Adam hurried into the dining room, behind as always. He could snag a cup of coffee from the kitchen, swing by and pick up Kylie, and then get to work without being too late. Hopefully.

Well hell, who was going to fire him? It wasn’t like he had a boss he had to explain himself to, right?

It still bothered him, though.

He pressed a kiss to his mom’s cheek, as always, as he rushed past. “Good morning, Mom,” he called out cheerfully from the kitchen, pouring himself a cup of coffee. “How’d you sleep?”

She didn’t answer but instead folded up the newspaper and put it neatly off to the side. Her unexpected silence caught his attention and he went back into the dining room, coffee cup in hand. She looked…upset. Angry. Worried.

Something not good, anyway.

“Adam, dear, there’s something you need to hear and I think you ought to hear it from me,” she said slowly.

Adam slid into his chair, kitty corner from his mother’s, and picked up her hand in his. “What’s wrong?” he asked, worried. His mother wasn’t one for the melodramatic, so this was unusual, to say the least.

“Kylie VanLueven is pregnant.”

He jerked his head back and shook it instinctively. “No,” he whispered. “That can’t be right.”

Then he remembered the flash of her rounded belly in the sunlight when Dumbass had been trying to eat her shirt, and how she always wore sweatshirts and yoga pants and…

He was such an idiot. Such an idiot.

“How do you know?” he demanded defensively. “Are you sure?”

His mom nodded slowly. “That Tiffany gal – you know her? A couple of years younger than you – confronted her last night at the Knit Wits meeting. I sure don’t like that Tiffany woman, or her friend Ezzy. Nothing good ever seems to happen around them. Anyway, Tiffany seems to think that the father of Kylie’s baby is married to someone else, although she didn’t have any proof for it.”

“Did Kylie actually say that she was pregnant?” Adam demanded. He felt his world spinning off its axis.

Not again…

“I don’t know. I wasn’t there. You know I can’t anymore…” She held up her gnarled hands. “But a couple of my friends called afterward and told me what had happened since Kylie is your employee and all. They thought you deserved to know. I know that nowadays, in some places, it’s okay to have six children by six different men and never marry any of them, but this is Sawyer. If it’s true, she’s not going to have an easy time of it. And you aren’t either. There are some prudes in town who might not want to use you as their vet because of this.”

Adam nodded mechanically, but honestly, he didn’t care about that part. He had enough business to keep him running at full speed 24/7. If he lost a little business, he’d probably be better off for it.

But Kylie…

All this time, and she didn’t tell him. Why didn’t she tell him? Did she think he didn’t deserve to know?

Not again…

He stood up from the dining room table. “I better get to work,” he said woodenly. “See you tonight.” He kissed his mom goodbye and climbed into the truck.

He didn’t remember a thing about the drive over to his old place. When he pulled up in front of the older farmhouse, he looked around, blinking. How had he gotten there? He could only hope he hadn’t run any stop signs while driving on autopilot.

And then it all washed over him again and the haze disappeared and the anger rushed back and he jumped out of the truck, hurrying to the front door, pounding on it. Kylie opened up, a big grin on her face, a platter of food in her hands but before she could say anything, he demanded, “Are you pregnant?!”

Her face crumpled and her shoulders slumped. She put the tray of food on the entryway table. She looked back up at him.

She nodded slowly.

“How far along?”

“Four months tomorrow,” she whispered.

“Why didn’t you tell me?” he demanded. The pain swirled through him at the betrayal.

Not again…

“Would you have hired me if you knew?” she retorted right back, planting her hands on her hips and glaring up at him.

“Of co—” He stopped his instinctive response and thought about it, really thought about it. She hadn’t known anything about animals. She didn’t have any billing experience. She wasn’t 50 and she didn’t have gray hair and she sure as shit didn’t have a steely-eyed glance. He’d been so close to turning her away as it was. Would he have hired her if he’d known she was pregnant?

Probably not.

His hesitation gave him away.

“I needed a job,” Kylie said flatly. “No employer hires someone who is months along in their pregnancy. Oh, they come up with fake reasons for it – shit that has nothing to do with the pregnancy – but honestly, employers just don’t want to be inconvenienced by hiring someone who has to take medical leave just months after starting, no matter how good they are in the meantime. And, in case you haven’t noticed, I’m not married, and this is Sawyer-freaking-Idaho.

“So yeah, I didn’t tell you.”

Adam sputtered, his mind spinning in circles. He didn’t know what he wanted to say or do. He needed some time to think, some space from Kylie. Maybe a nice round of vaccinations with a herd of cows that were dumber than a pile of rocks would help him get his head on straight.

“Well, are you ready to go?” he growled. He wasn’t normally one to snap at people, but he couldn’t make himself care at the moment. He’d care later. Right now, he felt too mixed up and stirred up and chaotic and panicked to be kind and thoughtful.

“‘Go’? Hold on, you still want me to come to work?”

“Of course. I sure as shit don’t want to have to start sending out invoices again.” He turned back and started stomping down the walkway, his boots not making any noise on the dirt path. Dammit. What he wouldn’t give for a concrete sidewalk in that moment.

They climbed inside and for a second day in a row, the drive to work was uncomfortable and awful and awkward as hell. Adam pulled to a stop in front of the clinic, waited for Kylie to climb out, and then drove off. He could go buy a cup of coffee from Mr. Petrols. Right now, he needed some space from Ms. Kylie VanLueven, and the chance to figure out what in the hell he was going to do.