Claiming The Rancher's Heir (Gold Valley Vineyards #2) - Maisey Yates Page 0,24

it wouldn’t just be the two of them working on it.

He didn’t know if that night after the party had been transformative because he’d been in a really dark place, or if... He just didn’t know. All he knew was that he wanted more. And Wren didn’t seem to be coming back for it. Which was a damn shame.

And then, as if his thoughts had conjured her up, he looked through the windows of the tasting room and saw her standing outside. She was staring at the door, not moving.

He watched her, without changing his position, until she turned and her eye caught his. There was something bleak and strange in her expression, and he didn’t know how to read it. So they just stared at each other through the window.

If she was waiting for him to make the first move, she was out of luck. She was the one who had come here to knock on his door. She was the one who was going to have to close the gap.

Finally, she did.

Finally, she walked through the door, but then she stood there in the entry, her hands clasped in front of her. “We need to talk.”

“We do?”

“Yes. We do.”

“I’ve been waiting to see you,” he said, “and I have to tell you, it’s not talking I want to do.”

“Well, it’s talking we need to do. Creed...” She closed her eyes and swallowed hard. “Creed, I’m pregnant.”

Suddenly, he felt like he was falling into a chasm. A chasm that led to some moment eighteen years ago. A moment he didn’t want to relive.

But you knew this might happen. You did. He pushed the thought to the side. You tried not to think about the fact that you screwed her without a condom, but you know you did.

No. Wren was the same age as he was. It didn’t seem possible that the woman wasn’t on birth control. Or that she wouldn’t have said something about the condom if she wasn’t taking something.

You didn’t say anything about it either.

“I didn’t even think,” she said. “After the time in the wine cellar. I didn’t think. It didn’t occur to me until we were at your house and you took a condom out of your bedside drawer that I realized...that we didn’t.”

“You’re not on...the Pill or anything?”

“I haven’t been in a relationship in like a year and a half. And I... I didn’t really like the way I felt on it. It made me gain weight, so I quit taking it after I broke up with my last boyfriend.” She grimaced. “I’m not really somebody who hooks up.”

“Well,” he said, his voice rough, “I am. I am, so I sure as hell should’ve thought of a condom. Because I use them all the damn time. I... I’m sorry. I should have thought of it. I should’ve done better.”

“No,” she said. “That’s stupid. I should have, too. I... Creed, I want to keep the baby.”

Cold fear infused itself into his veins. “You want to keep the baby?”

“Yes. I understand that it might surprise you. But I... I’m thirty-two years old. I would like to have a baby. And I’m at a point in my life where I don’t really know what’s coming next, what I want to do. And this pregnancy feels like... Well, it feels like a pretty clear sign of something that I could do to change my life. Because it’s happening. And I... I want it. When I found out a couple of days ago, I cried. I spent the entire day crying. I’ve been avoiding my family. Because I knew that I needed to tell you first. But I also knew... I knew immediately that I wanted the baby. I... I just do. And I don’t need anything from you. I’m completely fine and taken care of. I have a house, I have a business, and I don’t need you to be involved at all.”

“I will be fucking involved,” he said, his voice hard.

“I didn’t mean you couldn’t be,” she said. “I just didn’t want you to think I was making demands of you, or your money...”

“This baby is mine,” he said.

“Of course it is,” she said.

“No,” he said. “You misunderstand me. That wasn’t a question. It was a statement. This baby is mine, and that means I will be involved. I am this baby’s father.”

Echoes of everything that he had lost were shouting inside him. Because he knew how easy it was for a woman to take a child