The Bachelor's Baby (Bachelor Auction Book 3) by Dani Collins Page A
Authors: Dani Collins
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thick sweater up around her ears and looked ridiculously vulnerable and uncertain as she asserted, “I mean, we’ll share that, but I can take care of myself.”
“I’m going to take care of both of you,” he informed her in a tone he’d perfected when it came to finalizing a debate. The sense that he was finally living life under his own rule was evaporating fast, but it was being replaced by a fresh sense of purpose. Keeping himself fed and dry was survival. Back when he’d had his mother to worry about, he’d at least felt his hard days served an end goal that meant something. Making sure Meg and their child were taken care of… His urge to make that happen was immediate and primal. He wouldn’t be denied on this one.
“When are you due?” he asked, starting to think in deadlines and priorities.
She told him, and it was so close to his mother’s birthday, he had a delusional thought that Mom was somehow making this happen. She’d always wanted him to marry and have kids.
It struck him that he’d have his first real Christmas in a long time, with a tree in his own home, with a wife and a baby…
“We’re getting married, Meg. Let’s go tell your family.”
*
Meg didn’t move, only chuckled with amazement at how his tune had changed. The worst of her hurt was easing, making her heart light enough to laugh. And she was weirdly relieved. His about-face meant a lot. She couldn’t pretend it didn’t affect her when he said things like, I’m going to take care of you . She wasn’t a damsel. She had more than her share of feminist independence, but there was a tattered little heart in her that responded to his intention. It mattered a lot to her that he wanted to take care of her and looked like he meant it.
Trying to hang onto sanity and not let weak emotions carry her along with his decisive let’s-get-going attitude, she said, “I was serious about what a nightmare it was to live with Blake and Crystal as they tried to make their shotgun marriage work.” Of course they’d been children, barely out of high school. The things that had set them up for failure were legion, but still. “We don’t know each other, Linc,” she reminded him, finding it hard to meet his piercing stare when he was so obviously willing her to do as he said. “Marriage, or even living together, was never on my agenda.”
Not really.
Okay, furthering her relationship with him had crossed her mind as she had come to terms with her pregnancy, but only so she could make herself face what a ridiculous notion it was. They were strangers. For her, getting married and settling down had always been something she would do when she met her soul mate—the one she vaguely imagined was both intellectual and cultured, down to earth and, of course, blessed with a great sense of humor. He looked like Jared Leto and liked to shop for housewares on the weekend.
“ Put marriage on your agenda, Meg,” he ordered calmly and without mercy. “Because this afternoon you were throwing in my face that you hadn’t totally dismissed me. So don’t.”
“I just meant that you deserved to know,” she grumbled, scowling at her slippers.
“But I don’t deserve to wake up with my kid in my house? Doesn’t the baby deserve to live with both its parents?”
“That is not—Linc, you don’t even…” She thought of his last, brief email that had never been followed up by either of them. She already felt more emotionally invested than he was. Secretly she was very needy. She knew that. That’s why her relationships never lasted. Men never really gave her enough because she was a bottomless pit of hunger for love, never fulfilled.
Linc was self-sufficient. A loner. She couldn’t live with that, waking up every day feeling extraneous, facing a rebuff each morning because he wasn’t the kind of man to form deep emotional connections.
“You don’t want a wife,” she reminded him. “Or… Like, what exactly are you suggesting? I
“I’m going to take care of both of you,” he informed her in a tone he’d perfected when it came to finalizing a debate. The sense that he was finally living life under his own rule was evaporating fast, but it was being replaced by a fresh sense of purpose. Keeping himself fed and dry was survival. Back when he’d had his mother to worry about, he’d at least felt his hard days served an end goal that meant something. Making sure Meg and their child were taken care of… His urge to make that happen was immediate and primal. He wouldn’t be denied on this one.
“When are you due?” he asked, starting to think in deadlines and priorities.
She told him, and it was so close to his mother’s birthday, he had a delusional thought that Mom was somehow making this happen. She’d always wanted him to marry and have kids.
It struck him that he’d have his first real Christmas in a long time, with a tree in his own home, with a wife and a baby…
“We’re getting married, Meg. Let’s go tell your family.”
*
Meg didn’t move, only chuckled with amazement at how his tune had changed. The worst of her hurt was easing, making her heart light enough to laugh. And she was weirdly relieved. His about-face meant a lot. She couldn’t pretend it didn’t affect her when he said things like, I’m going to take care of you . She wasn’t a damsel. She had more than her share of feminist independence, but there was a tattered little heart in her that responded to his intention. It mattered a lot to her that he wanted to take care of her and looked like he meant it.
Trying to hang onto sanity and not let weak emotions carry her along with his decisive let’s-get-going attitude, she said, “I was serious about what a nightmare it was to live with Blake and Crystal as they tried to make their shotgun marriage work.” Of course they’d been children, barely out of high school. The things that had set them up for failure were legion, but still. “We don’t know each other, Linc,” she reminded him, finding it hard to meet his piercing stare when he was so obviously willing her to do as he said. “Marriage, or even living together, was never on my agenda.”
Not really.
Okay, furthering her relationship with him had crossed her mind as she had come to terms with her pregnancy, but only so she could make herself face what a ridiculous notion it was. They were strangers. For her, getting married and settling down had always been something she would do when she met her soul mate—the one she vaguely imagined was both intellectual and cultured, down to earth and, of course, blessed with a great sense of humor. He looked like Jared Leto and liked to shop for housewares on the weekend.
“ Put marriage on your agenda, Meg,” he ordered calmly and without mercy. “Because this afternoon you were throwing in my face that you hadn’t totally dismissed me. So don’t.”
“I just meant that you deserved to know,” she grumbled, scowling at her slippers.
“But I don’t deserve to wake up with my kid in my house? Doesn’t the baby deserve to live with both its parents?”
“That is not—Linc, you don’t even…” She thought of his last, brief email that had never been followed up by either of them. She already felt more emotionally invested than he was. Secretly she was very needy. She knew that. That’s why her relationships never lasted. Men never really gave her enough because she was a bottomless pit of hunger for love, never fulfilled.
Linc was self-sufficient. A loner. She couldn’t live with that, waking up every day feeling extraneous, facing a rebuff each morning because he wasn’t the kind of man to form deep emotional connections.
“You don’t want a wife,” she reminded him. “Or… Like, what exactly are you suggesting? I
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