“Might want to hold off on taking another shot. They’re going down a little too easily tonight.” Jake reached out to intervene before Ben could grab the bottle. “Give it a breather.”
“Let’s shoot some darts,” Cole suggested.
“She’s not even human.” Ben slurred his words, but he didn’t give a flying fuck.
“You’ve said that,” Cole reminded him.
“A few times,” Jake interjected, rolling his eyes.
“You know what she said? That I probably don’t like noses. What the hell does that have to do with anything?”
“You’re drunk.” Cole laughed.
Ben swung at him, but Cole easily blocked the punch.
“Okay, I’m drunk. But I do like lentils. Did you ever hear of anyone refusing a proposal because the other person might not like lentils? Women make no fucking sense. How did you let yourself get roped into this shit?”
“I don’t think you interpreted whatever she said correctly.”
Jake laughed as Cole tried to help Ben translate female-speak. Ben shot a menacing glare at the bartender, but Jake laughed louder.
“You’re just like her. She laughed. Laughed. Like I had told a joke instead of offered her a life of wedded bliss. Aren’t women supposed to want that shit?”
“Women want love, which you clearly weren’t offering.”
“What the fuck is love? All a fairy tale.”
Cole shook his head. Jake chuckled.
“I don’t know. If I didn’t know better I’d think you really had fallen for her.”
“Shut up, Jake. I offered her my whole world. What more could she want? Is it because I didn’t buy a ring? Women are shallow like that, I guess. I thought I’d let her pick it out herself.” He paused, studying his swollen knuckles. “I didn’t even think about a ring. Give me that bottle.”
“Give him a drink, Jake. Maybe he’ll quit his ranting if he passes out.”
Jake slid the bottle across the bar. It nearly slipped out of Ben’s hands, but he righted it before spilling too much.
“I’m going there now. She’ll marry me, dammit.”
“Whoa, not so fast.” Cole pushed him back onto his stool. “You’re not going anywhere. Give the woman her space.”
“Dude, you can sleep upstairs tonight. You’re not driving. And we can’t let you loose on the world.”
“Fuck you.” Ben guzzled. He didn’t care that the alcohol ran down his chin and onto the front of his shirt. Why should he care? He didn’t have a wife to impress.
“So you punched the wall, huh?” Jake dug into his ice box and wrapped some in a towel, offering it to Ben. “Never thought you’d be the sort to lose your cool.”
“I didn’t lose my cool. She pissed me off. That’s my baby, you know. My. Baby.”
Ben pointed his finger and the bottle at Jake. Why was his head moving from side to side while Ben was trying to talk to him?
“You’re both on her side, aren’t you?”
“No, of course not.”
“Be glad you dodged that bullet,” Jake said, offering Ben a bowl of popcorn. “Eat.”
“She’s not a bullet. She’s beautiful.”
“Wow, he’s gone,” Jake said to Cole.
“I can hear you.” Ben pointed to his ears. “I like ears, remember? And noses.”
“So what’s the deal? You say she’s infuriating—”
“She is.”
“You say she’s shallow, unreasonable, undeserving of your offer—”
“And not human,” Cole interjected.
“Right, not even human,” Jake continued. “And she has you punching walls. Ben Knight doesn’t punch walls. Ben makes love, not war.”
“I’ll drink to that.” Ben swirled the bottle before taking another sip.
Cole caught him before he tumbled off the stool.
“You have choices, man. You don’t have to be married or even dating to raise a kid together. You don’t have to be with her.”
Ben slammed the bottle onto the counter, leaning on the bar to steady himself.
“I want her, dammit!”
His head hit the bar, and the next morning he awoke upstairs in Jake’s spare room with wrapped knuckles and a whopper of a headache.
***
Karly’s mood was just fine. Not spectacular. Not delightful. Not excited or joyous or particularly happy, even. Just fine.
And she was okay with that.
She had managed to make it through the entire morning without vomiting even once. Come to think of it, she didn’t remember throwing up at all the previous day, either. Maybe she was on the other side of it.
So her car and her camera had broken down in the same week. No need to worry. Ava had offered to drive her to her first OB/GYN appointment, and she’d use her next paycheck to repair her camera.
Things were just fine.
She hadn’t heard from Ben in two weeks, which was also just fine. Excellent, actually.
He had sent a guy from his work crew to her house to fix the hole in the wall the day after he punched it. She hadn’t been disappointed to not see him. Not at all.
Sure, he was a responsible guy. But he didn’t know how to clean up his own messes.
He probably wasn’t used to rejection. He had acted as though he had been offering her his head on a platter, and she should be honored to share the delicacy.
No thanks. She wasn’t desperate.
Five minutes before Ava was due to pick her up, Ava initiated a video call. Rushing around to finish getting ready, Karly accepted the call and carried Ava around with her.
“Ready for your appointment?” Ava squealed in delight. “I still can’t believe we’ll be due around the same time. Can’t wait to get your reaction after you hear the heartbeat!”
“You’ll be in there with me. You get a front row seat to see it all unfold.”
“Actually…”
A knock at the door interrupted the conversation.
“Ava, why is there a knock on my door at the same time you should be picking me up? And you’re still sitting in your kitchen?”
“That’s what I was calling to tell you.”
Karly didn’t disconnect the call as she walked toward the door.
“I’ll kill you,” Karly promised her friend.
Ava shrugged, her sly grin making Karly want to punch her in the face—best friend or not.
“He insisted.”
Karly growled as she exited the video call without saying goodbye.
She growled again when she saw Ben standing at the door, looking every bit as calm and collected as normal.
Completely different from the last time she had seen him.
But still unbearably hot.
She removed her sweater.
Was it him or was it hormones? Or were they the same thing?
“I have to tell you, I’m not overjoyed about this.” Karly looked him in the eye as she told him. She would not look at his broad, leather jacket-covered shoulders or his trim waist. No way would she check his bulge to see if he was as excited to see her as she was to see him.
Undignified.
She couldn’t help it. She peeked.
And he was overjoyed to see her, if his bulging jeans were any indication.
“Stop that or we won’t make it to the appointment.”
Gosh darn him and his sexy voice.
“You know what, Ben? You have some nerve coming in here with that. I’m a pregnant woman. There’s no room for sex in my life.”
He stepped forward, bringing his knee-weakening, manly smell closer. Scent had become a huge trigger for her lately—like she had some kind of smelling super power.
And his scent was making her body temperature rise. She’d be naked in seconds if she didn’t put an end to his flirtation.
“Stop.” She held her hand up. “Stop looking so good. Stop smelling so good. Sweet jelly beans, I can’t stop imagining that you’ll taste so good.”
She was a goner.
And he knew it.
He captured her easily, pulling her hips to his as he pressed his bulging zipper against her.
She wanted nothing more than to unwrap this gift he offered.
“I’m going to be late and it’s all your fault. And Ava’s fault for doing this to me.”
“Ava’s not doing this—I am.” He whispered against her neck, nibbling and kissing a trail to her ear as she clutched his arms to stay upright.
“I thought we weren’t speaking,” Karly reminded him, tossing her head back so he could access her sensitive areas more easily.
“We’re not talking.”
His lips almost on hers, she remembered who they were and what the day was about and found the strength to push him away.
They each took a moment to regain their breath.
When he had recovered, accusation darkened his eyes.
“How could you not tell me that you had an appointment for our baby?”
“It’s hardly a baby yet. Didn’t really see the need to inform you.”
“It’s my baby, and I have the right to know these things.”
“You seem so sure that it’s actually yours. Just because I told you I’m pregnant doesn’t mean it’s definitely yours, you know.”
She had been playing, and maybe wanting to hit below the belt a little, but the way his eyes shifted made her want to cry.
Before she could assure him that he was really the baby daddy, he called BS.
“I’m not an idiot. Neither of us is innocent. We know how to play by the rules. We messed up the protection that night. I’m always careful. Always. I know enough about you to know you’re the same. Are you going to tell me I’m wrong about that?”
“No.” She hated that her voice didn’t roar.
“Besides, Ava has been gushing that you found out around the same time and that hers is a honeymoon baby. I’m not an idiot.”
“So you keep saying.”
He lowered his head, narrowed his eyes, and grunted.
“Okay, caveman. I’ll be late if we don’t leave right now. We can finish not speaking later.”
“Oh, we’ll be speaking.”
He drove to the doctor’s office in mostly silence—until she criticized his music choice. He responded by turning his 80s rock up louder and singing along. She laughed until her sides hurt. When she gripped her ribs, he turned down the volume and asked if she was okay.
He drove faster to the appointment, even though she assured him that she was fine and he was overreacting.
She expected him to wait in the waiting room, but he came in as if he had every right to be there.
The doctor seemed to be working under the assumption that they were in a relationship. She supposed she didn’t have to straighten him out quite yet.
When he finished taking all of her medical history and doing a basic exam, he asked her to lift her shirt so he could check to see if he could pick up a heartbeat. He warned that it was still early and if they did pick up the sound, it would be faint.
She cringed when the cold jelly hit her belly. He used an ultrasound to pick up the sound waves, telling her it was the best way to hear at this stage.
Blobs formed on the screen, and she didn’t even try to figure them out. She knew better than to feel bad about her lack of ability to read these things.
“Hear that?”
She didn’t. Not really. Mostly it sounded like static.
She nodded anyway.
“That’s your baby’s heartbeat. It beats a lot faster than yours, and it’s very faint since it’s so early. But there it is, nice and healthy.”
Tears filled her eyes.
She looked at Ben, who looked as though a Martian had just walked into the room. His eyes were wide and moist. Starstruck.
“Hard to believe there’s a little person growing in there,” he said, stroking her arm.
And then she heard it. A vague little thump-thump-thump. Her little lentil’s heart beat.
The doctor pulled the wand away, and Karly wanted to beg for him to put it back.
The doctor handed Ben a cloth, directing him to wipe the jelly off Karly’s belly. Karly protested. Way too intimate.
But with a grin, Ben cleaned her off.
Heat flared in her gut.
Damn him.
As soon as the doctor left the room, Ben leaned down and kissed her.
His lips barely fluttered against hers, but the intimacy was more powerful than when he had been inside her.
She leaned into his kiss, probing his lips with her tongue, begging him to return the stroking. His hands moved to the side of her face, clutching her as if his life depended on her affection. She opened her eyes, mesmerized by his long lashes resting on his face. She closed her eyes again, wanting to feel every sensation he provoked in her.
The doctor knocked once, then entered again. Embarrassed, Karly tried to push Ben to the side, pretending they weren’t being intimate.
The doctor laughed.
“Nice to see the flame that created the little bundle of joy is still alive and well.”
She smiled, because what the hell else could she do?
“Sex is safe, I take it?” Ben asked.
She glared at him. Why was he asking such a thing? She wasn’t going to be sleeping around while she was pregnant. Those days were over. She’d never invite men into her house while her child slept in a room down the hall. Men like that tended to find their way to little girls’ rooms.
“Completely safe, as long as it’s comfortable.” The doctor went on to discuss the safety of oral sex and avoiding air embolisms, which had Karly mentally riding away on a spaceship to another planet.
She had always been able to discuss things frankly with her doctors, her girlfriends, whomever, but this kind of discussion with Ben in the room was too much.
The ride home was silent—a bitter contrast to the lively drive to the appointment.
He dropped her off, seemingly distracted. Didn’t even walk her to the door—not that she had expected him to.
He pulled out with barely a goodbye.
Guess the whole thing had finally registered. She had known he wouldn’t want to be a dad.