Having Justin's Baby. Pamela Bauer

was his time to protest. He should have said no, but he didn’t. Because like Kyle, he didn’t want to disappoint Paige. “I’m okay with it,” he muttered.

      As soon as she had hung up he turned to Kyle and said, “Why do I have the feeling that there is going to be no discussion as to which one of us gets to play the girl part at the wedding?”

      “I would do it, but I can’t,” he said, climbing out of bed and pulling on a pair of jeans. “You know how I feel about Paige. It’s going to be tough enough watching her marry Michael Cross. I can’t do it standing right next to her and in front of everyone. You do understand what I’m saying, don’t you?”

      Justin exhaled a long sigh. “Yeah, I understand.”

      “Thanks, buddy.” Kyle clapped him on the arm as he passed him on his way out of the room. “You’ll make a great maid of honor,” he called over his shoulder as he headed down the hallway.

      No, he was going to make a terrible one. Paige should have chosen someone who would be happy for her, someone who would truly share in the joy of her wedding. That someone was not him. Because like Kyle, he was a marshmallow when it came to Paige. He’d been in love with her since the fourth grade. Only no one knew.

      CHAPTER ONE

      “YOU’RE NOT NERVOUS, are you?” Paige Stephens asked her fiancé.

      “No. Why would you think that?”

      “Because your knees are creating an air current under the table.”

      “Sorry.” Michael Cross stopped wriggling and gave her a lazy half smile that caused a dimple to appear in his left cheek. “Maybe I do feel a little like Ben Stiller in Meet the Parents.”

      “There’s no need to. The Colliers aren’t my parents. They’re just friends.”

      Paige took a sip of the ice water in her glass. Even though she didn’t want to admit it to Michael, she felt a twinge of anxiety herself. That’s why she’d chosen Betty’s Pie Shop for lunch instead of the dining room at the Cascading Waters Resort. She didn’t want to be under the scrutiny of her coworkers. The pie shop was always crowded with lots of noise and commotion. Fidgeting wouldn’t be as noticeable among clanking silverware and clattering plates.

      “They must be special friends if you want them to be host and hostess at the wedding.”

      “They are special. I’ve known them most of my life. I think I probably spent more time in their home than mine when I was a kid.”

      “Because of their son Justin?”

      “No, because Nancy ran a day care and my father made me stay there even when I was old enough to stay home by myself. I can remember the exact moment my father sat me down and told me I’d be spending the hours after school at her day care. I cried and begged him to let me stay by myself. He didn’t think that nine was old enough to be left alone and didn’t believe me when I said I could take care of myself.”

      Michael smiled indulgently. “I bet you would have been just fine on your own.”

      “Of course I would have,” she insisted. “I was a very responsible child.”

      “I believe you.” He gave her the smile she found the most endearing of all of his grins—the one that made her feel warm and fuzzy. “You’re such a capable woman. I can’t imagine you were any different as a child.”

      “What a sweet thing to say. Thank you.” She reached across the table to squeeze his hand. “No wonder I fell in love with you. You have a sensitivity that is rare in a man.”

      Actually he had quite a few qualities that she’d found to be rare in guys she had dated over the past twelve years. Michael was honest. Sincere. Trustworthy.

      Until she met him she’d never believed in love at first sight, but all it had taken was one look from his deep-set eyes and a slow seductive smile on his lips and she’d been smitten. She had been a volunteer in the education building at the State Fair handing out buttons that promoted literacy. He kept returning to the booth until the entire front of his shirt was covered in “I like to read” buttons. She’d been charmed from the first moment he said hello—not an easy thing for any guy to do with her, especially one who made a living teaching golf. At first she thought it was the whole preppie look he had going—the polo shirts, the casual pants, the carefully groomed black hair. But the more time they spent together, the more wonderful she found him to be.

      “I aim to please,” Michael said with a lift of his water glass. Then he looked again at his watch.

      “Please relax,” she urged him. “I don’t think you were this nervous when you came to Thanksgiving dinner and had to meet my father.”

      “Probably because you talk about the Colliers a lot more than you talk about your dad. You’re not very close to your dad, are you?”

      She rubbed the moisture from the base of her water glass with her thumb. “We have issues.”

      “What kind of issues?”

      She continued to run her fingers along the glass. “It goes back to when my mom died. It’s nothing, really. We get along all right—you’ve seen us together. But we’re never going to be as close as we were before my mom died.”

      She was grateful that he didn’t ask why not. There were only two people who knew the root of her problem with her dad—Justin and Kyle—and they had promised her they would never say a word to anyone. Someday she would tell Michael the reason she couldn’t trust her father, but not today.

      “It’s okay,” her fiancé said in understanding. “I’m not that close to my parents, either.”

      “So you shouldn’t be nervous about meeting the Colliers,” she reasoned.

      “I’m just wondering what their son told them about me.”

      “Justin wouldn’t say anything negative,” she told him, which produced a harrumph from her fiancé. “He wouldn’t,” she insisted, although she wasn’t completely sure. Both Justin and Kyle were as overprotective as older brothers.

      “He doesn’t like me, Paige.”

      “Justin doesn’t dislike you,” she declared. “He just hasn’t had time to get to know you. That’s why I want you to come to the Bulldog Reunion with me.”

      “About that weekend…” he said, tugging on his right ear. Paige knew it was another sign that he was nervous. “Are you sure you want me there?”

      “Of course I want you there! I want you to meet my friends from college.” Her shoulders sagged. “Please don’t tell me that you don’t want to come?” She gave him her most appealing look.

      He gazed into her eyes. “It goes without saying that I want to be with you. I’m just worried that the others won’t appreciate having outsiders crash what’s traditionally been a private event.”

      That’s what Kyle and Justin had said when she’d suggested they bring guests to their annual retreat at the Cascading Waters Resort. The five friends who made up the Bulldog Reunion had met their senior year before college while working as kitchen and housekeeping staff at the year-round resort on the northern shore of Lake Superior. All five had attended the same college, and this would be their eighth reunion. To bring guests would change the tone and the purpose of their gathering, which was why Justin had warned her it might be the last time they had it.

      Paige didn’t believe him. Amber Carlson and Ben Hendricks, who completed their circle of five, were happy with her suggestion and planned to bring guests.

      “This isn’t like a regular college reunion, Michael. We’re just five friends who get together to spend a weekend in what has to be the most beautiful part of Minnesota. One thing I should warn you about though. Do not drink Ben’s dandelion wine. He brews it himself and