career oriented to want any long-term relationships, and since Zeke’s death that was the last thing she wanted.
She parked in a space in front of the trendy coffee shop. For a moment she remained seated in the car and gently caressed her stomach, wondering how reality would stack up to fantasy.
With a small sigh, she got out of her car and headed inside to find out what would happen now that Dallas was here.
* * *
Dallas Colton sat at a table for two toward the back of JoJo’s Java, with a cup of black coffee before him. The coffee shop was a popular place for people to gather in town. Along with the tables and chairs, there was a long bar and an outdoor patio. Amber lighting overhead provided a warm, cozy feeling.
He wasn’t feeling all warm and cozy right now. He was still very much reeling from seeing Avery again...a very pregnant Avery.
When he’d first looked up and seen her standing on the top step of the courthouse, his heart had crashed against his ribs. Not that his heart had been involved with her at all, but he’d been momentarily stunned by her beauty.
Her long, reddish-brown hair had sparkled in the sunlight and he suddenly remembered that her eyes were the green of a dark, mysterious forest.
When he’d seen her pregnant stomach, he’d known instinctively that the baby was his. Birth control and protection had been the last things on his mind when he’d left the bar with her and gone to the nearby motel almost eight months before.
It had been a night of crazy, wild passion. That night he’d wrapped his arms around Avery in an effort to momentarily staunch his grief over another woman.
Ivy. Her name whispered through him, along with a swell of all-too-familiar anguish. Oh God, he couldn’t think about her right now. It felt like such a betrayal to think about her while he met with a woman who was probably carrying his baby. He consciously willed those thoughts away and took a drink of his coffee.
Right now his complete focus needed to be on Avery and the very real possibility that the baby she carried was his. The timing was certainly right for that to be. If that was the case, he needed to figure out what came next.
Was she in a relationship with another man? Was it possible she had married since he had been with her? He frowned. He wasn’t sure he liked the idea of another man raising his child.
Maybe he was jumping way ahead of himself. Maybe the baby she carried wasn’t his. But she’d indicated it was and his gut told him it was his.
Jeez. A baby. This was certainly not the way he’d envisioned himself becoming a father...a one-night stand with a woman he didn’t really know.
He wouldn’t have even been at the courthouse this morning if his brother hadn’t been testifying. At the last minute Dallas had decided to go along and offer Forrest his support.
He looked toward the entrance at the same time Avery came through the door. She looked around and then spotted him. She held up a hand and pointed toward the counter, then walked over to it and placed an order. Despite her condition, she walked with a confidence that was both powerful and yet graceful. He found it very attractive.
He’d been entranced as she’d given her closing arguments minutes earlier. She’d been so impassioned, demanding rather than pleading for votes of guilt. She was obviously very smart and articulate, and yet had connected with the jury on an emotional level.
Her black slacks emphasized her slender legs. Her red blouse elegantly skimmed the fullness of her belly. In spite of her current condition, the memory of their night together was suddenly a hot burn in his brain. It had been a night of intense pleasure. She’d been a giving lover and the experience of having sex with her was emblazoned in his mind.
As she paid for a cup of something, he tried to shove those provocative memories out of his head. This whole thing felt so surreal and so very awkward.
She eased down in the chair opposite his and brought with her a scent of an exotic spice and citrus fragrance that he instantly remembered from their night together.
He tightened his fingers around his warm, plastic-foam cup and worked up a smile that hopefully didn’t show how very ill at ease he was under the circumstances.
“There’s nothing better to calm the nerves than a hot cup of herbal tea,” she said, to break the ice.
Maybe he should have opted for some of that tea instead of the coffee that now sat heavy in his chest. He had so many questions, yet at the moment, sitting across from her, he was uncharacteristically tongue-tied. “Why didn’t you tell me?” The words finally blurted out of him.
She raised an eyebrow. “How could I have told you? I only knew your first name and that you were in the army. I had no idea where you were stationed or how to contact you. We didn’t exactly exchange phone numbers and addresses that night.”
Her cheeks flushed with a pretty pink color. “You can believe it or not, but that was the first and only time I’ve ever done something like that in my entire life. It was a night of risky behavior and that isn’t who I am. You were the only man I’d been with for a very long time.”
He really had no reason to believe her, but he did. Despite their wild desire that night, there had also been a shyness, an awkwardness about her that had let him know it wasn’t something she did all the time.
She didn’t need to know he’d acted out of character that night, as well. Driven into the bar with a deep grief, he’d intended to drink himself into oblivion. Although he’d had more than his share of booze that night, it had been Avery’s smile that had prompted him to try to lose his grief in her rather than the bottom of a bottle.
It hadn’t worked. He’d awakened the next morning hungover and with his grief still intact, and a new guilt weighing heavy in his heart. The only real difference had been he’d had a beautiful woman in his arms who had wanted more from him than he could give.
“I would have loved to contact you when I first found out I was pregnant, but I couldn’t. I had no idea how to find you.” Her hand dropped to her stomach. “I don’t expect anything from you, Dallas. I made the decision to have these babies and I’m fine doing this all on my own.”
A shocked surprise jolted through him. “B-b-babies?” he stuttered.
She nodded and smiled. “I’m carrying twins...a boy and a girl.”
He couldn’t help the small gasp that escaped him. He hadn’t even completely processed that she was pregnant with one baby, let alone two.
She frowned and stared down into her cup for a long moment and then glanced back at him. “Look, I know this has to be a big shock to you,” she said. “I really don’t need anything from you, Dallas. I’ll be fine on my own.”
“You aren’t getting rid of me that easily,” he immediately replied. This might not be the time or the way he would have chosen to become a father, but that didn’t matter. Now he knew she carried his son and his daughter and he wasn’t about to walk away from his babies.
“Uh...do you have a significant other in your life right now?” he asked.
She laughed, the sound rich and melodic. “Right, I’ve had to beat the men away from me and my girlish
