Molly’s blog—pre-original Las Vegas weekend

You ever wish you could have a shaker for your life? Something that would take all those little ruts that have gotten so comfortable, turn them upside down and send you in a new direction? Sometimes I wonder if that’s what I need to move forward, to make a change. Who knows? Maybe this upcoming weekend in Las Vegas with Jayne, Alex and Serena will be just what the doctor ordered.

But…

I worry about the reputation that city has. You know—the whole getting wild and doing things you’d never do in real life while you’re in Las Vegas. Wild is the exact opposite of how I’d describe myself. Stepping out of that comfort zone…

Well, I just won’t. I’m going there for Jayne, and to have a good time. But not too good a time. Surely for a couple of days I won’t do anything too crazy. Right?

Status update for Molly Hunter’s internet networking profile

Molly Hunter had a great time in Las Vegas, even if it was about a hundred steps out of her ordinary life!

(About an hour ago)

Jayne Cavendish: That weekend was great! Thanks so much for going along!

Alex Lowell McKendrick: Even if some of us ended up with a surprise wedding afterward! Hope you all can come back to Vegas soon. I miss you!

Molly Hunter: I miss you too, Alex! It’s not the same here without you and Serena!

Serena Warren: Ditto! If you guys come to Vegas, we could have a great reunion! And who knows…? You might find the loves of your lives, Molly and Jayne!

Molly Hunter: Not looking for him right now. Maybe down the road.

Jayne Cavendish: I ditto that!

Alex Lowell McKendrick: Vegas is a city that is full of surprises, gals. You never know what might happen while you’re here!

Vegas Pregnancy Surprise

By

Shirley Jump

www.millsandboon.co.uk

Dear Reader

I had great fun writing this continuity with the other authors, and creating characters who are dealing with the aftermath of one crazy night. We’ve all had a crazy night (or two!) and I think we can all relate to Molly and Linc’s story.

I also like the whole idea of taking a gamble on love. Love is a risk, no matter how you come across it in your life or who with. You’re opening your heart, opening your soul, to another person, and that means you run the risk of two outcomes—happiness or hurt. I’m always rooting for the first one, being a romance author. I believe in taking those risks and then seeing how that gamble pays off. Molly and Linc took a risk, and then another when they get back together to deal with the consequences of their one crazy night.

The other thing these books are about is friendship. The authors I wrote this continuity with are some great friends of mine in real life, and I was honored to be a part of this series with them. They’re the kind of women you could sit down and have a cup of coffee with, and before you know it, four hours have passed while you’ve been chatting.

So grab a cup of java for yourself, sit down and enjoy Molly and Linc’s story!

Thanks for reading, and as always, feel free to visit my website: www.shirleyjump.com, or write to me at PO Box 5126, Fort Wayne, IN 46895 USA. I always love to hear from readers!

Shirley

Girls’Weekend in Vegas

Four friends, four dream weddings!

On a girly weekend in Las Vegas, best friends Alex, Molly, Serena and Jayne are just supposed to have fun and forget men—but they end up meeting their perfect matches! Will the love they find in Vegas stay in Vegas?

Find out in this sassy, fun and wildly romantic mini-series all about love and friendship!

Meet the girls:

Alex

SAVING CINDERELLA!

by Myrna Mackenzie

June

Molly

VEGAS PREGNANCY SURPRISE

by Shirley Jump

July

Serena

INCONVENIENTLY WED!

by Jackie Braun

August

Jayne

WEDDING DATE WITH THE BEST MAN

by Melissa McClone

September

Chapter One

TWO pink lines.

Molly Hunter stared for a good thirty seconds at the long white stick displaying its message like a beacon atop her peach tile bathroom counter. Put it down, picked it up, stared at the double pink message some more.

It couldn’t be. Had to be…impossible.

Nausea sent her stomach on a renewed roll and pitch, as if daring her to disagree. For the past couple of weeks she’d been waking up nauseous, tired, but with three of her summer school students out sick over the last month with the flu, she’d attributed her touchy stomach to them. Not to—

Oh, God. To that night in Vegas.

Two months ago. Had it been that long? How could she not have noticed?

Easy. She didn’t have a boyfriend, or a husband, and the chances of her getting pregnant were slim to none. Except this time Slim had apparently been an overachiever.

Her mind rocketed back to the bar, to a gorgeous man with blue eyes and dark hair. A man she knew only by his first name.

Linc.

“No last names.”

“No commitments.”

“Nothing but tonight.”

One crazy, insane night when Molly Hunter, who never did anything without a plan, without thinking things through, had thrown caution to the wind, and let a nearly electric attraction rule her every thought.

Ever since that night, she’d done her best to try to forget the intoxicating man she’d met in Vegas, and she’d thought she’d done a pretty good job of it. He’d been a momentary attraction, a crazy aberration in her life, and even though every once in a while her thoughts drifted to where he might be or whether he was thinking about her, she told herself leaving that one-night stand where it was—in the back of her thoughts as a delicious one-night memory—was the best thing all around.

After all, she was a kindergarten teacher, who did nothing more exciting than teach remedial English to high schoolers in the summer. A conservative woman in every sense of the word. She never did anything remotely like that.

Well, never wasn’t exactly the right term. Almost never!

She’d gone to Vegas with one purpose—to help her good friend Jayne Cavendish forget about the devastating end of her engagement to Rich Strickland. The four friends—Molly, Jayne, Alex Lowell and Serena Warren—had planned a girls’ weekend of manicures, martinis and memories.

They’d done just that the first night, but then the second night they’d been more adventurous, going off in their own directions. For some of them, that time apart had clearly resulted in a bit of trouble.

For Molly—a lot of trouble. She gave the stick a solid shake, then looked at it again. Still two pink lines.

You’re pregnant! those lines screamed in their happy, friendly pastel color.

Yeah, and totally unprepared for this lifechanging event, her mind shouted back.

Oh, God. What was she going to do? What on earth was she going to do?

“Hello! Molly?”

Her mother’s bright, cheery voice carried through Molly’s San Diego bungalow. Molly scooped the pregnancy test, the box and wrapper and hurried to bury them all in the white wicker trash basket, shoving several tissues on top. She emerged from the bathroom, tightening the belt of her white terrycloth robe as she crossed into the kitchen. Rocky, her Jack Russell mix, trotted along at her heels, eying her every few steps and wagging his tail. “Mom. What brings you by so early?” She reached for the dog food, then the small stainless steel bowl beside the canister.

She avoided her mother’s inquisitive gaze. Hoping her face didn’t betray a worried flush. She could only hope that Jayne wouldn’t wake up any time soon. She couldn’t deal with her temporary roommate’s questions, too, especially since Jayne had been there that weekend.

Molly ran a hand through her hair. Had she really done that? Been so…careless? Was she really…pregnant?

“Early?” Cynthia Hunter gaped at her daughter. “Goodness, Molly. It’s ten after eight.”

Molly paused in filling Rocky’s bowl. “That late? Already?” She hurried to put the bowl on the floor. Rocky scrambled after the kibble, his tail now in overdrive. “I have to get out of here.”

“But, Molly, I thought we’d sit down and chat. Your summer school session ended yesterday. Don’t you have plenty of time to—?”

“Sorry, no!” Molly had already spun on her heel and headed toward her bedroom. She’d spent too much time in the bathroom, staring at that stupid stick, as if looking at the lines would make the result any different. She tossed her robe on the unmade, sleep-rumpled bed—she’d have to let that housekeeping detail go for today, even though it would bug her—then threw open her closet and grabbed the first outfit she saw. Gray poplin slacks, a short-sleeved lilac sweater set and black kitten heels.

Two quick light raps sounded on Molly’s bedroom door. “Do you want breakfast, honey? I can make you some poached eggs.”

The thought nearly made Molly rush to the bathroom again. “No. No, thanks, Mom.” She slid the sweater over her head, buttoned her slacks and stepped into the shoes. A quick brush through her hair, a touch of makeup on her face, and she was done—or at least close enough to pass muster.

Molly headed out of her bedroom, running through a mental list as she walked. She really didn’t need to bring anything to today’s meeting, but she liked to be prepared just in case. She’d grab that binder filled with her ideas for next year’s curriculum changes. Oh, and the grant she was working on to expand the reading program. Rumor had it there were going to be cutbacks at Washington Elementary. Molly wanted to be sure not be caught in that if the rumors were true.

She was still running through her day when she rounded the corner—and nearly collided with Jayne. “Oh, sorry!”

Jayne laughed and brushed a few stray tendrils of her short chestnut hair off her forehead. “No problem. You’re in a hurry this morning. Are you leaving early for the meeting with administration?”

Molly nodded.

Jayne assessed her. “Are you nervous? You don’t look like yourself.” The two of them headed into the living room, with Molly feeling caught between the inquisitive eyes of her mother and Jayne at the same time. How on earth was she going to hide this secret?

Well, she had to. She didn’t even know anything for sure. Not yet.

“No.” Molly let out a sigh. “Yes.”

“You’ll do fine,” Cynthia said.

“It’s not that, Mom.” Molly crossed to the small desk in her living room, gathered up the binder holding the curriculum and the folder with the grant materials, then put both into her dark brown leather tote bag. “The budget is what the budget is. If there’s funding for a second kindergarten class this year, then I’ll have a job. And if there isn’t…”

“You won’t. But I’m sure it’ll be fine,” her mother said.

Jayne dittoed her support.

Molly nodded. She couldn’t imagine not working at Washington Elementary School and seeing another flock of kindergarteners in the fall. Their inquisitive faces, blossoming like spring flowers when they learned the basics, from their alphabet to simple addition. She loved her job—and couldn’t picture herself doing anything else. She’d done the same thing, day in and day out, for years, and that was exactly how she liked her life.

If that was so, then why had she been so eager to let loose that one night? To act as if she were someone else?

A psychologist would probably say it was because she was seeking to fill a void in herself. Molly brushed that thought aside. The night had been an aberration, nothing more. She had no “voids” in her life to fill. She was fine.

She’d been in Vegas merely to support Jayne, who’d been going through a rough patch. That was all.

“You look pale,” Cynthia said, taking a step forward and laying a hand on her daughter’s forehead. “Not like yourself. Didn’t you say a summer flu bug was going around? Maybe you caught it.”

She’d caught something all right.

“You do look a little run down, Moll,” Jayne put in.

“I’m tired. That’s all.” No way was she going to tell her mother or her friend about the pregnancy test, not until she’d seen a doctor. Those tests could be wrong, couldn’t they?

After two months? the little voice whispered. What, did you fail Health class?

Her mother pursed her lips. “Well, if you ask me, you haven’t been taking proper care of yourself since you and Doug had that…pause in your relationship.”

Molly opened the back door, let Rocky into the fenced yard, then turned around to face her mother. Jayne busied herself making coffee, staying out of the familiar mother-daughter argument. “Mom, it wasn’t a pause. We’re divorced.”

Cynthia shook her head. “I still think you can—”

“No. We can’t.”

Her mother’s lips pursed even more, but she didn’t say anything.

Molly let out a sigh, but didn’t pursue the argument. In Cynthia’s eyes, Douglas Wyndham could do no wrong. She’d seen him as the perfect son-in-law, the doctor who was “going places.”

The only problem? The places he wanted to go, and the places Molly wanted to go were on two polar sides of the life spectrum. And now—

Well, she wasn’t going to think about it, she resolved yet again. She didn’t know for sure if those pink lines were even right. She’d call the doctor and try to get an appointment for right after her meeting. Then she’d know for sure.

Know what, though? That she had possibly made the biggest mistake of her life that night? She, Molly Hunter, the woman who lived life so straight and narrow she might as well be a ruler?

“Molly, I still think—”

“Can I get you some coffee, Mrs. Hunter?” Jayne asked. Molly flashed her friend a relieved smile for the subject-change.

Rocky scratched at the screen door, so Molly let him in, fished his favorite chew toy out from under the refrigerator, and gave him one last pat. She grabbed her purse from the hall table, and dug inside for her sunglasses. “I’m sorry I don’t have time to stay and chat, Mom. I wanted to get to the meeting early.”

“At least Rocky here is glad to see me.” Her mother bent down and patted Rocky on the head. His tail beat a steady pattern against her leg.

Molly headed for the front door, opened it, and waited for her mother to follow. “I’ll call you after the meeting. Promise.”

“Aren’t you forgetting something?”

Molly glanced down at the tote bag, then back at Rocky, who was happily gnawing on his rubber bone. “Uh, I don’t think so.”

“Your keys?” Cynthia pointed at the hall table. “Goodness, Molly, you are forgetful today.” She reached out, put a palm on Molly’s forehead. “Are you sure you’re feeling all right?”

“I’m fine.” Except for this little baby thing. Possibly.

“You look a little peaked.”

“Mom, no one says peaked anymore,” Molly said, dashing over to grab her keys before returning to the door. “And I’m just fine. Really.”

“Jayne,” Cynthia said, turning to the other woman as she entered the foyer. “Don’t you think Molly looks peaked?”

Jayne sent Molly a smile that said she understood meddlesome mothers. “If she’s pale, Mrs. Hunter, I’m sure it’s just because she’s been too busy to get outside and putter around in her garden.”

Molly mouthed a silent thank you Jayne’s way.

A twinge of guilt ran through Molly. She hadn’t told Jayne—or any of her friends who had been with her that weekend in Vegas—about what had happened that night. It had been so out of character, such an insane decision, and Molly just couldn’t seem to find the words to explain her irrational choice. At twenty-eight, she should know better, for Pete’s sake, than to let her hormones do the thinking for her. But that night…

That night she hadn’t done much thinking at all.

She thought of the two pink lines and realized if they were right, she was going to have to find some words pretty soon.

Cynthia gave a dubious shrug. “If you say so.”

Jayne pressed a shiny silver travel mug into Molly’s hands. “Here. This’ll get you through the morning.”

Molly grinned. “Thanks.” She accepted the coffee, not telling Jayne she wasn’t sure she should be having all that caffeine.

“Hey, making coffee is the least I can do for you putting up with me all this time.”

“You didn’t have to do that.” Molly smiled. “You’re a great roommate, Jayne. I love having you here.” And she had. Ever since Jayne Cavendish had moved in two months ago, every day had been fun. She hadn’t minded one bit having one of her best friends to fill the empty spaces in the tiny bungalow, and she suspected Jayne, who was still nursing a broken heart, was happy for the company, too.

Molly’s heart went out to Jayne. She understood what it was like to see your dreams for happily-ever-after dashed. It was partly why Molly had thought going to Vegas that weekend with Jayne, Alex and Serena would be just the right medicine to help Jayne forget her fiancé’s betrayal. The four of them had intended to have one crazy, fun, girls-only weekend filled with lots of laughs and incredible memories.

They’d gotten more than they bargained for, that was for sure. Alex had ended up staying in Vegas to run Wyatt McKendrick’s hotel—and ended up falling in love with the handsome hotelier. Serena, who had impetuously married Jonas Benjamin on that wild weekend, had also stayed in Vegas and so far had stayed married, though she hadn’t said much about life with her politician husband. Molly missed her friends desperately, and except for one weekend when Wyatt had brought all the friends together for a quick lunch and shopping visit, they’d had to keep in virtual touch via texts, online chats and phone calls.

Jayne gave Molly a quick hug, wished her luck at her meeting, then told her she was heading inside. “I have to get ready for work. Maybe we’ll get pizza tonight and rent a couple movies.”

“Sounds great.” Except for the pizza part, which had Molly’s stomach rebelling yet again. After Jayne left, Molly opened the front door and gestured for her mother to leave first. But Cynthia held her ground. “Mom, I have to get to that meeting.”

Her mother smiled, the kind of smile that told Molly a conversation was coming she didn’t want to hear. “If you want, I could call Douglas…?”

“You don’t have to call Doug.”

“Molly, really, I think you’re being awfully hard on him. Can’t you two work it out?”

Work out what? She and Doug had been divorced for over two years now, and still her mother thought resurrecting her failed marriage was as simple as picking up the phone and arranging a dinner date. She didn’t seem to understand the arguments that had driven a wedge between Doug and her, the differences in everything from the way they viewed the world to the future they envisioned together.

She’d been so naïve when she’d married Doug. She was swept off her feet by his charm, the way he took care of every little detail, making her busy life suddenly seem easy. At first, it was simple to fall into Doug’s regimented world, to let him make the decisions. Then, too late, she’d realized that he had no intentions of relaxing the rigid rules by which he lived. The man who had seemed so organized and under control she now saw as unyielding and closed off to the full life of children. The life that she wanted.

If she ever got married again—and that if was so big it topped Mt. Everest—she’d give the event weeks, maybe months of careful thought. No rushing in, no thinking with her hormones instead of her brains.

She’d be smart. Not infatuated. Ever again.

“Doug is miserable, you know,” her mother added, then she sighed. “I just want you to be happy, like your father and I were.” Her mother’s eyes misted at the mention of Molly’s late father.

“I am happy, Mom.”

“Being alone?” Cynthia shook her head. “How?”

Molly realized then that her mother’s concern stemmed more from her own difficulties dealing with the loss of her husband eighteen months ago than worry about the demise of Molly’s marriage. “You get involved, Mom. Join that bridge club you’ve been talking about. Go to the book club at the library.”

Cynthia looked away.

“Mom…”

“They’re reading Wuthering Heights this month,” she said softly.

“You love Brontë.”

Cynthia turned back to her daughter. “Are you sure you’re feeling all right?” she said instead, retreating to the safety of playing mother hen. “If you want, I can stay.”

Molly’s stomach was rebelling, and the mere thought of making the six-mile drive to work had her wishing she could turn right around and head back to bed, but she refused to tell her mother that. “Go to the book club meeting, Mom. I’m fine. I’ll call you later.” She pressed a kiss to her mother’s cheek, inhaling her familiar scent. “I promise.”

Then she got in the car, and left, before her mother could finish the sentence she was beginning to sputter. Molly sent Cynthia a wave, then headed down the driveway and off to work.

Only eight-fifteen. At least an hour and a half until her meeting with the administration was over and she could get into Dr. Carter’s office. The day had barely begun and already, she could swear it had lasted a year.

“I know what I want, and that isn’t it.” Lincoln Curtis slid the portfolio across the polished mahogany table to the team of architects sitting on the other side like ducks in a row. The three men had on nearly identical navy blue suits and red ties of varying patterns, as if dressing in unison was a requirement for working at King Architecture.

That had to explain why Lincoln hated the design. Uninspired in attire, uninspired in thinking.

“Sir, we can draw a new—”

“I’m done. You’re done.” Lincoln rose. “Thank you for your time.” He headed out of the conference room, trailed by Conner Paulson, the CFO for Curtis Systems, the security software company Lincoln and his brother had started twelve years ago in the basement of their parents’ home. In one year, the two Curtis brothers had taken Curtis Systems from an idea to a company servicing Fortune 500 firms. Five years later, they were turning down multi-million-dollar buyout offers from international software giants. Lincoln, the elder, had been the CEO, while Marcus, two years younger, had been the vice president.

Now he had the company he’d always dreamed of, one that was even bigger than he’d dreamed. Perfect in every respect—

Except for the empty office beside his own. The one that mocked the very success Linc had worked so hard to build. But now he knew nothing else, and had nothing else. So the company got all of Lincoln Curtis, and then some.

“The architects gave you exactly what you said you wanted,” Conner said, falling into stride beside Lincoln as they headed down the wide hallway toward Lincoln’s office. “What’s changed since you met with them last quarter and now?”

“Nothing.”

Conner snorted. “Are you kidding me? Everything’s different about you lately.”

Lincoln stopped. “What do you mean?”

“Don’t tell me you’re going to stick to the same song you’ve been giving me for the last two months. That nothing’s on your mind. That you’re just fine.” Conner mocked talking with his hand. “This is me, Linc. I’ve known you since first grade. And you are so far from fine you’re on another planet.”

“What’s that supposed to mean?”

Conner sighed. “Listen, I wouldn’t say this if I wasn’t your best friend, and hadn’t known you forever. But for years you’ve been…”

“What?” Lincoln prodded.

“Well, you took your brother’s death pretty hard. We all did,” Conner added. “But you especially. And I don’t blame you. If I’d been there—”

“Do we need to have this conversation?”

Conner opened his mouth, shut it again. “No.”

“Good.”

“All I’m saying is that for a long time you’ve been a robot. Getting the job done, working like a maniac. Except for that one vacation—”

“I thought we weren’t having this conversation.”

“Then after that…” Conner paused, his gaze softening in sympathy. “Afterwards, you went back to being the same old Linc. No one could blame you, really, but—”

“Drop it,” Linc said, his voice a warning. Conner was his best friend, but even with him Linc didn’t journey back to that day three years ago.

Conner let out a gust that voiced concession to the change of topic. “Lately…I don’t know, you just seem to have a new attitude. A good one, I might add. Like with the idea you proposed a couple months ago about that software for kids—”

“An idea that you and the other suits shot down if I remember right,” Linc pointed out. “And you were right. I shouldn’t be running off, pursuing crazy ideas that could just end up draining company resources instead of adding to the coffers.”

For a moment, he’d thought maybe—

Maybe he could bring back something he’d lost by digging up a bit of the past. So he’d floated the idea, then come to his senses when the number crunchers smacked it down.

“Hey, maybe someday that program can work, Linc, sure, but honestly, I don’t see you finding the time for anything more. Don’t you agree?” Conner laid a hand on his arm. “You’re the most tightly scheduled guy I know. Not to mention…”

“What?” Linc asked when Conner didn’t finish.

“As much as I think it would be terrific for you to step out of your comfort zone of memos, day planners and task lists, I’m just not sure launching a kid-oriented product like that is up your particular alley.”

“Because I’m not fun,” Linc replied, reading the words Conner wasn’t speaking.

“Let’s just say when I’m looking for a partner in crime for hosting a wild party, your name isn’t at the top of my list.” Conner grinned. “But I’d still send you an invitation.”

Linc let out a short laugh. If only Conner knew how far Linc had stepped out of his world of schedules and memos that night two months ago.

In his mind, he saw the image of Molly—Linc didn’t know her last name, by agreement with both of them—smiling up at him as she lay back on the pale cream-colored sheets of the Bellagio’s luxurious king-sized bed. Her dark brown hair tumbling around her shoulders, her green eyes wide and sparkling, her lithe body still tempting even after he’d spent so many exquisite moments exploring, tasting and enjoying every inch.

For one night, Linc had been someone other than himself.

“What made you propose the idea in the first place?” Conner asked. “It just came out of the blue.”

They had reached the glass corridor that connected the twin towers of Curtis Systems, and provided a stunning view of downtown Vegas. On either side of him, the city flashed a constant rainbowed heartbeat of activity. “It’s something I’ve been kicking around for years.”

A lie. But telling the truth meant opening wounds Linc preferred not to open.

Two months ago he’d looked at the date and realized it was his brother’s birthday. If he had lived, Marcus would have been twenty-six this year.

And Linc hadn’t moved one inch closer in all those years to finishing the software program that had been the genesis of everything for Curtis Systems. The first dream he and his brother had shared.

He’d sat in his empty apartment for hours, revisiting past mistakes and regrets. And then, finally, spurred by nostalgia, regrets or maybe something more, he’d gone out, headed to one of the bars in Vegas—

And ended up sleeping with a woman he barely knew.

“There’s something else, though,” Conner said. “Something you’re not telling me.”

Linc met his friend’s inquisitive stare. “I met someone.”

A flicker of surprise flashed across Conner’s face. “Great. You’ve been alone too long. So who is she? And why didn’t you bring her to the benefit dinner last week?” Conner flashed him a grin. “You hiding her in your apartment?”

“I don’t know where she is. I don’t even know her last name. And that’s where I’m leaving things.”

That one night with Molly was enough. The last thing he needed was a relationship, not just because of the distraction it would provide, but because of the expectations involved. A woman in his life would want time. Energy. And that would divide him between the company and his personal life. Right now, that was a division problem he couldn’t solve.

Conner stumbled to a stop. He grabbed Lincoln’s arm. “You had a one-night stand? You?”

“It wasn’t just a one-night stand. It was…” Lincoln searched for the words to describe that night two months ago. The intoxicating magic of the woman he had met, how she had brought out a side of him he had thought he’d lost three years ago, how she had made him forget—

Forget who he was. Forget the burdens he’d carried for so long. Forget his guilt, his regrets. Forget the Curtis empire, and its expectations. For one night, he could just…be.

“It was so much more,” Lincoln finished. “At least until I got back to reality.”

In the two months since he’d seen Molly, he had tried to forget her by pouring himself into his work. By tightening an already tight schedule, filling already full days. Developing expanded product lines, pushing his team to create newer and more improved systems than the company already had.

Yet a part of him kept going back to that night, to those questions neither of them had asked, because they’d agreed never to know the answers. Was that all this was? A puzzle he needed to solve?

“Either way, it doesn’t matter. The night’s over. In the past.” As he said the words, he cemented his resolve to keep the memory there. He had no room for a relationship right now.

He, of all people, could not afford a distraction like that. He had only to look at the empty office beside his own to remember why.

“If it’s so ‘in the past,’” Conner said, using air quotes, “then why is she still on your mind?”

“She’s not.” Linc scowled.

Conner looked at Linc. And chuckled. “Uhhuh.”

Lincoln gazed out over the city, at the miles and miles of brightly lit buildings, stucco-coated homes, and beyond that, the vast, empty desert. Vegas stuck out among all the nothingness like a wild rose in a field of plain, practical wheat. How apropos, really, of the way he lived his personal life. That one night had been an aberration—and that was the way it would stay.

Lincoln Curtis lived his life in straight lines. It was the only way he knew to maintain control. To keep himself from thinking of the promises he’d made so many years ago. Promises he had broken.

Linc pivoted away from the window and faced Conner. “The past is over, Conner. I’m all about focusing on the future. And my future is contained inside this business.”

Chapter Two

MOLLY sat in her car and cried.

No job. No husband for support. No possibility of either in the near future.

And a baby on the way.

If she could have written a script for her life, she couldn’t have imagined a worse ending for this day. Within two hours, her entire world had been turned upside down.

Lack of funding…positions cut…difficult decision to make…we’re so sorry…wish you well…

She could still see the faces of the administration officials as they told her they were letting her go, with the promise that if funding improved, she would be the first kindergarten teacher hired back—

Next fall.

From there, she’d gone to her doctor’s office, sure he’d tell her she’d misread the pink lines, or bought a faulty kit, or had a hormonal spike. Instead, Dr. Carter had walked back into the examination room, a wide smile on his face. “Wonderful news, Molly. You’re pregnant!”

She’d started to cry. She’d cried while he wrote her a prescription for prenatal vitamins, while she made her next appointment, and all the way home.

Oh, God. What was she going to do? How was she going to deal with this?

It still didn’t seem real. Didn’t seem possible. The words you’re pregnant swirled again in her head, and sounded like they had been spoken to someone else.

Pregnant.

Now she sat in her driveway, allowed the last few tears to fall, then wiped her face and made some decisions.

Number one. She needed a job. She had a mortgage, and even though Jayne was paying rent, without the regular income from teaching, very soon there wasn’t going to be enough money to pay all the bills. Not to mention the need for health insurance to cover her pregnancy. In seven months, Molly would have another life to provide for, and that meant putting aside as much money as she could between here and then.

Another life.

The words hit her again, and she still couldn’t quite comprehend her situation. A baby.

The one thing she had dreamed about for so many years, imagined having when she’d married Doug—

But then Doug had made it infinitely clear children weren’t on his agenda, not now, not later, not ever. That had been the beginning of the end for them, the moment when she’d realized she’d married a man who didn’t share any of her dreams for the future.

Now she had the future she wanted. Except she was alone. And about to become penniless. Not the dream she’d envisioned. How could she, of all people, have ended up in this position?

She’d always been so careful with her life, so conservative. The one time she’d stepped out of those boundaries she’d ended up pregnant, alone and unemployed.

Boy, karma had a heck of a sense of humor.

Molly sighed. She reached for another tissue in her purse and faced issue number two.

The baby’s father.

She might not want to see him again, might want to pretend that night in Vegas never happened, but she couldn’t.

She had to tell him. Somehow. And sometime in the next few months.

How would Linc react? She didn’t know him well enough to predict how he ordered his coffee in the morning, much less something as huge as this.

Oh, what had she done?

Either way, whether he wanted anything to do with the baby or not, she had to know, if only for the baby’s sake, who this man was. What if there was a medical problem? What if their child asked her a question someday down the road?

She thought back to that crazy, heady night two months ago. Did Linc ever think of her? Did he ever wonder whether there had been consequences to their temporary insanity? If he saw her again, what would he do? Say? He’d probably forgotten all about her, and if he saw her again wouldn’t even remember her name, much less what had happened between them.

With a man that handsome, in a city like Las Vegas, the chances were good that he had dozens of women in his life. Molly could have just been one more in a long string of quick dates.

Or not.

She had no idea what kind of man he really was because they’d agreed to keep everything easy, fun. No personal details, no heart-to-heart connections, no relationship-building.

Did she want to see him again? That was a bigger question. Did she really want to face her dumbest decision again? No.

But wanting to and having to were two totally different things.

And finally, decision number three.

She needed to keep this entire situation to herself for as long as possible, until she had it all figured out. She could just imagine her mother’s reaction—she’d be calling Doug and trying to fix Molly back up with her ex-husband, regardless of whether the two of them should be together or not or whether he wanted anything to do with children. Never mind a child that wasn’t even his.

Yeah, she was not going to tell anyone about this. Not until she had to.

Molly got out of her car and headed into the house. Rocky greeted her with the same enthusiasm as always, licking, barking, jumping all over his mistress. She let him out, then went back into the living room to dump her tote bag and purse on the scarred maple coffee table. Jayne was at work, so Molly had the house to herself and had some more time to process the day. Thank goodness.

As she passed her desk in the corner of the living room, she glanced at her desktop computer. Her gaze strayed to the stack of software piled beside the monitor.

Software.

Linc.

That night in the bar.

No…that was a crazy idea. Absolutely crazy. One that could lead to heartbreak, especially if Linc said he didn’t remember her, or their conversation about the software product he wanted to launch. Then again, could the idea be any crazier than the one that had gotten her into this situation in the first place?

The 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 again, clearly curious. With an almost imperceptible flick of his hand, Linc dismissed the other man, who shot Linc a grin, then said something about a meeting and headed off down the corridor.

“Why?” Linc said, taking a step forward and lowering his voice. “I thought we agreed not to see each other again.”

Whatever Hollywood reunion she’d secretly hoped to have, with Linc being glad to see her, deflated in that moment, in the neutral tone in his voice. Molly’s hand strayed protectively to her abdomen, and she decided there was no way she was going to drop the pregnancy bombshell. Not now. “You were actually the one who told me to look you up if I ever got to Vegas again. Well, I’m in Vegas…and looking you up.”

“I…” He thought a second, and in the flash of that moment she panicked, sure she’d done the wrong thing. “I did. But I had no idea you’d actually take me up on the offer.”

She’d come all this way, thinking she could walk into Linc’s life, take him up on that job offer he’d thrown out the night they met, tell him about the baby, and in the process get to know him—

And it was all falling apart right before her eyes. The tears that had been a constant companion ever since she’d left the doctor’s office threatened again at the back of her eyes, but Molly refused to let them win.

She thought of the baby, and a fierce need to take care of the child to come rose within her. She had to find a job. Immediately. No matter what it took.

Linc had made that offer. She had heard him. This could work.

It would work.

“I realize I’ve just dropped in on you out of the blue,” she said, wanting only to get out of there, before the tears won or Linc said something else that fractured her composure, but refusing to give up just yet. “And this might be a bad time, so perhaps we can schedule a time to talk.”

“Is there something about that night I should know?” His voice had dropped nearly to a whisper.

Here was her chance to tell him the truth. She opened her mouth to say I’m pregnant, then shut it again.

Linc’s reaction thus far to her presence hadn’t exactly spelled overjoyed. He’d been terse, short. Almost…annoyed. She hadn’t really expected the Hollywood reaction—him sweeping her into his arms and kissing her passionately—but something a little more enthusiastic would have done a lot for her peace of mind. The pregnancy had already knocked her off center, and to have Linc react as if she was a fly in his soup—

She didn’t need one more stress. Not now. Besides, the last place she wanted to share news like this was in a hall outside a conference room. She’d wait for a better time. One when perhaps Linc had come around to the shock of seeing her again.

Surely that was all it was, shock. Not dismay. Or disappointment.

“No,” she said finally. “I was simply taking you up on your offer of a job.”

“Job offer?”

Oh, damn. Now he did look confused. She shouldn’t have come. Definitely should have stayed in San Diego. But she kept on talking, as if saying more would fix an already messy situation. “The one you made about that children’s software program you were planning to launch?” Suddenly the space seemed too confined, too hot, and regrets piled on her shoulders heavier than bricks. “But I can see I came at a bad time.” Oh, man, now she was repeating herself. “I should just—”

“No, no.” He reached for her, but didn’t connect. “Let’s take this somewhere more…quiet,” Linc said. “Have you eaten?”

What was with people trying to feed her? Molly’s stomach still had a rebellious streak going strong, made worse by the conversation and her nerves, but she shook her head, if only to escape the clear curiosity running through the other people in the offices around them. And find a way to get out of here. “No, I haven’t.”

Linc closed the distance between them and put a hand against her back—a light touch, nothing more than a guiding glance, but it set off a firestorm of memories in her. Of being with him in that bar, of the first time he’d touched her—

How they’d danced around, touching, for a halfhour that night, hands and fingers coming close, then drifting away, each of them wanting to make contact, neither daring to be the first, and then she had reached for her drink at the same time he had, and their fingers had collided. An instant electric explosion ignited in Molly, more powerful than any she had ever felt. She’d been a goner from that moment on, captured in Linc’s spell.

That same electric explosion, albeit slightly muted by the daylight, the other people and the businesslike surroundings, reignited in Molly as Linc guided her into the elevator. They rode down in silence, two among a dozen other people, then stepped out into the lobby and out of the Curtis Systems building. Once they reached the sidewalk his hand dropped away and a whisper of disappointment ran through her.

She shook it off. She wasn’t here to start a relationship with Lincoln Curtis. Under no circumstances did she want that. She had enough on her plate to deal with right now. Besides, she hardly knew the man. She couldn’t base any rational decisions on one night—made after a few drinks and a lot of hormones.

Not to mention, judging by his reaction at her sudden appearance, he wasn’t interested in her anymore. Whatever he’d felt that night had clearly dissipated in the two months since. She’d do what she came here for—work here long enough to get to know him, for the baby’s sake. And find some way of telling him about their child. Then go back to San Diego.

Nothing more.

She wouldn’t make the mistake of entangling herself again with a man who didn’t share her visions of the future. Who would give her less than a hundred percent.

Linc raised a hand, and in an instant a sleek black town car glided to a stop before them. The driver hopped out, came around and opened the door for them. Linc gestured for Molly to enter first, then he slid in behind her, settling on the seat close enough for her to feel the heat of his body, but not close enough to touch.

“Your own driver?” she said. “I’m impressed.” Once again, the differences between the Linc she’d met that night and the real Linc became readily apparent. The man she’d seen in the bar—had any of him been real? Who was the Lincoln Curtis sitting across from her? This stiff upper-lipped, wealthy, powerful CEO, not the average Joe she thought she knew two months ago.

What had he seen in her that night? And why hadn’t he told her the whole truth about his life when they’d met? Perhaps, she thought, he’d met too many people who heard the word millionaire and immediately saw dollar signs instead of Linc.

“Don’t be impressed, really,” he said. “The car and driver are a necessity. A time-saver.”

“Because driving your own car takes so much more time?” she joked.

“Because I can work while Saul drives.” Linc gestured toward a laptop set up on a small desk on the left-hand side of the car, beside a built-in phone and a small television screen.

The Linc in the bar had seemed so relaxed, so ordinary, and yet this Linc seemed the complete opposite. It was more than the suit and the chauffeured car. He carried himself differently. As if a world of responsibility lay on his shoulders.

As the car pulled away from the curb, she glanced back at the towering building of Curtis Systems and realized perhaps it did.

Had she read him wrong that night? Or had her memory grown fuzzy over the last two months?

No, it wasn’t that. He had definitely acted differently that night. The question was why.

“I thought you had a meeting to go to,” she said. “The receptionist mentioned you were tied up all afternoon. Seriously, I don’t mind coming back at a better time.”

“I do have a meeting. I am swamped today.” He let out a long breath, one that spoke of all those responsibilities. Then he looked over at her, as if he still couldn’t believe she’d shown up on his doorstep. “But it’s not every day that I receive…an unexpected visitor.”

“That’s a unique way of phrasing—” she was going to say our relationship, but they didn’t really have one, so she settled instead on, “the situation.”

“You caught me off guard today. I hadn’t expected to see you again.”

She caught the woodsy undertones of his cologne. In an instant she had an image of him from that night—simple pin-striped button-down shirt open at the collar, sleeves rolled up. But more than the way he’d dressed, she remembered the way he’d kissed, a kiss that had set her on fire in a way she never had been before. He’d taken his time, his lips drifting slowly over hers, his hand cupping her jaw, as if he was—

“How did you find me?” Linc asked.

“It, ah…” Molly drew her attention back to the present, her face hot “…wasn’t that hard. There aren’t that many software companies in Vegas employing a man named Linc, at least according to Google. I didn’t know, however, that you owned Curtis Systems. I thought…” Her voice trailed off.

“Thought I was just a worker bee.” A smile crossed his lips and he opened his mouth as if he was going to say something else, but his phone rang, cutting off the sentence midstream. Linc let out a sigh, checked the caller ID, then apologized to Molly before answering the call. She heard him debating something about an architectural design for several minutes before he ended the call. Almost as soon as he hung up, his phone started in again. Linc sighed, then glanced at Molly. “Do you mind if I tie up a few loose ends before we go to lunch? This will only take a minute, I promise.”

“Not at all. I understand.”

He answered the first call, then placed several others, most of which Molly could tell from her one-sided interpretation were about cancelling the next few scheduled meetings and delegating responsibilities to other people within the company.

Linc didn’t waste a single second. He powered up the laptop, working both that and the cell at the same time, in record time. She heard him run down several task lists, make at least a dozen different decisions, review several accounting issues with his comptroller, and all without becoming stressed or overwhelmed. If anything, Linc seemed to thrive on the stress of his job, as if heaping more things on his plate made it easier for him to carry.

What a stark contrast between her simple world of five-year-olds learning colors and numbers and Linc’s of multi-million-dollar deals and corporate wrangling. Finally, he hung up, and closed the laptop. “Sorry about that.”

“A CEO’s job is never done and all that?” she said.

“Something like that.” Linc tucked the phone into the holster on his belt. At the same time, the town car slid to a stop in front of an Italian restaurant with a bright red awning and several outdoor bistro-style tables. Linc stepped out of the automobile and offered a hand to Molly.

When her hand slipped into his large, familiar grip, that same electric jolt she remembered ran through her. Almost as quickly as he touched her, he released her.

Because he’d felt the same thing? Or because he was only being polite?

Molly decided not to ask. She had her priorities—to gain a job, as well as information for the baby. Besides, hadn’t she learned her lessons with Doug? Long-term relationships and her didn’t go together well. The last thing she needed was involvement with yet another man who didn’t share her vision for the future, and already she would wager a guess that workaholic high-powered exec Lincoln Curtis wasn’t looking to settle down in a little bungalow in San Diego with a kindergarten teacher and a baby.

She refused to feel disappointed. She hadn’t come here with some happily-ever-after in mind. She and the baby would be just fine on their own, regardless of whether Lincoln Curtis ever wanted anything to do with her in the future.

A minute later, they were seated at a private booth in the back of the restaurant. “Would you like some wine?” Linc asked.

“Uh…no, thank you. I’ll just stick to water.” She shifted in her seat. “It’s early yet.”

“You’re right.” He didn’t say anything more about the wine, and she was sure he hadn’t guessed her real reason for turning down the alcohol. Warm garlic bread-sticks arrived with the water, then the waiter disappeared, leaving them alone.

Molly willed her queasiness to subside, and it did—just a little—with the bread. But still, she wasn’t so sure she’d be able to eat.

“So…why now?” Linc asked. “Why come see me today, after two months?”

A flush invaded her cheeks. Did he know? Did the pregnancy show on her face? Had someone told him?

She shook off the thoughts. She was just being paranoid. Linc’s question was legitimate, expected even.

She could tell the truth. She could tell him that she had thought about his eyes, his touch, a hundred, a thousand times since that night, but that would entangle the two of them together all over again, and Molly was far from ready for, or interested in, that. Especially when the feeling didn’t seem to be reciprocated.

“I didn’t come here to resurrect anything,” she said, deciding the best course of action was to lay everything straight. Immediately. Before anyone got the wrong idea, or the train got derailed any further. “I came here because I was interested in that software program you mentioned.”

Linc leaned back and draped an arm over the back of the booth. “I can’t believe you remembered that.”

“I thought it sounded so interesting. Interactive, inspires reading, while also teaching children about the great outdoors. Something that combines electronic learning and spurs interest in nature activities at the same time.”

That had been one of their first conversations, and part of what had perked her interest in Linc. They’d started out talking birthdays, which had led into her job, then into how frustrated she was with kids being so sedentary and not tuned in with their environment, which had segued into Linc’s software idea. Before she’d known it, she’d been wrapped up in his eyes, his voice, then his touch.

He’d been so excited about the software design, as if it was something personal. She’d enjoyed listening to him talk, and found his enthusiasm wrapping around her, too.

“That software…it was just an idea,” Linc said. “My company doesn’t really handle that kind of thing. We specialize in security packages for large corporations. Fraud prevention, hacker prevention, that kind of thing. The other program…that was a dream.”

“Sounded like you were pretty serious that night.”

“I…” He paused. “A long time ago, I used to think that was the kind of company I wanted to run. The kind of software I wanted to manufacture. But that’s not where the money is, and when you run a business you have to be practical. In fact, I ran the idea past my team recently, and they shot it down.”

Shot it down? He wasn’t going to do it?

She’d come all the way to Vegas with an insane plan. Clearly, she hadn’t thought it through enough. Or she’d completely misinterpreted what he’d said that night. She’d thought Linc had been serious about developing this software, and thus thought she would be the perfect one to help him implement the program, while at the same time getting to know her baby’s father.

She’d invested everything in this one option—with no backup plan. That alone was proof she still wasn’t thinking straight when it came to Lincoln Curtis.

It had to be the pregnancy hormones. Otherwise, why was she making such hasty choices?

“You have no plans to develop the program?” she said.

“I’d love to…someday.” His gaze went to some far-off place, and he didn’t say anything for a second, before he returned his gaze to her. “Why?”

Someday? She needed someday to be now.

She buried her attention in the menu. “No reason.” Then she gave up studying the list of pastas and insalatas. “It’s just…you sounded so excited when you talked about that program. It was as if that was the company you owned, not this one. In fact, that’s what I thought when I met you. When I arrived in Vegas, I was surprised to find out you made security systems.”

He sighed, and pushed his menu to the side. “A long time ago—”

He didn’t finish.

“A long time ago, what?”

The waiter returned and took their orders. Molly had barely looked at the menu, and just ordered one of the specials. Linc, who had clearly been here before, ordered a chicken and pasta dish.

“You started to say something before we were interrupted,” Molly said, once they were alone again. “What was it?”

Linc took the green paper wrapper off his napkin and folded it into a triangle, then popped the triangle out. “Know what this is?”

She laughed. “No.”

“To a kid, it’s a boat. A hat. A Christmas tree. The possibilities are endless.” He tipped the green cone onto the top of the salt shaker. It teetered, then balanced. “When I was a kid, I used to be like that. Everything I saw, I imagined into something else. My parents complained that I was always in my head, and never out in the world.”

“I bet you read a lot.”

He chuckled. “Everything I could get my hands on. I was a total bookworm. Still am.”

“Me too.” She grinned. “I love books.”

A smile whispered between them. “Something we have in common, then?”

“I’d say so.” Oh, she could feel that thread, that tenuous tether connecting them, just as it had that night. She tried to push it aside, to ignore the feeling. She didn’t want to build a bridge. Not between herself and Linc. She was here for the baby. Only. “Go on with what you were saying.”

“Well, my parents got tired of seeing me with my nose buried in a book twenty-four hours a day, so they shipped me off to a summer camp. One of those long, eight-week ones. My brother was there, too, but he was always the outdoorsy one. He took to camp like a duck to water.”

“And you didn’t?”

Linc snorted. “God, no. Took me seven of the eight weeks to fit in. But then one day a counselor noticed me reading instead of joining the other kids. He got me involved in a project, a camp diary thing. Creating a kind of written and photographed collage about camp that could be left behind for other campers. Sort of an intro to the best parts of camp.”

His eyes lit up with the memory, his features became more animated. “You must have loved it.”

He took a sip of his drink, then nodded. “I did. It was a brilliant idea on the counselor’s part. A way to force me to go outside, collecting information and finding out about camp, in order to get back to my first love—books. In the course of doing that, I found out I loved being outside.”

“And is that where the idea for the software came from?”

“Pretty much. My brother…he was the more adventurous one. Never met a challenge he didn’t want to tackle. He loved the book. For him, it was a way to go back to camp over and over again, and…” Linc’s voice trailed off and he paused for a long second. Then he cleared his throat and continued. “Anyway, he was the one who had the idea of taking the book and combining it with a computer program. Back in those days, of course, games and software were a long way from what they are now, and we were just kids, so we didn’t know what we were doing. That first idea spurred the bug for the two of us later working together, forming the company, and our first project was always going to be that software, but…” He toyed with the green paper hat on the top of his straw.

“What happened?”

“The market research I did said the money wasn’t in software for children. It was in security software. So we went with the better financial decision.” He plucked the green triangle off the straw and crumpled it.

A practical man. She should be happy—it was, after all, the kind of commonsense decision that spoke to Molly’s own practical nature. Instead, disappointment settled in her gut. What had she expected? The same wild spontaneity she’d seen in Linc that one night?

“Have you ever regretted that decision?”

“No. I did what was smart for the company. For the people who invested in it. The people who…believed in it from the beginning.”

Even though he spoke with conviction, she detected a note of regret in his voice, the echoes of lost chances. “Now that you have the company to mega status—” at that, she smiled “—surely you have time to indulge a few of those earlier dreams. I mean, you are the boss. You and your brother could start building birdhouses and hula hoops if you wanted. Who’s going to stop you?”

His face tightened. “I don’t make decisions like that.”

“Spontaneous ones, you mean?” Molly arched a brow.

His gaze met hers, and in that moment the two of them connected again, with a shared thought.

That night.

That amazing, spontaneous, heated, insane night.

“Well, I don’t usually make spontaneous decisions,” Linc said, and fire lit his blue eyes for just a moment before subsiding. “In business, every decision is based on research, numbers, financial projections.”

“Where’s the fun in that?”

He considered her words. “There is no fun in that. But it’s reality. As you saw in the car, I’m an extremely busy man, which explains why my entire life revolves around work. Except for that one night, I pretty much live at the office, making all those non-fun decisions.”

If anything screamed “not looking to be a family man,” that did.

“So, it’s not a matter of not wanting to create that software,” Linc went on. “It’s just about smart business practices. As my team pointed out, this has the potential to be a waste of company resources.”

Clearly, his mind was made up. She would have to find another way to provide for her baby. And as for getting to know the baby’s father—

She would simply tell Linc before she left town that she was pregnant and let him decide if he wanted to be part of the child’s life or not. Maybe he would…or maybe he wouldn’t.

The thought that he would turn his back on her and their child sent a wave of disappointment crashing over her. Regardless of how many times she told herself she hadn’t expected an enthusiastic reaction to her presence—

She had.

She wanted to retreat, go home and lick her wounds. She’d been wrong, so, so wrong, and she needed to regroup, find another way of dealing with the mountain of worries in her chest. What was she going to do? How could she handle this on her own? Without a job, a father for her baby, a plan?

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