I didn’t have a good answer to that. Because what seemed likenoble, clear-eyed maturityjust a few minutes ago was starting to feel likeassuming the worst of someone.
He took in a shuddering breath and then straightened up. He took my hands in his and looked directly into my eyes. “I’ve never heard better news in my entire life. And just so we’re clear: I want to be asked, Winnie. I want nothing more than for you to ask me to be a father to this baby.”
I might as well have been on that floor-dropping barrel ride, hanging in midair, no safety net in sight. “Really?” I asked in a whisper.
He gave me an emotional smile, tears sparkling on his eyelashes and in his beard. “Yes. Really.”
“You’re not... upset? Disappointed? Grieving the ghost of your future self?”
Another puzzled expression. “Huh?”
“You know, because this wasn’t planned, and we’re not—” I struggled for the right words. Because even though it was easier to say what weweren’tthan what wewere, I suddenly didn’t want to say any of that out loud. I didn’t want it to be true that we weren’t together, that we had no future, that the thing between us was only about sex or research.
I loved him.
He loved me.
Why couldn’t that be a start?
“Because we’re not sure what we are yet,” I finished softly. “This is a giant thing to throw into the middle of that.”
“A giant, beautiful thing,” he said earnestly, bringing my hands up to his lips and kissing my fingers. “The best thing.”
“The best thing?”
He nodded solemnly, and then his tear-wet face broke into a huge grin. “A baby,” he said, almost in wonder now. “Ourbaby.”
I knew my smile was more tremulous, more full of uncertainty, but it still felt good to smile back at him, like we were two kids just getting into trouble together, and not two grown-ups who were about to be responsible for a real, living, breathing person.
“Oh!” he exclaimed. “Your pizza!”
He dropped my hands and then selected a slice for me. It was still hot when he put it in my hands, and when I bit into it, it was the most delicious, gooey, maple-y thing I’d ever eaten.
I moaned around the slice. “Oh my God, this weird pizza is the only thing that’s tasted good to me in months.”
Kallum’s eyes went wide with awe. “It really is my baby,” he breathed, and then he reverently watched me inhale three more slices of his pizza while he pressed his hands to my stomach. I’d tell him later that the baby was only barely above my pubic bone and he definitely wouldn’t be able to feel it move yet.
“I know that we have so much more to talk about,” he said as I set down the crust of my last slice and gave a dreamy, full-bellied sigh. “But I really, really want to bone your brains out right now.”
It should have sounded terrible—I’d just eaten a whole bunch of maple syrup and bacon pizza and we still hadso muchto figure out—but instead I felt energized and brave and I was still so viciously horny, I could scream. Boning our brains out seemed like the only logical next move, really.
“Lead the way, Daddy Kallum,” I said, and he groaned before yanking me bodily out of the diner and back to the inn.
Chapter Twenty-Three
Kallum
The elevator doors closed behind us, and I’d already pinned Winnie into the corner, pulling both of her thighs around my hips. I’d been hard as a rock for the last two blocks as we tripped toward the Edelweiss Inn, dipping in and out of shadows and panting into each other’s mouths and kissing every bit of exposed skin.
As we fell into our hallway, Winnie frantically shoved a hand to her purse. “My room is closer.”
A laugh barreled through my chest as she pulled out her key, rocking her hips against me. “Winnie, I’d fuck you in this hallway if I could.” Sweeping her hair back over her shoulder, I kissed along her neck and pulled her closer to me, reachingaround to undo the button of her jeans, until finally the key clicked and we tumbled into her dark room.
She turned to me as the door shut behind us, and it hit me all over again as I watched her swaying in the narrow slant of moonlight creeping in through the window. Winnie was pregnant with my child.Ourchild.
I reached up and held her face in my hands. Her head tilted to the side as she leaned into my palm and we walked backward slowly toward the bed. The room was thick with her scent. Thick with cinnamon and orangey citrus.
“I want to tell everyone,” I told her. “I have to call my mom. You have to meet my mom. And my dad! Can we send out one of those announcement postcards with the little baby skeleton?” I must have had at least five of those things on my fridge from friends and family.
