LITMIR.BIZ

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Drew had become. And they’d talked about keeping it under the radar, even with the family. Drew preferred to keep his life private, particularly his bank balance. Enough people treated him differently. He didn’t need it from his family, too.

      “You’re looking at setting up a store here.” Dan’s grin was wide. “Cool.”

      “It’s a prime location. I’m here to check out the local competition and see the property. Maybe some other locations if it’s not what I’m looking for.” He smiled. “And the fact that you’re here is a major bonus. We haven’t seen each other enough over the last five years.”

      Dan took a long pull of his beer. “You could have stayed here. I mean it.”

      “And disturb the newlywed love nest? No thanks. It’s as much for my sake as it is for yours.” He chuckled and took a drink of his beer, as well. “By the way, is Harper here a lot? I was surprised to find her here when I arrived.”

      Dan got a strange look on his face. “Oh, she’s around quite a bit I suppose.”

      Drew put down his beer. That made at least four odd looks and a couple of halted conversations. Something was definitely off.

      “Okay, I might be totally crazy, but is there something going on? You looked funny just now, and a couple of times Adele and Harper stopped midsentence. Am I missing something?” He frowned. “And if it’s none of my business, say so.”

      Dan hesitated. “Well...it’s not that it’s none of your business, it’s that we haven’t said anything to anyone yet.”

      “About what?”

      Dan took a drink of his beer. “Well, you know that Delly can’t have kids.”

      “Y-es,” he replied, drawing the word out a bit.

      “So when I asked her to marry me, we talked about possibilities. Maybe adoption. Maybe not having children at all, which would have been fine. But at the wedding, Harper told us that she wanted to offer to be a surrogate for us.”

      Drew’s gaze snapped to the kitchen door. He could hear Adele and Harper talking. A surrogate? He’d heard of such a thing but had never met anyone who’d actually done it. “So you’re going to do it? But...how? I mean... I’m assuming you’re...you know, and are you using her...” He started to stammer. “Okay, so this is actually really awkward.”

      Dan chuckled. “I know. It was for me at first, too. Adele had some testing done and we decided to try using her eggs. Normally this can be a bit of a long road, but we lucked out on the first try.” His smile widened.

      Drew stared for a minute as what his brother had just said sank in. We lucked out on the first try. “Does that mean... God, Dan, are you saying you’re going to be a father?”

      He nodded. “And Delly’s going to be a mom, and Harper is carrying our baby for us.”

      Drew flopped back against the cushion of the chair. “Holy mackerel. I did not see that coming. That was fast.”

      “We haven’t told anyone yet, not even Mom and Dad. She’s still in the first trimester, and we want to be sure everything is okay. But since you’re here...” He leaned forward, resting his hands on his knees. “I’ve been dying to tell someone, you know?” His grin broadened.

      It made sense now. The whole garlic-doesn’t-agree-with-me thing and the strange looks and truncated sentences. Drew rubbed a hand over his face and wondered what kind of woman offered to carry a child for a friend. What a huge commitment. What a generous thing. He hadn’t realized that Harper and Adele were so close. What the heck was she getting out of it? He didn’t consider himself a cynic, but he’d done enough business to know that hardly anyone did anything 100 percent altruistically.

      “You okay, bro?” Dan lifted an eyebrow. “You look a little freaked out.”

      “I’m just surprised. You’ve only been married since March.”

      “We didn’t want to wait. If it didn’t work, we knew it could take time to adopt. I’m telling you, Harper is one in a million. Adele has gone to every appointment so far and soon we get to hear the heartbeat. That’s our baby in there, you see? Adele’s and mine. We’ll never be able to repay Harper for this.”

      Harper stepped into the living room, her face easy and unconcerned. “Does anyone want another drink?”

      Drew got to his feet, his emotions in a bit of a storm as he tried to adjust to the news without being an awkward ass. “Uh, I can get it. You don’t need to wait on me.”

      She smiled softly. “Suit yourself, then. Beer’s in the fridge.”

      He glanced quickly at her abdomen, then back up, his face heating. Harper didn’t seem to notice anything and, with a flip of her ponytail, was gone back to the kitchen again.

      His brain was a muddle, but he did manage to have one coherent thought as he followed her into the kitchen.

       Harper is carrying my brother’s baby.

       CHAPTER THREE

      HARPER KEPT HER hands busy cutting vegetables so she wouldn’t have to look up at Drew, who’d come into the kitchen to grab a beer from the fridge. She’d seen the way his gaze had dropped to her belly and back up and the way he’d stood when she came into the room. Dan had told him; she was relatively sure of that. And it was awkward as hell.

      She knew there would be some odd looks from people over the next few months, and probably more than her fair share of intrusive questions. She was prepared for that, or at least she was trying to be.

      But she hadn’t been prepared for Drew.

      At the wedding in March he’d been crazy attractive, all sexy smiles and sparkling eyes, but she hadn’t been in the mood for a wedding fling, particularly with the groom’s brother. It would have been all kinds of messy.

      Today had been far more awkward because the moment he’d stepped in the room her body had reacted just the same way as it had when he’d pulled her close on the dance floor. Her breath had caught and she’d felt that ridiculous butterfly feeling in the pit of her stomach. Forget the tux; Drew Brimicombe in faded, dusty jeans and a well-worn T-shirt was delectable. Add in that rough stubble and the slightly curling tips of his sun-streaked hair and she was a goner.

      And she remembered how he’d propositioned her.

      Now she was pregnant with his brother and sister-in-law’s child and...yeah. Just as she’d thought at the wedding. This would be potentially awkward as heck and his reaction proved it. Not to mention that her attraction to him hadn’t exactly disappeared.

      She should never have agreed to stay for dinner.

      “Harper. That might be enough cucumber.”

      The plate in front of her was rounded with cucumber slices and she realized she’d sliced the whole thing. To cover her embarrassment at getting caught daydreaming, she grinned and popped one in her mouth. “I can’t get enough these days,” she admitted. “They’re so cool and fresh.”

      “Well, maybe you could cut some carrot and tomato to go with it?”

      “Of course. Sorry. I don’t know where my mind went.”

      Except she knew exactly where it went. With Drew, back into the living room. Or more precisely, back on the dance floor at the Cascade, being held in his strong arms, their bodies brushing.

      She was peeling a carrot when she chanced a look up at Adele, who was ladling broth into the risotto. “I think Dan told Drew about the baby,” she said.

      Adele stopped stirring and stared at her. “You do? Why?”

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