Brodie slapped her hand on his chest and pushed. He didn’t shift a millimeter and her temper bubbled. “I am not lying, exaggerating or jerking your chain! This isn’t fun for me, either, Webb, but I’m going to be an adult and deal with it!” Her chest felt tight and her face was on fire. “I’ve done my part. I’ve informed you. I’ll get my lawyer to draw up a document releasing you from your parental rights.”
Brodie spun around and started toward the path leading back to the cabin. God, she was tired. Tired of stressing, tired of arguing. Just plain exhausted. Tired of dealing with the emotions Webb yanked to the surface whenever she was around him. She just wanted some peace, to retreat, to shut down.
“I don’t know what I want!” Kade hurled the words and Brodie felt them bounce off the back of her head.
Brodie slowly turned and shrugged. “I can’t help you with that. But accusing me of lying certainly doesn’t help make sense of the situation.”
Embarrassment flashed across Kade’s face. He stared at the sand and then out to sea. She could see the tension on his face. “It’s happened before...with two other women. They said I made them pregnant.”
Brodie tipped her head. “Did you?”
His look was hot and tight and supremely pissed off. “Hell no! When my lawyers asked for DNA proof they backed down.”
Of course they did. Brodie sighed and tried to ignore the growing hurt enveloping her heart. “So, naturally, I’m just another one-night stand, another woman you slept with who wants to trap you.” She released a small, bitter laugh and lifted her hands in a what-was-I-thinking? gesture. “That’s an example of how extraordinarily stupid I can be on occasion. Goodbye, Kade.”
Brodie took a couple of steps before turning around once more. “My lawyer will contact yours. I really don’t think we have much more to say to one another.”
Brodie walked away and Kade didn’t call her back, didn’t say another word. When she hit the trail to the cottage, Brodie patted her stomach.
So it’ll be you and me, babe. We’ll be fine.
Of course she would. She always was.
* * *
So that wasn’t what he’d been expecting, Kade thought as he sank to the sand and stared at the wild waves slapping the beach.
Brodie was pregnant? With his child? What the hell...? He scrubbed his face with his hands. What were the chances? And why was fate screwing with him?
Kade stroked Si’s head and rubbed his ears. With his busy schedule, just remembering to feed and walk Si was problematic. And life was expecting him to deal with a child?
This was karma, Kade thought. Life coming back to bite him in the ass because he’d been so rude about Mac becoming a father. But Mac had Rory—patient, calm and thinking—to guide him through the process.
Kade didn’t have Brodie and, judging by the final sentence she’d flung at him, he didn’t need to worry about her or his child. She was prepared to go it alone.
He shouldn’t have accused her of lying. Brodie wasn’t another bimbo trying to drag a commitment out of him. Brodie didn’t want a relationship. She didn’t need a man in her life. She was independent and self-sufficient and she was strong enough to raise her child—their child—on her own.
If he wanted to he could walk away, forget about this conversation and forget he had a baby on the way. According to Brodie all he needed to do was sign a piece of paper and his life would go back to normal.
No child.
No Brodie.
Pain bloomed in the area below his sternum and he pushed his fist into the spot to relieve the burn. Could he do it? Could he walk away and not think about her, them, anymore?
Probably.
Definitely.
Not.
He couldn’t keep Brodie off his mind as it was. There was something about her that was different from any other woman he’d ever known. He was, on a cellular level, attracted to her, but despite her I-can-handle-whatever-life-throws-at-me attitude, he sensed a vulnerability in her that jerked his protective instincts to life. She also had more secrets than the CIA, secrets he wanted to discover. Oh, he wasn’t thinking of her with respect to the long term or a commitment. He hadn’t turned that mushy and sentimental, but he couldn’t dismiss her.
It would be easier if he could.
As for her carrying his child...
He’d always been ambivalent about having children. As a child, his family situation had been dysfunctional at best, screwed up at worst. He’d been an afterthought to his parents and when his mom died, he’d been nothing more than a burden to his head-in-the-clouds father. Practicality had never been his dad’s strong suit and, teamed with a wildly impulsive nature, having a ten-year-old was a drag. A kid required food, clothes and schooling, and sometimes his dad hadn’t managed any of those. To his father, Kade had been a distraction from his art, a responsibility he’d never signed on for.