the phone equal parts grateful for the opportunity to talk to him and terrified at the thousands of ways this discussion could go wrong.
At nine o’clock, she strode up the still busy street to the brick building housing the coffee shop where she was meeting Jake. Large windows fronted the well-lit establishment. The place was crowded with chatting people hovering at the bar on the left, or lounging at one of the curved booths with cushioned seats.
She stepped inside, glanced around and found Jake in the back, at one of the compact wooden tables for two. Disciplined Jake wouldn’t waste the space of one of the big comfy booths, no matter how much she would have loved to sink her tired body into those cushions right now.
Convinced her mother was right—with the addition of Plan C—and ready to have the discussion, she walked up to the table. “Hi.”
He rose. Nice-fitting trousers and a pale blue dress shirt outlined muscles created in the gym. Her mouth all but watered. But she told herself to settle down. Not to salivate over how good-looking he was, or to realize how easily she could unbutton that shirt and feel all the fabulous muscles of his chest.
Her breath shivered and she took a quiet drink of air to steady herself. “I see you went home to change.”
“I had some time.”
Something about the way he said that set her warning signals to high alert. But before she could say anything, he asked, “Can I get you a coffee?”
She shook her head. “I’ll have a bottle of water. I can’t drink coffee. Another unfortunate side effect of pregnancy.”
“Another?”
She sure as hell wasn’t going to tell him that pregnant women were easily aroused or that just looking at him had made her want to rip his shirt off. “You’d be surprised what happens to a body when a woman is pregnant.”
He walked away and she settled herself on the seat across from his while he went for her water.
Setting it on the table in front of her, he asked, “So did you have morning sickness?”
She opened the bottle. “Horribly.”
“But that only lasts the first trimester, right?”
He’d done some homework. More proof that if he didn’t already know about her dad, he would soon.
“Yes. But some things bring it back.”
“Like what things?”
“You’re going to laugh, but certain toothpastes just about kill me.”
He caught her gaze as he sat across from her. “Really?”
“I went through four brands before I found something I could brush my teeth with.”
He laughed.
She rolled her eyes. “Consider yourself very, very lucky that your part in creating this baby was a lot more pleasant.”
He laughed again and Avery said a silent prayer for strength. She’d never seen him this comfortable or relaxed. There might never be another chance as perfect as this to tell him her father’s story.
She sat up straighter, pulling together all her confidence—
“Why if it isn’t the lovely and talented Jake McCallan.”
Avery’s head snapped to the right and she saw the pretty blonde who’d walked up to their table.
Jake groaned. “What do you want, Sabrina?”
The blonde smiled at Jake. “Nothing.” She slid a glance at Avery. “I just rarely see you anywhere but the office and dinner once a week at Mom’s. And with company too.”
Jake shook his head. “Avery, this is my sister, Sabrina. Sabrina, this is Avery Novak. She works at Waters, Waters and Montgomery.”
Sabrina extended her hand.
Avery froze. His sister just happened to be in the same coffee shop where they’d planned to meet twelve hours ago?
Shell-shocked and confused, she took the hand Sabrina extended. Social convention dictated that she rise, but then she’d expose the baby bump. And it wouldn’t be long before everyone in his family would know she was pregnant. And once the news was out, it would really be “out.” They’d tell their friends. Everyone would know. There’d be no way to ease him out of the picture. No way for him to quietly disassociate himself from her.
Damn. She had no idea why she thought she could trust him. The minute he was out of her sight, he’d probably told his entire family. Worse, he hadn’t warned her that he’d told them. How could she explain her dad’s situation to him and think he’d listen? Think he’d keep it to himself and give her what she wanted? He wouldn’t. Let it come out in court, at a custody battle, where the evidence could speak for itself.
Or maybe it wouldn’t.
Maybe his lawyers would twist it the way Paul Barnes had gotten the DA to twist the evidence of her father’s innocence into a story of a coworker who’d only confessed after he was dead to get his friend out of prison.
Damn it! Damn it! Damn it!
She couldn’t deal with this right now. Especially not in front of his sister.
She popped out of her seat, grabbed her purse and turned away from the table. “We’ll talk another time, Jake.”
Her pulse pounding, she raced out the door and into the hot first-day-of-September evening. She couldn’t believe how this situation kept spiraling. Anger poured through her in waves. If she couldn’t trust Jake not to say anything to anyone until they had their situation resolved, how could she trust him with anything?
A hand caught her arm, slowed her down, then stopped her.
It had to be Jake.
She spun to face him. “Now what? Would you like me to sit with a reporter from the New Yorker and give an interview? Maybe we can get ABC to put us on Good Morning America?”
“Will you stop? I didn’t tell her to come here!”
“You expect me to believe it was a coincidence?”
“It was! And you’re being stupid. It was my sister for God’s sake. Not a girlfriend.”
“I would have much rather that she’d been a girlfriend!”
He stepped close. “Really?”
He smelled spicy and male and all her pregnancy hormones popped. She ignored them. “You can date anybody you want.”
“I’m about to be a father. I want to settle one life crisis at a time. I don’t want to date anybody.”
“Well, you might as well, because you and I are oil and water. Our lives clash. Even when we try to get along, we fight. We’ll never get a custody agreement hammered
