Sophie smiled at her. “Thanks, Lori.”

“Hey,” her sister said with a smirk, “I’m just glad it’s you and not me.”

Now, there was the evil Lori she knew and loved. “You almost cried there for a second,” Sophie said.

“Did not.”

“Did too.”

The familiar patter of their bickering helped center Sophie a little more. Enough that by the time she headed back outside, she decided she was strong enough to go and do what needed to be done.

It was time to tell Jake he was going to be a father.

Chapter Ten

The numbers on the spreadsheets covering the desk in Jake’s home office blurred before his eyes. As difficult as words were for him to process, numbers had always been easy.

He shoved away from his desk, knowing any work he tried to do now he’d have to re-do in the morning. The only reason he’d stayed home tonight was to power through some work. If he wasn’t going to be able to get any of it done, he might as well be at one of the pubs working the taps.

He grabbed his cell phone off the kitchen counter and saw a missed call from Zach Sullivan. For ten weeks he’d gone out of his way to avoid the Sullivans. He couldn’t face Zach or Marcus or Chase or Gabe, not knowing what he’d done to their sister. It was the lowest he’d ever stooped, so low he still couldn’t believe what he’d done. He kept hoping he’d wake up and it would all be a crazy dream...but any time he managed to sleep, all he could see was Sophie and the look in her eyes when she’d told him she loved him.

Forever.

He knew better, knew she couldn’t actually love him. She loved a fantasy version of Jake McCann that she’d probably been writing in one of her childhood journals since she was a little girl in pink dresses and pigtails.

She’d never forgive him for what he’d done and Jake knew he didn’t deserve her forgiveness, just as he knew it was for the best that she steer clear of him from now on. Because now that he knew the taste of her, the feel of her...

He needed to get to the pub, where the noise and activity would distract him from thinking about her. He shoved his phone in his pocket, grabbed his car keys, and yanked open the front door.

Sophie Sullivan stood on his front steps. “Oh, hi. I was just about to knock.”

“What the hell are you doing here?”

It was exactly what he’d asked her when she’d showed up at his rental house in Napa. He knew coming at her so aggressively wasn’t doing a damn thing to make up for the way he’d treated her, but it was the best he could do given that even looking at Sophie had his brain cells scrambling.

She looked uncertain and uncomfortable. Along with tired—at least as tired as he felt.

“Could I come inside?”

“Don’t you remember what happened the last time?” He all but growled the words at her, but even though she paled and her eyes widened, she didn’t make a move to leave.

“Yes,” she said softly. “That’s exactly what I’m here to talk to you about.”

Jake didn’t trust himself around her. Just as he’d expected—if he saw her again, one look would be all it took for him to be gripped with a fierce urge to drag her off and chain her to his bed.

God, he was sick, thinking even now about all the ways he could corrupt her.

Nice.

He had to remember she was nice...rather than the innately sensual woman who had writhed and cried out beneath him, desperate for pleasure when it turned out that beneath her sweet, innocent, nice facade was a naughty woman who—

“I don’t have time for this tonight.” The last thing he wanted to do was hurt her, but if she stayed, if she let him touch her again, he’d only end up hurting her more. “I’ve got to get back to the pub.”

“Too bad,” she said, “because you and I need to talk. Now.”

She shoved past him, a fierce Sophie Sullivan he hadn’t known existed until now.

As he shut the door and turned to face her, Jake was wholly focused on tamping down his reaction to how beautiful she was, how good she smelled, how much he wanted to pull her against him. He was so focused on hanging on to his almost nonexistent control, that he nearly missed her next words.

“I’m pregnant.”

The earth actually stopped spinning, nearly pitching him off the edge. His brain tried to hold on to what she’d just said, but he couldn’t wrap his head around it. Couldn’t believe he’d heard what he thought he’d just heard.

He stared at her stomach, her sweater and skirt tight enough at the waist for him to see that it was still flat.

“I probably won’t start showing for another month.”

Panic gripped him at the thought of being a father. He’d never planned on having kids. Had made damn sure something like this would never happen.

“You’re sure it’s mine?”

She looked like he'd hauled off and nailed her with a fist to her jaw, rather than asking her a question. “The wedding was two and a half months ago.” She worked visibly to calm down. “You are the only man I’ve slept with in—” She paused. “—a long time. It couldn't have been anyone else.”

Panic and shock still clawed at his guts, but it couldn’t override the purely primitive male instinct to claim her and his kid that instant.

Relief swept through Jake at knowing she was his.

Only his.

She took a deep, shaky breath. “I came here to tell you what...what happened. You deserve to know, not to always wonder if my little girl or boy is yours.”