She seemed distracted as she glanced over at her answering machine. “Shoot. I was hoping Frank had called. I need to get my purse from him.”
“I can take you over to his place.” Dylan swung his keys around on his finger. “Now let’s go back to what you said before. Test results?”
He had a sickening feeling in his gut. One that told him his plans to have Violet on the road with him for the rest of the summer weren’t the same plans she was making.
“It will be two weeks before I’m supposed to start my period. If I’m late, I’ll take a test and let you know.”
No, no, no. He was not going to play along with this. “I was planning on seeing you before then.”
“Why?” She blinked up at him through her glasses, her arms up in her hair, twisting it around and around. She pulled a rubber band out of her kitchen drawer, and wrapped it around the bun she’d made from her thick hair.
He couldn’t believe what he was hearing. “Because I want to! Because last night we started something and it’s not finished yet. I want us to be together.”
She bit her lip, crossed her ankles. “That wasn’t something we even talked about.”
“So let’s talk about it now. I want to date. I want to see where this can go.” Man, this was ridiculous. He finally found the one woman he thought he could fall in love with and want to spend an entire lifetime with, and she was playing word games with him.
“I’m not so sure that’s a good idea. It could get complicated if I am pregnant and things don’t work out between us.”
“Then we’d be like a million other couples who aren’t together but have kids.” He put his hand in his hair in frustration. She was leaping way ahead on this one. He just wanted to take it one day at a time.
“Exactly.” She nodded. “Which is not what I want. This child is supposed to be mine and mine alone. No money, no interference. That’s what we talked about, that’s what we agreed on. If we date, and it ends in disaster, I don’t want to be dealing with custody issues and conflict when I should be concentrating on raising a child.”
Dylan felt floored. Slapped. Used. “So I really was just a sperm donor? Even after everything we…”
Shit. That hurt. That hurt bad.
Her eyes got moist, damn her. Like she was the one hurting. She put her arms around her middle and hugged herself. “I care about you, Dylan, I really do. In a way I can’t quite believe after just one night. But I don’t fit in your world, and you don’t fit in mine, and if there is a baby, it’s my sole concern right now. So yes, you were a sperm donor. And I should remind you that you offered, by the way.”
Because he was an idiot, apparently.
But God, he wanted her so much. He wanted this woman to be his, totally and completely, to want him the way he wanted her, to have a child together with him.
“Don’t…don’t do this, Vi. Please. We’ll just take things slow. I’m a reasonable person.”
Violet hesitated, than shook her head. “I can’t. Please understand.”
So that was it. Angry, hurt, confused, he scoffed. “I understand this is total bullshit.” He threw his hands up. “Goodbye, Violet. Have a nice life.”
The slamming of her door should have made him feel better, but it only made him grimace.
Well, that sucked. He’d just been dumped.
Ten
Three weeks later Violet sat on Ashley’s sofa and tapped her thumb on her knee.
“Who’s keeping time?” Ashley asked, her hands in her blond curly hair.
“I am. I told you that three freaking times,” Trish said, eyes on her watch.
Kindra sat down next to Violet and put her hand on her shoulder. “It’s okay, sweetie, no matter what the test says, it’s going to be okay. We’re here for you.”
Violet felt a pit in her stomach that wasn’t a baby. It was guilt. She hadn’t told her friends about Dylan, wanting to wait to see the results of their night together, if there were any. If there was no baby she wasn’t sure she could ever bring herself to talk about him.
It had just about cracked her heart in half when he had left her apartment that morning, his face hurt and angry.
She had thought she’d done the right thing at the time. Now, she wasn’t sure about anything.
It had been a hellish three weeks, her thoughts straying to Dylan over and over again. Wondering if she should call him. Wondering if somehow or other they could work it out.
Alternating between desperate desire that they had made a baby, to the almost shameful wish that they hadn’t so she could find him and fix things between them.
“Thanks, Kindra. I’m going to be fine. Either way.” She said it to convince herself. She had a feeling that if she wasn’t pregnant-despite having sex during ovulation and being five days late for her period-she was going to be absolutely devastated.
After what she had shared with Dylan, she knew she absolutely could not go to the sperm bank and grab any old DNA. She would have to hold out for Mr. Right. Who she suspected she had already sent packing.
If she was pregnant, she was going to be equal parts thrilled and sad, that she had denied her child a father when he had been willing to give it a go.
Her brain hurt. Her heart hurt. Her stomach was doing flips.
“I want to have a baby, you know. That’s all I’ve ever wanted.”
“Good thing,” Trish said, carrying the test out from the bathroom. “Because it’s positive. You’re pregnant.”
The room sort of swung around in a disco ball splash of color and light. Violet grabbed the arm of the couch. “Oh, my. I’m going to have a baby. I’m going to have a baby.” She started to cry, tears of joy and relief. Excitement. A twinge of fear.
Her friends crowded around her, giving her hugs and murmuring words of reassurance. “I’m happy, I am. I’m really, really happy.”
Suddenly there were footsteps on the interior stairs that came up to Ashley’s apartment. Violet sat up straighter and wiped her face. Geez, it was Lucas and Mack, her friends’ significant others.
“Ashley has a bigger TV than I do,” Lucas was saying. “We can watch the game up here.”
“Go away, you guys,” Trish said succinctly. “I’m serious.”
Violet sniffled and hid her face behind her hair as the guys stopped and took in the situation.
“What’s the matter?” Mack asked, shoving his hands into the pockets of his jeans. Kindra’s fiance frowned at Trish.
“Mack, just give us five minutes,” Kindra said with a quelling lift of her eyebrows.
When neither guy moved, Ashley made a sound of exasperation. “We’re having a girl moment here, okay? We just found out we’re pregnant!”
Lucas’s jaw dropped, his face turning chalk white. “You’re pregnant? Oh, shit, Ash. I told you those glow in the dark condoms don’t work!”
There was a moment of stunned silence while they all processed this, then Trish burst out laughing.
“I’m not pregnant,” Ashley said with a grin, smacking his arm. “And thanks for sharing our sexual habits with all our friends.”
Lucas put his hand over his heart. “Whew. Damn, you scared me half to death. I mean…having a baby isn’t a bad thing, if you’re ready.” With an enormous sigh of relief, Lucas turned to Mack and clapped him on the shoulder. “Congratulations, Dad.”
Kindra gave a squawk. “Hold on, there! I’m not pregnant, either. Though it wouldn’t be a crisis if I were, since Mack and I have been together for almost a year. Though it would screw up our October wedding…my God, I’d never fit in my dress.” She shook her head vehemently. “But no, it’s not me.”