Three times and counting.

“Would you like to come inside?” he asked. “My office has some chairs. We can sit and talk.”

She didn’t speak. She only nodded.

It didn’t escape his notice how she was dressed in a crisp, clean dress, and he was pretty much covered in sweat and grease. He almost hated making her walk through the garage, but she looked like she really could use a seat.

His buddy, Kirk, was bent over the bike they had to work on today, but as soon as he caught a glimpse of Daisy, he immediately straightened, his eyes going wide. Carter snarled at him.

“Bobby’s picking that up at four, so you need to get moving on it,” he snapped, doing his best to shield Kirk’s view of Daisy as they walked to the office.

Once inside, he closed the door and immediately offered her something to drink, but she shook her head, and he watched in amusement as she tried to figure out where to sit. It never seemed to matter before, but looking at the room through her eyes, he could see all the surfaces looked dirty. Thinking fast, he walked over to his supply closet and pulled out a brand-new T-shirt and draped it over the seat cushion for her.

“There you go,” he said softly and motioned for her to sit.

Thankfully she did.

He figured she was here for a reason. Maybe she felt bad about blowing him off yesterday, or maybe… Hell, what other reason could there be? Looking at her now, she didn’t really resemble the woman he’d met at the wedding, and it was pretty eye-opening. Seeing her like this, it was obvious that she was way more reserved and more of a good girl then he had let himself imagine.

A good girl who just happened to fuck like a damn porn star.

Pushing that thought immediately aside—again—he waited her out.

One minute became two. Then three. Carter looked at his watch for emphasis and then figured he’d need to prompt her.

“Uh, Daisy? Did you—”

“I’m pregnant!” she blurted out, and then she looked like she was going to be sick.

Oh shit! Maybe she actually was going to be sick. Jumping up, he began to frantically look around for a wastebasket, ginger ale, crackers… What the hell else did pregnant women need?

Taking a steadying breath, he placed his trash can next to her and then turned to sit back behind his desk. He slowly slid into his chair and noticed his hands were shaking and his heart was racing.

Daisy was looking at her hands clasped in her lap, and he figured if he felt this shook up, it was probably nothing compared to how she was feeling.

He knew the day of the wedding—hell, he’d tried to tell her that the condom broke—but she had sprinted out before they could talk about it. And now… here they were.

Shit.

A million thoughts raced through his head. Daisy was pregnant. With his baby. He was going to be a father. Holy shit, did he even want to be a father?

His mind began to race, and he couldn’t help but think of his own father—who had been forced to be a single dad to both Carter and his brother. Even thinking about it now, it still made him angry. His mother had just walked out. She hadn’t wanted them.

He’d always sworn he wouldn’t be that kind of parent.

His father had done what had to be done. Maybe he could too.

But… wait… did fathers ride motorcycles and have tattoos? Was he going to have to sell his business? Did Daisy want to get married? Or was she here to tell him that she didn’t want to have the baby?

Now he felt like he was going to be sick.

“Can I…” He paused and cleared his throat, which currently felt like it had gravel lodged in it. “Can I get you something? Seriously, a Coke, some water? You don’t look so good.”

Looking up, she frowned at him.

“No,” he said quickly. “No, that’s not what I meant.” Dammit, he was screwing this up already. “I meant you look a little pale. I know it’s warm back here and with you being… you know…”

She nodded and let out a long breath. “I thought you had the right to know,” she said quietly. “I just… It was the right thing to do. Telling you.”

“Thank you,” he replied gruffly. “So… what do we need to do?”

“Do?”

“Yeah, do. Do you want me to go to the doctor with you or…” Then he paused. “Wait… you’re planning on keeping the baby, right?”

Her green eyes went wide. “Of course I am!”

Now it was his turn to look surprised. “Uh, not to point out the obvious but… I don’t know anything about you other than you flirt with a bunch of random guys at weddings on a dare and then run off.” He wanted to add a comment about the sex in a back room but figured that wasn’t going to help the strained situation they were already in.

But maybe what he did say wasn’t very helpful either.

Jumping to her feet, she glared down at him. Although down was a slight exaggeration. She wasn’t very tall, and even sitting down they were almost eye level.

“I came here to tell you I’m having a baby. Your baby. There isn’t anything I want or need from you. It was the right thing to let you know.” She stopped and seemed to try to calm down, her hand fluttering a bit over her heart. “And now I have, so… that’s done.”

It didn’t immediately click with Carter that she was leaving until her hand was on the office doorknob. Then he jumped up and was around the desk in the blink of an eye—his hand slamming against the door to stop her from opening it. Neither moved. Hell, he wasn’t even sure he was breathing. But then the floral scent of her shampoo hit him, and he forced himself to relax. It took him a minute to think of something to do and say to convince her to not run.

“Can we please sit and talk,” he said calmly, removing his hand from the door but not moving away in case she still tried to bolt. “I’m sorry if I was rude. I think we’re both a little… shocked by this situation, and we need to take a few minutes to talk like reasonable adults.”

In front of him, she dropped her head.

The creamy skin of her neck was exposed, and even though it was wrong, he wanted to lean down and kiss it.

“Okay,” she said weakly, and he had to remind himself she was agreeing to talk, not to letting him kiss her.

He took a step back and watched as she took her seat again, and he walked around his desk to do the same. Before she could brush him off, he knew he needed to put her mind at ease. “I’m not going to lie to you,” he began. “I’m surprised, but I’m not.”

She looked at him curiously, but he could still see she was apprehensive and would run if given the chance.

“The condom broke, Daisy. I tried telling you, but you were pretty much out the door before my pants were even zipped.”

Her lips parted in an exasperated gasp, and then it looked as if she remembered the moment. The moment when he started to tell her.

Damn, what a mess.

It certainly was.

Then and now.

Then her shoulders slumped and her eyes grew shiny with tears. Damn. He hated to see a woman cry. Especially this woman.

“I… I never do anything like… like what we did,” she said, her voice trembling. “I’m not like that.”

Unable to help himself, he stood and came around the desk and sat beside her, taking one of her hands in his. “I know. I know that, Daisy. I never thought that you did.”

Her eyes met his. “Oh, please. Of course you did. Anyone in your position would have.” The first tears fell, and he wanted to reach out and wipe them away, but his hands were filthy. Hell, he was surprised she was even letting him hold her hand. With her free one, she wiped at her cheeks. “I’m just so confused,” she admitted. “I’m shocked and confused and… and I can’t believe this is happening.”

Neither could he, but he was going to wait and freak out later. Right now he needed to be the calm one. For her.

“Okay,” he began, sounding calm and confident. “Have you gone to the doctor yet?”

She shook her head. “But I’ve taken multiple pregnancy tests. Chloe insisted.”

“Chloe?”

“My friend who I was sitting with at the wedding. She’s my neighbor too. When I told her I thought I was pregnant, she went and bought one of every brand of test.” Then she laughed mirthlessly. “That’s how I spent my night last night.”

He smiled. “I wish you had said something to me yesterday. I hate that you were afraid to and how you had to drive all the way here today and… wait. How did you know where to find me?”

“I asked Heather.”

Shit.

“So… she and Chris know about—”

“Oh… no. No,” she said hurriedly. “They don’t. I didn’t tell them. I certainly wouldn’t tell them before I told you.”

Okay. Now he wouldn’t have to go and kick Chris’s ass for not telling him and preparing him for this visit.

“So what do we do now?” he asked.

“We?” she asked weakly.

“Um, yeah. We. This baby is ours, Daisy. And I know it’s crazy, and we don’t know one another, but I want you to know you can depend on me.”

Pulling her hand free, she stood up. “I really don’t think you need to be… I mean… I can handle this on my own.”

So she was still freaking out. Fine. Time for a different tactic.

“Can I take you out for something to eat?” he asked and had to smile at the confused look on her face.

“Excuse me?”

“There’s a great diner around the corner. It’s a lot cleaner than this office, and we can walk there. What do you say?”

“I should probably go.”

Hell no. Carter certainly wasn’t a genius, but even he knew if she left right now, she wasn’t going to come back again, and she definitely wouldn’t make it easy for him to try to be involved in this pregnancy or in his baby’s life.

“Daisy, we really need to talk about this. If you want, I’ll get Chris and Heather on the phone right now to vouch for me,” he pleaded, desperation starting to sink in. “We haven’t discussed anything beyond your taking a shit-ton of pregnancy tests.”

“But I told you I don’t expect anything from you. I have a good job and… and I have a great group of friends, and my family lives close by so…”

Shaking his head, he raked a hand through his hair in frustration. “So if you essentially are just going to write me off, why even bother to come here?” he demanded, hating the fact that he was starting to freak out. “If you’re so hell-bent on doing this on your own, why not wait until the baby was born and send me a damn birth announcement?” His voice grew louder, and he saw her wince, and he couldn’t bring himself to care.

“That wouldn’t be right. I wanted you to know. You deserve to know!”

“Why? If you’re going to stand here and tell me how you don’t need me—and believe me, angel, I can tell that you don’t want me to be involved—what was the point?”

She sighed as she looked up at him, and he could tell that maybe she hadn’t thought this through all the way.

“Can we please just go someplace and talk for a little bit? I swear, I… It’s not my intention to argue with you.”

“You could have fooled me,” she murmured, and Carter almost laughed at her snarky tone.

“This diner makes the best milkshakes,” he said, hoping to convince her to go with him. He remembered them talking about favorite desserts at the wedding, and milkshakes was definitely in her top two, she had said. “They have about a dozen different flavors.”

Daisy seemed to perk up, and that was when he knew he had her. She’d at least give him the time to talk over a milkshake.

How sad that he had to resort to bribery by ice cream to convince a woman to talk to him.

“Okay,” she finally said.

Carter didn’t give her a chance to think about it. He immediately pulled open the door and stepped out.

He waved to Kirk. “I’ll be back in a bit,” was all he said as he led Daisy through the garage and out to the sidewalk.

The huge mastiff was sitting exactly where they’d left him a little while ago. Carter smiled as Daisy gave the dog a wide berth to get around him.

“I told you he’s harmless,” Carter said conversationally. “He’s been sniffing around for a while, and I thought he belonged to someone, but considering he’s here every morning when I arrive and every night when I leave, I kind of gave up on that theory.”

“How could someone just abandon him?” she asked, and her voice was soft and laced with concern. “That’s just cruel.”

“He’s a big dog. For all we know his owner wasn’t prepared for him to grow to be quite that big.”

“There are other ways to go rather than just dumping an animal on the street.”

“He could be a runaway,” Carter suggested.

“Has anyone put up posters?” she asked. “Have you seen any around?”

He shook his head. Honestly, he hadn’t been looking, but this was a safe conversation for the time being. For the remainder of the walk, they talked about dogs and how people could be so mean for abandoning them.

Ironic, he thought, considering how she was basically asking him to abandon their baby. Granted, that might be an overdramatization, but it still kind of felt that way.

His mother had abandoned him.

He wasn’t like his mother.

The diner wasn’t crowded, and Carter knew everyone who worked there. They received some curious looks, but he waved to the owners—an older married couple, George and Roberta—and led Daisy to a booth in the back corner. Immediately their order was taken, and once they were alone, he knew they had procrastinated long enough.

“So,” he began.

“So…”

He smiled, wanting nothing more than to put her mind at ease. The urge to take her hand in his was strong, but he wasn’t sure it was the right thing to do right now.

So he did it anyway.

Stroking his thumb over her knuckles, he began to carefully plead his case. “Daisy, I know this is all a little crazy and unconventional. I realize we barely know each other, but… I want you to know that I want to be there. For you and the baby.”

There was a flash of panic in her eyes, but luckily it went away quickly. She fidgeted in her seat and looked at their joined hands before meeting his gaze.

And damn. Those green eyes got him every time.

“Why?” she asked, her voice so low that he could barely hear her.

“Uh, excuse me?”

Her voice stronger, she asked, “I mean, why? We both know how this happened. I’m clearly not the kind of woman you would normally date, and I’m offering to let you off the hook. Why wouldn’t you just take it?”

He wasn’t sure which part of that question pissed him off more.

“First of all, it happened because we were incredibly attracted to each other. We had a great time at the wedding long before we took it to the back room.” Daisy tried to pull her hand away, but he wouldn’t let her. “If you remember correctly, we had quite a few things in common, and we laughed and got along just fine.”

“That’s not enough reason to—”

“And how do you know what kind of woman I usually date?” he interrupted. “You have no idea. For all you know, the cute librarian thing is my type.”

“How did you… I mean… I’m a…”

“Yeah, I know,” he said. “You’re not the only one who had a conversation with one of the newlyweds.”

With her head tilted, she frowned at him. “Why? Why would you talk to them about me?”

A low growl of frustration was out before he could stop it. “Because I wanted to see you again,” he said, louder than he intended. They both glanced around to see if people were looking at them, but luckily, no one was. “When I came to town yesterday, it was you I was hoping to see. It was something I’ve been thinking about, but yesterday was the first time I had the guts to do it. It wasn’t until I got to Preston that I realized I had no way of knowing where to find you. That’s when I went to see Chris.”

“Oh.”

“Here you go,” Roberta said, placing their milkshakes down in front of them with a smile. “Enjoy!”

For the first time since she showed up at the garage, Daisy’s color was back, and she looked at her milkshake with a smile and immediately reached for it and took her first taste.

“Darn, that’s good,” she said, eyes closed, lips still smiling.

Darn? he thought. Clearly there were a few more differences to them than he’d believed.

Taking a sip of his own mint-chocolate shake, he sighed with appreciation. “I’m telling you, these are the best in the city, if not the county.”

“I can believe it,” she said, and Carter chuckled when he realized more than a third of her drink was gone.

For a few minutes, they seemed happy to turn the conversation toward ice cream and diners and other innocuous topics. It wasn’t until Roberta came back and took their glasses that Carter knew their time was up. She was going to find an excuse to leave, and there was no way he could let that happen without getting her to agree to let him in.

“Can I ask a favor?” he said.

She eyed him warily. “O…kay.”

“Just don’t shut me out, Daisy. Please. Just call me. Let me know how your first doctor’s appointment goes. Will you do that?”

“Carter…”

He took her hand in his again. “I’m not asking for anything beyond a phone call right now. Please.”

There was a lot more he wanted to ask for, but he figured out the key to this whole thing was that he was going to have to take it one step at a time. If he could convince her to call him after the doctor’s appointment, then he could possibly get her to agree to do it after each of the appointments. Maybe the more she got to know him, the more comfortable she’d get to be around him, and she’d see that he really was serious. He wanted to be in the lives of both her and their baby.

Reaching behind him with his free hand, Carter took out his wallet, fished out a business card, slid it across the table toward her.

“That’s the business line on the left and my cell number on the right. This way you can reach me at any time, day or night.”

“I’m pretty sure the appointment will be during the day,” she said, examining the card.

She had a spunky and a bit of a sarcastic sense of humor, he realized, and wondered if she was even aware of it.

“Well, just in case the appointment was late in the day and you couldn’t reach me at the shop, you can call my cell.”

“Carter—”

“It’s just a phone call to let me know everything’s okay with the two of you,” he said quickly. “That’s all I’m asking for.”

“All right,” she finally said. “That’s reasonable. I’ll call. I don’t know about anything else yet though. You have to respect that.”

“You have my word,” he said.

And he would respect that.

But he also knew that the next time they spoke, he was going to do his best to convince her to let him come and see her or even join her for the next appointment.

Smiling, he stood and helped her up. “Come on. I’ll walk you back to your car.”