Page 49 of A Surprise Baby for the Wolf Shifter

I gaped at him. “Oh, Weylan. I’m so sorry. That’s so horrible.”

He chuckled sarcastically. “They essentially reacted in much the same way you did.”

“Oh,” I said and clamped my mouth shut as a third, huge dose of guilt washed over me. “Right.”

“Don’t do that to our son,” he said, voice soft. His eyes focused on the papers as dark shadows crossed through his eyes as though he was reliving the experience. “I should have been open and honest with you about everything right from the start. But as you can see, previous experiences make it exceptionally hard to open up.”

I nodded. “I’m so sorry that happened to you.”

“I don’t want that for my son. Or daughter,” he added.

“But what if I’m not ready?” I asked. “Can you raise him on your own?”

He shrugged. “I’m not necessarily ready either. But he or she is almost here, and I want to be at the birth. I want to take each step with you.”

He was saying all the right things. But there was still the idea that I wasn’t ready for a relationship, much less one as complicated as one with him would be. I wasn’t convinced this was the right move. He had drama. And her name came with trouble.

I was dealing with enough on my own. I didn’t need to add anyone else’s problems to my plate.

“Why all of this?” I asked. “Why now?”

He shrugged. “I was trying to respect your decision. I had gone back to your hotel room later on that night and tried to make things right with you. But you were already gone. I took that as my answer and have hated myself and that night ever since.”

I nodded. “I don’t know.”

“I understand. You don’t have to make any decisions today. Except for the not going through with the adoption part,” he said.

“I’m not—” I started.

“I’m not asking for anything but a chance to be in my kid’s life. Give me a chance. Everything else is just icing on the cake,” he said, holding my gaze captive.

I sighed.

Damn it.

Damn him.

Damn everything.

I didn’t have it in me to say no. Not with him willing to beg me in public to keep our kid and let him help raise him. Already I felt eyes on us, watching and listening to the happenings at my table. We weren’t being loud or anything like that. The tables were spaced pretty close together. I was able to overhear every other conversation around me too. I just didn’t pay attention to them.

The tug-of-war going on inside my body increased tenfold.

“I need to think about it,” I said, finally. “Give me some time.”

“Absolutely,” he said. “So how have you been otherwise?”

“Good,” I said, happy he dropped the topic and moved on to something else. “Really good.”

It was a lie; one I would later own up to. But for the time being, it was nice to reconnect. And it was the longest time we had spoken in a little over six months. But it felt natural for me. Like no time at all had passed.

It was a very pleasant change of pace.

20

WEYLAN

Time slipped by us, and I enjoyed every single second of it. I didn’t care that I was late getting back to work. Guy would cover for me. He would come up with some sort of excuse and let me in on it when he was off, so we could collaborate. He was a good man and a good friend.

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