The Right Reason To Marry. Christine Rimmer
whether she got herself an implant or not.
“Four times together,” she muttered, “and this happens.” She looked down and shook her head at her protruding belly. “What is the matter with me, to do that to you?”
“Uh, Karin, I—”
“No, really. You don’t have to answer that. It’s not a question that even needs an answer. And I swear I was going to tell you about the baby that last time, in March. I saw that last night as my chance to let you know what was happening...” She ran out of breath. But he only kept on staring.
So she sucked in another breath and babbled on. “When I called you that night in March, I swear it was my plan to tell you. But then, well, you kissed me and I kissed you back and I thought how much I wanted you and how long it was likely to be before I ever had sex with a man again. I thought, one more time, you know? I thought, what can it hurt?”
Still, he said nothing.
She couldn’t bear the awful silence, so she kept right on talking. “I promised myself I would tell you afterward, but then afterward came, and the words? They wouldn’t come and then I started thinking that you didn’t need to know for months. Liam, I messed up, okay? I messed up and then I didn’t reach out and the longer I didn’t, the harder it got. And now, well...” She lifted her arms out the sides. “Here we are.”
He just continued to look at her through disbelieving eyes. For a really long time. She longed to open her mouth again and fill the silence with the desperate sound of her own voice. But she’d already jabbered out that endless and completely unhelpful explanation of essentially nothing. Really, what more was there to add to all the ways she’d screwed up?
He broke the silence. “I have to leave now.”
She felt equal parts relieved—and desolate. “Okay.”
“But I will be back.”
“Of course.”
“We’ll talk more.”
What was she supposed to say to that? “Sure. Whenever you’re ready.”
“Okay. Soon.” And then he was striding away from her for the fourth time.
She watched as he vanished into the stairwell and didn’t move so much as a muscle until she heard his car start up outside and drive away. After that, for several grim seconds, she thought she might cry, just bawl her eyes out because she felt so terrible about everything and she’d done such a crap job of telling poor Liam he had a baby on the way.
The tears never came, though. Eventually, she turned around and stared blindly out at the ocean for a while.
By the time she remembered her raspberry leaf tea, it was cold.
Liam got halfway to the gorgeous house he’d built for himself in nearby Astoria before he realized that he needed to talk to his oldest brother Daniel.
Years ago, when their parents died, Daniel, eighteen at the time, essentially took over as the head of the Bravo family. He became a second father to all of them. Daniel was only four years older than Liam. Didn’t matter. When Liam needed fatherly advice, he usually sought out his oldest brother.
He called Daniel’s cell from the car.
“Where are you?” Liam demanded when Daniel picked up.
“Hi to you, too. I’m at the office.” Daniel ran the family business, Valentine Logging. “What do you need?”
“Long story. I’ll be there in ten.”
“Good enough.”
Valentine Logging had its headquarters on the Warrenton docks between Valentine Bay and Astoria. Liam parked in front of the hangar-like building that housed the offices.
Daniel was waiting. He ushered Liam into his private office, shut the door and gestured toward the sitting area on one side of the room. “You look like hell. What’s going on?”
“I need to talk.” Liam sank to the leather sofa. “You know Karin Killigan?”
“Of course.” Daniel dropped into the club chair.
“Karin and me, we had a thing last winter.”
Daniel frowned. “Wait a minute—Karin’s pregnant, right?”
“Yeah. How did you know?” Did everyone know but him?
“Keely told me.” Keely was Daniel’s wife.
“How did Keely know?”
“She hung out a little with Karin at Madison and Sten’s wedding. According to Keely, Karin was noticeably pregnant then—but you missed the wedding, right?”
“Right.” He’d felt bad to miss it, but he’d had a work conflict in Portland, one he couldn’t put off or get out of.
Liam owned Bravo Trucking, which he’d built up from a few rigs that hauled strictly for Valentine Logging into a fleet with over two hundred trucks and two hundred fifty employees. His original terminal was nearby, right there in Warrenton. Last year, he’d opened one in Portland, too.
Daniel was leaning forward again. “Are you saying the baby is yours?”
“Yeah.” The word scraped his throat as he said it. “Karin says she’s been trying for months to work up the nerve to tell me. I probably still wouldn’t know if I hadn’t seen her coming out of Safeway a couple of hours ago.” And he had that feeling again, like if he sat still, he might just lose his mind. So he jumped up, paced to the door and then paced back again.
Daniel said, “You never mentioned you were dating Karin.”
“Dating?” He stopped by Daniel’s chair. “I wouldn’t call it dating. It was only a few times, whenever she could get away. She wanted it kept just between the two of us. I agreed it would be the way she wanted it and I never told anyone else that we were hooking up.”
“Liam,” Daniel said quietly. “Sit back down. Come on, man. It’s all going to work out.”
He dropped to the couch again. “I guess I’m kind of in shock.”
Daniel got up. “Scotch or water?”
Liam braced his elbows on his spread knees and put his head in his hands. “Neither. Both.” Dropping his hands from his face, he flopped back against the cushions and stared up at the ceiling.
Daniel asked, “Didn’t you and Karin date in high school?”
“Briefly.” Liam shut his eyes. “I always thought Karin was cute, you know? Senior year, she asked me to a Sadie Hawkins dance. We had a great time. I took her out to a show a couple of weeks later. But when she started hinting that she wanted to be exclusive with me, I told her what I told all the girls, that I didn’t do virgins and I wasn’t getting serious with anyone. Ever.”
“Classy,” remarked Daniel wryly. “And I’m guessing that was it for you and Karin in high school.”
Liam let out a grunt in the affirmative. “When we met up last December, it was so great to reconnect with her. She’s smart. She takes zero crap, you know? A guy can’t get ahead of her. Better-looking than ever, too, with those gorgeous eyes that look blue at first glance but are actually swirled with green and gray. Plus, she has all that wild, dark hair. And her attitude is seriously snarky. She’s fun.” He couldn’t help recalling the shock and guilt on her face when he’d stopped her at Safeway. “Not so snarky today, though. She really felt bad, that she’d waited so long to tell me...”
“Here you go.”
Liam opened his eyes. Daniel stood over him, a bottle of water in one hand, a glass with