Vegas Pregnancy Surprise. Shirley Jump

dry Vegas air slammed into Molly as soon as she got out of the taxicab. The August heat seemed to weigh on her, like a thick, suffocating blanket. Dry or not—it was hot.

      “Are you sure this is the right place?” she asked the cab driver.

      The older man at the wheel of the car gestured toward the towering glass buildings, twin mirrors of each other, connected by an all-glass skybridge. The building was impressive, with neat linear lines and a clean silver-and-glass exterior, a stark contrast to the colorful noise of the Vegas strip a little ways behind them. “Curtis Systems, yes, ma’am. Can’t miss it.”

      Molly thanked and paid the driver. She stepped into the shadow of the Curtis Systems building, dwarfed by the twenty-plus stories above her. Now that she was finally here, trepidation held her rooted to the spot.

      She should go home. Forget the whole idea. Come up with another plan.

      Except there wasn’t really another plan, at least not one that could solve both the job and getting to know the father of her baby dilemma all at once.

      She just hadn’t expected that the Linc she met in a bar two months ago was this Linc.

      When she’d search the Internet for Linc, with what little information she had, she’d come back with two different possibilities for software companies in Las Vegas. There’d been many software companies, of course, but only two that returned results with an employee named Linc. The first was no longer in business—all she’d found had been a weedy lot with a “For Sale” sign. That left Curtis Systems.

      The company name had returned hundreds of Google hits, link after link showing the meteoric rise of the company’s success. Google hadn’t lied. She peered up at the monolith of a building. A success story on a mega level. And, according to the information she’d read on the Internet, Linc didn’t just work here—he was the owner and CEO.

      The man she’d met, the one who seemed so…normal, so guy-next-door, was the same one at the helm of this massive, multi-national, multi-million-dollar corporation?

      Again she considered turning around, heading back to San Diego. Then her hand drifted to her stomach, to the new life growing inside her, and she knew she had to go inside that building.

      Not just for the job she needed, but for her baby.

      Only two days had passed since she’d taken that first pregnancy test, and already she’d come to call this life “her baby.” To picture the tiny boy or girl someday living in the little bungalow on Gull View Lane. And to look forward to that event.

      People streamed in and out of the Curtis Systems building. Molly fanned herself, and realized she looked a little strange standing on the sidewalk, just staring up at the skyscraper. She couldn’t stand here baking in the heat all day. At least the morning sickness had finally abated today. She strode into the building, across the smooth marble foyer, and up to the granite counter reception desk. A friendly-looking blonde finished transferring a phone call, then shot Molly a smile. “Good morning. Can I help you?”

      “I’d like to see Linc…” Molly paused, then pulled his last name together with his first, the two words sounding strange on her tongue.

      “Lincoln Curtis, please.”

      “Do you have an appointment?”

      “No.”

      The friendliness quotient dropped a little from the blonde’s features. “I’m sorry, miss, but Mr. Curtis is a very busy man. Without an appointment…” She put her hands up, implying it was a lost cause.

      Appointment?

      How was she supposed to get an appointment? What was she supposed to say? Hi, I’m the woman you met in a bar for a one-night stand. I really need to see you again, can you spare ten minutes?

      Chances were good he wouldn’t even remember that night, not to mention her. How horrible would that be?

      “I spoke with Mr. Curtis a couple months ago about a possible position with his company,” Molly said, partially lying, partially telling the truth. They had talked two months ago, and he had made an offhand comment about her working for him, but she hadn’t been sure he was serious. “He said if I was ever in town, I should stop by.”

      The blonde raised a skeptical eyebrow. “Mr. Curtis said that?”

      Molly nodded. Added a smile.

      The blonde considered that, giving Molly a visual once-over, as if her icy blue eyes were lie detectors. “Is he expecting you?”

      No. “Yes, I believe so.”

      The blonde assessed Molly again, then turned to her computer and struck a few keys. “According to the schedule I have here, Mr. Curtis should be just finishing up a meeting. He has six minutes until the next one, and then he’s booked solid for the rest of the day.”

      “Are you sure? He doesn’t have fifteen free minutes?”

      The blonde laughed. “You don’t know Mr. Curtis very well. He rarely takes enough time to eat lunch.” Then her face softened. “I shouldn’t tell you this, but if you head up to his office on the twentieth floor, you might be able to catch him between meetings. If not, see Tracy, his assistant. She can schedule a time for you to speak with him. Like I said, he’s a very busy man, so be prepared to wait several days for an appointment.”

      Molly prayed she wouldn’t have to wait days. She didn’t want to spend the money on a hotel room, only to have the whole thing not work out. She needed every dime she had, and every day she could get, to be looking for a job. Wasting time waiting on Lincoln Curtis wasn’t on her agenda.

      “Thank you,” Molly said to the receptionist, then headed for the elevators. At first, her steps were light, filled with the thrill of victory. But as the elevator doors opened and she stepped inside, she realized where she was going.

      And who she was about to see.

      The marble and brass elevator began its upward journey with a soft whirr. Molly’s stomach, however, dropped, and her queasiness returned, whether due to nerves or the baby or both. What if Linc didn’t remember her? Or said he’d been kidding about the job offer? Or turned out to be married?

      Or worse, told her to leave?

      She reached out a hand to press another button, any other button, then stopped herself. She had to do this. Had to find a way to tell him about the baby—it was only right.

      And more, to satisfy her own lingering curiosity about the man she had met. They’d agreed to keep the night free from connections, but still she wondered about him. About what he was like on a longer-term basis.

      What if they’d had two nights? A week? A year?

      The elevator shuddered to a stop, and the doors opened on the twentieth floor. Molly took a deep breath, then strode forward. She hesitated in the hall. Right? Left? She should have asked.

      “Molly?”

      The voice, deep, dark, like good chocolate, hit her as hard as the memory. Sitting in the bar, intoxicated not by the barely touched mixed drink in front of her, but by the conversation, by the way he looked at her and really seemed to see her. Listen to her.

      Molly turned around, and there he was. Linc. Looking exactly—well, almost exactly—like he had that night.

      He stood in the hall beside a cherry-paneled door labeled “Conference Room,” a second man she barely noticed by his side. All she saw was Linc, wearing a tailored navy suit that on another man would have looked merely handsome. But on Linc, the suit gave him an air of power. At his full six-foot-two height, he commanded the wide hallways of Curtis Systems.

      “What are you doing here?” he asked.

      Now or never. She took a step forward. “Looking for you.”

      Surprise lit his features. The man beside him looked from Molly to Linc, then back