If there was one. The thought hit like a brick to the face. He was generally an intelligent man. Quick to grasp what was in front of him. “Hannah was there to hear the test results,” he said slowly, piecing it all together. “She couldn’t tell anyone about the diagnosis, and so she did the next best thing. She went to find out who the father was.”

  “That’s my guess. It sounds like Hannah. Definitely my no-nonsense little sister.”

  Ruby looked tired. More than tired. She looked...lost.

  He had to go.

  It’s you, Sebastian. Even if he’d heard her right—which he wasn’t sure he had, but he wasn’t asking—she had to have confused him with someone else.

  Maybe if he wasn’t there, she’d call the father.

  Maybe she couldn’t call him. If he was married. Was at home with his wife. Maybe he even had other children. Clearly, if she could tell the father, expose their relationship, she wouldn’t be sitting here talking to Sebastian.

  She trusted him. The knowledge felt...good.

  But no way could he take on this problem. He couldn’t be what she was trying to make him out to be. And trusted that she’d see that. She’d just received the news. Was still in shock.

  Remembering both times she’d come upon him when emotional unrest had him at his worst, he leaned forward, elbows on his knees, and said, “Are there any more reasons?” For him, rational talking helped. Focusing on the reality right in front of him, little pieces at a time.

  “I’ve only had sex once in two years. The odds are just too incredulous to believe.”

  Once. In two years.

  She’d meant two months, right? Only once since him?

  He stared at her. She was staring right back at him. Gaze clear. Not happy. But clear.

  It’s you, Sebastian.

  He stood up and strode out.

  Chapter 7

  Ruby hadn’t given Sebastian’s potential reaction a whole lot of thought. She hadn’t even been able to land on one of her own, let alone imagine his.

  However, him calmly walking out on her, without a word, was a complete surprise.

  Sitting there at her desk, at nearly midnight, with most of the city outside asleep, she’d never felt more alone in her life.

  Hannah, damn her, had been worried, trying to watch out for Ruby, to help her deal with a situation she’d clearly not been tending to well herself. And Ruby loved her for it. But her sister had just put the weight of twelve Coltons on her shoulders, when she wasn’t even handling the tiny weight of one growing inside her.

  Denial was the first stage of grief.

  Was it a stage of life, too?

  Was she grieving the loss of the life she wanted?

  Or just giving herself time to process?

  She heard steps in the hallway. Grabbed the gun her father had made her learn how to use and keep in her desk drawer, because she was a Colton and you never knew...

  And saw Sebastian standing in her doorway, the box of puppies in his arms.

  She didn’t say a word. The little ones were his. And out of imminent danger. Being with their mother would be a good thing. And Sebastian would remain with them all night. She didn’t have a doubt about that.

  Instead of saying whatever goodbye she’d figured he’d come to say, he walked into the office. He glanced at the gun she held, but didn’t hesitate as he stood directly in front of her desk.

  “These are the babies in my life,” he told her. “The only babies I can ever have.”

  After sliding the gun back into its place, she locked the drawer with the switch on the underside of her desk. “I’m not asking anything from you, Sebastian,” she said, feeling steady with the words.

  She hadn’t consciously thought about it, but there it was. Sitting right with her.

  “Like you, I didn’t expect or want this, but I knew this afternoon that if the positive result was accurate, I was going to have the baby. My choice. Made completely without you. We—you and I together—don’t have to do anything differently, change anything about our relationship. We work well together, and... I hope, as you said tonight, we’re friends, too...”

  He shook his head. Opened his mouth and, not ready for his rejection, she blurted out more words. “I can do this alone. As we’ve already established, I have a huge, nosy, caring family who will butt in all the time and help me. Even when I don’t need it.” She smiled. It hurt her cheeks.

  Everything she was saying hurt, too.

  She’d drawn a metaphorical picture of the way she’d wanted her life to look. She was in the middle, a spinster. The cacophony of growing up in such a large family, the tension between her parents, her mother’s hurt feelings, the distance...and then Aunt Jessie and Uncle Buck... The idea of bringing any chance of any of that into her own home...

  In the picture, Hannah’s sweet Lucy had been the little love of her life. Being an aunt fulfilled her motherly instincts just fine. And her practice, the animals who consumed her days and a lot of her nights, too, took up most of the rest of the space. With just enough room left over to fit every member of her family and Owl Creek’s citizens. The town was her picture frame. The pieces of wood that supported her, kept her together.

  Sebastian seemed to shrink as he stood there, silently holding his box. The puppies were sleeping. She’d noticed that immediately. And were breathing normally.

  “You deserve a stable, loving husband. Your children, as much or more so.” When he finally spoke, the words carried calmness. Truth. “As you witnessed for yourself earlier tonight, I can’t provide that. Not because I don’t want to, or because I’m not willing to. Not because I wouldn’t give my all to try, but because it’s out of my control.”

  If Oscar was PTSD-trained...or Sebastian got a second dog that was...

  She stopped the thought short. No wishing for stars in the sky on a sunny day.

  “It’s okay,” she told him. “I don’t want a husband, Sebastian. I’ve never had a long-term relationship because I didn’t want one. I’m thirty and single by choice.” The words came easily. There was a new catch in her heart as she said them, though.

  And a hose filled with panic blowing a gasket inside her. How did a strong-minded, independent woman like herself accept the fact that she’d had no choice in the biggest matter in her life? Keeping the baby was a choice.

  But getting pregnant? She’d taken precautions and...

  “That night...” Sebastian said, as though reading her thoughts. Her gaze darted to him as he continued, “If it hadn’t been for my panic attack, we’d never have...”

  No, they wouldn’t have. But... “I wanted to.” He had to know that she hadn’t been completely selfless that night. Sex asked too much from her to just be a distraction.

  For a second there, his eyes lit up and he grinned. Her lower belly responded.

  Then he sobered. “That panic attack is precisely why I can’t offer you...”

  “I wouldn’t accept it if you did,” she told him quietly. She didn’t want any marriage. Let alone one born out of pity or obligation—which was what her parents’ marriage had been. Or had become, by the time Ruby was old enough to be aware of such things.

  Maybe all marriages became that, inside a home’s walls. How did anyone really know?

  “I’ll be that friend I spoke about a little bit ago. When I was thinking there was a boyfriend...”

  She nodded. A little smile flowered inside her. “I’d like that.”

  And now, he should go. Since he was taking the puppies back to Jasmine, she could go home and get some rest.

  Except that her car was at his place.

  She most definitely was not going back there. Not this late at night. Without an emergency to tend to.

  Besides, her little two-bedroom house on the lake was calling to her. It was all hers. And only hers.

  Sebastian wasn’t leaving. “I should be there when you tell your family I’m the father.”

  Her family and Sebastian—her father and Wade and Sebastian—in the same room when she announced that she’d gotten knocked up by mistake and was going to be a single mother?

  She could feel the tension all the way up to her ears. The pressure...

  “Can we leave that thought for another day?” she asked him. “Let’s wait at least until after I’ve had my first appointment before we tell anyone anything...” There could be something that would prevent the pregnancy from continuing. She was still in her first trimester. Could miscarry.

  And did not want to.

  A strange sense of grief had hit as soon as she’d thought of the possibility of losing the baby. So much so that she issued a quick, silent and very fervent prayer to the fates that her fetus was healthy.

  The sensation took over her entire being. That need for the little raspberry-sized being growing inside her to be well.

  Not understanding herself, or life in general, she settled for a “thank you” to Sebastian when he agreed to her request.

  Him being the father of her baby would be their secret.

  For the moment.

  “Would you mind giving me a ride home?” she asked him then, thinking his ready acceptance would be a given. After all, she was carrying their mutual result of the choice they’d made together to have sex. He could provide some transportation.

  Didn’t mean she needed him. Or wanted his help.

  It was just the way the math added up.

  * * *

  Sebastian was so far out of his element that he couldn’t find himself. He saw the immediate steps in front of him and took them.

  He got the box of sleeping puppies settled in his truck, waited for Ruby to climb in and started the engine.

  Looking out the windshield, the future hung before him. Drive off the lot and down the mile or so to Ruby’s little house on the lake. He’d been by it countless times. Had never been inside.

  His child would be living there.

  The thought came and he sat with it.

  He wasn’t going to be a husband, or a live-in father, but he was going to have a biological child in the world.

  It didn’t compute.

  He’d made his decisions. Set his course.

  But sometimes, as had happened with the tragic deaths of his parents, life went off course. He was going to have to adjust.

  He couldn’t change what he couldn’t change. His occasional panic attacks. The unpredictable nightmares. His need to live alone.

  But he had a lot of rerouting to do.

  The child would come first. What was best for the life he and Ruby had created.

  And Ruby was his responsibility, too. In part. Since she was housing the child—over the next seven months, but after that, too.

  He’d call his banker in the morning. Start the work on a new financial plan.

  And someone was out to get him...and possibly her. A vision of the completely shattered windshield—one bullet in the exact right spot—on her vehicle, not his, shot through his mind as he pulled into Ruby’s driveway. Saw the dark house with the huge lake right behind it.

  Someone could swim ashore...hide in the reeds, then behind the trees in her yard.

  He got out when she did. Reached for the box of puppies.

  “What are you doing?” she asked, stopping at the front of his truck on her way to the sidewalk leading up to her front door.

  “Based on the poison information you provided, and on some evidence found at the scene tonight, Glen Steele determined that the puppies were being poisoned when you pulled up to my house. That it’s likely all the puppies, and Jasmine, too, would have died if you hadn’t arrived when you did. This guy’s for real, Ruby, and he’s escalating.”

  “And you’re afraid to go home?”

  How could a woman’s scrunched-up face look so cute to him in that moment?

  “Hell no. I’m uncomfortable leaving you home alone, especially arriving this late, until we know more.”

  The set of her chin didn’t budge. “What on earth does the time matter? If I’d come home earlier, I’d still be here now, this late.”

  Right. If she’d arrived home alone, and someone had been watching...

  He had to get himself together. Focus.

  “I’d still like to stay,” he said quietly. How could he protect her if he wasn’t there?

  “I don’t want to be rude, Sebastian, but you are not staying here. I’m going inside. Alone. And I’ll have someone bring me out in the morning to get my SUV. I appreciate your concern. I know we’re both a bit off-kilter. I’m glad we’re going to be friends through all of this. And there’s no way I’m risking more intimate moments with you right now. Good night.”

  He stood there and watched as she turned, walked slowly, steadily, up to her door, went inside and shut the door behind her. He watched until he saw lights come on.

  And then he drove around a bit and checked back.

  Once. Twice.

  Thinking about her. About the baby she was carrying.

  Needing a battle plan.

  Finding no ready answers.

  Sometime after one, he caught a glimpse of himself from the outside looking in. A guy in a truck, driving the same roads, watching a house, when he needed to be getting three puppies back to their mother, checking everything over, setting his alarm for two-hour intervals and stretching out on a mat in the medical building that had been invaded by a would-be killer that night.

  The police were on the case. Ruby was a Colton, a member of the family that owned half the town—they’d definitely be watching over her. Robert would have already seen to that.

  She wasn’t telling anyone he was the father of the baby yet. She hadn’t even been to the doctor to confirm that things were in place to progress normally.

  He had some time to figure it all out.

  * * *

  Ruby called for an obstetrician appointment in Connors as soon as she was up and showered Friday morning. And was lucky enough to grab a canceled appointment. She’d intended to catch a ride out to Crosswinds to get her vehicle, but there’d been a text from Sebastian saying he’d had it delivered. When she checked him on it, she found the SUV locked in her driveway.

  She had the keys.

  He must have had it towed.

  Which couldn’t have been cheap.

  When she started to wonder how he’d explained the choice to the truck driver, she shook her head and pushed the thought away. Didn’t matter to her what someone else had said to another. She had her vehicle.

  The forty-five-minute drive to the medical complex where she’d been going since she was a kid calmed her.

  She was taking action. Gathering information. From there, she could determine her next step. And the one after that.

  She was taking control of her life, rather than letting life control her.

  She was getting away from Owl Creek, shrapnel in Oscar, poisoned puppies, a shot-out windshield, the secret-boyfriend drama created by her sisters... and Sebastian Cross. For the morning, she could just breathe.

  And she did so fairly well, remaining calm and in charge of her life, right up until she was lying on the table for the ultrasound her doctor had just ordered. The procedure had been part of the canceled appointment Ruby had snagged, and the timing was right.

  Wasn’t it great how that all worked out? Saved Ruby a trip back.

  Except that she wasn’t mentally prepared. Not for the procedure—she’d have worn pants that were easier to slide down to her pelvic bone to make room for the Doppler to travel in the gel. And she wasn’t ready to be face-to-face with the screen that would make the inconceivable a medical reality to her.

  Internally, Dr. Evelyn had said, everything looked perfect. Things that were supposed to be changing inside of her were doing so right on target and as well as she liked to see them.

  According to the doctor, she was most definitely pregnant.

  Ruby still couldn’t grasp the concept in terms of herself. The past twenty-four hours were like an out-of-body experience.

  She felt the gel. Heard the technician explain things she already knew. Ultrasound was ultrasound, whether you were using it to diagnose human bodies or animal ones.

  Frozen, lying stiffly, her arms tense at her side, her fingers clenched into fists, she stared at the ceiling as the procedure began.

  Concentrated on the sensation of cold jelly spreading over her stomach. The there and then. Not the what-would-be.

  Tried not to hear the deafening lack of sound as the technician’s silence permeated the room.

  Find the fetus. Measure. Determine that everything was normal. She listed the woman’s duties as far as she could think through them.

  A muffled thump sounded in the room. Again and again. Rhythmically. Booming through every wave in Ruby’s eardrum. Faster than she normally heard.

  But it was undeniable just the same. Her head turned of its own accord. Her gaze landed on the grayscale image on screen and she couldn’t look away.

  There it was.

  She saw it immediately. Analyzed every inch of material on the screen. Knew exactly what she was looking at. And diagnosing.

  Her. Alone. By herself.

  The uterus looked great. The fetus. Perfectly positioned.

  And that sound, muffled and seemingly so loud...

  “We have a heartbeat,” the technician said, pleasure in her tone.

  Stating the obvious.

  And Ruby burst into tears.

  Chapter 8

  Sebastian checked on the puppies several times that day, finding irony in the fact that he was tending to babies he owned when he’d never be a father to his own child.

  The child couldn’t know about their biological connection. Sebastian could be a friend to Ruby and nothing more.