through her body. She parted her lips and then licked them as they were suddenly dry.

He groaned, then leaned down to kiss her, his mouth moving over hers slowly and deliberately. She turned more fully into his embrace, going up on tiptoe and twining her arms behind his neck and holding on to him. He tasted so good and she closed her eyes, letting the worries of the day disappear and allowing herself to just be in the moment.

When she was in Slade’s arms, nothing else seemed to matter, and though she knew she couldn’t stay there, she wanted to. But that wasn’t realistic.

She broke the kiss and stepped away from him. She didn’t know what to say, but she felt lost and she hated that. She’d always had a plan for her life. Even when it didn’t work out the way she wanted, she was able to take steps to course-correct and get back to where she wanted to be.

But this thing with Slade was different. The man he was in real life blurred with the fantasy man that a part of her had been waiting for all her life and that made it harder to be sensible.Ugh.

“I have a solution,” he said. “And I think it’s one you’ll like, because it’s respectable and it will give the media something to cover instead of your family’s...troubles.”

“What do you have in mind?” she asked. She wasn’t going to pretend she didn’t want to find a solution that would give her the best of both worlds, but she knew how the media could be and she wanted to maintain an image that was above reproach.

Something that Slade never had been, whether fair or not. He’d always had to work double-time to prove he wasn’t in the mob.

“Let’s get engaged.”

Her heart fell to her stomach and she blinked, trying very hard to maintain a poker face. His suggestion was the one thing she’d secretly been dreaming of. How could he have known?

But she knew there had to be a catch because Slade wasn’t the marrying kind. She looked at him, sure he’d lost his mind or that she’d heard him wrong. But he was smiling at her like he’d hung the moon.

Even as the words left his mouth, he was questioning himself. But his emotions were roiling inside of him like a hurricane brewing in the Gulf of Mexico and he felt like he was in a little dinghy, trying to ride out the storm. Pregnant? Holy hell, what were they going to do? He had never thought about being a father.

He tried to focus his thoughts. One thing at a time. Melinda was a respectable woman. She wouldn’t embrace being single and pregnant until she had time to figure it out. Then it hit him. She tried to dump him after she found out she was having a baby. Did she think he’d be a horrible father? Was that why she was trying to walk away? She wasn’t wrong, but damn that was a hit to his ego.

But temporarily engaged? Had he lost his ever-loving mind? Of course, Nonna would be thrilled. She adored Melinda. But if she found out Melinda was pregnant and he hadn’t asked her to marry him, there would be hell to pay.

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