The Bachelor's Baby (Bachelor Auction Book 3)(21)

In silence, she rose and wound her way to the news desk, probably looking and sounding like a zombie as she said her piece on camera. She didn’t even know what she read. Twenty minutes later, she re-entered her office, still in a state of shock.

Gavin was waiting, but he was wearing his jacket now. He said nothing, only held up a white paper bag with a drug store logo on it.

“What is it?” she asked, but already knew. Taking the bag, she peeked inside to see the pregnancy test.

“Let’s be sure we know what we’re dealing with before we figure out how to deal with the other.” He sounded so kind. He was only about ten years older than her, but had kids in high school and had been acting like a dad to her since the first worrisome emails had come in from her ‘fan.’

She nodded and went to the bathroom.

A few minutes later, denial and disbelief became shock and fear and, way back in her awareness: awe.

She was pregnant.

Having a baby had always been a ‘someday’ thing for her. Something she would plan for and maybe struggle to attain after the right man came along. There would be no unplanned pregnancy for her. She wasn’t going to be like her birth mother and wind up making a brutal decision because she wasn’t prepared. If she made a baby, she was going to do it right.

Yes, she was that arrogant and perfect, she thought with a jab of emotion.

At the same time, what she’d always held in the back of her mind was the thought that if she did somehow wind up with an unplanned pregnancy, she would take her fertile self home to Montana, where Blake would help her because he already knew how to be a parent. He had been her fall back plan for more than a failed career.

She didn’t have that anymore. Oh, he’d help her, but she could hardly show up pregnant and jobless and expect him to take her in, not when his family had just doubled and he had his own baby on the way.

But as she made her way back to her office, feeling drunk and out of it because her mind was turned so far in on itself, she knew one thing: She couldn’t raise a baby here, alone, with some overly enthused admirer hunting her.

“Let’s take this down the hall,” she said faintly when she got back to Gavin. He was on his feet, hands in his pockets, expression somber.

He nodded and paced her to the Station Manager’s door.

“Elliott,” she said with a shaken knock on his open door. “I have to put in my notice.”

*

Linc was having a day. Half the crew he’d hired to roof the barn had turned up hung over. He sent them home out of fear for their safety. The April day was dry at least, overcast, but threatening snow. A fierce breeze cut down the valley and went through the bunch of them perched on the rafters with no way to deflect it. He would have left the job for May if he didn’t have hay arriving next week. Instead he bit out orders and kept the men hard on task.

Then the truckload of fencing arrived. It was the wrong gauge wire. While he was off the roof, he went inside to make a bologna sandwich where he discovered he was not only out of bread, but figured out what the scritching noise in the ceiling was: a mama squirrel and her batch of babies. Fan-freaking-tastic. He didn’t have time to deal with that and certainly couldn’t get into town for groceries today.

Back on the roof ten minutes later, he was cold, hungry, and surly as an early spring bear.

When a blue sedan came down his driveway, it was an interruption he didn’t need. All he could think was a peeved, What now?

Meg climbed out of it. Meg with her catwalk ensemble and creamy complexion that she turned up to the roof. The wind picked up her loose red hair and made it snap like a flag. “Linc?”

He was thinking, You said you wouldn’t call, which had been aggravating him, especially because she had ignored his last email. Now he really wished she had called before showing up because her timing was lousy.

“Hey, Meg.” One of the guys paused to salute. “Didn’t know you were home.”

Linc clenched his teeth as he waited out the small town niceties of asking after family before he interjected a, “What can I do for you?”

“Can I speak to you a minute?” Her face was as hard to read as her voice.

“What’s it about?” He looked around at the progress they’d made with the steel panels. Not nearly enough. He imagined she was looking for a rain check on that auction lunch, which he couldn’t accommodate. Definitely not today and probably not this week. “Now’s not a good time. Can I call you after dark and we’re done for the day?”

She had her arms folded against the wind and only lowered her chin so he saw even less of her expression. Her hand went to the car door, then she looked back up at him, seemed to hesitate, then, “Please?”

With a muttered curse, he told the men he’d be right back and made his way off the roof. Dropping to the ground, he grunted at the ache in his back and tried to work the stiffness out of his muscles as he stalked over to her and jerked his head toward the house.

“What is it?” he said shortly, hearing how gruff he sounded, but seriously. He had things to do and this was why he didn’t get involved. He didn’t like when women felt they had rights to his time.

She flicked him a wary look as he held the door for her and he hated himself a little. He’d liked her. They’d had fun that night and she didn’t deserve his brisk attitude.