Bartending while pregnant was a special kind of hell, but the customers at Bailey’s tipped well, and Tasha could use all the extra income she could get right now. For car repairs and savings, too, because she was a complete dummy.

A complete dummy who was going to be a mother in four months, give or take a week. She’d only known she was pregnant for a few weeks—and just how pregnant she was? That was even newer information.

Another reason she’d volunteered to help Malcolm, the owner, tonight was because she could use the ego boost, and she was a damn good bartender. She’d seen on Facebook that he needed an extra pair of hands behind the bar, and she’d leapt on it. Malcolm hadn’t asked why she was so easy to cover the Valentine’s Day shift, but he did poke a bit at her when she came in early.

“Don’t you want to visit with your sister while you’re in town?”

Nope, she thought. Because she might find out that I’m pregnant and have no clue what I’m going to do, and I can’t handle that. Not this week.

At some point, she’d have to deal with the inevitable fact she was going to have a baby.

Alone.

“They’re doing a thing with the kids tonight at the community centre, so I’m all yours,” she’d said brightly.

Now, seven hours later, midnight was around the corner.

Her last Valentine’s Day that she would spend alone for the next eighteen years. She pressed a hand to her belly—still not really showing, just a thickness to her middle, thanks to being long-waisted. Just you and me, kiddo.

It was a Friday night, and Malcolm had gone all out to make Valentine’s at Bailey’s a fun night for everyone, single or coupled or complicated. So the last hour before they closed, technically into the next day, was jammed with people wanting one or two more before they stumbled into the cold night.

Tasha remembered what that was like. That had been her life just a year ago. Party girl, nomad. Always up for hitting the club when she went to see David in the city.

David.

After she cashed out the bar, she checked her phone. No messages. If she’d had any doubt about his resolve to not have anything to do with the baby, his silence tonight spoke volumes.

There would be no Valentine’s love note. No happy-ever-after ending for her and her child’s father.

She shoved her phone into her bag and looped it over her arm before taking the cash drawer back to Malcolm’s office.

He shook her hand. “Thanks for coming in tonight.”

“You know I’ve always enjoyed Bailey’s when visiting.”

“If you ever decide to stick around here longer than a weekend or two at a time, I’d be happy to have you come work for me full-time. You’re the quickest read of any customer I’ve seen in a bartender, and that kind of thing keeps people coming back.”

Not men, she thought. To them, she was just a pretty face.

Except for Jake. He’d always been nice to her. And then she’d gone and fucked that up by sleeping with him, which was so not what he wanted from her.

He’d offered friendship, though.

“Who knows,” she heard herself saying. “Maybe I’ll move down here.”

It had already occurred to her that she might need to ask her parents or her sister for help. The thought grated, but she had to be realistic. It would be hard to do it all on her own.

“If you do, you get in touch, okay?”

“Will do.”

She grabbed her coat and boots, dressed for the winter, and headed outside to her Jeep. Her expensive Jeep, which she’d driven into a ditch in a snow storm last month. Right after finding out she was pregnant.

Once again her thoughts spiralled to David. To Jake. Comparing them.

Jake wasn’t the right guy for her. She knew that. But he was maybe her only friend in the entire world right now.

She was going to head home in the morning. Drive up the peninsula. Maybe he’d be up for having breakfast or something.

Before she could think twice about whether or not this was a good idea, she pressed the call button.

Each ring ramped up her heart rate. Hang up the phone, she tried to tell herself.

She didn’t listen.

“Hello?” It was short, curt, and not welcoming in the least.

“Jake?” This was a mistake, but she couldn’t hang up now. He’d already have seen that she called and would think the worst of her if she hung up.

“What’s wrong?”

“Nothing. I’m fine.”

“It’s the middle of the night.”

“I’m in Port Elgin at my sister’s, and I’m driving home tomorrow. Thought maybe we could have breakfast.” The words spilled out of her so fast she wasn’t sure they were comprehensible.

He heard them—and rejected them soundly. “I’ve got plans.”

Crap. Hang. Up. The. Phone. Instead, she opened her mouth again and poor-me-itis spilled out. “I talked to David. He’s not thrilled. About the baby.”

“I’m sorry to hear that.” He sighed, and his voice softened. “I can’t be a stop on your way north and south anymore, Tash.”

She’d fucked this up. Lost her chance to have something decent for once. “You were so good, in the hospital—”

He cut her off. “You shouldn’t have called me tonight. Or in general. I mean, if you were in a real bind or something…no. There have to be other people in your life that you can turn to, people you haven’t slept with.”

“I thought we were friends.”

“Well, I thought so too, but this conversation has me thinking otherwise.”

“Oh.”

He sighed. “I wish you well, I really do. But you can’t call me in the middle of the night, okay?”

“Shit.“ She started to cry, which she really didn’t want to do.

“Can you talk to your sister?”

She would have to, sooner than later. But she wasn’t ready for that yet. She sniffed and cleared her throat. “Yeah. I just…I don’t want anyone else to know how much I’ve fucked up, ya know?”

“Jesus, Natasha. You haven’t fucked up.”

“It doesn’t feel like that from here. I didn’t even know I was like five months pregnant. What the hell kind of mother am I going to make?”

He laughed gently. “Probably an average one. No, a great one. Listen, go wake up your sister and tell her all of this. She’s going to be a better support to you than I can be.”

He wasn’t wrong. She should have told Meredith what was going on as soon as she arrived instead of trying to cling to denial like a life raft.

She hated that, and she started to cry harder, but it was silent, and somehow, deep inside, she found the strength to swallow that and wipe her eyes. “God, how much do I suck that I needed to have someone else tell me that?”

He didn’t reply to that, which was good, because she needed to get off the phone and never speak to him again. Jake was a good guy, but he wasn’t her guy, and she needed to go. She mumbled an apology before ending the call.

Well, it was official. She hated Valentine’s Day.

She turned her car on and, as the engine warmed up, she stared out the window at the darkened Bailey’s sign on the side of the building.

Maybe she should take Malcolm up on his offer. For a few months, at least. Move to Port Elgin and have her baby close to her sister. She wouldn’t stay long. A year at most.

And then she’d get her life back on track.