Chapter Three
She couldn’t stop her hands from shaking.
Drennan slammed the door to the van closed, sealing the young woman from the emerald pool inside.
It’d taken all four of them to get her remains down the trail and a whole lot of maneuvering on the narrower edges of the switchbacks, but they’d done it in less than an hour.
She’d had to record the temperature of the water the victim had been found in, weather conditions and the rangers’ statements before leaving with the body.
There was no way she’d be able to manage getting back up there a second time.
The tiny life form growing in her uterus was already demanding a second breakfast and a nap and wanted her to throw up all at the same time.
Clutching the van’s door handle, she tried to breathe through her nose.
Crisp fall air helped with the permanent acid lodged in her throat but did little to ease the shock assaulting her every few thoughts.
She could only imagine what her baby would think of all the embalming fluid and bodily fluids that made up her day when she got the body back to the office.
Drennan swallowed a rush of nausea, slapping her hand against her mouth.
A baby. She was going to have a baby. There was no denying the symptoms anymore. No trying to blame the flu or some other kind of illness.
“You okay?” The deep rumble of his voice soothed her stomach.
She’d recounted that voice so many times in the past two months. Imagined how it would sound whispering all the words she craved to hear. Not just from that night, but if they’d ever come into contact again. Drennan forced herself to face him.
Harvey. The name fit him. Rough around the edges, kind of like him, with a shadowed side and a fierce expression.
His thick beard worked to hide his expression, but the deep tan he’d gained on the trails and the lines between his brows told her he much preferred to be outside than be cornered and forced to make conversation.
He’d swiped his styled hair back away from his face.
Not a hint of gray despite her guess putting him closer to forty than thirty.
Then again, what did she really know about him other than the feel of his body pressed against hers, how it felt to have his mouth at her neck, his heightened breathing etched into her memory.
He was even more handsome than she remembered.
A mountain of muscle stretched against his ranger uniform.
One wrong move would split the seams, and a flush of heat washed over Drennan at the random thought she’d pay good money to see that.
He’d said something. Right? Oh, hell. He was staring at her with nothing but expectation and disappointment—a look she’d come to know all too well—as if she’d grown two heads.
Wait. Did she technically have two heads right now?
No. It took more than eight weeks for the baby’s head to develop. “What?”
“You look like you’re going to throw up.” Harvey offered a metallic water bottle. The black exterior was dented and scratched up. Used. His. “It doesn’t take long for dehydration to set in, even in these cooler temperatures. It’s all about exertion.”
It wasn’t until that moment that she realized how thirsty she really was.
She took the offering, slugging back three huge mouthfuls of ice water.
Streams escaped from the corners of her mouth.
She swiped at her face with the back of her hand as embarrassment charged.
Her mother’s voice instantly scolded her to clean herself up.
To stop acting like a child who couldn’t control herself.
Drennan practically shoved the water bottle into Harvey’s chest as embarrassment overheated into shame.
“Thanks. Do you usually offer your personal water bottle to anyone who feels like they might die out here?”
“Only the ones who’ve been in my bed.” One corner of his mouth turned up, though it would’ve been impossible to catch with the amount of facial hair if she hadn’t been looking right at him.
“Right. Listen. I’m sorry about before. Ambushing you like that.
I’m sure the last person you expected to see today was one of the women you took home from a bar two months ago.
” Oh, no. Why did that make her sound so needy?
He’d probably taken a half dozen women home since the night they’d shared.
He probably didn’t even recognize her. She wasn’t anything special.
To anybody. The ground went unstable under her feet.
Only this time she couldn’t contribute it to the pregnancy.
She just wanted nothing more than to get in her too-hot van and shut herself inside the office with no plans to ever leave.
Drennan took a deep breath and spun for the van’s driver’s side door.
“You know what? It’s been a long day, and you said you wanted to talk about this later.
Now that you know who I am, you can call the Metland Mortuary and ask for me when you’re ready to talk. ”
Her hand was on the door handle. She was almost free of one of the most embarrassing moments of her life.
“The only woman.” He didn’t have to raise his voice for her to hear him over the traffic coming in and out of the visitor’s center, as though her senses were intently tuned to him.
The breath rushed from her lungs as Drennan angled away from the van. He’d closed the distance between them, settling his hand against the driver’s side window beside her head. Caging her. Not in intimidation or dominance but like he couldn’t stand for a mere inch between them. “What?”
“You said one of the women I took home from the bar.” His gaze locked with hers. Unwavering and confident. Just as strong as the night he’d caught her attention across a dark, crowded pub when she’d needed it most. “I don’t make a habit of bringing women back to my place. You’re the only one.”
Okay. Why did that make her heart rate do a little dance in her chest? Drennan pressed her shoulders into the van for some added support, but it didn’t do a damn bit of good. Because she’d learned real fast when this man infiltrated her personal space, physics no longer had a say. “Oh. Why?”
Instant regret hollowed through her. And then reflected in Harvey’s expression.
He added a couple of inches between them, removing his hand from beside her head.
The cage was open, but she found herself missing it.
Just as she’d missed it since backing out of his driveway two months ago without even knowing his name.
She could’ve gone back. She remembered the exact location of his cookie-cutter house in the middle of a cookie-cutter neighborhood in Springdale, but that night…
It’d been special. A once in a lifetime experience she didn’t believe could be replicated or should be replaced with new memories.
But if she hadn’t sounded needy before, she certainly did now.
“I mean, why me? Not that you couldn’t or shouldn’t take home whoever you want.
From bars or the grocery store or work. You’re handsome and attractive, and I bet you can get any woman you want if you put your mind to it. ”
Wide blue eyes narrowed on her, and the random thoughts in her head disappeared. “Take a breath, Drennan.”
Her name on his lips shot something electric and addictive straight to her low belly, which she was sure was not his intention in the least. Her body seemed to obey his command all the same, and she drank in a full inhale, letting it out with an exaggerated sigh.
What on earth had he seen in her that night he’d taken her home?
She was a mess. And things were about to get much worse.
“Are you sure you’re pregnant?” Harvey sounded so calm, her nerves automatically settled, which didn’t make sense. This situation they were in was anything but calm. “You said you were on birth control.”
The ego it’d taken to be one of the best emergency room physicians in the country wanted to take offense at that, but it was a valid question. She couldn’t blame him for wanting confirmation. “The six tests I took seem convinced I am. Not to mention all the fun stuff coming out of my body.”
“All right.” He scanned her face from forehead to chin. Looking for the lie? Unfortunately for him, he wouldn’t find one. “And you’re positive the baby is mine?”
“You’re the only…” She cleared her throat, focusing on the impossibly tall cliffs that seemed to blend right in with the clouds.
Every second that body waited in the back of the van to be transported to Dr. Yarrow was another second the evidence could be compromised, but this…
This felt more important. Like she was standing on the edge of one of those cliffs, and Harvey was the only one who could save her.
She could fall alone, or he could pull her back.
She had no idea what to do with a baby. She’d only taken a semester of obstetrics, and most of her work with pregnant mothers in the ER was referred to the maternity ward.
She understood the basics of pregnancy and childbirth, of course.
But what would happen after she took her baby home from the hospital?
Real fear simmered under her skin. How was she supposed to work and care for the baby at the same time?
Where was the baby supposed to sleep in her one-bedroom apartment?
What all did a baby need to survive? Would she and Harvey share custody or would he expect her to move in with him after she delivered?
Question after question with no end in sight.
Sweat that had nothing to do with the midday temperature slicked the back of her neck. She…she couldn’t do this on her own. “There isn’t anyone else it could be.”
Harvey slid both hands into his uniform slacks and broke his gaze off from hers. A hardness that hadn’t been there a moment ago edged into his jaw. “Then what is it you want from me? Money?”
Her lips parted with an answer, but she didn’t have one.
Was that what he thought of her? That she’d told him for a payout?
A sinking feeling crushed the last bit of nausea, intensifying the heaviness in her limbs, and she felt as though she really was standing on the edge of that cliff.
Reaching for him and meeting nothing but air.
And a small part of her that’d hoped for a different reaction—the part she’d clung to since seeing those two pink lines—died.
Her job as an assistant medical examiner didn’t pay much—no government job did—but she’d been smart with her salary in her former life.
She didn’t need to work for a few years, but starting fresh here had meant using her skills and ridiculously expensive education for something new.
Continuing to help people, providing answers and closure to the families she worked with.
Drennan shook her head. “No. I just…thought you deserved to know. It’s your baby, too.
I think you should have a say in how he or she is raised. ”
Harvey scrubbed a hand down his face. “So you’re keeping it?”
The thought of not seeing this pregnancy through hadn’t even crossed her mind.
From the moment she’d read that first pregnancy test—and the five after—she’d known her decision.
There wasn’t anything more important to Drennan than the family she’d had once upon a time—before everything had changed—and if there was even an ounce of the love she’d felt as a kid she could give to this child, she would do everything in her power to make it happen.
A surge of defensiveness arced through her. “Yes.”
“All right. I’ll help. Clothes, college, braces, even your doctor appointments, I’ll support him or her.
If you want me to pay child support and have a lawyer draft up an agreement, I’ll sign it, but I think I need to make something clear, Drennan.
I’m not interested in being a father.” Harvey stepped into her, close enough to touch, and lowered his voice before maneuvering around her to the front of the van and toward the visitor’s center.
“When it comes to raising this baby, you’re on your own. ”