He had been so focused on the anxious look on her face that he didn’t even register what she had just told him.

The look was not one of happiness from eating a fine meal (which he noticed she hadn’t eaten much of), or being done with law school, or being together again. It was a look that registered bad news.

Then his neurons and synapses went to work.

Pregnant?

“Pregnant?” the word left his lips and sent his head spinning.

The anxious look transformed into worry, then panic. “Here, have some more wine,” she said placing her—untouched!—wine glass in front of him.

He took the glass and drank, unable to make his mouth work for anything else.

“I know it’s a shock and I know I should have told you months ago—”

Months?

It hit him. January. That’s why she’d left.

He took another gulp.

“—but when it happened you were just so, so upset. So I told you I was on the pill, so you wouldn’t get mad at me—”

That was a sharp, little dagger through his heart. He could have known this whole time. Been there to hold and comfort her from the very beginning, but his damn overreaction had kept her away. She’d had to deal with this on her own…for months.

He took another sip.

“—then it was just never the right time, what with”—she gave him a guilty look—”how I left you, and then I wanted to do it in person but you were away at spring training, and then the steroids thing and—”

Now she was babbling nervously, waiting for him to answer.

He took another sip, if only to loosen his tongue, or at least loosen his thoughts. Right now they were a tightly wound tangle of confusion.

“Then your crazy mother came to see me, and I just—”

“What?” That was the magic word that made his voice suddenly reappear.

Jordan stopped short and looked at him in confusion, as though questioning which part of her incoherent rambling he was asking about. Then the obvious hit her and he saw a gleam come to her eye that told him he wasn’t going to like what he was about to hear.

“She’s been spying on me!” she spat. “She came to see me a month ago and—and told me things.” Her eyes fell to the table in hurt and anger.

Carter was still reeling from the sledgehammer that had just knocked him upside the head. But that look sobered him right up, taking front and center. His only focus was on making that hurt, that anger, disappear.

He reached across the table and took her hand. Her eyes flashed up to meet his.

“What did she say, Jordan?”

There was hesitation. He squeezed, letting her know she could tell him.

She seemed to be having some sort of internal dialogue with herself. Finally, she took a breath.

“Are you even ready for a baby?” she asked.

That wasn’t what he was expecting, and he gave her a mild look of confusion. “Well, I just got the news, Jordan. I need time to process it.”

“Because I know you’ve got baseball and the Sluggers are doing so well this season. And I’ve got the bar, and then my job. But I’m keeping it, Carter.”

She looked at him with firm determination.

It hit Carter like a bullet to the chest as soon as she said it. From that second on, he didn’t need time to process it. This baby…this baby that he was not nearly prepared for. This was his baby. His and Jordan’s. Theirs.

“Jordan, if you’re having my baby, I want it—I want you both—in my life.”

A sob escaped her lips, as she broke down.

He quickly rushed around the table to kneel before her and wrap his arms around her. People were beginning to look, but he didn’t care. He knelt there awkwardly until she had cried it all out.

“Shhh,” he soothed, “It’s okay, I’m here for you.”

She was down to hiccups now. He blindly reached up to the table to grab a glass of water for her. He hurriedly set it down when he realized the one he grabbed held wine and not water.

That’s when it hit him again; he was going to be a father.

He grabbed the water and held it to her. She took it gratefully and sipped between hiccups. They eventually died down.

When he felt she was ready to go on, he brought his hand up to her chin and lifted it to look at him. “Tell me what my mother said.”

She gave a small sniffle, then tore his heart open. “She…she made it seem like you wouldn’t want a baby with me because…well, because of how…I’m black and you’re white. She said you’d—

He stopped her cold. “Jordan, I can’t think of a woman in the world I’d rather have a baby with. Are you kidding me? With your brains and beauty and my…well, with your genes anyway. They’d be super-kid.”

That got a smile out of her.

“In fact, I’m only worried about it being a girl. If she has your good looks I don’t think I’d ever let her out of the house.”

That made her laugh and made his heart soar.

He pulled her in for another hug. “You let me worry about my Ma. I’ll make sure she gets the memo…signed, sealed, and delivered.”

* * *

Carter looked at the ring again.

Five carats. It was a doozy.

“Cushion cut,” the woman at Intercontinental Jewelers had said, whatever the heck that meant. All Carter knew was, it looked nice. Very nice. The kind of nice that would make heads turn. The kind of nice that would make other women jealous. The kind of nice that would make Jordan say yes.

Because, whether she knew it yet or not, Jordan was his. He had known that way back when he’d left Austin hell bent on kicking his father’s ass. She had comforted him when he needed it the most. She had helped him work through the noise and figure out the truth. She had kept him from ending up in prison.

Now she was going to be the mother of his child.

He was going to spend the rest of his life doing his best to make sure she was happy. She would want for nothing. She would never be scared, or worried, or upset, or sad. Not if he could help it. She would lie in his bed next to him every night, and wake up to his face smiling down at her.

If this ring didn’t do it, he wasn’t sure what would. As completely uninterested as he was in jewelry, even he had been immediately drawn to it. The “cushion cut” was a large, roundish, squarish shape, surrounded by tiny diamonds, on a band covered in diamonds. Women liked diamonds, right? He sure hoped Jordan did, because she was about to be wearing a mine’s worth on her finger.

As he pulled out his black AmEx to pay for the ring, he felt only a slight bit of apprehension. He was sure he wanted to make Jordan his wife. The baby had only made him wake up and realize that fact.

But Jordan was a plotter and a planner. Their roller coaster of a relationship only proved to Carter that she was the one; if they could survive all these huge ups and downs they could survive anything. Carter was down for embracing the rapids, her hand securely in his.

Jordan wanted a calm lake of smooth sailing. She would most likely see it as proof they needed to wait.

Now they had every reason in the world to be together. Surely even she could see that?

He had brought in one of Houston’s top interior designers to get rid of his “sex room.” Even now he cringed at the thought that she had ever laid eyes on it.

The designer had done her best to keep a poker face when he revealed it to her, but he’d seen the mild look of disapproval. He couldn’t blame her. He’d literally taken the decor from a porno he’d watched right after buying the house.

“Make it…feminine,” he’d said, leaving her to her own devices, money being no object. She’d certainly taken him at his word and he had the bill to prove it. But he had to give it to her, the result had been perfect.

That was the nice thing about money: it could buy you what you wanted.

But could it get him what he wanted most?

He looked at the ring again, imagining it on Jordan’s finger…right next to the one that would make her his for life.

He would do whatever it took to make her his.

First, he had some business to take care of.

* * *

Jordan’s words still filled his veins with fire as he recalled them. He took a day to calm down. Madison Grant may have fucked up big time, but she was still his mother.

It was time to do what he should have done long before he even met Jordan.

For the first time, it was Carter who was hounding his mother, and not the other way around. He knew full well that if she didn’t want to be contacted, she wouldn’t be. So he showed up to her place.

David, the doorman, recognized him and instantly picked up the phone to call her.

“Ms. Grant, your son Carter is here—”

The doorman paused as his mother was no doubt rattling off a list of excuses to relay to her son. Carter watched with a mixture of growing irritation and sympathy at what he was about to put the man through.

He hung up and looked at Carter, who stopped him before he could open his mouth. “Let me guess, she’s not feeling well? Busy? Having the place fumigated?”

David gave him a look of consternation. “I’m sorry Mr. Fox but she—”

“Don’t worry about it, David.”

He pulled out his cell phone and dialed. It went straight to voicemail as he’d expected.

“Ma, we’ve got to address this at some point, and I’ve decided that today is the day. I’m going to give you exactly one minute to listen to this message, call me back and invite me up so we can deal with this…or I’ll simply stand here in the lobby leaving another message detailing all your exploits for David, and any of your neighbors who might wander in, to hear. One minute.”

He smiled at the doorman, whose face was a mixture of discomfort and mild curiosity. No doubt a delightful little scandal concerning one of the residents was a fun way to break up the monotony of the day. On the other hand, there was a certain propriety to maintain. They both waited there in silence.

After a minute, Carter made good on his threat, calling her back fully prepared to follow through.

She picked up after the first ring. “Carter Fox, you have no shame!” she said before he could utter a word.

“That’s mighty rich of you to say, considering,” he retorted. “Do you wanna do this here or send me up? David’s looking mighty interested and I think I just heard the elevat—”

“Don’t be crass, Carter,” she spat. After a moment she sighed. “Fine, give the phone to David.”

Carter handed the phone to David whose curiosity had diminished under the prospect of being thrown into the ring between Madison Grant and Carter Fox. He listened warily and then nodded. “Yes, Ms. Grant.”

He handed the phone back to Carter. “You may go up now,” he said hurriedly.

“Thank you, David,” Carter said graciously. He’d have to remember to send him an expensive bottle of whiskey for Christmas.

Madison opened the door already on the defensive. “You should be ashamed of yourself bringing David into this!”

“There wouldn’t be a ‘this’ if you hadn’t completely crossed the line.”

“I don’t know—”

“Don’t!” Carter roared, causing her to flinch with startled eyes.

“Don’t lie,” he said in a calmer tone, which was somehow even more intimidating.

She pressed her lips together and crossed her arms not saying a word.

“I suspected, after that day in January, maybe you were keeping tabs on me. But Jordan?”

She broke her silence. “Well, it’s a good thing I did, Carter! Who knew what she would have tried with that baby—”

“So you knew?” Even though Jordan had said it, his mother confirming it made it hit home. “And you didn’t tell me?”

She gave a defiant laugh. “Of course not! What would you have done? Something stupid like run off and buy a ring?”

He laughed at the irony.

“I don’t see what’s so funny about it Carter. It’s 18 years she’s got you trapped.”

“I did buy a ring, Ma,” he told her matter-of-factly.

She gasped. “Carter, no!”

“Hush Ma!” he shouted. “Listen to me. I love her.”

“Carter—”

“And I’m going to ask her to marry me.” He gave her a direct look, “because you know what? I want her for more than 18 years. I want her for life. And I don’t care what our child looks like…in fact I hope it does look like her. I’ll love it all the more.”

“Carter you don’t know what you’re—”

“From now on, if you want to be a part of my life, you have to accept Jordan…and our baby.”

He came in closer and she shied away from the look in his eyes. “Either way, I have two rules. One, no more spying, or detectives, or whatever it is you’re doing to keep tabs on us. You wanna know something you pick up the damn phone.”

She pursed her lips but nodded.

“And two, don’t you ever—ever—talk to Jordan that way again. I swear I’ll cut you off for good. Do you understand?”

She gave him a look of indignant disbelief.

“Do you understand?”

She looked out the window as her lips began to tremble. “I was only trying to protect you Carter.”

“I don’t need your protection, Ma. Not from Jordan.”

She continued to look out the window and gave a deep breath, but didn’t say anything.

“I’ll give you time to think about that. If you do decide to come back, I expect you to apologize to her, or no deal.”

He waited for an answer, then left.