to Riley. He was staring out the window, grinding his jaw.
“Bryan,” Winnie called, knocking on the glass. She smiled pleasantly as the chauffeur lowered the partition. “I’m sorry, but can you go back to the theater, please?”
“Right away, Mrs. Jackson.”
“It’s Jacobsen, dear. I changed it back to my maiden name after the divorce. Jackson is Riley’s stage name, though I still don’t see why Jacobsen wasn’t good enough.”
Bryan the driver nodded his agreement. “It’s a fine name, Mrs. Jacobsen.”
Riley glared. “Mom—”
“I came all this way and got dressed up for this. I don’t want to miss seeing you on-screen. Sam...” She addressed Stilts. Of course. Riley’s agent, Sam, the woman she’d been trying desperately to get hold of since she’d arrived in LA. “You’re coming with me, dear. My son needs to speak with his friend alone.”
The limo hadn’t traveled far from the theater. In a few minutes, the driver dropped the ladies off behind the Fox. Winnie gave a pleasant look to each of them that communicated both warning and warm expectation. Sam offered only a scowl. The limo pulled away from the curb again and it was just the two of them.
Kat’s heart pumped acid into her chest and she swallowed tightly. Deep lines were carved into Riley’s glowering face. He looked tired, worse than he’d looked when Kat had first met him in Hawaii. His hair was a bit longer now, and his tan had faded. The wry twist in the corner of his mouth betrayed his black humor. Despite all that, he was still pretty hot.
“If what you say is true—” he couldn’t seem to look at her now, eyes fixed out the window, instead “—why’d you come here of all places to tell me?”
“You don’t think I tried calling? I got the runaround so many times, it was pointless. I wrote letters and emails. I never got an answer. I even showed up at your talent agency’s headquarters. They kicked me out and threatened to have me arrested for trespassing.”
His jaw worked. “Sam would’ve told me.”
“I didn’t even get to speak to her. No one believes me. You don’t believe me, and you were...f-fries and gravy there.”
His eyebrows clashed. “What did you say?”
She rubbed her neck. “I’m trying to quit swearing so the baby doesn’t hear something she shouldn’t. I replace swearwords with foods I’ve been craving.”
For a flash, his lips fought against a smile. But then his face puckered sourly once more. Softly, he croaked, “She?”
“I don’t actually know.” She pleated the hem of her dress. “I asked them not to tell me. Sometimes I say she...sometimes it’s he.”
He downed the last of his whiskey and replaced the glass in the minibar. “So you decided to come out here and...what? Embarrass me in front of the press? Make sure I pony up to whatever demands you have?”
“Let me make this clear.” She sat forward, indignation honing her words to fine points. “I wouldn’t have had to do this if you’d returned my phone calls.”
“You wouldn’t have had to do this if—”
“If what?” she challenged, the tip of her anger sharp and hot. “If I’d insisted you double bag it? If we hadn’t had sex when I happened to be most fertile? Come on, go ahead. Tell me how this is my fault.”
He clamped his lips so tight they turned white. He sank into the leather upholstery and was quiet for a long time. They hit three stoplights before he finally spoke up. “Suppose...if the baby is mine...”
She clenched her fists. “It’s yours.”
“So...what? I’m not going to marry you.”
She ignored the pinch to her ego. “I don’t expect you to. Seeing what you’re really like, I’m not sure I’d want to.” He flinched, and she mentally chalked one point for herself. “All I wanted was to tell you you’re going to be a father. And I want the baby to know you.” She took a deep breath and forged ahead, praying as she quietly said, “Whether or not you want to actually have anything to do with us is another matter.”
“Hold on a second. Why are you assuming I won’t?”
“Oh, please. You barely believe me. You’re not glad to see me, and obviously, this news isn’t happy news.” Tears burned in her throat. Doughnuts, pregnancy hormones were the worst. She didn’t need him. She’d always taken care of herself. It wasn’t something to cry about.
“I don’t exactly get told I’m a father at the premiere of my biggest film every day. You came out of left field. I haven’t seen you since...”
“Twenty-six weeks ago,” she supplied helpfully, then gave a bitter laugh. “Did you even think about me? About whether there might have been consequences?” It wasn’t a word she liked to use—she’d come to accept the new life growing within her, even if she was in no way prepared to raise a child on her own. True, her mother had done it on less, but Kat wasn’t her mom. And she wanted more for her child than a nomadic life flitting from one coast to the other.
“Excuse me?” Riley’s eyes narrowed. “You were the one who walked out on me.”
Kat bit her lip. The morning after, she’d wanted to stay ensconced in that big hotel room bed. She would’ve loved to share a big breakfast with Riley and seen where things could go. But she’d sneaked out before dawn while Riley slept. There never could’ve been anything but that one night between them, anyhow—she knew it and he knew it.
Seemed they’d both been wrong.
Silence stretched between them as the limo glided through the streets. Riley regarded her with the look of a man calculating the costs of his secrets. “I looked for you,” he said finally. He rubbed his palm over his thigh. “When I got back to LA, I called the bar to check on you.” His brow furrowed. “They said you’d gone. No one knew where.”
She didn’t tell him about being fired. She didn’t want him to know that she’d been so attracted to him that she’d abandoned her post in the middle of her shift. But knowing he’d called trying to find her softened her defensiveness.
He went on, “I figured you’d moved on. Found someone else.”
She buried her clenched hands between her knees. “There was no one else.”
“Right.” He glanced out the window again, infuriating in his skeptical silence.
The limo pulled up outside a fancy hotel. Riley got out and scowled at her before resentfully offering to help her out.
She grabbed his outstretched hand and hauled herself up. She could have managed on her own, but she hadn’t been able to resist the impulse to touch him. He tightened his thick, strong fingers around hers and told the limo driver to stay close, then he guided Kat through the lobby and straight to the brass-and-marble elevator. Riley used a pass card to access the upper VIP floors.
“Where are you living these days?” he asked tersely.
“I’m
