LITMIR.BIZ

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this has caught you off guard,” he said. “And I’m sure we both have a lot of questions that, if you let me come in, we could discuss without the neighbors watching.”

      A quick glance across the street confirmed that Melanie Quinlan, an attractive young divorcée who made no secret of the fact that she was on the hunt for husband number two, was in her front yard, garden hose in hand to water the flowers she’d just finished planting. Except that her attention was on the uniformed stranger, so she was actually watering her porch rather than the colorful blossoms in the bed in front of it.

      Paige lifted her free hand to wave, and the other woman smiled and waved back enthusiastically, not even trying to hide the fact that her attention was riveted to the scene playing out in front of her—or at least on the man who was part of that scene.

      “If I said no, would you go away?” Paige asked Zach.

      “No.”

      She sighed and stepped away from the door. “Just let me put Emma down.”

      She wasn’t sure why she thought he might protest, why she thought he might want to hold the child he claimed was his own—or at least take a closer look at her—but she was undeniably relieved when he let her go without a word. She felt his gaze on her, though, the weight of that intense stare heavier than the child in her arms, and wondered why it made her feel all hot and tingly inside.

      She worried over that as she carefully laid Emma on her back in the crib and bent to touch her lips to the baby’s soft cheek. She inhaled the scent of baby shampoo and felt tears sting her eyes. She’d started to take this nightly ritual for granted, and now the appearance of a stranger at her door threatened not just this special time she shared with the little girl, but also the whole future she’d envisioned for them together.

      She’d never thought about having a child of her own. Even when it was all her friends and family had been talking about, she’d been too busy with her career to spare a single thought to motherhood. But then Emma had come into her life, and suddenly stepping into the role wasn’t a choice but a necessity.

      She’d had to make a lot of adjustments when she learned that Olivia had named her as Emma’s guardian, and not without resistance, at least in the beginning. But it hadn’t taken Paige long to realize that Emma hadn’t just changed her life, she’d enriched it. The little girl’s presence made her think about things she hadn’t thought about before. Playing the part of her guardian made her appreciate what it meant to be a mother when that wasn’t something Paige had ever considered.

      But through all of the transitions and adjustments, Paige had never imagined that someday someone might turn up in her life and lay claim to the child, as Zach Crawford had just done.

      Olivia had always been stubbornly closemouthed about the man who had fathered her child. It was the only topic about which Paige had ever really argued with her friend. She didn’t care about the identity of the man except insofar as she believed he should bear some responsibility for the child he’d helped create.

      She’d been frustrated by Olivia’s stoic determination, but her friend had always maintained that she could do it alone—and she wanted to. She knew that there were people who whispered about her situation—not because she was an unwed mother-to-be but because they knew that having to shoulder the responsibility on her own would limit the professional opportunities available to her. She would no longer be able to schedule late-night meetings or quick out-of-town trips for the convenience of a client, and at Wainwright, Witmer & Wynne, imposing such limitations was akin to career suicide.

      The few female partners at the firm had done everything but handstands to prove they deserved to be there. And any woman who happened to be a mother and a lawyer was even more suspect because—God forbid—she might put her family responsibilities ahead of her obligations to the firm. Karen Rosario had waited until she’d made partner to start a family and gave birth to her first baby at age forty-two. And then she hired a live-in nanny to raise the child she’d supposedly wanted so much.

      When Paige decided to go into law, she hadn’t considered how difficult it might be to someday balance her career with a family. But she’d thought about it a lot after Olivia told her she was pregnant, and the more she’d thought about it, the angrier she’d become thinking that Olivia was making all of the sacrifices while the man who’d gotten her pregnant—whoever he might be—had simply walked away from his responsibilities.

      Maybe it was the lawyer in her, but Paige had wanted to track him down and slap him with a paternity suit to ensure that he at least shared financial responsibility for the baby he’d helped make.

      “It’s a lot of responsibility to handle on your own,” Paige said to her friend, cautiously broaching the topic she’d avoided for the past several months because she’d been certain Olivia would tell her about the baby’s father when she was ready. But so far, she’d volunteered nothing.

      “I know.”

      “Are you sure you have to do it alone? Maybe the father—”

      “No,” Olivia interrupted quickly. “This has nothing to do with him.”

      “You’re an attorney—you know better than that. Whether you like it or not, it’s his baby, too, and that means he has both legal rights and responsibilities.”

      “He has enough responsibilities without adding a child—especially one that neither of us planned—into the mix.”

      The comment gave her pause, but Paige finally asked, “Is he married?”

      She was relieved when Olivia laughed at the question.

      “Married? No, he’s not married. And he’s not the kind of guy who would cheat on his wife if he was.”

      “But he’s the kind of guy who would abandon the woman who’s pregnant with his child?” she challenged.

      Her friend looked away. “Drop it, Paige. Please.”

      Because she could tell that Olivia was still hurting, and because she knew better than anyone that a man couldn’t be forced to feel something for a child he didn’t want, she’d dropped it.

      And Olivia had never told her anything else about her baby’s father, not even his name, which meant that Paige had a lot of questions for Lieutenant Colonel Zach Crawford.

      She headed back downstairs now, determined to get some answers.

      Zach was still standing in the hallway where she’d left him, his feet shoulder-width apart, his hands clasped behind his back. Paige recognized the military stance but, in conjunction with the uniform, it left her feeling anything but “at ease.”

      She moved toward the kitchen, and he fell into step behind her. She’d spent countless hours in this room, usually with Ashley or Megan or both, and she’d never felt as if the space was small. But something about Zach’s presence made her feel… crowded. She was far too aware of him—his impressive height, his obvious strength, his overwhelming masculinity.

      She glanced at him as she reached for the empty carafe from the coffeemaker, and she swallowed hard when she found those intense and stunningly blue eyes on her. The tug of attraction came again, and she found herself as annoyed as she was baffled by it.

      Of all the times for her body to suddenly decide it had been in stasis for too long, now was not a good one. And even if it had been a good time, Zach Crawford was definitely not a man she should ever find herself attracted to. Not just because of the uniform, but because he had once been intimately involved with one of her best friends.

      It occurred to her that the uniform might have been why her friend had never told her about the man who had fathered her child. Because Olivia knew something of Paige’s history with her father, she knew Paige would question her decision to get involved with a man who could never make her or their daughter a priority in his life.

      She was considering this as she turned on the tap to fill the carafe. “Do you want coffee?” she asked Zach.

      “I’ve

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