LITMIR.BIZ

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to the father of their grandchild.’

      A cold wash of dread swept over Sophie’s body. She clutched the tote bag on her lap and stared blindly out of the window. ‘No rush. They’re a couple of hours’ drive from here.’

      He stole a curious glance at her as he steered out into the traffic. ‘We have to do it sometime.’ Then he read between her tight-lipped lines. ‘I’d be happy to be there when you break the news about the baby.’

      Sophie predicted the scene—her mother unsure whether to be happy or devastated, her father torn between being proud and concerned.

      She blew out a resigned breath. ‘They’ll probably jump on what they’ll see as the obvious remedy and want a date set for the wedding.’

      His left hand reached to claim hers. ‘Soon we’ll be able to give them one.’

      For a heartbeat she thought about disengaging his hand and lopping it back on the steering wheel; she didn’t like feeling crowded by his assumptions. Not one bit. Fortunately for him, she did like the way her toes curled in her boots and her blood sizzled at his touch.

      But it wasn’t enough.

      She shivered beneath a shower of tingles when his thumb grazed back and forth over her fingers and he settled back into his seat as if they’d been driving together like this for years.

      As if he’d won.

      She grinned. She really had to admire such incredible confidence. Still … ‘Don’t get excited. I’m not even remotely close to agreeing to marry you. Just because you want this to happen, it doesn’t mean it will.’

      Wishing wasn’t getting. Not even when a person was so obviously used to pursuing and attaining exactly what he wanted.

      He flicked an unconcerned look into the rearview mirror. ‘I disagree.’

      She summed him up, so cool and invincible. ‘Are all lawyers so arrogant?’

      ‘Are all teachers this hard-headed?’

      A rush of ridiculous disappointment fell through her. Alone barely fifteen minutes and the barbs were already out.

      She slipped her hand from his. ‘You sure know how to flatter a girl.’

      His glance ran the entire length of her body. She gripped the seat. How did he do that? Set her alight with just a look.

      ‘I meant want I said to Penny the other day,’ he said. ‘I believe in fate. We will marry because it’s obviously meant to be. No use fighting it, either of us.’

      She adjusted her seatbelt to turn slightly towards him. ‘That’s a line. You’re not superstitious. You said you don’t believe in luck.’

      ‘Fate isn’t superstition, and it has nothing to do with luck. It’s science. What happens in our lives was always meant to be.’

      She wanted to disagree, but she wasn’t certain that she could.

      He expanded. ‘The relativity of time plus a sequenced order of events equals destiny. It’s where planning and possibility collide. Admittedly this isn’t how I envisaged finding my wife and starting my family, but here we are. I won’t run from it. You shouldn’t fight it.’

      Sophie took in his summation and her heartbeat tripped. A delicate question that needed an honest answer knocked at her brain. That night when they’d stayed together Cooper had decided he was done wasting time, that he was ready to make a commitment.

      She formed a string of words in her mind, then pushed out the first before she could swallow the whole lot back down. ‘I have to ask … you didn’t doctor any of the condoms, did you?’

      He slid her a fractious look. ‘You know the answer—but, no, of course not. In fact, I had absolutely no expectation of conceiving.’ He switched on the radio, turned down the volume. ‘It was fate.’

      Hmm …

      ‘Boy and girl having a good time. It happens. Sometimes even with contraception. We’re living proof.’

      ‘And sometimes it doesn’t happen even when a couple tries for years.’

      Sophie sat very still, waiting for the rest. She had a feeling it would be extremely revealing.

      Cooper’s brow furrowed, as if he were thinking it through. Then he indicated and veered off onto the shoulder of the expressway. With traffic zooming by, he shut off the ignition, laid an arm loosely over the back of her seat and spoke directly to her eyes.

      ‘I was involved with a woman for two years. I wasn’t ready to settle down. She was. She thought if she fell pregnant it would hasten the process. She broke it off a few months ago because she wanted a family and didn’t believe I was capable of giving her one.’ A muscle ticked just above the square angle of his jaw. ‘Although she’d led me to believe otherwise, she hadn’t taken the contraceptive pill for over a year.’

      Sophie’s annoyed response shot out. ‘She tried to fall pregnant without telling you?’

      ‘Apparently her biological clock was ticking.’

      When he shifted, his unbuttoned collar gaped wider, revealing a hint of the hair Sophie had ploughed her fingers through the night he’d made untiring, liberating love to her. Right or wrong, she didn’t want to think of Cooper in another relationship. But it was his confession time. It would change nothing in their situation, but she would do him the courtesy of listening.

      ‘Her cousin had gone through the IVF deal for years,’ he continued. ‘Evangeline saw how that affected her and her marriage, and decided to bail out of our barren relationship while she could.’

      Sophie predicted how Cooper must have felt. Angry. Wounded. Worried. ‘You thought you might have the same kind of delay with any partner?’

      He shrugged a maybe. ‘I didn’t know which of us was responsible for the hitch, but I knew I wanted a family some day.’ His eyes darkened. ‘Sitting at that wedding reception, it suddenly seemed right to start looking for the future Mrs Smith.’

      She gave a lame smile. ‘And now the baby egg has come before the chicken, so to speak.’

      He combed back the curls framing her cheek. ‘I hardly think of you in those terms.’

      The gesture tied her midsection in a flurry of loops. Perhaps she should take the roundabout compliment—but the truth was obvious, and had been from the moment she’d told him of her pregnancy and he’d proposed. He wanted to commit to her not because of who she was, but because of what she could give him—a gift that a part of him had doubted he might ever receive … a child of his own.

      Cooper wanted to come home to his wife and baby every night. Was she his destiny? Or simply part of a pre-wrapped package?

      The car’s engine fired back to life and they drove in silence until, halfway home, he swerved off again—this time in front of an old-fashioned suburban grocery shop. He pulled on the handbrake and swung out of the car. ‘Time to sweeten the mood.’

      Still mulling over their conversation and her reflections, Sophie followed and sat outside the shop at one of two round plastic tables. When Cooper returned, her tastebuds burst to life; he held two monstrous double cones.

      She clapped her hands. ‘Triple choc. Just what I need.’ She’d gone mad for ice cream since she’d fallen pregnant, and right now she definitely needed a sugar boost.

      After he’d handed hers over, she got down to business. She’d bitten off the lower pointed end of her cone before Cooper had even pulled in his rather rickety plastic chair.

      He frowned as she munched. ‘Don’t bite the bottom off. It’ll leak everywhere.’

      She didn’t bother explaining. Instead she grabbed his hand and bit the end off his cone too. She mumbled over the delicious cold and crunch, ‘Die another day.’

      She

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