over because of that?”
“I’m sure he is. But the first time he came over wasn’t because I fed him and I’d rather have him eating my chicken than eating…you.” He gave her a slow grin. “I’m the only one who’s going to be doing that.”
She frowned, instead of responding to his flirty teasing. “Yeah, about that. We need to have a talk.”
Zeke didn’t like the sound of that. If they had to talk about him eating her, it was either because she wanted him to do it right now—in which case she probably wouldn’t be frowning—or she was going to ask him not to do it anymore. And that wasn’t really okay either.
He shifted away from the frame. “Come on in.”
She ducked under his arm and stepped into the house.
“Have you eaten?” He already knew the answer to that question, but felt that it was polite to ask before he loaded up a plate of leftovers from Ellie and put them down in front of her.
Jill put a hand on her stomach. “I’m not really hungry.”
That was new. She’d loved everything Ellie had sent home for her. He frowned, taking in her distressed expression. “You okay?”
She shook her head, and Zeke felt his chest tighten.
“What’s wrong?”
“We should sit down.”
He moved in toward his dining room table where he’d been working. “Okay. Have a seat.”
She looked at the table strewn with papers. “What’s all this?”
“Oh. Taxes.” He pulled out a chair and dropped into it. “What’s going on?”
“This is a lot of paperwork for taxes for one guy. And it’s not tax season.”
“Quarterly taxes.”
“This is all for your quarterly taxes for your construction company?”
“No, I do everybody’s taxes.”
“Who’s everybody?”
“Ellie and the Boys of the Bayou and now Boys of the Bayou Gone Wild. Then, besides mine for the construction company, I do Zander’s and Mitch’s and everybody’s personal stuff during tax season.”
She was looking at him, puzzled. “You do everyone’s taxes?”
“Yeah.”
“Why?”
“It’s fun.”
She blinked at him. “Doing taxes is a hobby?”
“Kind of. I am a CPA. And I make them pay me. But it’s definitely on the side.”
“Who does accounting for fun?”
“Math geeks.”
She was looking at him as if meeting him for the first time. “You’re a math geek. Who does accounting for fun. For his whole family on the side of his construction business.”
“Yep.”
“Wow.”
“What are your hobbies?” he asked.
She gave him a look. “You already know the answer to that. I don’t have any hobbies. It’s penguins, penguins, penguins.”
He sat back in his chair and again noted how her gaze traveled over his bare chest and stomach as his shirt fell further open.
“Could you button up?”
“I could. Or I could just take it off. I guess it depends why you’re here.”
“This is definitely a button up conversation,” she told him. “Though not unrelated to the times you’ve unbuttoned and taken things off.”
Was she dumping him? That would be weird. Everything had been going great. The sex was out of this world, they were happily living next to one another, sharing his space frequently, and having fun. They were a lot alike in many ways, actually.
He was definitely going to fight her on this. But he started buttoning up.
“Okay, spill. What’s going on?”
“I’m pregnant.”
Zeke’s fingers froze on the fourth button. His gaze snapped to hers.
He immediately realized she wasn’t kidding around.
“Oh.”
Jill shifted forward on her chair, bracing her hands on her knees. She met his gaze directly. “Yeah. And it’s yours. I’m not very far along, but I took the test yesterday. And…” She blew out a breath. “It was positive.”
Zeke took all of that in as he finished buttoning his shirt. Then he sat for a few seconds, letting all of the thoughts and reactions swirl around in his head.
Jill was pregnant. The most fascinating, unique, beautiful woman he’d ever met was having his baby.
She was definitely not like any woman he’d ever dated before and he certainly hadn’t gotten as far as to think about what their relationship might look like even a month from now, not to mention a year or more. But he liked her more than he could remember liking anyone he’d slept with in…ever.
“I have to be honest with you,” she said after nearly a minute. “I’d never planned to be a mom. Like ever. I don’t think I’ll be very good at it.”
He blew out a breath. “Okay. Well, I was definitely not planning on being a father yet. But…I guess I’ve always assumed I would have kids.”
“So you want to have it?”
His first reaction