She laughed a little. “Rewind eight weeks and not walk into the bar?”
And then she felt instantly sorry she’d said it. That wasn’t fair. She’d been as willing a participant as he had. “Sorry,” she murmured, looking away. “You’re not to blame.”
“Clearly I’m half to blame,” he returned, slowing down to take an exit, but she could sense he was annoyed.
“You said you’re going to take a bus back to San Antonio?”
“It makes the most sense.”
“Maybe one of the boys can run you to the station.”
“Wouldn’t that require an explanation?”
Damn it. And yet asking him to walk or take public transit seemed cold. Like she was...ashamed. Determined to keep him out of sight, and that didn’t sit well with her. She wasn’t brought up to sneak around. Besides, he’d given up hours of his day to drive her here when he didn’t have to.
Traffic slowed as they neared the city center and Lizzie tapped her fingers on her knee. At some point her family would meet Chris. Heck, Jacob and Jet already knew him, at least a little. What if he came inside rather than being pushed aside, invisible? She had a sudden flash of inspiration. What if Lizzie could bring the family around to this gradually, so it wasn’t such a shock?
“I was thinking...rather than disappear to the station, maybe you’d like to come in? Just because we show up together doesn’t mean we have to tell my family everything, does it?”
He stopped at a traffic light and looked over at her, his dark eyes piercing. “You’re scheming, aren’t you?”
She tried a small smile. “Not scheming, planning. Planning is what I do best. I get fewer surprises that way.”
Lizzie wasn’t a fan of surprises. Several had come her way over the years that she couldn’t control, but she tried to keep them to a minimum in her own life. Now that she was pregnant, she realized she hadn’t done such a stellar job.
“What if I introduce you and just, I don’t know, say that we were together when I got the call and you offered to drive?”
“Together? In San Antonio?”
She bit down on her lip. “Oh. Right. Well, we could always say that we’ve been seeing each other a little, but we weren’t saying anything because it was early days.”
“You mean lie.”
“It’s not technically a lie. We have seen each other a little...”
“It’s deliberately misleading them, so yeah, in my books that’s a lie.”
The light changed and he moved through the intersection. On one hand, his stubborn stance annoyed her but on the other, she admired his honesty. “So what, you just want to walk in and say ‘hey, I’m Chris, and I knocked up Lizzie?’”
Now it was his turn to look perturbed. “I didn’t say that.”
“So what if they think we’ve been seeing each other? It’ll make breaking the news easier.”
“What you mean is it’ll make it look better, right? I mean, getting accidentally pregnant by your boyfriend looks marginally better than picking up some guy in a bar.”
“You don’t have to make it sound so crude.” Yes, they’d hooked up. But it hadn’t been... Lizzie swallowed thickly. That night it had seemed as though they’d known each other forever. He hadn’t felt like a stranger. Perhaps that’s why she’d truly let go with him. As much as she didn’t want to admit it, being beside him now caused the same sort of stirrings she’d felt that night. She wasn’t as immune as she’d like to pretend.
Chris pulled into the hospital parking lot. “Sorry. It wasn’t crude.” He slid the car into a vacant space and looked over at her. “It was awesome.”
And just like that the air in the car seemed to get heavier. Full of promise and caution all at the same time.
His gaze held hers for far too long as the engine idled. In the space of those moments, Lizzie recalled so many things about that night. The way he smiled, the warmth in his eyes, replaced by a heat so scorching she thought she might be singed by it as his hands touched her body. The sound of his voice in the dark, the low, rich chuckle in the shadows. How he’d opened his arms and let her curl up against him rather than looking for an escape route.
Chris Miller was no more the bad guy here than she was. And because of it she was compelled to agree with him. “You’re right,” she answered shyly. “It was awesome.”
Silence filled the car once more.
“Look,” she said quietly. “I’m not ready to come right out and tell everyone the news, especially now. I want to wait for the dust to settle. But I don’t want to treat you like some dirty little secret, either. I went to find you today to start us talking. To give us a chance to make some decisions before having to deal with my family. The Barons aren’t exactly...subtle.”
She undid her seat belt and turned in the seat until she was facing him completely. “Chris, when I go in there they’re going to ask questions anyway, about what I was doing over three hours away from Dallas on a workday. If I say I was taking care of some personal business they won’t let it drop. I was willing to face that before, but now I’m thinking...if we went in there together, maybe it wouldn’t be so bad for them to come to their own conclusions. It could buy us some time to figure this all out. Plus...”
Her voice faltered and she looked down at her hands. Her nails were precisely painted and beautifully manicured. Where had the outdoor-loving, ranch-riding girl gone? She was lost behind a power suit and a pair of heels.
“Plus what, Lizzie?”
She looked up again. “Plus it might be nice to not have to walk in there alone. I know Dad’s going to be okay, but I hate hospitals. Have ever since I was a little girl.”
Ever since her mother had been there when Jet was born. When Delia had come home, she hadn’t been the same mom who’d gone in to have her fourth baby. Lizzie had never forgotten that, and remembering it now made her grossly uncomfortable. She was about to become a mother, too. She was only a few weeks along and she couldn’t imagine ever abandoning her child the way her mother had abandoned them.
“Are you asking me to be your wingman?” He turned off the car and rested his hand on the steering wheel.
She turned her attention back to him, gratefully. “Would you mind? Add it to the list of crazy stuff to happen to you today.”
She was rewarded with another reluctant smile.
“Seriously, Chris. Then tomorrow we can worry about getting you back home.”
He blew out a breath. “This is turning out to be the strangest day,” he admitted, running a hand over his hair. “I’m still trying to come to grips with the fact that you’re...you’re having my baby.”
“I know. This wasn’t at all how I planned it would go.”
“Everything is going to change and you want me to waltz into the hospital as if we’re old pals.”
“I’m sorry....”
“Don’t be sorry. You’re probably right about there being fewer questions now rather than later when everyone isn’t preoccupied.”
“I’m sure everyone will be more focused on my dad than us anyway.”
“Then let’s go. Your family is probably wondering where you are.”
Lizzie called Julieta’s cell as they walked across the parking lot and into the building. They stopped at information and got the details about Brock and then proceeded to the surgical floor, where the rest of the Barons were congregated.