Alexei took her to breakfast. He’d told himself he was going to drive her back to his place and get rid of her now that they’d accomplished what she wanted, but instead he found himself headed for IHOP. Bailey protested when they turned into the parking lot.

He shot her a look. “I’m hungry and I don’t feel like going back to my place, dropping you, helping you get that carrier into your car, then coming back. It’ll be half an hour or more. So watch me eat or order something. I don’t care.”

She stopped grumbling, probably because there was nothing she could say. They were here and he wasn’t leaving. He helped her get Ana—she still fumbled with the straps—and they went inside. The waitress who usually served him was cute and perky. He hadn’t asked her out, but she kept hinting she’d like him to. He’d thought about it a few times, but then he’d thought about what would happen when it didn’t work out—and it wouldn’t because he really only wanted to fuck her a few times. He’d have to find a new place to eat breakfast, but this one was close to home and he liked their pancakes. A man couldn’t fuck up his pancakes for a piece of pussy.

Yet another reason he was pretty certain he hadn’t slept with Kayla. She’d worked at Buddy’s, and he wouldn’t have wanted to fuck up his favorite watering hole for a couple of orgasms.

The waitress gaped as he strolled up with a baby carrier hooked over his arm and a woman trailing behind him with a diaper bag.

“Hi, Marie,” he said with a smile. She snapped her jaw shut, but her face grew red.

“Alex. I… Wow, I didn’t realize…”

“This is my friend, Bailey,” he said, stepping aside to allow Bailey to come up beside him.

Bailey smiled. It was a friendly smile, not the kind of smile that held a territorial claim. He appreciated that since he often got the other kind of smile when he spent time with a woman. “Hi.”

Marie didn’t smile back. “Hi. Can I get you two some coffee?”

“I’ll take one. Bailey?”

“That would be nice, thanks.”

Marie spun on her heel and disappeared. Alexei set the carrier on the bench seat and slid in beside the baby. Bailey took the seat opposite.

“I don’t think she likes me.”

Alexei laughed. “Nope, I don’t think so. But you helped me make a decision about her.”

She tilted her head. “I did?”

“Yep. I’d been thinking of asking her out. But if she can’t be nice to my friends, then I guess not.”

“Seriously? I’m not your friend, Alex.”

“Alexei,” he said automatically and then wondered why. Everyone called him Alex unless they called him Camel, but those were his teammates who did that. Alex was what he went by to everyone else except family. They called him Alexei.

“Alexei,” she said. “That’s Russian, isn’t it?”

“Yeah. My parents immigrated when I was two.” And why was he getting chatty about this shit with her?

“So you don’t have any memories of Russia.”

“Nope.”

“Are you bilingual?”

“Trilingual, actually. I have an aptitude for languages, so the military trained me in Arabic as well. I’ve also been learning Persian.”

“Wow. Arabic and Persian.” She sounded a little shocked. “That’s odd, isn’t it?”

“You’d be surprised.” Not all the members of his team were linguists, but a couple of them spoke more than one language. It was handy when you were downrange in a foreign country to know the language. And since he deployed to the Middle East quite a bit, Arabic was a good one to know. Persian came in handy in parts of Iraq and Afghanistan. Really handy.

Marie returned with the coffee. She managed to look as if she’d gone in the back and sucked on a lemon, though she pasted on a smile and tried to seem friendly. But he knew now. He had her number. She was one of those women who’d be superpossessive and jealous if he took her out. He didn’t do relationships, but he’d date someone for a few weeks if it suited them both. Have a few laughs, fuck a lot.

Marie wouldn’t be worth the hassle, that’s for sure. Jealousy turned him off. Add in his lifestyle—gone without notice, often for weeks at a time with no way to communicate—and a woman like her would not survive the first deployment.

“Do you know what you want yet?” Marie asked.

“Yeah, I’ll take pancakes, a side of bacon, and two scrambled eggs.” He’d eaten cereal, but that had been over an hour ago now.

“And you?” Marie said to Bailey, who was still staring at the menu.

“Uh, two scrambled eggs, wheat toast, and hash browns. Crispy.”

“Coming right up,” Marie said and then flounced away again.

“I think she’s mad,” Bailey said.

“I don’t care if she is. But back to the part where you said you weren’t my friend. Why not?”

She blinked. And then she laughed. “Okay, sure. Why not? If you want to be friends, we’ll be friends.”

“Good thing, because I don’t babysit for strangers.” Hell, he didn’t babysit at all these days. Apparently he was turning over a new leaf. Or an old leaf since he’d spent much of his childhood babysitting his siblings.

Ana was kicking in her carrier, making sounds from time to time but otherwise content. He had to be crazy for not sending Bailey and Ana on their way the instant the cheek swab was done, but something had stopped him. Maybe it was Bailey’s stomach growling so insistently, or maybe it was the circles beneath her eyes. Whatever it was, she fascinated him. To a point.

“You’re sure the results are going to be negative, aren’t you?” she asked, and for the first time he saw her doubts creeping to the fore.

“I am.” Because on the slim chance he’d slept with Kayla Jones—he assumed it was Jones—he wouldn’t have gotten her pregnant. He knew that for a fact.

Bailey’s gaze went to the baby with the shock of dark hair. “I don’t know what to do next if you aren’t her father. I’m not equipped to take care of an infant. My job isn’t flexible, and I have no other skills to fall back on. Well, none that pay anything.”

“What are these other skills?”

“Survival skills.”

That wasn’t the answer he’d expected.

“Not like Navy SEAL survival skills,” she continued. “More like street survival skills. My parents were deadbeat drug addicts. Opioids, not crack. We lived in a lot of sketchy locations. And then my mom OD’d and it was just me and Kayla and our father. A true waste of skin, that man. I walked out at sixteen and took Kayla with me. I kept her in school, but I had to quit so I could work to support us.” She twirled the spoon in her coffee and didn’t look at him. “We came here a little over a year ago, looking for bigger opportunities. I wasn’t ever going to earn the money to attend college while waitressing back in Tennessee.”

“But you can here?”

She seemed to hesitate. And then she thrust out her chin and told him, “I’m not waitressing. I’m dancing.”

A knot formed in his gut. “Dancing?”

Her eyes were stark and hard. Flinty. Daring him to judge her. “On a pole, Alexei. For money.”

Marie returned just then with their plates. She set them on the table and slapped the ticket down. “Anything else?”

“No. Thanks,” Alexei said, wanting her gone.

She marched away and he turned his attention to Bailey again. She shoved a fork in the eggs and didn’t look at him. Whoa, that had been some revelation just now.

“So you strip is what you’re telling me.”

“Yep. You got a problem with that?” There was a challenge in her voice that he wasn’t about to rise to.

“Only if you do.”

“I don’t.” She shrugged and reached for her coffee. “It’s not what I want to do with my life, but the pay is pretty good and I’m saving as much as I can. I’ll walk away eventually, go to college, start a career.”

Considering what he did for a living, he couldn’t judge somebody else for doing something a little dangerous. Which stripping was, when you factored in the atmosphere and the clientele.

“Which club?”

“The Pink Palace.”

He’d been in the Pink Palace, but not lately. A few months ago. He didn’t remember seeing her there. But he also had a very clear picture of what it was like inside that club, and he was suddenly feeling very angry and conflicted about the whole thing. Which made no fucking sense. She was nobody to him.

“So tonight, while I’m watching Ana for you, you’ll be taking your clothes off for money.”

Her head snapped up. “You think you get to judge me? Oh hell no. I do what I have to do to survive. That’s what it’s all about.” She picked up the saltshaker and doused her eggs. “And it’s not a guarantee you’ll be babysitting. My neighbor will probably do it, and then you don’t have to worry about Ana and me anymore.”

“Unless that swab says I’m her father.” He couldn’t help but poke her.

“You’re certain you aren’t, so I wouldn’t worry about it if I were you.”

They ate in silence for a few minutes. He chewed his bacon and tried not to be angry. Didn’t work, and he wasn’t sure why. He didn’t know this girl. Didn’t care about her. And yet he was getting as pissed as if they were in a relationship and having a disagreement.

“You feel safe there?”

Her gaze sparked. “Safe enough. The guys aren’t allowed to touch us, though it happens sometimes. But the bouncers enforce the rules, so it doesn’t last long.”

He knew what those places were like. The drinking. The hoots and hollers as women bared their bodies on stage. The VIP room and the lap dances. Fucking titty bars were all the same.

“Anybody ever wait for you outside?”

“I’m sure they have, but one of the guys walks us out. Nobody has ever bothered me.” She dropped her fork and leaned across the table, eyes flashing now. “What I want to know is this—you can’t remember if you slept with my baby sister, but do you remember anything about her? Anything at all?”

He sat back, folded his arms over his chest, and sighed. “She was pretty and she flirted with the guys. Nothing too serious. I remember thinking she had a boyfriend at one point. A guy wearing motorcycle leathers who seemed to hang around a lot when she was there. Didn’t say much. Hell, it was months ago, Bailey. I’m not being an asshole, but I didn’t spend much time with your sister or I’d remember more.”

“She didn’t have a boyfriend. She would have told me.”

“Okay. Whatever you say.”

She brought her thumb up to her mouth and bit it as she stared at him. He thought it was unconscious, but it was still a sexy fucking look. He found himself growing hard as he imagined biting that mouth before thrusting his tongue between her lips and kissing the daylights out of her. She finally dropped her hand and tucked a lock of hair behind her ear.

“I guess we wait for the results and see where we go from there,” she said. “I appreciate you cooperating with me about that.”

“It’s the right thing to do.” He picked up the check as she reached for it. “I’ll get this. But you still owe me for the paternity test.”

She reached inside the diaper bag. A few seconds later, she came out with a wad of bills that she must have had stuffed somewhere besides her purse since that had only held two twenties. She peeled off thirty dollars for the test and another hundred and twenty for the processing fee. He’d used his credit card on the forms because she didn’t have one.

He pocketed the money. Ana let out a wail just then and Bailey stiffened, her eyes widening with panic. Alexei reached for the baby and lifted her out of the carrier. The problem was immediately obvious.

“She needs a diaper change.”

“Oh. Okay.” But Bailey’s eyes remained wide and her fingers trembled as she tucked her money away. Aw, damn.

“Come on, we’ll change her in the truck.”

He carried the baby and she took the bag, same as when they’d entered the restaurant. He stopped and paid the bill, then continued to his truck with a crying baby in his arms. A couple of old ladies stood outside the restaurant, chatting. When he walked by, they smiled. He smiled back. Nodded.

“That’s a good man you got, honey,” one of them said to Bailey. “Congratulations on your beautiful baby.”

He didn’t hear Bailey’s response because he’d reached the vehicle and pressed the button to unlock it. She came up beside him a moment later.

“Here,” she said, passing him a portable changing pad.

He unfolded it and laid it on the floor of the truck. Then he shot her a look as he placed the baby on the pad. “You doing this or am I?”

“Honestly, I still gag a bit. But I’ll do it if you don’t want to.”

He couldn’t help but roll his eyes at her. “Lightweight.”

“Hey, I have all of three days’ experience. You’ve presumably had years.”

He stripped the dirty diaper efficiently and held out his hand for the baby wipes, which she handed over. “A few.”

He cleaned Ana, applied diaper cream, and put on a fresh diaper. The whole process took less than two minutes. Bailey looked a little stunned when he met her gaze again.

“You know what,” she said. “Forget my neighbor. If you’re still willing, I’ll take you up on the babysitting offer.”