The Ladies' Man. Susan Mallery

could have called.”

      “I didn’t know what to say.”

      “How about ‘Thanks for the great night. We should go out sometime.’” Unless she hadn’t wanted to go out with him again, which wasn’t possible.

      She drew in a deep breath. “Carter, I’m sorry I didn’t call, but we have something else more important to discuss.”

      Important, huh? With women, that generally meant one thing. The relationship. But he and Rachel didn’t have a relationship.

      “I’m listening,” he said.

      She nodded, then exhaled. “There are ramifications from our night together.”

      It took a second for her words to sink in. He swore under his breath and felt all desire bleed from his body.

      “If you have something, you should have told me,” he growled.

      Dammit all to hell, he had no one but himself to blame. He hadn’t used anything and he knew better. Not that he usually traveled with a condom. But he should have stopped to think, to ask, to be a responsible adult.

      How bad was it? Would his…would it fall off?

      “What?” she asked, sounding slightly outraged. “Have something? I’m not sick. There’s nothing wrong with me.”

      “There’s nothing wrong with me, either,” he told her. “I’m fine. So if we’re both fine, what’s the problem?”

      She glared at him. “Seeing you know everything about women, you should have already figured it out. I’m pregnant.”

      Had he mentioned that all of his trouble came from the women in his life? Timing being what it was, Jenny chose that moment to come up and ask if they wanted something to drink.

      He looked up at her and sighed. “Give us a minute,” he said.

      “Sure thing.”

      Jenny glanced at Rachel and then headed back to the bar.

      Carter knew what would happen next. He figured they had maybe fifteen minutes more of privacy and, given the topic, they were going to need a lot more.

      He turned his attention back to Rachel and let her words wash over him. Pregnant. Pregnant?

      “You’re not on the Pill?” he asked, more to himself than her. Because he hadn’t asked before…when it had mattered.

      “No,” she said, her voice low and annoyed.

      “You let yourself have sex with me without protection or birth control?”

      She opened her mouth and then closed it. “Not on purpose,” she told him. “It wasn’t as if I’d planned the night. It just sort of happened. I lost my head.”

      And that was going to be his fault.

      “I don’t do this sort of thing very much,” she said, obviously still annoyed, although he couldn’t figure out what her problem was. He was the injured party here.

      “Meaning?” he asked.

      She glanced around, then lowered her voice. “I’ve only been with two other guys and I was engaged to both of them.”

      “You’ve been married before?” he asked, feeling slightly outraged. “Twice?”

      “No.” She leaned back against the seat and groaned. “I was engaged, not married. That isn’t the point. I’m pregnant.”

      “I got that.”

      “There’s going to be a baby.”

      That stopped him. Because until she’d said the “b” word, he hadn’t put the two together. Pregnant was a scary, dangerous condition used to trap men, but a baby was something pretty miraculous.

      He felt himself smile. “Yeah?”

      “Don’t you dare be happy,” she told him. “Neither of us planned this. We don’t even know each other.” She thrust the envelope toward him. “I’ve been to a lawyer. This is a very straightforward agreement. I’m not asking you for anything now or ever. In return, you sign away all rights to the child.”

      “Why would I do that?”

      She rolled her eyes. “Because it makes the most sense. Like I said, we barely know each other. We can’t have a baby together.”

      “I’d say we already are.”

      From the corner of his eye, he saw Jenny on the phone. She was quick, he would give her that.

      A baby. He didn’t know what he felt, exactly, except a certainty that the kid would be a girl. As for signing away his rights, that wasn’t going to happen in this lifetime.

      “We need to talk,” he said, then winced. Was Jenny spiking the beer? Was he turning into a woman?

      “There’s nothing to talk about. You should look at the papers.”

      He leaned toward her. “I’m not discussing this in a bar.”

      She flinched. “I’m not taking you home with me. Look what happened last time.”

      He wanted to tell her that he wasn’t interested in her that way—except he was. Now that he knew all his parts were going to stay in place, he could appreciate her pale skin and the way her mouth curved when she smiled. Not that she’d done so in recent memory.

      “I’m not trying to sleep with you,” he said. “We can go to my place. Follow me in your car. Keep the damn engine running if you want. My point is, I’m not talking about this here.”

      He didn’t mention that his ex-girlfriend was still friends with his mother and likely on the phone with her this exact second. Hence the need for speed.

      Rachel considered his words, then nodded slowly. “Fine. Your place. But I want you to consider my offer. I’m not trying to trap you.”

      “Good to know.”

      

      Rachel enjoyed her little convertible and she’d always liked driving the manual transmission. Only this afternoon she couldn’t stop shaking, which made it difficult to shift.

      The conversation with Carter hadn’t gone at all the way she’d imagined. For one thing, he’d kept talking about the fact that she hadn’t called him. As if he’d wanted her to.

      Honestly, the thought had never crossed her mind. She’d figured he slept with different women all the time and one more wasn’t going to make an impact on his life. Had she been wrong? Did he really care that she hadn’t called?

      The thought was so foreign, she didn’t know how to process it in her brain. Adding to the confusion was his refusal to instantly sign off on the baby. She’d never thought he would want to take on that kind of responsibility. Weren’t women always complaining that men hated the idea of being tied down?

      She had to make him understand they weren’t in this together. Dealing with being pregnant was hard enough, and not something she’d even begun to accept, but having to deal with Carter, too, was unimaginable.

      She followed his large, black truck into a pleasant neighborhood, the kind populated by young families. When he pulled into the driveway of a pretty, one-story house, she parked in front and climbed out.

      For a second, she looked around and felt herself get lost in the past. This was the sort of street where she’d grown up. Modest homes filled with parents and kids and lots of laughter. Even after all these years, she could remember everything about her old bedroom. The color of the wallpaper, the bookshelves on the wall, the way her mother would tease her about the mess on the floor.

      Happy memories, she thought wistfully. Happy and so very, very sad.

      “Rachel?”