Her Fill-In Fiancé. Stacy Connelly

she backed away on shaky limbs and clutched at the gaping lapels of the robe. “I, um, don’t want them to find out like this.”

      It might not have been her intention, but Jake’s voice was certainly lower when he told her, “I don’t get it, Sophia. What’s left for you in Chicago? You lost your job, your home.”

      She flinched at the reminder, the words harder to hear coming from him. “I know what I’m doing, Jake.” She could have told him about the little apartment she had in mind, about the job with Christine and her idea of a future that kept her baby first and foremost in mind. But those plans were still up in the air. So far, she hadn’t actually found that little apartment and Christine’s business wasn’t up and running—yet. But until she had a signed lease and business cards in hand, she was keeping her plans to herself.

      And besides … “The Dunworthys offered me a great severance package, remember?”

      They’d paid—and paid well—for Sophia to keep her mouth shut and to disappear.

      “Money is not going to give your child everything he needs,” Jake said flatly.

      Sophia blinked, caught off guard at his use of the word “he.” From the moment she discovered she was pregnant, she’d had the feeling her baby was a boy. She’d mentally tried out a dozen boy names, had pictured a little boy’s room filled with trucks and trains and bright primary colors.

      “Sophia, listen—”

      “No, Jake.” She was already reading far too much into everything little he said. “I don’t expect you to understand, but I’ve made my decision.”

      Leaving Jake standing in the hall, Sophia did what she should have in the first place and hurried into her bedroom. She leaned against the closet door, wishing she could block out her own thoughts as easily.

      A mother-to-be could be excused for a harmless daydream about the little boy she might soon hold in her arms. But to think Jake shared—or worse, belonged—in that imaginary world simply because of his use of a pronoun was anything but harmless.