The Bachelor's Baby (Bachelor Auction Book 3)(24)
Normally he didn’t care what people thought of him, but the disdain on Blake’s face was hard to look at. Because he deserved it.
“It was a shock. That’s all I can say,” he said, not about to get into how unlikely pregnancy had been.
But he was accepting that it was real, that Meg believed it was his. She was too hurt by his rejection to be lying.
“For the record, my first wife sold me a false bill of goods on my son. Meg would never do that to a man and certainly wouldn’t lie to her child.”
It took Linc a minute to realize Blake meant that he hadn’t physically fathered the boy he called a son. Wow. That made him feel like a really low son of a bitch if he was having trouble accepting a kid that really was his flesh and blood.
“I came over to talk,” Linc said, trying to impress on Blake that he was ready to man up, but as his thoughts took their first delicate steps into this new vision of his future, he remembered what his present looked like. He swore tiredly. “We have a lot to figure out, obviously. But it sounds like she’s too angry to hear me right now and I don’t want to upset her any more than I have. And I’m going to wind up with a barn full of snow if I don’t get back to my place and finish my roof. I’m not trying to shirk. I’m going to do right by her.” Whatever the hell that meant. “I just—” He turned to his truck. “Better go for now.”
“I heard about your roof blowing off,” Blake said behind him. “That’s the shits. Who’ve you got putting on the new one?”
Linc told him. “I can’t say I’m impressed with their work ethic. They probably stopped as soon as I left.” He’d raced after Meg, catching up to her in this driveway, worried by her bumpy way of hitting practically every pot hole up to the house. He’d thought she was going to shake the baby loose.
“They’re a bunch of clowns,” Blake said with a peeved noise. “What is it? Steel?” He sounded like he was weighing a reluctant sense of obligation, adding with resignation. “I’ll change and get my tools. Liz can drive Ethan over when he gets off the bus.” Blake started toward the house.
“Oh, hey,” Linc protested. “I wasn’t trying to—”
“Forget it. I’d say I was being neighborly, but sounds more like a favor for family.” Blake took another stride, stopped, and shot a loaded look back at Linc. “We can talk about your intentions. If I don’t like what I hear…” He hitched a shoulder. “Accidents happen.” He didn’t smile and neither did Linc.
Chapter Seven
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Meg had forgotten what an impact Linc had on her. By the time she’d had her pregnancy confirmed by a doctor, she’d convinced herself that her state of fertility had made him seem so irresistible the night of the auction. But he really was that tall and strapping, his rugged features rakish and sexy with that short beard grown back in and his piercing green eyes. His direct manner was pure alpha dominance that made her weak. He certainly wasn’t easy to stand up to.
In fact, she’d already been feeling extra vulnerable when she’d arrived on his ranch. Hungry, thanks very much, because nothing stayed down these days, and tired from all the work of arranging her abrupt departure from her job and life in Chicago. That can of soup he’d opened had smelled revolting. She’d been standing there feeling insecure and overwhelmed, her entire world upended. That stupid king-sized bed of his had been right there, unmade in his living room, a giant reminder of her condition and how she’d wound up in the family way.
From pretty much the first moments of realizing she was pregnant, she’d been anxious to see Linc face to face and tell him, but she’d barely been able to talk.
And when she had, he’d been mean. So appalled.
She sniffed and turned her mind from his reaction, having cried her heart out while Blake and Liz held a mumbled convo in the kitchen. Then Blake had left and Liz had made herbal tea and sandwiches. Eventually Meg had learned that Blake was going over to help Linc with his roof. Traitor. She and Liz had talked until Liz had to drive out to meet the kids at the road so she could take Ethan directly to Linc’s. Liz had come back with her daughter, Petra, and that’s when Meg’s mood had finally begun to lift.
Meg had been too emotionally exhausted to cry anymore and Petra had been over the moon when she learned about Meg’s pregnancy. Meg had thought about keeping the kids in the dark, but she was probably going to be losing her lunch on a regular basis. There was no hiding it. Besides, the kids needed to know why she was moving back to Marietta. After discussing it with Liz, they’d decided Meg’s situation was a useful cautionary tale for a pair of high schoolers with the normal dose of adolescent curiosity about the opposite sex.
Petra offered to sleep in the spa building so Meg could have her old room, but Meg wouldn’t hear of it. She felt like a big enough fool as it was. She didn’t need to disrupt Blake’s new family before it had properly settled. Petra insisted on at least carrying Meg’s bags and offered to help her unpack.
“Sweetie, you’re about the best niece I could have ever asked for,” Meg said with a sad, tired smile, impulsively hugging the sixteen-year-old. “But I think I’ll have a nap and unpack later. It’s been a big day.”
“Okay. And, well, sorry about the mess in here, with the drop cloths and everything. Mom can’t paint so I was going to do it over the weekend. I’ll just move it all to the other room then go do my homework.”