The Soldier's Baby Bargain Read Free

nape at the edge of his hairline.
    Her cheeks grew warm.
    “I can’t believe we’re having this conversation,” he said after a pause, forcing Faith to focus. “I can’t believe you’re going to have a baby.”
    “ We are,” she said softly. He turned his head and met her stare.
    “Are you really happy about it?” he asked.
    “I’ll admit that at first I was pretty bowled over. It didn’t take me long to get used to the idea...become excited,” she said quietly, her fingers brushing against her abdomen instinctively. She paused when she noticed Ryan’s stare on her hand. A warm, heavy feeling expanded in her belly and lowered. Her fingers seemed to burn beneath his gaze. How was it that he so effortlessly had this effect on her? She saw his strong throat convulse as he swallowed.
    “So...you’re about three months along?” he asked gruffly.
    “I just started my second trimester.”
    “And the doctor says—”
    “The baby is perfectly healthy. I’ve already had an ultrasound,” she said, wonder filtering into her tone. Some of the miracle of that day came back to her unexpectedly. He was the father, after all, the cocreator of that tiny miracle she’d seen on the screen.
    His expression looked flat. Faith realized she was witnessing a highly unlikely event firsthand—Major Ryan Itani in a state of shock.
    “Ryan, are you all right?”
    “Of course,” he said. He blinked as if to clear the haze from his vision. “And you? You’re healthy, as well?” he asked in a voice that struck her as strained.
    She smiled reassuringly. “I’m fine. Completely healthy.”
    “What...what do you plan to do?” he asked after a moment.
    “Do?” she asked bemusedly. “Well, have the baby, of course. Take care of it. Love it.”
    “All on your own?”
    “I don’t see why not. I have a good job. My practice is doing very well. I’m just as capable as any adult of taking care of a baby.”
    “Your parents moved to Florida a year ago,” he said. “You don’t have any other family remaining in the area, do you?”
    “No, but that doesn’t mean much. I doubt my parents would have been super excited to get involved anyway. They’re pretty involved with their own life. But I have good friends in town, like Jane.”
    “Your office manager?” he asked doubtfully.
    She gave him a surprised glance. “Did you meet Jane while I was seeing patients?” she asked, referring to earlier, when he’d waited for her at her office.
    He nodded distractedly. “She introduced herself. Besides, you talked about her on Christmas Eve, remember? You’d spent that evening with Jane’s family.”
    “Oh, right.”
    An awkward silence settled. It struck her how bizarre this situation really was. She’d only met Ryan in person on two other occasions before Christmas Eve—at summer picnics for families of members of the 28th Wing while Jesse and Ryan had both been based in the Bay Area. She’d liked Ryan very much, and knew that Jesse’s admiration for him bordered on worship. Ryan and she were both from Michigan, and Ryan had regularly spent his summers in nearby Harbor Town, so they’d had that in common. She’d enjoyed talking to him. She may have been married at the time, but she wasn’t blind. Ryan was a very attractive man. Still, he’d never been in the forefront of her mind. Aside from those casual social events and constantly hearing his name mentioned by Jesse, Faith had known little else about him.
    Christmas Eve had brought knowledge, of course, of the lightening strike of passion variety. But sharing a wild moment of lust with a man hardly qualified as true intimacy.
    Now they were going to have a baby together. The strangeness of the whole thing was almost mind-numbing.
    “You don’t have enough people around you for support, Faith. I’m sure Jane is a good friend, but it’s not the same as a family. We even talked about that very thing at Christmas.”
    Her mouth fell open. He’d been so