Right by Her Side. Christie Ridgway

her chest. “Yes, well, let’s not keep you, Ray. I’m sure your patients need you more than we do.”

      “I don’t—” Ray blinked again. “So there is a ‘we,’ Rebecca? You and Trent Crosby?”

      The embarrassed flush on Rebecca’s face was all the impetus Trent needed. He pasted on his best man-to-man smile. “What else would get me out of the office or off the golf course on a Saturday morning but a beautiful woman, right, Ray? A beautiful, desirable woman.” His arm looped around Rebecca’s neck to draw her close. He pressed his mouth against hers in a casual kiss.

      At the light contact, a fire flared. Trent jerked away from it, staring into Rebecca’s equally startled eyes. It took an effort to break her gaze and meet Dr. Ray’s. “And, uh, thanks, by the way.”

      “For what?” The other man didn’t look happy.

      Trent hugged Rebecca closer. He didn’t dare kiss her again. “For this woman, of course. Your loss is my gain.”

      It sent the supercilious bastard on his way, trailed by the Ice Queen who deserved him. Trent kept his arm around Rebecca until the other couple was out of sight.

      That was when her shoulders slumped and she slid away from his embrace. “You didn’t need to do that.”

      “What?” He couldn’t help smiling at Rebecca, because Dr. SOB was out of her life and because she looked so damn cute with cotton candy in her hair.

      “Pretend for Ray.”

      Trent shrugged. “He was trying to do a number on you.”

      “I know.” She sighed. “I know, and I still can’t help falling for it. After I caught him cheating, it was as if he blamed me for his own failings.”

      “Spouses are pigs.”

      She laughed, as he’d hoped she would. Then she sobered. “Sometimes I feel bad about being so pessimistic about love. Then again, sometimes I feel smug.”

      “I only feel smart.”

      She laughed again. “At least you’re honest. Ray wasn’t.”

      “Neither was my ex-wife.”

      “I suppose that means we have more in common than I would ever have suspected,” Rebecca replied.

      “Yeah. Cheating spouses and a lousy attitude toward love.”

      “There’s the pregnancy, too.” Rebecca’s eyes bored straight into his. “And I have to be honest and up-front about it, Trent. I need to make sure you understand that I will never, ever give up my baby. I want you to give me sole custody.”

      While he’d known that was what she was after, it made him almost angry to hear her say it. “Am I such a bad guy?”

      Her gaze dropped. “You’re not a bad guy, no.” Color stained her cheeks and she pressed her lips together.

      It made him think of the kiss. That surprising burst of heat. Maybe he would be better off distancing himself permanently from her. From the baby.

      But he couldn’t! Memories slammed him from all sides. Chubby cheeks, little fingers, hero worship. He thought of his nephew and Robbie Logan. He couldn’t lose another child. He couldn’t.

      “I have to be honest, too,” he said. “I can’t just walk away, Rebecca.”

      She nodded, as if he’d confirmed her worst fears. “We’ll have to come up with another plan, then.”

      Yes, another plan. He thought they could, because, despite their initial misfires, they got along well enough. Very well, as a matter of fact. They could laugh together, enjoy each other’s company, enjoy a kiss. Hell, that was more than his own parents had found in their marriage.

      “Our baby should have a mother and a father in its life,” he said. “Full-time.”

      Rebecca shrugged. “That’s ideal, but not a necessity.”

      Trent thought of his parents’ marriage again. They’d lived separate lives, for all intents and purposes, but in the same house. They’d had the children between them, along with a boatload of animosity, but what if the animosity hadn’t been there? What if they could have gotten along, two separate beings who shared living space and their progeny? That could have worked.

      It could work.

      “Maybe we should get married,” he said aloud, trying out the sound of it. “What do you think?”