One Baby Daddy (Dating by Numbers #3)(99)

“Logan . . .” She breathes out, her eyes widening when I take another step forward and wrap my arm around her waist, pulling her close to my body. Her hand falls to my chest, grasping for balance, her little baby bump poking my stomach. So fucking sweet.

I cup her face, tucking a loose strand of hair behind her ear, and search her eyes. “This right here, this is where I want to be. I don’t care if you’re having another man’s baby. I don’t care if we’re living in this tiny apartment forever with a screaming baby in the next room, because as long as I’m with you, that’s all that matters.”

Her eyes search mine, her voice lost, so instead of waiting for her to speak, I bend my head forward, breathing in her scent. Mint and vanilla. Her fingers curl into my shirt, my hand grips her hip, holding her in place while I caress the softness of her cheek with my thumb, my intent worn on my sleeve.

Inches from her mouth, I say, “I love you so much, Adalyn, and all I want is to be with you.” Closing the distance between us, I press my lips across hers, taking a moment to soak in the feel of her soft mouth against mine.

I don’t push her. I don’t part her mouth with my tongue despite wanting to, and I don’t spend more than a few seconds exploring her lips. Pushing away, shock in her eyes, hand to her lips, she steps out of my grasp and backs up, tripping over the coffee table and falling backward. Luckily I catch her arms before she can tumble to the floor.

“Jesus, Adalyn. Be careful.” I right her but she keeps walking backward to her room.

Shaking her head, she says, “I . . . I can’t do this right now, Logan.”

Trying not to get upset, I nod my head. “I’m not going anywhere, Adalyn. I’m here.”

With that, she shuts her bedroom door, leaving me alone in the living room, my actions hanging heavily in the air.

So there was partial moonwalking. But it’s not like she slapped me across the face when I kissed her. Maybe she didn’t kiss me back, but I also caught her completely off guard tonight. She was expecting to go to dinner with her friend, which she did, but then I hit her hard with my feelings. That’s a lot for a someone to take in, let alone a pregnant woman who’s highly emotional.

I need to be patient. I need Hayden to screw up again and when he does, I’ll swoop in. Adalyn knows how I feel. I put it out there, now I need to wait.

Patience. This is a marathon, not a sprint.

Chapter Twenty-Seven

ADALYN

Remember when I said I’ve never been more confused?

I was wrong.

This is confused.

And to add to the level of confusion, Hayden is on the way to my apartment to pick me up. He said he would come to the door but there is no way in hell I’m going to let that happen.

He fought me about it, saying he’s cool with Logan, and I’m going to guess after last night, he’s not going to be cool with him at all.

Can we just take a moment to consider what happened last night?

Logan, my dear friend, who I’ve been through everything with from bad one-night stands to learning how to insert a catheter . . . we’ve gone through it together. The good, the bad, and the incredibly ugly.

And out of the blue, he goes and tells me he loves me and then kisses me.

What the hell?

And for the record, before you go judging me, HE kissed ME. There was no reciprocating of the kiss. No, I was pretty much a dead fish hanging off his lips last night. He must not have kissed a lot of women lately because when he pulled away, he looked fully satisfied.

He must have been kissing carps for a while if that was pleasing to him.

But he’s in love with me.

In love.

The big L word. Where the hell did that come from?

In all honestly, I’m not being na?ve here. After our night together, I really thought there was no chance in hell Logan and I would ever be a couple. Anyone in my position would think the same thing.

This was a mistake.

It’s clear-cut. There is no going forward from there.

Oh and don’t get me started on the “flinch,” because that’s so ridiculous. For all I know, I could have had an ill-timed muscle spasm. I’m pretty sure I wouldn’t have flinched if he went to snuggle with me.

Ugh, men.

A flinch.

That’s what this all comes to. A freaking flinch. How about you ask me, did you just flinch or did you have a morning chill? I was naked after all. I could have been cold. A little shiver is what scared him off.

Absurd.

It’s times like these I miss Emma. It hasn’t been easy being so far away, but we have managed to connect most days either in the mornings before a shift like old times, or in the early evenings when we were both finished work. This morning, I tried calling Emma to talk about Logan’s declaration, but we couldn’t catch each other. She’d worked a morning shift then was helping Racer at the bridal store he’s working at. I was taking a nap when she called back. And her phone was off when I tried her back. I knew what that meant. When she hasn’t spent much time with Tucker, she turns off her phone and it doesn’t come on until . . . well, until she has come . . . well, multiple times. And he’s good for it. For. Hours. But I needed my friend. I still couldn’t get my head around Logan saying he’d been pining for me. I’d thought he’d been into Emma before she got together with Tucker. But he said he’d been pining after me for years. Did Emma know? Had she seen that? God, I was so confused. Part of me felt angry that he’d waited until we were here because it was his turn to make his move. It was so . . . contrived. Yes, he is amazing in how he packed everything up and left the East Coast to support me in LA. I’ll never forget that. But knowing he was doing it with the intention of making his move because things with Hayden didn’t work out. Gah. The whole thing was absurd.