Protecting His Pregnant Lover - Leslie North Page 0,19
have much choice but to go along with it. Truthfully, the note last night and the news he’d shared with her about the dangerous gang that was infiltrating her peaceful, safe little hometown had her more than a little unsettled. The same uncomfortable niggle of vulnerability she used to get in her stomach when the school bullies trapped her behind the building after classes had returned, burrowing deep into the tender area between her shoulder blades. Once she’d graduated high school, she’d sworn she’d never allow anyone to make her feel that way again. Yet here she was, right back where she’d never wanted to be—with the one man she’d never expected back in her life, at her side.
To find out she was carrying Levon’s baby after their one night together had been shocking enough. To have him show up again after seven months and swoop in like a superhero to her defence was…
Olive jammed more clean undies and socks and work clothes, plus bathroom essentials, into a wheeled suitcase. Well, she still hadn’t decided exactly how his reappearance made her feel, but thrilled wasn’t it. She was happy to see him, sure. Happy he was back stateside and safe after finishing his commitment to the Navy. But she hadn’t really given much thought to co-parenting with him. During their night together, he’d been clear he was leaving on another mission, then perhaps taking that job in Arlington, so Olive had only ever considered single parenting. Now, the possibility of sharing her baby, her life, with Levon left her confused and anxious.
Done packing, she sighed and turned off the lights in her bedroom, the handle of her suitcase in one hand and her briefcase in the other, before heading back down the hall to the living room. She stopped at the end of the hall and stared across the room to where he stood, studying her wall of family pictures from when she was growing up. It felt weirdly intimate to have him here in her house. Way more intimate even than the night they’d shared together months earlier.
When he didn’t turn around right away, she cleared her throat, suddenly anxious to get him out of her place. “I’m ready whenever you are.”
Levon turned slightly to look at her over his shoulder. “Your parents still around Harper’s Forge?”
She swallowed hard and wheeled her suitcase over to leave it by the door, then set her briefcase down beside it before joining him in front of the pictures. He was looking at one from when she was around ten, taken in the backyard of the very house they were standing in now, her and her parents, all smiling and happy on Easter Sunday. “No. They travel the world now, working for a charity organization. I think they’re in Africa somewhere right now. Zimbabwe maybe?”
“Huh.” He moved on to the next photo, this one of just Olive, the day she and her other nerd friends had won the Mathlete competition in eighth grade. “You were always smart, weren’t you?”
Olive shrugged. “I guess so. I mean, it’s just how my brain works. I never really thought about it.” She glanced at his profile, aquiline nose, strong jaw, long lashes most women would kill for, and couldn’t help wondering if their baby would take after him and win in the gorgeousness lottery. “Kind of like how your brain works around your dyslexia, right? It’s just a part of you, who you are. You probably don’t think about that either.”
“Hmm.” The corners of his full lips turned down slightly. “Maybe. I’m used to it, I guess, but I still think about my dyslexia pretty much every day. Whenever I have to do something involving a lot of numbers or heavy reading. That’s why I’m such a slow reader. I have to be careful that I don’t skip words or sentences because then nothing makes sense. And transposing numbers in math will always be an issue for me.” He took a deep breath and faced her. “Thanks, though.”
“For what?” Her brows knit.
“For helping me, back when we were in school. If it wasn’t for you tutoring me and helping me find ways to learn better, I would’ve probably gone my whole life thinking I was dumb. You made me believe I could be more, do more. It’s because of you that I got into the Navy.”
His words made her heart ache and dance for joy at the same time. The drive to help people was why she’d