The Rich Man's Baby. Leah Vale
should be talking maternity suit.”
Juliet ground her teeth. “That’s what you wear when you’re pregnant and have to go to work.”
He nodded. “Right, right. What we should be discussing here is a maternity settlement.”
Juliet threw her hands in the air. “Paternity. Paternity settlement. Don’t be such an idiot.”
“You’re the idiot,” he jeered.
“Stop it, you two.”
Willie grumbled, “At least you were smart enough to get knocked up by a millionaire.”
Juliet went to the sink and leaned her weight on her hands on the rim. The distorted view of the sunset silhouetting the back shed out the small, cracked window above the sink began to swim as tears filled her eyes once again. She hadn’t been smart at all, letting herself believe in a dream on a bike.
“I’m not sure a paternity settlement is the way to go, Julie,” her mom answered as if Juliet had thrown those words out as an option she would consider. “I think, personally, that child support payments are—”
“No, no,” Willie interrupted. “I think the guy should hand over a huge chunk of change up front now, while he’s still all doe-eyed over finding his kid.”
The image of Harrison crouched before her son with a sticky length of red licorice in his hand and an enraptured smile on his handsome face made Juliet groan softly. Then that image shifted and became Harrison hovering above her, his river-green eyes murky with passion.
She remembered how she’d buried her hands in his lush, golden hair and pulled him down for a kiss. He’d kissed her soft and slow, like he’d known kissing wasn’t something she’d done a lot of, like he’d been coaxing a smoldering ember to flame. And, oh, how she’d flamed.
His mouth had felt like chocolate just starting to melt. His hard, flat stomach had been so hot upon hers she’d thought he’d cook her to the marrow. They had been so good together, so right. Like they would never part.
But they had, and now that she knew who and what he really was, they were so, so far apart. There was no way they would ever be together again like she’d dreamed. He was rich. And he’d already made it plain he didn’t want her. Juliet squeezed her eyes shut and forced the memories away before turning to face her family.
Her mom shook her head, making her fuzzy curls quiver. “No, I think monthly child support payments would be the most profitable—”
The tension that had brought Juliet’s shoulders up around her ears snapped her like a dried birch twig.
“Profitable!” She stared slack-jawed at her family. “I can’t believe you actually said it! Is that all Nat is to you now? Something you can make an easy buck off? Can’t you see that Harrison isn’t going to hand you a wad of money and let me keep Nathan?”
She pointed a trembling finger at her brother. “Willie, you saw how he looked at Nat. He’s going to want him.” Her lip trembling uncontrollably, she looked between the two of them. “Don’t you care that he’s my baby? My world? Don’t you care about either one of us?”
“Mom cares enough to give you a roof over your heads and food in your bellies so you don’t have to go to work or school or anything,” Willie shot back.
“So I don’t have to work? Who do you think tends that store out there? When was the last time you stood behind the counter?”
“Hey, I’m scheduled to start on the green chain at Dover Creek,” Willie protested.
Juliet ignored him. “And as far as going to school, you know I can’t afford to go anywhere yet.”
“How do you know, when you’ve never even applied to any schools or tried to get financial aid?” He found an old wound of hers and poked it.
Juliet clamped her teeth together and fought the tears blinding her and the raging swell of helplessness that threatened to strangle her.
“You don’t know a thing about me,” she choked out, then left the kitchen.
The frustration exploded within her, and she started running—through the living room, through the empty store, and out into the dusk-shadowed gravel parking lot. She mentally winced when the busted screen door hit the wall after she blasted through the door. She prayed the bang didn’t wake her baby. But she didn’t stop running. She knew if Nat cried out her mother or Willie would go to him. At least she could count on them for that.
With barely a glance in either direction at the lights of oncoming traffic, Juliet darted across the two-lane highway and plunged down the embankment. She followed the well-worn trail until it ended at the stone-strewn edge of the McKenzie River.
Taking her usual seat on a smooth boulder, she tried to focus on the dark water slipping by, to let the steadiness of the river seep into her soul and smooth the rough edges of her pain like it had smoothed the rocks around her, but her tears made it impossible. Juliet buried her face in her hands and let loose the body-racking sobs she’d been doing such a lousy job of containing.
She was being pitiful and feeling sorry for herself, but she didn’t care. At this precise moment she didn’t have the strength to care. She’d think of a way to keep her baby out of everyone’s clutches later. Right now she just wanted to cry and curse the day she’d fallen for Harrison Rivers and taken the one and only chance of her miserable life.
Chapter Three
A blur of sun-blond hair and bare limbs dashed through Harrison’s headlights. He shoved his foot down hard on the brake pedal and swore.
Thank heavens he’d already been slowing to turn off into the gravel parking lot of the little store. If he’d been going full speed, he wasn’t sure he could have stopped in time. Twilight was a dangerous time to drive as it was, without crazed females bolting out in front of him.
He didn’t have to look twice to know the woman who’d nearly become his hood ornament had been Juliet, but he did look to see where she entered the underbrush and disappeared over the edge of the road.
Finishing his turn into the parking lot, Harrison brought his Porsche to a stop alongside the rusted gas pump. After leaving his father and grandmother at home, he had jumped in his car and headed back up the river. He’d told himself he was coming to see his child, his boy—but after seeing Juliet blaze across the street without so much as a look-see, he acknowledged he’d come to see her. He needed to make sure she didn’t hold some power over him beyond the comfort she’d unwittingly given him during his time of grief two years ago.
Getting out of his car, Harrison spared a glance at the storefront. While the white-and-red plastic sign read Open, the interior of the building stood dark except for a glow coming from the rear. Somebody better be in there, because his little boy certainly hadn’t been in his momma’s arms when she’d darted in front of Harrison’s car.
But as he started across the parking lot toward the road, the image of Juliet tucking their baby’s head under her chin flitted through his mind again. Somehow he doubted she’d leave Nathan unattended. Obviously she loved the child.
His child.
The knot that had formed in his stomach earlier today tightened. He hoped talking to Juliet about what had happened would loosen it a bit. Though her reaction to his declaration of paternity made him certain this talk wouldn’t be congenial, he had to make her see he wouldn’t settle for less than what was best for their son. And he firmly believed disappearing back down the highway for good wasn’t in Nathan’s best interest.
Taking considerably more care crossing the two-lane highway than Juliet had, Harrison jogged across the street, then started down what seemed to be a trail through the blackberry bushes and other underbrush growing on the embankment. His leather-soled loafers proved slick on the gravel-strewn dirt path, and the waning light made