The Right Reason To Marry. Christine Rimmer

One

      It was a cloudy Friday afternoon in mid-October when Karin Killigan finally had to face the unsuspecting father of her unborn child.

      It happened at Safeway, of all places. He was going in as she went out.

      She had her hands full of plastic shopping bags. Her mind was on dinner and the thousand and one things she needed to whip into shape at the office before the baby came. She was staring straight ahead and didn’t even see him.

      But Liam Bravo saw her.

      He grabbed her arm. “Karin. My God.”

      His touch, coupled with the low, rich sound of his voice, set off a chain reaction of emotional explosions inside her. Shock. Guilt. Total embarrassment. A flare of thoroughly inappropriate desire. She let out a ridiculous squeak of surprise and almost dropped a bag full of dairy products as she blinked down at his hand on her arm. Even through the barrier of her coat and the sweater beneath it, she could feel his heat and his strength.

      Slowly, she forced her gaze upward to his gorgeous face. The cool autumn wind stirred his dark blond hair and his sun-kissed brows had drawn together over those summer-sky eyes of his.

      Somehow, she made herself speak. “Hello, Liam.”

      “Excuse me.” The impatient voice from directly behind her reminded her sharply that they were blocking both doors.

      “Come on.” Liam tugged her away from the doors and along a short concrete walkway.

      She followed numbly, despising herself for never quite working up the nerve to break the big news to him, thus forcing them both to face it now—at Safeway, of all the impossible places.

      “Here.” He pulled her in close to the brick wall of the building, between a bin full of pumpkins and stacks of bundled kindling. “Let me help you with those.” He made a grab for the shopping bags dangling from both of her hands.

      “No.” She shook her head at him. “I’ve got them. I’m fine.” Total lie. She was very far from fine.

      “You sure?”

      “Positive,” she said way too brightly. “Thanks. I’m, um, really surprised to see you here.” Understatement of the decade. He lived in nearby Astoria and somehow, since the last time she’d seen him the previous March, she’d never once run into him in Valentine Bay. Until now. It wasn’t that she’d been avoiding him, exactly. But she certainly hadn’t sought him out. “I mean, there’s a Safeway in Astoria, right?”

      “I stopped in to see Percy and Daffy and this store was on my way home.” Percy and Daffodil Valentine were brother and sister. Neither had ever married. In their eighties now, Liam’s great-uncle and -aunt lived in an ancient Victorian mansion on the edge of Valentine City Park.

      “Oh, I see,” she said, because he’d fallen silent and it seemed that she ought to say something.

      His gaze had wandered downward to her giant belly, only to quickly jerk back up to her face again. “This is awkward.” Oh, no kidding. “Please don’t be offended...”

      “No. Of course not.” How could she be? She should have told him months ago, on the night she broke it off with him. But she was a big, fat coward. She hadn’t told him then, nor had she managed to work up the courage to call him and ask for a meeting. And now the poor guy had to find out like this. Her cheeks and neck were too hot. They must be flaming red. And her heart? It pounded so hard she couldn’t hear herself think.

      “You’re pregnant,” he said.

      “How did you guess?” It was a weak joke and neither of them laughed.

      Beneath his golden tan, his face seemed to be growing progressively paler. “I’m sorry, but I couldn’t help thinking that...” He faltered, which broke her heart a little. Liam Bravo never faltered. He was always so smooth. Even way back in high school, he could make a girl’s clothes fall off with just his smile. He wasn’t smiling now, though. He drew in a shaky breath. “I have to know. Is it...?”

      There really was no putting this off any longer, so she answered the question he couldn’t seem to ask. “Yes, Liam. It’s your baby.”

      He flinched and his eyes widened. He started to reach for her again, caught himself and let his arm drop to his side. After that, he just stood there staring at her, his sexy mouth hanging open.

      God. What a horrible way to tell him. But at least she’d finally done it.

      People bustled by them, going in and out of the store. “We can’t do this here,” she said. When he only continued to gape at her, she went on, “Tell you what. I’m going straight home...”

      A low sound escaped him, kind of a cross between a grunt and sigh, but no actual words came out.

      “Home,” she repeated. “The house on Sweetheart Cove? I’ll be there the rest of the day. Feel free to drop by when you’re ready to talk.” Carefully, so as not to bump him with her bags of groceries, she turned and made for her car.

      He didn’t say anything or try to stop her. But she knew that wouldn’t last. He was bound to have questions—a million of them. Starting with why the hell didn’t you tell me? She figured she had an hour, tops, before he appeared at her door.

      Probably breaking the land speed record for a hugely pregnant woman on foot, she waddled toward the relative safety of her Chevy Traverse.

      Karin lived with her dad, Otto Larson, and her two children, Ben and Coco, on the first floor of a large beach house owned by her brother, Sten. As she pulled the Traverse into the garage beneath the house, her dad came down the inside stairs, seven-year-old Coco close on his heels.

      Otto went straight to the hatch in back to get the groceries.

      Coco, in blue tights, red shorts, a blue T-shirt and shiny red rain boots, had stopped at the foot of the stairs to spin in a circle. The kid-size red blanket tied around her neck for a cape fluttered as she twirled. “Mommy, I’m Supergirl!” she shouted as Karin carefully lowered herself from behind the wheel. “Don’t worry, I will save you! I have vast superhuman strength, speed and stanima, X-ray vision, super breath and also, I can fly.” Arms out, she “flew” at Karin, who laughed in spite of what had just gone down at Safeway.

      Coco halted at Karin’s big belly. Reaching out her small arms and tipping her head back, she gave both Karin and the unborn baby inside her a hug. “I love you, Mommy, and I love our baby, too!” Coco beamed a smile so big it showed the gap where she’d recently lost two lower baby teeth.

      Karin bent to plant a kiss on the top of her curly head. “And I love you. Lots.”

      Otto shut the hatch. He had all the grocery bags, two in each hand.

      “I’ll help, Grandpa!” Supergirl proclaimed. She planted her rain boots wide, stuck out her little chest and propped her fists on her hips. Otto set two of the bags on the garage floor, fished out a block of Swiss cheese from one and passed it to her. The cheese in one hand, both arms spread wide, cape rippling, Coco ran back up the stairs and into the house, slamming the door behind her.

      “You gotta love that enthusiasm,” said Otto as he bent to pick up the bags again. Karin just stood there staring down at his bent head. His hair was all white now and thinning, his pink scalp showing through at the crown. He met her eyes as he stood again. “What happened?” he asked quietly.

      She replied in a small voice. “I saw Liam at Safeway.”

      “You tell him?” Her dad and her brother, Sten, and Sten’s wife, Madison, knew that Liam was the baby’s father. Sten and Otto had been after Karin for months to tell the man that he was going to be a dad. Madison mostly stayed out of it, though Liam was actually one of her long-lost brothers.

      Karin