He didn’t so much as blink. “I realized that I was being shortsighted by letting something like a past relationship stand in our way. I can accept a baby that isn’t mine. As long as you come along with it.”
The ground slid away at an alarming rate. Words. Buzzing in her ears. No context.
“What past relationship?” And then isn’t mine registered. “Are you accusing me of having slept with someone else while we were dating?”
Before she could stop herself, she slugged him on the arm. Her knuckles glanced away and started smarting like she’d hit a brick wall. Which wasn’t far off.
“It’s okay,” he said soothingly. “We didn’t have an exclusive agreement. I was being a Neanderthal about it.”
“The baby is yours, idiot,” she ground out through clenched teeth as his face went ghost white. “Men. Oh, my God. Really? When would I have had time, Logan? Of all things. I went to four million baseball games with you. I went to Oakland. What do I have to do to prove that I was invested in us? If you’ve made me miserable for the last few days because you didn’t bother to ask me one of the most basic questions—”
Air whooshed from her lungs as he snatched her into his arms, holding her so tightly she couldn’t breathe. But she could still hear him repeating sorry over and over.
Squeaking, she shoved at his rock-hard pecs until he eased up a bit. “Seriously? You thought the baby wasn’t yours?”
Oh, God. All of this started making a wonderful, terrible sort of sense.
“I...made my own assumptions about why you didn’t tell me right away,” he confessed miserably. “I’m so sorry. I should have clarified before storming out. It’s really mine? I’m going to be a father?”
As she nodded, the clearest sense of wonder stole over his features and his smile spread through her veins, warming her. “Really. No question.”
He wanted the baby. Raw, gorgeous emotion beamed from deep inside him so clearly that those unshed tears inside her welled up and over, falling down her cheeks unchecked. This was what it should look like when you told a man you were having his child. Beautiful. Bonding. Amazing.
His smile turned a little misty. “You’re right. I’m an idiot. And you can feel free to call me one for the rest of your life.”
“Are you going to be around that long?” she murmured, her eyes widening as he pulled a square box from his pocket and unhinged the lid. “What are you doing?”
Exactly what she’d dreamed of, obviously. Giving her the one thing he’d never given anyone else, because he thought she deserved the unique experience reserved for the future Mrs. McLaughlin.
“Proposing,” he verified as her stomach twisted. “But not on camera. Because this is for me and you only.”
The ring sparkled in the light, shooting pink flares into her eyes and nearly blinding her to all the huge problems with what he was about to do. Everything came to a head in one horrific shot. She swallowed and shook her head. “No, you can’t.”
He eyed her. “Why not?”
I might say yes.
He deserved better than a defective bride. Her frozen hands wouldn’t move, wouldn’t stanch the flow of pain. “You didn’t ask why I kept such a big secret. I have a history of miscarriages. This baby might not ever be born. Then where will we be?”
His eyelids shuttered for a moment, and when he opened them, the compassion there nearly crushed her anew.
“Let’s start over.” His voice broke as he held out his hand, which she didn’t hesitate to take, letting his big palm cover hers. “My name is Logan McLaughlin and I own a baseball team that I bought because I thought it was going to fill a void in my life that throwing out my elbow had created. I was wrong. You fill the void. I love you. Whether you can carry a baby to term or not.”
Finally, she’d stripped him of his conservative armor and gotten to the real man underneath. Her heart filled so full of him that she could hardly speak. But she had to as she pumped his hand slightly for good measure. “My name is Trinity Forrester and I married my job as a marketing executive because I thought I was too broken to ever have what I really wanted. You,” she clarified as he raised a brow in question. “I want you. For real. Forever.”
And he’d uncovered the woman behind the outrageousness. Probably he’d done that the first day. Because he was exactly her type, a strong, solid man who stuck around no matter what.
Whether she lost this baby or it decided to grace them with its presence after all, Logan would be there by her side, holding her hand. Loving her. He was her every fantasy come to life, and she was holding on tight. Not because she feared he’d vanish. But because she never wanted to let him go.