high-five her on getting “knocked up by such a scrumptious man.” But that was Brooke. Always thinking in the short term, never the long term.
Then again, maybe she was more like her sister than she’d thought. Because she certainly hadn’t been thinking the long term on the night she’d gone to Ty’s apartment.
Everything had been about short-term pleasure.
Now there were long-term consequences.
She was having his baby.
“I’m sorry,” she whispered, for lack of knowing what else to say as she stared at the test he held in trembling fingers.
“Quit saying that you’re sorry, Ellie.” He almost sounded angry that she’d done so again. “I don’t want you to be sorry.”
She winced. Poor Ty. She’d gone out like a light in the general mart and he’d carried her back to the truck while Nita had paid for the pregnancy test. How many times had she apologized for that one? At least a few dozen on the ride back to the ranch. No doubt his entire family knew what had happened by now. Probably the entire town knew. Ty’s hometown, and she’d embarrassed him. She was pregnant with his baby. Her face flamed.
“But it’s true.” She wished she could convey to him how humiliated she felt that she’d passed out, how sorry she was that she wasn’t sophisticated enough to have prevented pregnancy. After all, she knew better, but on the night they’d made love she just hadn’t been thinking. She’d like to blame the champagne, but she wasn’t sure how much had been alcohol and how much had been pure Ty. “I didn’t mean to get pregnant.”
He set the test down on the floor beside him. “I know that, but we’re talking about a human life that we’ve created.” His expression gentled. “Don’t be sorry for a new life. Don’t ever be sorry for that.”
“But it wasn’t intentional.” She needed to be sure he understood that.
“Most babies aren’t intentionally created. You know that. That doesn’t make those babies any less special, any less lovable. We made a baby, Ellie. A new life isn’t a bad thing.”
She stared at him, wondering if she was dreaming. If, when she’d passed out, she’d hit her head and was now living in some fantasy world. “You’re taking this too well.”
He leaned his head back against his bathroom wall, took a deep breath and gave a slight shrug. “Honestly, I’m not sure how I’m taking anything, Ellie. I’m blown away.”
That she understood.
“We’re having a baby.”
Not that she was having a baby, but “we’re.” He’d said “we’re.”
She closed her eyes. “What are you going to tell your family?”
Head down, he snorted. “Nita will already have told Harry and my mother that she saw us at the store. Plus, my mother already knew. Hell, you heard Nita. The entire family was debating if you were or not.”
She dropped her head forward, resting her forehead against her knees.
“I didn’t know.” How could she have been so oblivious? Then again, why should she have suspected? Pregnancy wasn’t something she’d given any thought to. “I honestly hadn’t considered the possibility of being pregnant until you asked about my cycle. I feel stupid that I hadn’t, but I just never … well, you know.”
He laced his fingers with hers, held her hand tightly within his, rubbing his thumb gently over her skin. “I know. Shock was written all over your face.”
“Better you were looking at my face than the rest of me this morning,” she mumbled, recalling how horrid she must have looked on the bathroom floor.
Odd that they were back there now. At least now they were fully dressed and she hadn’t just thrown up the contents of her stomach.
Although certainly the news that she was pregnant was enough to have her stomach pitching and rolling.
Ty squeezed her hand. “I happen to like looking at the rest of you, darlin’. I like it a lot. Perhaps you noticed.
I did a lot of looking yesterday afternoon and during the night.”
He sounded so sure, so sincere, yet he couldn’t be, could he? Yet he had acted as if he enjoyed her body. Maybe he was just one of those men who loved women, period, and it didn’t matter how curvy they were.
“I’m going to gain a lot of weight.” Just the mental image of what she’d look like in a few months made her want to cringe. “I won’t be one of those cute pregnant women who maintain their body with a basketball for a belly. I’ll just look like the basketball. A big, giant basketball.”
His gaze narrowed and he forced her to look at him. “Your body is going to change into the body of a pregnant woman who is carrying my child. Mine. There’s nothing more beautiful, Ellie.”
Her insides quivered, and she found herself wanting to lean on him, put her head on his shoulder and put her trust in him. “I want to believe you, but …”
“But?”
“I know I’m not exactly the stuff of legends right now. How are you going to want me when I’m larger?” The tears had started flowing. Lots and lots of tears. Must be another side effect of pregnancy because she rarely cried, yet couldn’t seem to stop today.
“Of course,” she blabbered on. “That’s making wild assumptions, isn’t it? You might not even want me anymore now. I mean, after seeing me this morning and now.” She hiccuped, wiped at her eyes with her free hand, thinking she probably looked pathetic with her red, wet eyes and runny nose from crying. “I really should just shut up, shouldn’t I?”
Ty stared at her, shaking his head as he pulled her onto his lap and wrapped his arms around her. “Ellie, and I do mean Ellie because you do steal my breath, there is no one I want more than you. Haven’t you figured that out yet?”
She sniffed. “Why would you want me, Ty?”
“Are you kidding me? Why wouldn’t I?”
Should she write him a thesis? Or perhaps just send him the abbreviated version?
“You are a beautiful, intelligent, sexy, fun, wonderful, caring woman, and I know it, so you should, too.”
Yep, she was dreaming, so she might as well enjoy her dream. She buried her face in his chest and let him hold her, let him soothe the part of her that had never quite felt good enough for her family.
In Ty’s arms, she felt good enough.
She felt perfect.
She didn’t know how the future would play out. For the moment the future didn’t matter. All that mattered was that Ty made her feel complete, as if she belonged. He made her believe in herself, made her stronger than she’d thought she was.
CHAPTER ELEVEN
TY DREADED GOING downstairs, but knew eventually he would have to face his family. Part of him was surprised he and Ellie hadn’t been interrupted by the whole Donaldson clan. Each of them would have something to say to him, no doubt.
Things he’d really rather Ellie not hear.
He’d convinced her to lie down. He’d lain down with her, held her sleeping body spooned up against him for almost an hour before he’d slipped out of the bed. He liked how her body fit against his, how holding her in his arms felt so right.
His brain had been racing from the moment he’d realized she might be pregnant. There were so many things to consider that he didn’t want to rush what he said to her, didn’t want to possibly say the wrong thing and inadvertently create problems.
A baby.
He’d dedicated his life to caring for babies, for nurturing