Wes sat at the bar in the Club Tahoe steakhouse. “I need to talk to you,” he said to Bran, who was replacing a bottle on one of the glass shelves behind the bar.

“What’s up?”

The place was dead, stuck between dining hours, but that wouldn’t last long. Pretty soon, people would come pouring in for their gourmet dinner at one of the best restaurants in town. “It’s personal,” Wes said.

Bran set a bottle down, wiped his hands on a rag, and walked around the bar. He sat next to Wes. “You okay?”

Wes shook his head and took a deep breath. He’d believed Kaylee when she said she couldn’t get pregnant—had beaten himself up over it, feeling responsible. And now, when everything was finally within grasp, she dropped this on him? “Kaylee just told me she’s pregnant.”

Bran’s eyes widened. He ran a hand through his light hair and looked around as though he were just as shocked as Wes.

That wasn’t what Wes needed. Dammit, he needed his brother to be the coherent one. Because Wes thought he might be losing his mind.

Bran was the thinker—the one brother who didn’t act without weighing all the consequences. He wouldn’t have made love to a woman on the golf course without protection. Shit, Bran was such a monk these days, he wouldn’t have made love to a woman on the golf course, period.

“You’re not the first person to be a part of an unplanned pregnancy,” Bran finally said. “I’m assuming it was unplanned?”

The only person Wes had told about the miscarriage Kaylee suffered was Bran. “Not planned.”

“If I could go back in time, I know what I would have done if the girl I’d dated in high school had given me a choice. The question is, what do you want to do?”

Wes cut Bran a sharp look. “I want my kid. And I want to support Kaylee—no question. But there’s more.” He rubbed his forehead. “I just received word that I made it onto the tour for the rest of the year. The dream I’ve carried most of my life is coming true. But if I take this opportunity, I’d be gone almost all the time.”

Bran shook his head. “Your timing leaves something to be desired.”

Wes chuckled humorlessly. “Tell me about it. The problem is, I want it all. Kaylee, the baby—I even enjoy running the course now. I like teaching kids and training future stars at the game.”

“But letting go of your dream, man…that’s rough.”

Wes glared. “Is that the best you’ve got? Didn’t you used to be a bartender, listening to everyone’s problems and shelling out advice?”

“Past tense.” Bran stood and walked around the bar, picking up a clean glass. “Now I’m running four restaurants and would rather gouge my eyes out than listen to one more person’s problems—brothers not included. I’ve got my fill of bullshit with these employees coming into work with all their issues.” He filled the glass with amber liquid and sent it across the bar. “Liquid courage, brother. That’s all I can offer. And not to put pressure on you or anything, but you’ve got one more problem. Levi’s still worked up about you being gone. If you choose the tour, you’ll need to find someone to help run the course. And that isn’t what Dad would have wanted. Not that you need the reminder.”

None of them, with the exception of maybe Adam, had been close to their father. But since their father’s death, all of Wes’s brothers had taken the responsibility of running the resort seriously, the way their father had dreamed. Like some sort of tribute to the old man.

Wes swigged the shot and pushed the glass across the counter. “Trust me, it hasn’t slipped my mind.”

Bran studied him as he poured Wes’s next shot. “Kaylee’s a good girl. You’re different with her. Less tense. She make you happy?”

Wes nodded, but he wasn’t ready to share his feelings about Kaylee with his brother when he hadn’t shared them with her. He didn’t want to hurt her, but this pregnancy? She could have slapped him across the face and he wouldn’t have been more stunned.

Wes tipped back the second shot. “Better keep these coming. I’m going to need them while I sort this out.”

---

Kaylee wasn’t upset when Wes left her immediately after she’d told him about the baby. Honestly, she’d needed these last two days to come to grips with the idea too, and she was still in shock. But it was dark out now and Wes hadn’t returned. And he’d not called or messaged her, either.

Prickly heat rose in her chest. She was sick of putting others’ needs ahead of her own.

Kaylee had always felt like a cling-on to Wes’s drive for glory in college. Even if she’d believed he loved her, it hadn’t been enough. She’d wanted to be a priority. Then, when she was at her lowest, she’d met Eddy and he’d put her first. For a while. Until that was all a lie too. Eddy only loved himself. And here she was, hooking up with Wes again and pregnant, something she’d never thought possible.

Kaylee wasn’t simply mad at Wes for running out and not checking back in. She. Was. Pissed.

She told him she was pregnant with their child, and he left her to huddle with his brothers? That asshole!

He was doing it again. Putting his needs ahead of hers. It had been coming on slowly with the golf tour, but she couldn’t blame him for going for it and finally realizing his dreams. Only now she was pregnant and needed him too. Needed to talk it through with him, at the very least, and feel like she wasn’t alone the way she’d been four years ago.

Would she never learn? She was alone.

Wes hadn’t changed. And she couldn’t even blame him for it. She’d slowly slipped into old habits too, not saying anything about the time he spent away, allowing him to show up whenever he felt like it. She’d told herself they weren’t in a relationship to prevent this outcome. But they were. Kaylee wasn’t seeing anyone else, and neither was Wes.

The only thing she couldn’t understand was why he’d chosen to date her again. No matter how many times she’d told him she didn’t want anything serious, he’d nod and keep right on wooing her into a relationship. He never said he loved her, though. Never talked about a future, unless it was one where she followed him around the country on the tour. And now she’d forced a future on him and he’d run.

Kaylee sank onto the couch and dropped her head in her hands. “Shit.”

She wasn’t even sure she’d be able to hold on to this pregnancy. She’d lost the first baby around the same time—which had ruined everything.

Kaylee stood and stormed into the kitchen. She shoved dishes into the dishwasher. Damn him! And what the hell was up with his sperm? How could he have gotten her pregnant the first time they had sex in four years? She didn’t know if it had happened on the golf course, but it had to have occurred then or soon after, given how far along she was in her pregnancy. She shoved the dishwasher closed and crossed her arms—right as Wes walked through the front door.

His wide shoulders banged into the doorjamb. He nearly lost his balance completely when he tried to shut the door. She peeked out the window and saw a taxi pull away.

Kaylee narrowed her eyes. Even drunk, Wes was handsome. More so because he was off his guard, rumpled, sloppy, and boyish. “I tell you I’m pregnant, and you leave me to get hammered?”

He dumped his wallet on the coffee table, walked across the room, and sank onto the couch, lying back with his arm over his head. “Not now. Talk tomorrow?”

She stormed over and glared down at him. “Do you even want this baby?”

He moved his arm, revealing one steely eye. “You are not hurting our baby.”

She threw up her arms. “Of course I’m not. God, Wes. This could be the best thing that’s ever happened to me. And I thought you’d at least be positive about it.”

He covered his eye again. “I am.”

“Yeah,” she said. “You seem like it.”

She locked the front door and turned back to him. He was snoring lightly, the jackass!

“Wes!” She went over and shoved his leg with her bare foot.

He jerked and seemed to try to sit upright, but instead flopped around on the couch. “What’s wrong?” he slurred.

Everything. Simply everything.

She headed for the staircase. “Don’t even try and get into my bed tonight or you’ll find your drunk ass on the floor.”

There. She’d told him.

But she hadn’t really. Because Wes had gone out and gotten drunk, and not in the celebratory way. He’d gotten drunk in the “holy shit, my fuck buddy is pregnant, now what do I do” way.

Tears stung her eyes as she climbed the stairs. She’d be better off without him. A pain stabbed her in the chest and she rubbed it. Wes wasn’t good for her or the baby. And no way was she losing this one.

Kaylee stood at the top of the stairs and cradled her tummy. “You and me first this time.”