The Baby Truce by Jeannie Watt

change?”
    He closed the locker and turned, to find her staring at him in disbelief. “I’m saying I have to change.” It wasn’t easy to let those words out.
    â€œTom…you’ve built a career and destroyed it…because you refuse to change.”
    â€œIt’s not destroyed,” he snapped.
    â€œWell, it’s pretty damned close, if you have to hide out for six months.”
    He made a touché mark in the air with his index finger.
    â€œWe are what we are.” Reggie folded her arms. It looked as if she was about to start tapping her foot. “I’m not going to pretend to be something else to get what I want. And neither should you, because that’s what got us in trouble the last time.”
    He rubbed his forehead as if trying to massage away a headache before saying with exaggerated patience, “I was not pretending to be something I wasn’t. I was figuring out who I was. I was twenty-three years old.”
    â€œDid you want to cater?”
    â€œI had my doubts,” he admitted.
    â€œDid you talk to me about them?”
    â€œI was working through them.”
    â€œThen had a chance to escape, and took it.”
    â€œIt was an opportunity. And yeah. I took it. Did I miss you? Yes.”
    â€œDid you come back? No.”
    â€œWell, I’m back now, Reggie. And I’m staying for a while.” He could see from her expression that she either didn’t believe him or she didn’t want to believe him. “You honestly have no faith in me at all, do you?”
    â€œYou haven’t inspired a lot of faith lately. In anyone.”
    â€œWhy in the hell did you sleep with me all these years later, if I’m such a loser?”
    She lifted her eyes and met his gaze. “To prove to myself I was over you. To see if I could walk away with no regrets. Just like you did.”
    It took him a few seconds to find his voice. “That was the only reason?”
    She didn’t even flinch. “Yes.”
    â€œDid it work?” he growled.
    She put a hand to her belly. “Next time I’m coming up with a better plan.”

CHAPTER SEVEN
    She was a liar. Such a bald-faced liar.
    Reggie stopped her car at the intersection of the alley and the street and made a conscious effort to look both ways. Twice.
    Yes, she’d slept with Tom to prove a point. No, that wasn’t the only reason. Her reasoning had been complicated and flawed, and had involved telling herself a couple big lies. Like that she was over him. She might no longer be in love with him as she’d once been, but it seemed as though she’d never really be free of feeling things for him. Even if she wasn’t pregnant.
    Now he was here in her kitchen—thanks to those lies she’d told herself—and she was going to have to do something other than make him chop vegetables and do grunt work.
    She was losing hope that, after they spent some time together, the tension between them would ease and they would fall into a working relationship. She was wielding control with an iron fist and was afraid to stop, and he was doing as told and resenting every second. She was just as uncomfortable and defensive now as she had been the very first morning he’d showed up for work.
    Something had to give, and she was afraid that if she wasn’t careful, it would be her.
    Â 
    T OM DROVE HIS RENTAL CAR TO the hotel and searched for the closest parking space. The lot was jammed, being a Saturday night, and he knew from the previous night that it was probably going to be another loud one. Lots of parties and noise in the halls, but he wasn’t in a party mood right now.
    Running into Reggie in San Francisco had been unexpected and interesting. She’d changed, become more confident, more assertive—although she hadn’t been a slouch when they’d been together. She’d invited him for drinks the first night; he’d asked her to dinner the