The Father of Her Son - By Kathleen Pickering Page 0,49
lips. “You are like two sides of a coin to me.”
He grabbed her hand and kissed her finger tips. “I already know about the bossy side.”
A purr rose in her throat. “This particular side has captured my affection. You just gave me my first true kisses. They felt wonderful. You feel wonderful. I think I could trust you if we made love.”
He swallowed hard. “Oh, I know you could, Red. Believe me when I say that I didn’t make my offer of marriage to you lightly.”
And that’s when the coin flipped.
Her breath caught in her chest. Here he was, pushing again. She and Evan needed time. Time to get past this awful mess with Campbell. Time to spend in each other’s company. Time was the great prover of all matters of the heart, and Evan was looking for shortcuts.
“Marriage, Evan? You’ve not even been home six months. Up until then, I hadn’t seen you for seven years—with no contact in between. I’ll hear no more talk of marriage, thank you very much.”
“Kelly, on paper it doesn’t make sense.” He tapped his chest. “But, here? I can’t explain it. Everything about you seems right to me. Everything. Right down to Matt. I’d even like to make a few kids of our own someday.”
Having Evan’s kids? Oh, Lord. He was serious. As much as she would welcome marriage and a child or two with the man she loved in the future, she couldn’t handle talk like this. Not now. More directly, as much as she had fantasized about erotic trysts with the enticing Evan, marrying him was not on her agenda. Her little boy deserved her undivided attention.
Besides, Evan said nothing about love. Chemistry? Sure, neither of them could deny that fact, but chemistry wasn’t enough. He had yet to ask how she felt about him. His entire assumption that they should marry was based on how he felt. That made the thought of marriage to him impossible. Evan was too aggressive. She and Evan would require a lot of time together before she could even consider marrying him. His words were like a bucket of ice water.
“Oh, Evan, you paint a pretty picture, but I’m not prepared to consider marriage to you or anyone. Please don’t take offense.”
She felt his body tense. “Now, how should I not take offense?”
She climbed from his lap. “Because my decision has nothing to do with you or this lovely moment.” She smoothed out her dress and pushed back her hair in a lame attempt to correct her disheveled state. “So, you were right. This wasn’t a very good idea for either of us.”
He ran a hand over his face in complete confusion. “How did we just go from kissing passionately to arguing?”
She shrugged. “You’re Irish. Figure it out.”
“Kelly.”
She held out a hand. “No, Evan. I’ll bid you good-night. I should be up early, so I’ll start the coffee.”
CHAPTER ELEVEN
NEXT MORNING, EVAN was headed for makeup when Steve fell into step beside him.
“We need to talk, Evan.”
“Good morning to you, too, Steve.”
Evan wasn’t in the mood to deal with Steve’s frenetic energy right now. He had worked hard this morning to tamp down his frustrations over the botched evening with Kelly last night. She had been pleasant this morning, handing him a nice hot cup of coffee in the predawn hours and thanking him again for asking his mother to watch Matt while she did the morning shift, but Kelly had clearly returned to arm’s-length status.
He could understand why an offer of marriage would make her step back. She could have teased him or suggested they move a little more slowly. But the utter rejection? She clearly was attracted to him—at least he thought she was. Given their chemistry and her dire situation, he thought her pragmatic Irish logic would consider the wisdom in a marriage proposal. Maybe she simply wanted his offer of refuge and nothing more than to remain friends?
No. No way. Not when she kissed him the way she did last night.
In an hour, he’d have to pretend Kelly’s rejection didn’t affect his attitude during this first interview. Wouldn’t you know, Steve had insisted on featuring a Mormon man and his five wives hoping to raise some heated debates on the station’s website. Evan would be questioning a man with five wives while he couldn’t get one sultry redhead to say yes.
Now, Evan knew what Steve wanted to discuss and didn’t need him breathing down his neck first thing. The set of his