She turned him down. Twice.

Karin Killigan refuses to marry Liam Bravo solely for the sake of their pending baby. This time, the widowed mother of two is holding out for true lasting love. And even though she is knee-deep in kids and family chaos, Karin and Liam’s attraction is hotter than ever, but Karin won’t settle. Liam will have to prove he’s in it for love if he wants a family for his baby’s first Christmas.

CHRISTINE RIMMER came to her profession the long way around. She tried everything from acting to teaching to telephone sales. Now she’s finally found work that suits her perfectly. She insists she never had a problem keeping a job—she was merely gaining ‘life experience’ for her future as a novelist. Christine lives with her family in Oregon. Visit her at christinerimmer.com

Also by Christine Rimmer

The Nanny’s Double Trouble

Almost a Bravo

Same Time, Next Christmas

Switched at Birth

Not Quite Married

The Good Girl’s Second Chance

Carter Bravo’s Christmas Bride James

Bravo’s Shotgun Bride

Ms Bravo and the Boss

A Bravo for Christmas

Discover more at millsandboon.co.uk.

The Right Reason to Marry

Christine Rimmer

www.millsandboon.co.uk

ISBN: 978-1-474-09186-2

THE RIGHT REASON TO MARRY

© 2019 Christine Rimmer

Published in Great Britain 2019

by Mills & Boon, an imprint of HarperCollins Publishers 1 London Bridge Street, London, SE1 9GF

All rights reserved including the right of reproduction in whole or in part in any form. This edition is published by arrangement with Harlequin Books S.A.

This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, locations and incidents are purely fictional and bear no relationship to any real life individuals, living or dead, or to any actual places, business establishments, locations, events or incidents. Any resemblance is entirely coincidental.

By payment of the required fees, you are granted the non-exclusive, non-transferable right and licence to download and install this e-book on your personal computer, tablet computer, smart phone or other electronic reading device only (each a “Licensed Device”) and to access, display and read the text of this e-book on-screen on your Licensed Device. Except to the extent any of these acts shall be permitted pursuant to any mandatory provision of applicable law but no further, no part of this e-book or its text or images may be reproduced, transmitted, distributed, translated, converted or adapted for use on another file format, communicated to the public, downloaded, decompiled, reverse engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of publisher.

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Version: 2020-03-02

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Contents

Cover

Back Cover Text

About the Author

Booklist

Title Page

Copyright

Note to Readers

Dedication

Chapter One

Chapter Two

Chapter Three

Chapter Four

Chapter Five

Chapter Six

Chapter Seven

Chapter Eight

Chapter Nine

Chapter Ten

Chapter Eleven

Chapter Twelve

Chapter Thirteen

Chapter Fourteen

Extract

About the Publisher

Chapter One

It was a cloudy Friday afternoon in mid-October when Karin Killigan finally had to face the unsuspecting father of her unborn child.

It happened at Safeway, of all places. He was going in as she went out.

She had her hands full of plastic shopping bags. Her mind was on dinner and the thousand and one things she needed to whip into shape at the office before the baby came. She was staring straight ahead and didn’t even see him.

But Liam Bravo saw her.

He grabbed her arm. “Karin. My God.”

His touch, coupled with the low, rich sound of his voice, set off a chain reaction of emotional explosions inside her. Shock. Guilt. Total embarrassment. A flare of thoroughly inappropriate desire. She let out a ridiculous squeak of surprise and almost dropped a bag full of dairy products as she blinked down at his hand on her arm. Even through the barrier of her coat and the sweater beneath it, she could feel his heat and his strength.

Slowly, she forced her gaze upward to his gorgeous face. The cool autumn wind stirred his dark blond hair and his sun-kissed brows had drawn together over those summer-sky eyes of his.

Somehow, she made herself speak. “Hello, Liam.”

“Excuse me.” The impatient voice from directly behind her reminded her sharply that they were blocking both doors.

“Come on.” Liam tugged her away from the doors and along a short concrete walkway.

She followed numbly, despising herself for never quite working up the nerve to break the big news to him, thus forcing them both to face it now—at Safeway, of all the impossible places.

“Here.” He pulled her in close to the brick wall of the building, between a bin full of pumpkins and stacks of bundled kindling. “Let me help you with those.” He made a grab for the shopping bags dangling from both of her hands.

“No.” She shook her head at him. “I’ve got them. I’m fine.” Total lie. She was very far from fine.

“You sure?”

“Positive,” she said way too brightly. “Thanks. I’m, um, really surprised to see you here.” Understatement of the decade. He lived in nearby Astoria and somehow, since the last time she’d seen him the previous March, she’d never once run into him in Valentine Bay. Until now. It wasn’t that she’d been avoiding him, exactly. But she certainly hadn’t sought him out. “I mean, there’s a Safeway in Astoria, right?”

“I stopped in to see Percy and Daffy and this store was on my way home.” Percy and Daffodil Valentine were brother and sister. Neither had ever married. In their eighties now, Liam’s great-uncle and -aunt lived in an ancient Victorian mansion on the edge of Valentine City Park.

“Oh, I see,” she said, because he’d fallen silent and it seemed that she ought to say something.

His gaze had wandered downward to her giant belly, only to quickly jerk back up to her face again. “This is awkward.” Oh, no kidding. “Please don’t be offended...”

“No. Of course not.” How could she be? She should have told him months ago, on the night she broke it off with him. But she was a big, fat coward. She hadn’t told him then, nor had she managed to work up the courage to call him and ask for a meeting. And now the poor guy had to find out like this. Her cheeks and neck were too hot. They must be flaming red. And her heart? It pounded so hard she couldn’t hear herself think.

“You’re pregnant,” he said.

“How did you guess?” It was a weak joke and neither of them laughed.

Beneath his golden tan, his face seemed to be growing progressively paler. “I’m sorry, but I couldn’t help thinking that...” He faltered, which broke her heart a little. Liam Bravo never faltered. He was always so smooth. Even way back in high school, he could make a girl’s clothes fall off with just his smile. He wasn’t smiling now, though. He drew in a shaky breath. “I have to know. Is it...?”

There really was no putting this off any longer, so she answered the question he couldn’t seem to ask. “Yes, Liam. It’s your baby.”

He flinched and his eyes widened. He started to reach for her again, caught himself and let his arm drop to his side. After that, he just stood there staring at her, his sexy mouth hanging open.

God. What a horrible way to tell him. But at least she’d finally done it.

People bustled by them, going in and out of the store. “We can’t do this here,” she said. When he only continued to gape at her, she went on, “Tell you what. I’m going straight home...”

A low sound escaped him, kind of a cross between a grunt and sigh, but no actual words came out.

“Home,” she repeated. “The house on Sweetheart Cove? I’ll be there the rest of the day. Feel free to drop by when you’re ready to talk.” Carefully, so as not to bump him with her bags of groceries, she turned and made for her car.

He didn’t say anything or try to stop her. But she knew that wouldn’t last. He was bound to have questions—a million of them. Starting with why the hell didn’t you tell me? She figured she had an hour, tops, before he appeared at her door.

Probably breaking the land speed record for a hugely pregnant woman on foot, she waddled toward the relative safety of her Chevy Traverse.

Karin lived with her dad, Otto Larson, and her two children, Ben and Coco, on the first floor of a large beach house owned by her brother, Sten. As she pulled the Traverse into the garage beneath the house, her dad came down the inside stairs, seven-year-old Coco close on his heels.

Otto went straight to the hatch in back to get the groceries.

Coco, in blue tights, red shorts, a blue T-shirt and shiny red rain boots, had stopped at the foot of the stairs to spin in a circle. The kid-size red blanket tied around her neck for a cape fluttered as she twirled. “Mommy, I’m Supergirl!” she shouted as Karin carefully lowered herself from behind the wheel. “Don’t worry, I will save you! I have vast superhuman strength, speed and stanima, X-ray vision, super breath and also, I can fly.” Arms out, she “flew” at Karin, who laughed in spite of what had just gone down at Safeway.

Coco halted at Karin’s big belly. Reaching out her small arms and tipping her head back, she gave both Karin and the unborn baby inside her a hug. “I love you, Mommy, and I love our baby, too!” Coco beamed a smile so big it showed the gap where she’d recently lost two lower baby teeth.

Karin bent to plant a kiss on the top of her curly head. “And I love you. Lots.”

Otto shut the hatch. He had all the grocery bags, two in each hand.

“I’ll help, Grandpa!” Supergirl proclaimed. She planted her rain boots wide, stuck out her little chest and propped her fists on her hips. Otto set two of the bags on the garage floor, fished out a block of Swiss cheese from one and passed it to her. The cheese in one hand, both arms spread wide, cape rippling, Coco ran back up the stairs and into the house, slamming the door behind her.

“You gotta love that enthusiasm,” said Otto as he bent to pick up the bags again. Karin just stood there staring down at his bent head. His hair was all white now and thinning, his pink scalp showing through at the crown. He met her eyes as he stood again. “What happened?” he asked quietly.

She replied in a small voice. “I saw Liam at Safeway.”

“You tell him?” Her dad and her brother, Sten, and Sten’s wife, Madison, knew that Liam was the baby’s father. Sten and Otto had been after Karin for months to tell the man that he was going to be a dad. Madison mostly stayed out of it, though Liam was actually one of her long-lost brothers.

Karin stared into the middle distance, thinking of Madison for no particular reason. Sten’s new bride had been switched at birth, of all impossible things. She’d met Sten when she came to Valentine Bay last March to find the family she’d just learned she had.

“Karin. You tell Liam?” her dad asked for the second time.

She blinked and made herself answer the question. “Uh. I did. Yes. I told him.”

“And?”

“And I said I was going straight home, that if he wanted to talk about it, I’ll be here.”

“You’re thinking he’ll be coming by, then?”

She nodded. “And soon, would be my guess. If you could maybe keep the kids downstairs...?” The house was really two complete houses in one. Karin, her dad and the kids lived on the first floor just above the garage. Sten and Madison had the upper floor when they were in town, which they weren’t right now. Madison was a bona fide movie star. Currently, she and Sten spent most of their time in LA or on location wherever she was filming.

“No problem,” said Otto. “I’ll keep an eye on the kids and send Liam up when he gets here.”

On the top floor of the house, in Sten’s quiet kitchen, Karin brewed a cup of raspberry leaf tea. As she waited for it to steep, she stood at the slider that opened onto the wide upper deck and watched the layers of clouds over the water. The waves slid into shore and retreated, leaving the wet sand smooth as glass in their wake.

“Karin.” Liam spoke from directly behind her.

She stiffened in surprise and turned to face him. His hair was kind of standing on end and his eyes had a haunted look. “Hey. I, um, didn’t hear you come in.”

He stared at her for several seconds with a numbly disbelieving expression on his face before he finally said, “Your dad. He told me to just go up.”

“That’s fine. Great. Let’s sit down, why don’t we?” She gestured toward the sitting area.

“No, thanks.” He blinked at her. “I’d rather stand.”

“Maybe some tea or something?”

“No. Nothing.” He turned on his heel and strode away from her. When he reached the hallway that led to the bedrooms, he turned again and came back, halting in the same place he’d been before he stalked off. “You’re pregnant.”

Hadn’t they already covered that? “Yes, I am.”

“I can’t... I don’t...” It was just like at Safeway. The poor man seemed incapable of completing a sentence. “I mean, uh, you said it was...”

“Yours, Liam,” she gently confirmed again. “Yes. The baby is yours.”

“And you’re due...?”

“In a week.”

“A week.” The wild state of his hair made more sense as he put both hands to his head, got two fistfuls of hair and pulled. “Mine. Wow. Mine.” And off he went again, his long legs carrying him swiftly past the table, on through the sitting area to the hallway that led to the bedrooms. Next to the hallway, stairs led down to the lower floor. For a moment, he just stood there, his head going back and forth, as though he couldn’t decide whether to run down the stairs or set off along the hallway.

Karin didn’t know what to do, either, so she just waited by the slider. Eventually, he turned and came toward her again.

“A week,” he repeated when he stopped a foot away from her. “I’ll be a dad in a week is what you just said.”

Excuses weren’t going to cut it. She offered them anyway. “I’m so sorry, Liam. I was going to tell you earlier, but I didn’t really even know where to start. And there’s not much you could do at this point, anyway. So I thought I would just wait until after the birth.”

“You thought you would just wait...”

“Yes. Liam, I promise you, there’s no pressure. You can think it over, decide how much involvement you want to have.” Okay, yeah. No matter what he decided, eventually, she would be after him to spend a little time with his child. And he would have to cough up some child support, too. But it felt beyond rude to hit the poor guy with all that today when he seemed so completely torn up to learn there was a baby on the way.

“No pressure,” he echoed blankly.

“That’s right. There’s no big rush to make decisions. Truly, you can just take your time, figure out what works for you.”

He raked his hair back with both hands. “But...married, maybe? We should get—”

“What? Wait.” Now she was the one frantically blinking. “Married? Us?”

“Well, uh, yeah.”

She needed to nip that terrible idea right in the bud. “No, Liam. Don’t be silly. Of course not.” No way was she getting married just because there was a baby coming. Been there, done that. Bought the T-shirt, saw the movie. Lived through the heartbreak. Never. Again.

And dear God in heaven, could she have made a bigger mess of this?

“Listen,” she said. “After the birth we’ll do DNA. You’ll have plenty of time to deal with this. You really will—and you know, you look awful. Liam, come on. You need to sit down.” She reached for his arm.

He jerked away before she could make contact. “I’ll stand.” They just stared at each other.

She cast desperately about for something meaningful to say. “Liam, I really am so sorry to—”

“Stop.” He actually showed her the hand.

And then he spun on his heel again and paced off toward the stairs, shaking his head as he went, turning right back around and coming toward her once more, halting stock-still a few feet from where she waited. He looked wrecked, ruined, but he held his broad shoulders straight and proud. “Last March, when you broke it off with me, did you know you were pregnant then?”

She wanted to lie to him, make herself look a fraction less like a complete jerk for the way she’d handled the situation. But she didn’t lie. “Yeah. I knew then.”

His forehead crinkled in a frown. “You broke it off, but you didn’t bother to tell me you were having my kid?”

“I felt awful. I couldn’t make myself admit to you that we were having a baby. I mean, why me? How many women have you been with?”

He fell back a step. “What’s that got to do with anything?”

“Liam. I know you. I grew up with you. We were in the same grade at school. We even went on two dates in high school, remember?”

“Of course, I remember.”

“My, um, point is, you’re hot and easy to be with. The women have always loved you and you have loved them right back. How many of those women did you get pregnant?”

“Karin.” He was pulling his hair again. So strange to see him like this, at a loss. Undone. “Come on, now. Where is this going?”

“The answer is none of them, right—not until me?”

Now he looked worried. “Why do I feel like anything I say right now is going to be wrong?”

“Oh, please. No. You are not wrong. This is not your fault—it’s not my fault, either, though. Or at least, that’s what I keep telling myself. But I also can’t help asking myself, why does the condom fail only for me? Why couldn’t I have sense enough to get back on the pill—or better yet, get a contraceptive implant? But every time you and I got together, I really thought it would be the last time. What was the point, I asked myself? I wouldn’t be having sex with anyone again anytime soon. But then I would get a free evening and I would remember how you said to give you a call anytime—I mean, think about it. Four times, we got together.”

That first time had been last December, at Christmastime. Then there’d been once in January, once in February and that last time in March. The first time, she’d promised herself it would be the only time. The second time, too. And that was the one where the condom must have failed.

After that, it hadn’t mattered anyway, whether she got herself an implant or not.

“Four times together,” she muttered, “and this happens.” She looked down and shook her head at her protruding belly. “What is the matter with me, to do that to you?”

“Uh, Karin, I—”

“No, really. You don’t have to answer that. It’s not a question that even needs an answer. And I swear I was going to tell you about the baby that last time, in March. I saw that last night as my chance to let you know what was happening...” She ran out of breath. But he only kept on staring.

So she sucked in another breath and babbled on. “When I called you that night in March, I swear it was my plan to tell you. But then, well, you kissed me and I kissed you back and I thought how much I wanted you and how long it was likely to be before I ever had sex with a man again. I thought, one more time, you know? I thought, what can it hurt?”

Still, he said nothing.

She couldn’t bear the awful silence, so she kept right on talking. “I promised myself I would tell you afterward, but then afterward came, and the words? They wouldn’t come and then I started thinking that you didn’t need to know for months. Liam, I messed up, okay? I messed up and then I didn’t reach out and the longer I didn’t, the harder it got. And now, well...” She lifted her arms out the sides. “Here we are.”

He just continued to look at her through disbelieving eyes. For a really long time. She longed to open her mouth again and fill the silence with the desperate sound of her own voice. But she’d already jabbered out that endless and completely unhelpful explanation of essentially nothing. Really, what more was there to add to all the ways she’d screwed up?

He broke the silence. “I have to leave now.”

She felt equal parts relieved—and desolate. “Okay.”

“But I will be back.”

“Of course.”

“We’ll talk more.”

What was she supposed to say to that? “Sure. Whenever you’re ready.”

“Okay. Soon.” And then he was striding away from her for the fourth time.

She watched as he vanished into the stairwell and didn’t move so much as a muscle until she heard his car start up outside and drive away. After that, for several grim seconds, she thought she might cry, just bawl her eyes out because she felt so terrible about everything and she’d done such a crap job of telling poor Liam he had a baby on the way.

The tears never came, though. Eventually, she turned around and stared blindly out at the ocean for a while.

By the time she remembered her raspberry leaf tea, it was cold.

Chapter Two

Liam got halfway to the gorgeous house he’d built for himself in nearby Astoria before he realized that he needed to talk to his oldest brother Daniel.

Years ago, when their parents died, Daniel, eighteen at the time, essentially took over as the head of the Bravo family. He became a second father to all of them. Daniel was only four years older than Liam. Didn’t matter. When Liam needed fatherly advice, he usually sought out his oldest brother.

He called Daniel’s cell from the car.

“Where are you?” Liam demanded when Daniel picked up.

“Hi to you, too. I’m at the office.” Daniel ran the family business, Valentine Logging. “What do you need?”

“Long story. I’ll be there in ten.”

“Good enough.”

Valentine Logging had its headquarters on the Warrenton docks between Valentine Bay and Astoria. Liam parked in front of the hangar-like building that housed the offices.

Daniel was waiting. He ushered Liam into his private office, shut the door and gestured toward the sitting area on one side of the room. “You look like hell. What’s going on?”

“I need to talk.” Liam sank to the leather sofa. “You know Karin Killigan?”

“Of course.” Daniel dropped into the club chair.

“Karin and me, we had a thing last winter.”

Daniel frowned. “Wait a minute—Karin’s pregnant, right?”

“Yeah. How did you know?” Did everyone know but him?

“Keely told me.” Keely was Daniel’s wife.

“How did Keely know?”

“She hung out a little with Karin at Madison and Sten’s wedding. According to Keely, Karin was noticeably pregnant then—but you missed the wedding, right?”

“Right.” He’d felt bad to miss it, but he’d had a work conflict in Portland, one he couldn’t put off or get out of.

Liam owned Bravo Trucking, which he’d built up from a few rigs that hauled strictly for Valentine Logging into a fleet with over two hundred trucks and two hundred fifty employees. His original terminal was nearby, right there in Warrenton. Last year, he’d opened one in Portland, too.

Daniel was leaning forward again. “Are you saying the baby is yours?”

“Yeah.” The word scraped his throat as he said it. “Karin says she’s been trying for months to work up the nerve to tell me. I probably still wouldn’t know if I hadn’t seen her coming out of Safeway a couple of hours ago.” And he had that feeling again, like if he sat still, he might just lose his mind. So he jumped up, paced to the door and then paced back again.

Daniel said, “You never mentioned you were dating Karin.”

“Dating?” He stopped by Daniel’s chair. “I wouldn’t call it dating. It was only a few times, whenever she could get away. She wanted it kept just between the two of us. I agreed it would be the way she wanted it and I never told anyone else that we were hooking up.”

“Liam,” Daniel said quietly. “Sit back down. Come on, man. It’s all going to work out.”

He dropped to the couch again. “I guess I’m kind of in shock.”

Daniel got up. “Scotch or water?”

Liam braced his elbows on his spread knees and put his head in his hands. “Neither. Both.” Dropping his hands from his face, he flopped back against the cushions and stared up at the ceiling.

Daniel asked, “Didn’t you and Karin date in high school?”

“Briefly.” Liam shut his eyes. “I always thought Karin was cute, you know? Senior year, she asked me to a Sadie Hawkins dance. We had a great time. I took her out to a show a couple of weeks later. But when she started hinting that she wanted to be exclusive with me, I told her what I told all the girls, that I didn’t do virgins and I wasn’t getting serious with anyone. Ever.”

“Classy,” remarked Daniel wryly. “And I’m guessing that was it for you and Karin in high school.”

Liam let out a grunt in the affirmative. “When we met up last December, it was so great to reconnect with her. She’s smart. She takes zero crap, you know? A guy can’t get ahead of her. Better-looking than ever, too, with those gorgeous eyes that look blue at first glance but are actually swirled with green and gray. Plus, she has all that wild, dark hair. And her attitude is seriously snarky. She’s fun.” He couldn’t help recalling the shock and guilt on her face when he’d stopped her at Safeway. “Not so snarky today, though. She really felt bad, that she’d waited so long to tell me...”

“Here you go.”

Liam opened his eyes. Daniel stood over him, a bottle of water in one hand, a glass with two fingers of amber liquid in the other. “Thanks.” Liam set down the glass on the side table and took a long drink from the water bottle. “I should go.” He drank the rest of the water and set the empty bottle by the untouched glass of Scotch.

“Hold on,” said Daniel. “I thought you said you needed to talk.”

“I did talk.” He rose and clapped his brother on the shoulder. “Thanks for listening.”

Liam’s new house in Astoria was four thousand square feet and overlooked the Columbia River. He’d had a decorator in to furnish it in a sleek, modern style, lots of geometric patterns and oxidized oak, pops of deep color here and there.

As a rule, coming home made him feel pretty good about everything. He had a thriving business, a fat bank account and a gorgeous house. By just about any standards, he’d made a success of his life so far.

Today, though, a big house and money in the bank didn’t feel all that satisfying. He was going to be a dad. Just like that. Out of the blue—at least, that was how it felt to him.

Karin had kept saying that he didn’t have to do anything right now.

Wrong.

He needed to do something. He just didn’t really know what.

Maybe he should call Deke Pasternak. Deke was in family law. A little legal advice couldn’t hurt about now, could it?

The lawyer answered on the second ring. “Hey. Liam. Good to hear from you. How’ve you been?”

“I just found out I’m going to be a father. Baby’s due in a week.”

Usually a fast talker, Deke took several seconds to reply. “Well. Congratulations?” He said it with a definite question mark at the end.

Two could play that game. “Thanks?”

“So... You want to meet for a drink or something?”

“How about a phone consultation?”

Five slow beats of complete silence, after which Deke asked, “You okay, man?”

“I’m working on it. Just bill me for this call and tell me what you think.”

Deke did some throat-clearing. “What I think?”

“Yeah.”

“About your being a dad?”

“That’s right.”

“Are you asking as a friend or do you want my legal opinion?”

“You’re billing me, aren’t you?”

“Uh, sure. So this isn’t anyone you were dating seriously, then?”

Liam thought of Karin again, standing there by the sliding glass door in her brother’s empty kitchen, looking miserable. “Why does that matter?”

“Let me put it this way, how did you find out that the baby’s yours?”

“She told me.”

“Ah. Right there. That could be a problem.”

“Well, she should have told me sooner, yeah. She admitted that.”

“No, Liam. What I mean is, what she told you proves nothing.”

“She’s seriously pregnant, man. I saw her with my own eyes.”

“Not what I’m getting at. I’m trying to say that before you take her word for it, you need to let me arrange for DNA testing. It’s best to clear up any doubts right out of the gate. I hate to say it, but it’s a possibility that this baby isn’t even yours.”

Liam had always been an easygoing sort of guy. He never got worked up about anything. But hearing Deke Pasternak imply that Karin Killigan had lied to him about her baby being his? That just pissed him the hell off. “You’re way off base there, Deke. She already mentioned a DNA test, as a matter fact. She’s a straight-ahead woman and she’s not trying to trap me.”

“I’m just trying to help you.”

“No. Uh-uh. You don’t know this woman.”

“Well, I—”

“She would never try to trap a man—she’s so independent, she called off our relationship before I could figure out a way to convince her that we should even have a relationship. She wasn’t even going to tell me about the baby until after the birth. I think she would have put off sharing the big news with me forever if that had been an option for her. But she’s a good woman and that wouldn’t be right. So, no. If she says the baby’s mine, it’s mine, damn it.”

“Liam. Come on. Don’t get me wrong. I’m not disrespecting the, her, mother of your child.”

“Yeah? Coulda fooled me.”

“I only meant that it’s important to prove paternity once and for all. You need to get irrefutable proof and proceed from there. You do that, you know where you stand. And when you know where you stand, you can decide what to do next.”

Why was he even talking to Deke? The guy had always irritated him. “You just don’t get it, do you, Deke? I’m going to be a father. Like in a week! I have no clue how to be someone’s dad.” True, in the past year or so, he had been thinking that it was time for him to start considering having a family of his own.

But not in a week, for crying out loud!

“I’m sorry, Liam. But I don’t really think it’s legal advice you’re looking for here.”

Liam had to agree with that. “You’re right. Gotta go. Have a good one, Deke.”

“You, too. Ping me anytime you—” Deke was still talking as Liam hung up.

He dropped his phone on the sofa table, took off his boots and stretched out on the couch. That lasted maybe thirty seconds, at which point he realized that no way could he keep still.

Sitting up again, he put his Timberlands back on.

He needed to...know stuff. A lot was expected of a guy as a dad. Witness Daniel, for example. Married at nineteen with three brothers and four sisters to raise. And now he had twins from his first wife, Lillie, who’d died shortly after the twins’ birth. Twins, and a daughter with his second wife, Keely.

The responsibilities never ended for a guy like Daniel. He worked all day and then went home to a wife, a couple of three-year-olds, a nine-month-old baby girl and their youngest sister Grace, who hadn’t moved out on her own yet. Daniel made it all look pretty effortless, mostly—or at least, he had since he and Keely got together. He was a happy man now.

Liam could learn a lot from Daniel. He really shouldn’t have just jumped up and run out of his brother’s office like that. He had a million questions and Daniel would be the one to answer them.

However, to get advice from Daniel, he would be required to sit still and listen. That wasn’t happening. Not now, not today.

Grabbing his phone and the jacket he’d shucked off when he entered the house, he headed out again—back to Valentine Bay and Valentine Bay Books down in the historic district, where the fortyish blonde clerk greeted him with a big smile. “How can I help you?”

“I’m having a baby. It’s my first and I need to know everything.”

“Well, of course you do.” She led the way to the baby and childcare section and recommended a few books on first-time fatherhood.

He grabbed those. “I’m just going to look around for a while.”

She left him to it. An hour later, he’d chosen more than twenty new-dad and baby books. After all, he had a lot to learn. And that could take a lot of books.

Back at home, he stuck a frozen pizza in the oven and sat down to begin his education in fatherhood.

At two on Saturday morning, he was still reading. Not long after that, he must have dropped off to sleep. He woke to daylight at his breakfast nook table with his head resting on The Expectant Father: The Ultimate Guide for Dads-to-Be.

He made coffee, had a shower and called both of his offices, where for once everything seemed to be rolling along right on schedule.

At a little after nine, he was knocking on the door of the house on Sweetheart Cove, a bag of baby books in one hand—just the ones he thought had the most to offer, in case he needed to refer to the experts while discussing his upcoming fatherhood with Karin.

Karin’s daughter answered the door. She was a cute little thing with big blue eyes and curly hair in pigtails.

“You came yesterday, didn’t you?” the child demanded at the sight of him.

“That’s right, I did.”

“Grandpa told us to stay in the great room when you came, but I peeked.” Her little mouth drew down at the corners in a puzzled frown. “Who are you?”

Otto Larson appeared from the living area. He wore a patient smile. “Coco, this is Liam Bravo. Invite him in.”

“Come in, Liam Bravo.” She swept out an arm in the general direction of the arch that led to the downstairs living area.

“Thank you, Coco.” He stepped into the foyer.

“You’re welcome.”

Liam shut the door as Coco darted to her grandfather and tugged on his hand. Otto bent close and she whispered in his ear.

He gave Liam a wink. “Yep. Liam is one of those Bravos. Your Aunt Madison is his sister.”

“I knew it!” crowed Coco. She aimed a giant smile at Liam, one that showed a gap where she’d lost a couple of lower teeth. “Aunt Madison is my friend and we have to be careful and not talk about her to most people because she is a movie star and she needs her privacy. But since you’re her brother, I can say what I want about Madison to you.”

Liam made a noise in the affirmative.

Coco Killigan chattered on. “I’m seven and I go to second grade. I have two best friends in my class and for Halloween, I will be Jewel from 101 Dalmatians.” Coco pointed at the bag of books dangling from his left hand. “You brought books. I like books.”

“Coco,” said Otto fondly. “I think Liam’s here to talk to your mom.”

Coco giggled. “Okay!” and skipped away through the arch into the other room.

“Come on,” said Otto. “I’ll get Karin.” He turned and led the way into the first-floor living area, where a boy a couple of years older than Coco sat at the table with a laptop, a paper notepad and a stack of schoolbooks. Otto introduced the boy as Ben, Karin’s son.

“Nice to meet you,” said Ben, sounding much older than his nine or ten years. He had straight brown hair and serious brown eyes.

As Liam tried to think of what to say to him, Karin spoke from behind him.

“Liam.”

He turned to her. She wore jeans and a long, ribbed sweater that clung to the front of her, accentuating her enormous belly. Her wild hair was pinned up in a sloppy little bun. She wore no makeup and the shadows under her eyes made her look tired—tired and soft and huggable, somehow. He wanted to wrap his arms around her and bury his nose in the curve of her neck, find out if she still smelled as good as he remembered.

“I wasn’t expecting you.” She didn’t seem all that happy to see him.

Too bad. He was going to be around. A lot. She would need to get used to that. “I said I’d be back.”

She glanced past him, at Otto. “Dad, I’ll just take Liam on upstairs?”

“Fine with me,” the older man replied.

She focused on Liam again and pasted on a tight smile. “This way...”

Liam followed her back into the foyer and up to the empty top floor, where she offered him a seat in the living area.

He took the sofa and set the bag of books at his feet.

“So, how are you doing?” Karin lowered herself into one of the chairs.

He had so many things to say and no idea where to start. “Uh. Good. Fine. Really. I talked to my lawyer.”

“Well, that’s good.” She gave an uncomfortable little laugh. “I think...”

Now she looked worried—and he didn’t blame her.

Seriously? Deke? He had to go and mention Deke? Nothing good was going to come of telling her what Deke had said. “He, um, wasn’t helpful, but the point is I’m realizing that everything is workable. You need to know that I will provide child support—and I’ve read a little about parenting plans. We’ll get one of those.”

“That’s great.” She sat with her knees pressed tightly together, like someone waiting for an appointment she wasn’t looking forward to.

He leaned in. “I also want you to know I’m here for you, Karin. Whatever you need, I’ll make sure that you get it.”

She nodded at him, an indulgent sort of nod, like he was her seven-year-old daughter, or something. He felt a flare of annoyance, that she so easily categorized him as someone she didn’t have to take too seriously.

The annoyance quickly faded as he realized he missed her—missed the real Karin, the woman who kissed him like she couldn’t get enough of the taste of him, the one who was always ready with some wiseass remark.

He wanted the real Karin back.

He also wanted her to learn to count on him, to trust him, though he’d never been the sort of guy who was willing to work to gain a woman’s trust.

But he’d never been almost a father before, either.

Somehow, impending fatherhood changed everything. She was the mother of his child and he wanted her, wanted to be with her, to take care of her.

One way or another, he would get what he wanted.

Karin wasn’t sure she liked the way Liam was looking at her. It was a thoughtful kind of look, a measuring look. It was also intimate, somehow.

He was a beautiful man, all golden and deep-chested, with hard arms and proud shoulders. It would be so good, to have those arms around her, to rest against that strong chest. Looking at him now, in the gray light of this chilly fall morning, she couldn’t help wishing...

No.

Never mind.

Bad idea.

She and Liam weren’t a couple and they never would be.

“So,” she said to break the lengthening silence between them, “What’s with the bag of books?”

“Research.” He granted her a proud smile. “You know, first-time fatherhood, pregnancy, labor and delivery. All that. I’ve got a lot to catch up on and I’ve been doing my homework. I stayed up late trying to get a handle on all the stuff I need to know.”

He was too sweet. He really was.

She’d been awake half the night, too, feeling bad about everything. And now she sat across from him waiting for him to get thoroughly pissed off at her—that she’d gotten pregnant in the first place when he used a condom every time. That she didn’t bust to the baby when she broke it off with him and then, for all those months and months, that she’d never once reached out to let him know he was going to be a dad. He probably wondered if she ever would have told him.

And frankly, if he hadn’t spotted her at the supermarket yesterday, she had no idea when she would have pulled up her big-girl panties and gotten in touch with the guy.

They stared at each other across the endless expanse of Sten’s coffee table. Liam looked like he had a million things to tell her—tender things. Kind things. Helpful things.

The man truly wasn’t angry. Not yet, anyway. He was sweet and sincere and he just seemed to want to be there for her and for the baby, to do the right thing.

His kindness reminded her sharply of how much she’d liked him when they met up again last year. In addition to his general charm and hotness, Liam Bravo, high school heartbreaker, had grown up to be a good man.

And right now, that just made her want to cry.

He said, “I was thinking...”

“Yeah?”

“Looking back on that night in March when you broke it off, I knew there was something weighing on your mind. I should have tried harder to get you to open to me.”

She couldn’t believe he’d just said that. “Liam. You were great. Don’t you dare blame yourself.”

“Look, I just need to know what you need.”

“I’m good, I promise. Everything’s pretty much ready. We’re just waiting for the baby to come.”

He frowned in a thoughtful sort of way. “Have you been going to childbirth classes?”

“I took the classes, yes. Like I said, I’m ready.”

“A labor coach?” he asked and then clarified, “Do you have one?”

“I have two, as a matter of fact—Naomi and Prim.” Naomi Khan Smith and Primrose Hart Danvers had been her best friends since kindergarten. Both women were married now. Naomi had two boys.

“Prim and Naomi. Makes sense.” He’d grown up with her BFFs, same as she had. “And even though I get that you’re all set and Prim and Naomi will take good care of you, I want to be there, when the baby comes.”

She tried not to picture him standing beside her while she sweated and groaned with her legs spread apart. If he wanted to be there, he had the right. “Yes. That’s fine. Great.”

“So you’ll call me, when you go into labor?”

“I will, absolutely.”

Liam had a million more things to discuss with the soon-to-be mother of his child. But sitting here across from her in Sten Larson’s too-quiet great room, he couldn’t seem to remember a single one of them.

She just looked so brave and uncomfortable—and alone. Beyond being smart and good-looking and self-reliant, there was something that hurt his heart about Karin Killigan, something walled-off and sad.

“What else?” she asked. He knew she was trying not to sound impatient, but it was obvious to him that she couldn’t wait for him to leave.

And why stay? She didn’t really want him here, there was nothing he could do for her at the moment—and he hated the feeling that he contributed to her sadness.

“Nothing else—not right now, anyway,” he heard himself say.

She stood, a surprisingly agile move given the size of her belly. “Well, all right then. Come by anytime. I mean that. Or call. Whatever.”

“Thanks.” He grabbed his bag of books and followed her down to the lower floor.

Her little girl stuck her curly head into the foyer as Karin was showing him out the door. “Bye, Liam Bravo.”

“Bye, Coco.”

“Can I call you just Liam?”

When he glanced at the silent woman beside him, she shrugged. “Up to you.”

He gave Coco a smile. “Just Liam works for me.”

“Okay! Bye, Liam. You can come and see me anytime.” Coco waved as Karin ushered him out the door.

Liam went back to Astoria and had breakfast at a homey little diner he liked. From there, he went on to his office at the Warrenton terminal and put in a half day of work.

That evening, he drove the few miles to Valentine Bay and stopped at the Sea Breeze on Beach Street for a beer. His baby sister Grace was behind the bar. She served him his favorite IPA and asked him if something was bothering him.

“It’s all good,” he lied and Gracie left him alone except to give him a refill when he signaled for it. He sat there sipping his beer, feeling kind of gloomy, going back and forth over whether or not to just tell his youngest sister that he was about to be a dad. At some point, he would have to break the big news to the whole family.

Soon, actually. The baby would be here in no time at all.

It all felt so strange. Completely unreal. He still had no clue how he was going to do it—be a dad.

But he wasn’t giving up. Uh-uh. Karin and her sad eyes weren’t keeping him away. He would be there for her and for his kid whether she wanted him around or not.

“Is Liam your boyfriend, Mommy?” Coco took a big sip of her milk and then set the glass carefully down. She picked up her fork and speared a clump of mac and cheese with ham.

Karin and her dad shared a glance across the dinner table. Otto lifted one bushy eyebrow. Karin read that look: it’s as good a time as any.

She cast a sideways glance at Ben. He was watching her, wearing what she always thought of as his Little Professor look. Serious. Thoughtful. Ben never just burst out with things the way Coco did. He watched. He waited. He made carefully considered, responsible decisions.

“As a matter of fact,” Karin said to her daughter, “I’ve been meaning to talk to both you and Ben about Liam.”

“I like Liam!” Coco speared a green bean and stuck it in her mouth.

Dear God. Where to even start? “I like Liam, too,” Karin said, trying to sound relaxed and natural and feeling anything but. “And several months ago, I...went out with him.”

Ben’s forehead scrunched up the way it always did when some complex math problem didn’t compute. “You were dating Liam?”

Not dating, exactly. “Uh, yes. I was. We’re not, um, dating anymore, though. But we are friends. And that’s a good thing. Because, as it turns out...” Was she blowing this? Most likely. She forged on anyway. “We will all probably be seeing a lot more of Liam because he is the new baby’s father.”

Ben said nothing.

Coco was incredulous. She set down her fork. “Our baby’s father?”

“Yes.” It was official. She was a terrible mother who needed lessons in how to share awkward, confusing information with her own children. “Liam is our baby’s dad.”

Coco frowned. “Is he going to come and live in our house?”

“No, honey.”

“But doesn’t he want to be with the baby?”

“Yes. Yes, he does. And he will be here often to see the baby. And when the baby gets older, the baby will probably stay with Liam some of the time.”

“Oh,” said Coco, and picked up her fork again. “Okay.” She stabbed herself another big bite of mac and cheese.

Karin glanced across at her dad again. He gave her a shrug and a reassuring smile.

Ben, who understood the mechanics of reproduction, asked the question she’d been dreading. “How come you didn’t say who the baby’s dad was when I asked you before?” He’d asked several months ago, not long after she’d made the announcement that he and Coco would have a new brother or sister.

Because I’m a lily-livered scaredy-cat, she thought. She said, “Well, sweetheart, as I said then, I wanted to talk to the baby’s dad first.”

“You took a long time to talk to him.”

Ouch. “Yes, I did. I’m sorry about that, I really am.”

Ben tipped his head to the side, pondering. “Why? Were you nervous, to tell him?”

Understatement of the decade. “I was, yes.”

“But now he knows and he’s happy that he’ll be a dad?”

“I haven’t asked him that question. But he seems very determined to be a good dad.”

Ben was still looking kind of troubled over the whole situation.

But Coco wasn’t. “Our baby will like having Liam for a dad,” she declared. “Liam’s nice—and I finished my dinner. What’s for dessert?”

Otto chuckled. “I think there might be a full carton of chocolate ice cream in the freezer.”

Karin brushed Ben’s arm. “Want to go talk about this in the other room, just the two of us?”

Ben shook his head. “Thanks, Mom. I’d rather just have some dessert.”

On Sunday, Karin went in to work at Larson Boatworks, the boat-building and refitting company her dad had started thirty-five years before. Karin ran the office.

That day, her dad kept an eye on the kids at home so she could spend several hours tying up loose ends on the job before the baby came. When she got back to the Cove late that afternoon, her dad reported that Liam had dropped by.

“Should I call him?” she asked.

“He didn’t say to ask you to.”

“Did he mention what he needed to talk to me about?”

Her dad gave her a look, indulgent and full of wry humor. “I’m not sure he knows what he needs to talk to you about.”

For the rest of that day and into the evening, she kept thinking that she probably ought to call Liam, check in, ask him if he had any questions or anything. Somehow, though, she never quite got around to picking up the phone.

Monday, her leave from work began. Her dad dropped the kids at the bus stop and then went on to work.

It was nice, having the house to herself. She took a half hour just deciding what to wear and ended up settling on a giant purple T-shirt dress with an asymmetrical hem.

Really, she didn’t want jeans or leggings wrapped around her balloon of a belly today, so she settled on thigh-high socks in royal blue with her oldest, comfiest pair of Doc Martens boots on her feet.

Once she was dressed, she felt suddenly energized, so she vacuumed and dusted and rechecked the baby’s room for the umpteenth time, making sure everything was ready. Around eleven, just as she finished assembling two large baking dishes of lasagna and sticking them in the freezer to reheat when needed, she heard the doorbell ring.

It was Liam. He had a pink teddy bear in one hand and a blue bear in the other.

“I forgot to ask. What are we having?” He smiled that killer smile of his, and she felt way too glad to see him.

She laughed. “It’s a boy.”

And just like that, he threw the pink bear over his shoulder and handed her the blue one.

The man was too charming by half. “Thank you—and I think we should save the pink one, too.”

“Is there something you aren’t telling me?” He pretended to look alarmed. “We’re having twins, aren’t we?”

“Oh, God, no. I just meant it seems wrong to leave it lying there on the front step.”

He went and got the pink bear. “Fine. The baby gets two bears.”

It seemed only right to offer, “Would you like to see his ultrasound pictures?”

“I thought you’d never ask.”

She ushered him in. As he brushed past her, she got a hint of his cologne, a scent of leather and sandalwood that caused a sudden, stunning remembrance of the two of them all those months ago, naked on tangled sheets.

He paused in the arch to the living area and glanced back at her. “Something wrong?”

“Not a thing.” She shut the door and followed him into the first-floor living area.

In the kitchen, she put the blue bear down on the counter. He set the pink one beside it as she went to the double-doored fridge, which was covered with family pictures and artwork created by both Ben and Coco. “Here we are.” She took the two ultrasound shots from under a strawberry magnet and handed them over. “These were at eighteen weeks.”

He studied them. “Wait. Is that...?” He slanted her a grin.

“What sharp eyes you have, Liam Bravo. Yep. A bona fide penis—and I have a video of that same procedure. Want to see it?”

“Oh, yeah.”

She stuck the pictures back on the fridge and led him to the table where she’d left her laptop. He laughed in a sort of startled wonder as he watched his son wave his tiny arms and feet, yawn and suck his thumb.

After he’d seen the whole thing through twice, he glanced up at her. “You said you were all ready for him. Does that mean he has a room and everything?”

She grabbed the two teddy bears and gestured toward the hallway to the bedrooms. “Right this way.” He followed her as she explained, “We’re lucky this house has so many rooms, including five bedrooms on this level. I had a sort of craft room/home office in one.” She led him to the end of the hall where the door stood open. “Ta-da!” She put the bears on the dresser by the door.

“Wow.” Liam seemed really pleased.

And out of nowhere, she was recalling one of the depressing fights she’d had with Ben, Sr., before Ben was born.

Bud, as everyone always called him, had kept promising to help her paint the tiny closet of a spare room at the apartment they’d shared back then.

Somehow, though, he never found the time to keep his promise. Bud had loved the life of a commercial fisherman and he was always out on a boat, working the fisheries up and down the Pacific coast, from Southern California to Alaska. He just kept saying “later,” every time she tried to pin him down as to when, exactly, he would put in some time on the baby’s room.

In the end, she fixed up the room herself, though not until after they’d had a doozy of an argument over it—one in which they both said a lot of things they shouldn’t have. It was always like that with her and Bud. They would argue bitterly.

And then Bud would go off to work and be gone for weeks.

In the end, she’d tackled the nursery nook alone. When Bud came home, she showed him the finished product. He’d waved a dismissing hand and said it looked “fine” in a dead voice that communicated way too clearly how trapped he felt.

Liam’s voice drew her back to the present. “The mural is amazing.”

Covering the whole wall behind the crib, the mural included a snowcapped mountain, a starry night sky, an airplane sailing by the moon and tall evergreens standing sentinel off to one side, everything in grays, greens and silvers.

“Northwest outdoorsy,” Liam said. “I like it a lot.”

She rubbed her belly. The baby was riding really low and she’d had some contractions.

He was watching her. “You okay?”

“I’m fine. This baby is coming soon.”

His eyes got bigger and he straightened from his easy slouch in the doorway. “As in now?”

She waved a hand and chuckled, thinking that this visit was going pretty well and she was glad about that. “Relax. Probably not today.”

“Whew.” He gazed at the mural again. “You paint that wall yourself?”

“More or less. Stencils. You can’t beat ’em.”

He shifted his gaze to her. He had a way of studying her, like he was memorizing the lines of her face. He used to do that months ago, sitting across from her at whatever bar they met up in, or later, naked in bed. One night, she’d teased that he should take a picture. He’d promptly grabbed his phone off the table by the bed and aimed it at her, snapping off two shots.

She’d demanded he delete them, because who needs naked pictures of herself on a guy’s phone?

He’d handed her the phone. She’d seen then that he’d only taken close-ups of her face. And when she glanced up at him, he gazed back at her so hopefully, like it would just be the greatest thing in the world, to have a couple of shots of her grinning, with total bedhead. She’d agreed he could keep the pictures—and then grabbed him close for a long, smoking-hot kiss.

Liam was still watching her. “Have you chosen a name for this baby boy of ours?”

“No, I have not. I kind of thought you might want input on his name.”

Apparently, that was the right answer because he granted her a beautiful smile. “Thanks. I’ll be thinking about names. I’ll make up a list of ones I like. We can talk it over.” Solemnly, he added, “I read all about baby daddies. I don’t want to be that guy.”

Her heart felt like someone was squeezing it. She hardly knew what to say. “You have other children?”

“Huh?” He seemed horrified. “No! Wait. I get it. You mean ‘baby daddy’ as in a flaky guy who has kids by different women, but I wasn’t so much referring to the multiple baby mamas aspect. I meant a flaky guy, yeah. But in this case, a guy with only one baby, a guy who’s basically a sperm donor with minimal involvement—that’s what I don’t want to be. I want to be on board with this baby, available, helping out. I want to be there, you know? Tell me you know that.” He seemed so intense suddenly, as though it really bothered him that she might not understand his sincerity about pitching in.

“Hey, really. It’s going to be okay, Liam.”

“I hope so.”

“It really is. I know I dropped the ball in a big way by not telling you what was going on sooner. I should’ve pushed past all the crap going on in my head and gotten in touch.”

He watched her way too closely. “What crap, exactly?”

Uh-uh. Not going there. “My point is, I promise you that we will work together. You don’t have to freak out.”

“I’m not freaking out,” he said vehemently—and a bit freakily.

Was this all going south suddenly?

And just when they’d both seemed to be feeling more at ease around each other.

She kind of wanted to cry, which was probably just hormones. But still. She really did want to get along with him. “Okay. You’re right. You’re not freaking out and I shouldn’t have even hinted that you were and I’m really, um...” Her already weak train of thought went right off the rails as she felt something shift inside her—a gentle shift, yet also a sudden one, a tiny pop of sensation deep within.

And then something was dripping along the inside of her thighs.

Frowning, she looked down, which was pointless. Her giant belly blocked her view and whatever was dripping down there, it was only a trickle. So far, her thigh-highs seemed to be absorbing it.

“Okay,” said Liam. “Something’s happened. What?”

She made herself look straight into his startled blue eyes and she put real effort into speaking calmly. “My water just broke. Would you mind driving me to Memorial Hospital?”

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