But he was not smiling now.
Was he so uncomfortable sitting beside her that he needed to move to squat, awkwardly, in front of her, the way she did when speaking to a small patient?
Or did he need to see her face while he said whatever he had to say?
Fear was creeping into the panic now and her heart was thudding in her chest.
‘Please,’ she whispered.
He took her hands, both hands—and even in her panicky state she felt a shiver of reaction. He turned them in his, before looking into her eyes.
‘Look,’ he finally said, ‘I haven’t the faintest clue how to tell you this, but the clinic said they would contact you, and as far as I could see, that would be a disaster. Maybe it’s a disaster anyway but at least now you’ll see exactly what’s happened. You deserve to know and I need to tell you.’
He wasn’t making any sense but he did seem genuinely concerned, which, together with the talk of the clinic, had the nerves in Joey’s tummy heading straight for riot mode.
‘Perhaps you could just blurt it out,’ she suggested as the tension in the air between them reached seismic proportions.
Just blurt it out, that’s rich! Max muttered to himself. Here’s this stunning woman, ready to pop any minute, and a total stranger walks in …
Aware the silence had already taken too long, he took an extra minute to study Joanne—Joey, her small patients had called her—McMillan.
And was drawn again to her eyes, wide apart so she seemed, even in her bewildered state, to be constantly surprised.
But it was the pale, creamy skin that made her lovely to look at—he hoped the baby got that …
What was he thinking? As if it mattered what kind of skin the baby had? It wasn’t as if it really was his baby!
Was it?
‘The thing is …’ he said, as thoughts of the baby reminded him of his mission. And of the mess they were in.
‘The thing is …’
He stopped, stood up before his knees gave out and slumped back into the chair beside her. Sitting beside her was bad enough as far as the attraction thing was concerned, but looking up into those eyes—no wonder he couldn’t think!
‘The thing is …’ she prompted, reasonably gently considering his eruption into her life and the tension she must be feeling.
To make matters worse, she then turned towards him and reached out to rest one hand on his.
‘The thing is, you’re having my baby. There, it’s said. Now all we have to do is work out where we go from here.’
She didn’t reply—hardly surprising!—but the slim fingers that he’d wrapped in his hand seemed to lose all warmth and he turned anxiously towards her.
‘You’re okay? You’re not going to faint or anything?’
‘Of course I’m not okay,’ she snapped. ‘What are you? Some kind of a madman who goes around scaring pregnant woman? Does it give you a kick to see someone in shock?’
She leaned forward as best she could, given her shape, but she didn’t retrieve her hand. In fact, her fingers were now clinging to his, as if to a lifeline. Fortunately the receptionist reappeared at that moment, and Max turned to her for help.
‘She’s had a shock—a hot drink, tea if she drinks it, and lots of sugar.’
‘No sugar!’
The change to the order reassured Max that Joey McMillan was recovering fast.
Which was good in one way, but it meant explanations were in order.
Not only explanations but also some kind of discussion over the future, although what that future could be was hard to envision.
Impossible really.
Although …
The thought was so unexpected he stopped breathing for a moment, and turned it this way and that in his head before giving it consideration. It remained the same—a conviction that, having had his own father walk out when he was five, he should have some involvement in his child’s upbringing.
Shouldn’t he?
It was nuts but his thoughts were racing at a million miles an hour.
His mother would be a grandmother.
The thought held him riveted. He shuddered as he considered what his mother and sisters would say if he didn’t accept the baby as his own. In fact, they’d be delighted something had happened to curtail what they saw as his irresponsibly nomadic, and often dangerous, lifestyle.
Sisters!
And that made him wonder if Joey knew the sex of the child. A boy would be fun but, then, little girls—
Was he really considering being a father to this child?
Well, shouldn’t he be?
He stifled a groan. He’d been so intent on getting to this woman and telling her the unfortunate truth in person that he hadn’t given a thought to the implications for himself.
His stomach clenched, but it was the confusion in his mind that really worried him. Confusion over the baby but, worse, confusion over his reactions to this woman …
Joey waited until Meryl brought the tea. Meryl headed back behind her desk and turned her attention to her computer. Her presence made things feel … almost normal. She straightened up, retrieved the hand she’d carelessly left lying in the man’s warm paw, took several sips of hot liquid and turned to face the stranger.
Max something, he had said?
‘If you’re not mad, then presumably you have some explanation for your bizarre statement,’ she said, hoping she sounded stronger than she felt, which, right now, was extremely shaky.
And totally confused.
And upset? Yes, she thought, unbelievably upset, so upset she didn’t dare go there. That this wasn’t David’s baby …
And still, crazy as it might be, she was drawn to this man in some inexplicable fashion.
‘I do have an explanation,’ he said. ‘But it’s long and involved and you’ve obviously just finished a full day at work and probably need a rest and food, so we don’t have to do this now.’
She stared at him in disbelief.
‘You think I could rest?’ she demanded, and hoped the words hadn’t come out too shrill. She hated sounding shrill.
‘Well, food and somewhere comfortable to sit,’ he suggested, and Joey realised he was right.
‘I was intending to go straight home, it’s not far,’ she said, immediately regretting it as she realised she was inviting a total stranger into her house.
‘You can’t go inviting total strangers into your house,’ the man scolded, right on cue.
Joey sighed. She was tired and her back ached and her feet hurt and all she wanted to do was go home and sit in a nice warm bath.
Maybe snooze in it until the water got cold … Forget about dramas like a stranger claiming to be the father to her child.
But she couldn’t forget. She pulled herself together—or as together as she was likely to get at the moment.
‘Just give Meryl all your details and show her some identification so she can tell the police about who murdered me if I don’t