I don’t know why, but a weird sense of déjà vu hits me as I turn my car onto my street.

I hate this feeling. It’s so creepy, the sensation that this has already happened, that you’ve already lived these events, but there’s nothing you can do to stop them from happening again. A shiver runs down my spine as I attempt to shake off the thought, but it remains, niggling at the base of my skull, making me feel uneasy as hell.

When I pull my car into my driveway and climb out, my eyes dart around the yard, trying to make out anything in the darkness that might be the cause of my agitation.

I shouldn’t have stayed at the store so late. I hate coming home to a dark house. Living in a small town like Maple Lake has its perks—relative safety being one of them. But, even then, considering I’m a single woman living alone, I’m still careful. Just because the townspeople are safe doesn’t mean we can’t get some crazy drifters coming through.

Hell, my mother was one of them.

Oh, shit, is that what this is? Is my mother back? Is she going to spring herself on me once again, causing even more anxiety in my already shit-filled world?

That would be just my luck. And would explain why I can’t seem to shake this sense of dread.

I slide my car keys between my fingers, using them as a makeshift weapon as I approach my front door, cradling my stomach with my other arm, as if that might somehow protect my baby from whatever might be lurking in the shadows. I don’t expect my mother to try to hurt me, but just in case it isn’t her…

A large form stands from the chair on my front porch.

Definitely not my mother.

I turn, dashing back to my car in hopes of jumping inside before this person can reach me.

It’s no use though.

“Liv!” a deep voice shouts as the form springs from my porch. A few strides are all it takes for him to wrap his arms around me from behind.

I don’t scream though. Because I’d recognize that voice anywhere.

He’s not here to hurt me. Not physically at least.

Emotionally, on the other hand…

I break out of his hold, keeping my back to him as I take a few steps away. “What do you want, Brandon?”

“We need to talk.”

I let out a sardonic laugh. “Well, maybe you didn’t quite get the hint from all the unanswered calls, but I don’t want to talk to you.”

“Too bad.”

It’s all he says before I feel him right behind me, swinging me up into his arms.

I struggle against his chest as he carries me toward the house, but my efforts quickly die off when he speaks, “Quit fighting me, Liv. If I drop you, it’s going to do a lot more damage than a bruised tailbone.”

I still, knowing he’s right. Falling flat on my ass or back, even just from a few feet, couldn’t be good for the baby.

Fine. But, as soon as he puts me down, I’m kneeing him right in the balls. Let’s see him try to father any more kids after that.

I can’t hold back my smile at that. Maybe he wouldn’t even be able to get it up. What would Brandon Jeffers do if he could never get another erection?

He’d have to find a new favorite pastime.

“I see that look in your eye, Tink. And, if you think I’m letting you within two feet of my balls in your current mood, you’re sorely mistaken.”

Damn it. I need to work on my poker face.

Once inside the house, Brandon sets me down on the couch before taking a seat on the recliner across from me, completely out of my reach.

Smart man.

He’s quiet for a moment, his eyes falling to the floor as he tries to decide on how to start. I use the silence to take in his appearance, realizing for the first time since I got here that he doesn’t look like his usual self.

His dark hair is disheveled, standing up in patches, as if he ran his hands through it over and over in the past few hours. His jeans are crumpled, his shirt wrinkled, and I’m pretty sure he’s wearing two different shoes. But it’s his face that really gets me. Gone is the carefree ease that has always worked itself so effortlessly into his features. Instead, I find…

Anguish.

His dark eyes are rimmed in red, the heavy circles around them indicating he hasn’t slept any more than I have in the past twenty-four hours. The lines around his eyes and lips seem to have deepened in the few days since I last saw him, and the normally glowing flush of his skin is now sallow and ashen.

In short, he looks like shit.

The need to go to him, to take him in my arms and comfort him, overwhelms me. But I bite it back, telling myself he deserves to feel awful after what he did.

And yet…

“Why are you here, Brandon?” I ask the same question I’ve asked him several times before.

And, again, I get the same answer.

“Because you’re here, Tink.”

The pet name pierces my heart, shattering the remaining parts into a million tiny pieces.

“Don’t call me that, Brandon. You lost that right the minute you stuck your dick in another woman.”

He’s off the chair and on his knees in front of me before I even realize he moved. Pulling my hands into his, he lowers his face to where they lay in my lap.

He looks so pitiful; I almost feel sorry for him.

Almost.

I try to pull away, try to push him from his place in my lap, but he wraps his arms around my waist, holding me in place.

“How could you?” he murmurs against my legs.

And if that doesn’t just piss me right the hell off.

“How could I? How could I, Brandon?” I shriek, shoving harder on his shoulders so that he’s forced to break his hold on my waist in order to keep from toppling over. “I’m pretty sure the only one here who deserves to ask that question is me. How could you? How could you do this to me? To us?” I add on to the end, placing my hands over my stomach, as if trying to protect my baby from the intensity of the room.

“I didn’t do anything, Liv,” he starts, crawling back over to me on his knees.

I scoff, standing before he can reach me.

“Sure you didn’t. This Jayne woman went and got pregnant on her own. She just decided to blame you for no good reason.”

“The baby isn’t mine!” he shouts as I move to stride from the room.

This causes me to pause, looking back over my shoulder at where he still rests on his knees.

“How do you know that?”

He slowly climbs to his feet, his movements guarded and cautious as he steps toward me, as if he were approaching a ticking time bomb instead of the woman carrying his child.

I guess I can’t really blame him. I do feel like a live wire at the moment. And, if he doesn’t start talking soon, I refuse to be held responsible for the explosion I might cause.

“How do you know the baby isn’t yours, Brandon?” I repeat, my words slow but sure. I didn’t want to talk to him, but now that I am, I want answers.

“Because I haven’t slept with her in over six months. I swear to you, Tink, I haven’t touched her.”

I want to laugh in his face, ask him what kind of idiot he takes me for. I want to tell him I don’t believe him, to kick him out of my house, to let him know I never want to see him again.

But I don’t.

Because if I’m being honest with myself, I don’t want to do any of those things. Not really. The hurt side of me may think she’s big and bad. But deep down, I want to believe him.

“How do I know I can trust you? You could be lying to me again right now.”

He takes another step toward me, pausing just before he reaches me. “You don’t. There’s absolutely no way to know for sure that you can trust another person. That’s why it’s called trust, Tink. What you do know is how much I care about you. How much you mean to me. And how much I would hate to ever, ever hurt you. Knowing all that, how could you possibly believe I’d ever lie to you, let alone cheat on you?”

“You’re just gone so much. And there are so many women who would love to be with you. It’s not a far stretch to think that maybe you took one of them up on it.”

His hands close around my face, and he smooths his thumbs over my cheeks as he tilts my face toward his. “Yes, it is. Because not one of them is you. When are you finally going to believe me when I say I don’t want anybody else? That, despite how crazy you make me sometimes, you are the first person I think of in the morning. I fall asleep with your name on my lips every night, Liv. I see nobody else. Because there is no one else. There’s only you.”

Tears sting my eyes as I listen to his words, wanting so bad to believe them. But it’s hard, almost impossible. Because what he’s saying doesn’t make any sense.

I’m the girl whose own mother didn’t even want her. The girl who was never good enough. The girl who always drove away the people who were supposed to love her because there was so much more to be found in someone else.

So, for Brandon to tell me there’s nobody else…

There’s no way he can mean it.

He lifts a finger to brush away the tear that seeped out of the corner of my eye. “I know you don’t want to believe me, Tink. I know it’s easier to keep people out than risk getting hurt. Hell, I’ve done the same myself my entire life. But I’m not going away. I will prove to you that I love you, that I’m here, that I’m yours. Forever.”

A sharp intake of breath fills the room, and I realize too late that it’s mine.

Did he just…he didn’t just say…

“Y-you love me?” My voice breaks on the first word as I try to hold back a sob.

The grin that I’ve come to love so much returns to his face, some of the life coming back with it. “Duh. I mean, how could I not? You’re pretty spectacular. Even if you do snore.”

A laugh bubbles out of my chest, and I let him pull me into his arms. I nuzzle my face against his chest, relishing in the feel of him.

This is where I belong. Right here. I was stupid for ever thinking I’d be able to live without this.

We hold each other for a long moment, Brandon stroking my back and whispering words of love in my ear as I continue to cry into his shirt. When I’m finally spent, he leads me over to the couch again, tucking me into his side as he presses his lips to the top of my head.

I realize there’s still one thing that’s bothering me. One thing that doesn’t quite add up even though I do believe what he just told me.

Rather than beating around the bush—or worse, holding in my concern and letting it eat at me until I convince myself to do something stupid—I just blurt it out, “I still don’t get why this Jayne woman is saying the baby is yours if you haven’t been with her in six months.”

Brandon tenses beside me before blowing out a defeated breath. Adjusting himself so that he can look me in the eye, he explains, “Jayne and I were…friends…for quite a while before I met you. She was the only woman I ever slept with more than once. She was easy. Uncomplicated. Whenever I was in town for a game, I’d stop by her place afterward. It just sort of became our routine.”

I want to interrupt him and tell him to stop. Hearing about a woman he basically…well, not dated, but something-ed for years hurts worse than I imagined it would. I have no reason to be jealous since it was before he met me. But still, I don’t like hearing about it.

“It was never more than a casual thing. I think that’s why it worked for me. Most women hoped they’d be the one to finally convince me to give up my playboy lifestyle and settle down. Jayne never did. She never really pressed me for more. Once or twice, she suggested we might take our relationship further. But she never acted put out when I told her I wasn’t into it. I never thought anything of it. She was just a good time and a safe bet, you know?”

I nod even though I have no clue what he’s talking about. I’ve never had a regular fuck buddy. Sex has never just been a casual thing for me, other than my first night with Brandon. But I even managed to fuck that up, getting myself knocked up and turning a simple one-night stand into Brandon sitting here, on my couch, telling me about his past conquests.

He seems to realize his mistake, wincing as he sees what must be a poorly veiled look of disdain on my face. “Fuck, what am I talking about? Of course you don’t know. And you don’t need to know all the details. Sorry, Tink. I’ll try to stay on subject.”

I nod, grateful that he’s going to spare me the horny details.

“Anyway, Jayne and I saw each other every few months or so. I thought it was nothing. I was sure we’d both eventually go our separate ways. But then I met you.”

He reaches up and tucks my hair behind my ear, rubbing the back of his fingers against my cheek. “After that night with you, I was a goner. I couldn’t stop thinking about you, couldn’t get you out of my head for more than a few hours to play a game. And, even then, you were there, in the back of my mind, thoughts of you keeping me going, giving me confidence and an added boost to play even better. I couldn’t explain it. Fuck, I still can’t. But I knew I had to do something before I went crazy.

“I went to Jayne’s one night after a game, intent on using her to get you out of my head. I knew it wasn’t fair to her, but you were driving me fucking insane, Tink. I thought, if I could just get you out of my system, my life could go back to normal.”

I gulp, not liking the direction this is going. “But you said—”

He holds up a finger, cutting me off. “Let me finish. Like I said, I went there with every intention of using her body to rid my mind of thoughts of you. But, as soon as I got there, I realized it was a lost cause. Her hair wasn’t right. Her face wasn’t right. Her body was all wrong. And her lips…they weren’t yours. Because she wasn’t you.”

“Y-you kissed her?”

He gives me a small smile. “Yeah, Tink, I kissed her. But that’s as far as it went. I left her house less than two minutes after I arrived. And, believe me when I say, I thought about you the whole time.”

I nod, returning his smile, knowing it’s not fair of me to be mad that he kissed someone else before we were even together. Jealous, sure. But not mad.

“So, then what?” I ask, wanting to find out how he went from leaving her high and dry to being named as her baby’s father.

“So then, I came here. And you turned my entire world on its head—in more ways than one. The next time I talked to Jayne, I told her it was over. I told her I wouldn’t be stopping by to see her again. And I guess she didn’t take to that very well because, every so often, I’d get another text or phone call. She tried everything she could to get me to come back. But I just wasn’t interested.”

I think back on the few times he received a text when he was with me, his demeanor changing after he read the message. Not toward me per se. He just seemed irritated, put out at whoever had texted him. I just assumed it was something to do with the team and left it at that. If he wanted it to be my business, he would’ve told me.

Now, I understand why he didn’t. Hearing some other woman was texting him and trying to get him back definitely would’ve set me off.

I should be mad that he kept it from me, but deep down, I know he did it to protect me. With the stress of my mother’s visit already causing issues with the pregnancy, there was no way he’d risk adding more to my plate. In his own way, he was doing me a favor, trying to keep one part of my mind at ease.

As if reading my thoughts, he confirms my suspicions. “I didn’t tell you about the texts and calls because I didn’t want you to worry. Especially when there wasn’t a single thing for you to worry about. I never once had any intention of going back to her. I never once even considered any of her offers, not even for a moment. There was no reason to upset you with this when there was zero chance of her getting her way.”

I place my hand on his knee, giving it a gentle squeeze. “I understand. But, from now on, let’s not keep things from each other, okay?”

His face lights up at my words. “From now on? Does that mean you’re giving me another shot?”

I bring my finger to my lips, tapping it against them a few times as I pretend to mull it over. “Well, I suppose. Even if you didn’t bring doughnuts.”

He jumps from the couch. “You want doughnuts? I’ll run to the store right now. I’ll get you so many damn doughnuts that I’ll have to roll you down the hall when you want to go to bed.”

I chuckle. “I’m just kidding. Lord knows I don’t need any added sugar right now,” I say, patting my slightly rounded stomach.

He drops back down beside me, his hand coming to rest over my belly. “You’re gorgeous. And you’d still be gorgeous even if I did have to hire a forklift to get you into bed.”

I lean forward, pressing my forehead against his. “You’re just saying that so I’ll let you touch my boobs again.”

His gaze drops down to my chest, and a wicked grin spreads across his face. “You aren’t wrong. I’ve missed Laverne and Shirley.”

A surprised burst of laughter sputters past my lips; I’m relieved that our playful banter seems to have returned. “You’ve missed what?”

His grin spreads. “Laverne and Shirley. I had a thing for Nick at Nite, growing up. Would you prefer Lucy and Ethel? Mary and Rhoda? Joanie and Chachi?”

I shake my head, unable to believe that Brandon Jeffers is a Happy Days fan. Will this man ever stop surprising me?

“So,” I begin, turning the conversation back to the problem we’re facing, “I take it, Jayne wasn’t happy to find out she was out of the picture for good?”

He shakes his head, his smile falling with the return of our serious conversation. “Nope. Her messages started getting more frequent—to the point where I was going to change my number to get rid of her. They became more and more desperate until two days ago when I received one that basically threatened me. She told me I was going to regret what I did, that she hoped I was ready for what was about to happen. I thought she was just being dramatic, trying to do whatever she could to get my attention. I never imagined she’d do something like this.”

“So, she fabricated a pregnancy to try to get back at you?”

“I don’t know. Maybe. Or maybe she really is pregnant and just decided to try to use that to break us up. She knew we were together. She sent me that picture of me and you at the restaurant the day we finally made things official. Maybe she thought this would get you to leave me, and then I’d come back to her. Though she’d have to be pretty damn delusional to think I’d want to be with her after this.”

“Or maybe it’s more of a if I can’t have you, no one can type thing,” I offer. “She probably knows it’s over. She just doesn’t want you to be with anyone else.”

He nods. “That’s probably it. Too bad for her, you’re way too damn understanding for your own good. But, lucky for me, you at least sort of like me enough to want to keep me around.”

I shrug noncommittally. “You have your purposes.”

He shoots me a sideways glance as his hands come down on my sides, furiously tickling me. I squirm in his grip, finding it hard to believe that, only an hour ago, I was convinced I’d never see him again.

And, now, look at us.

“So, what comes next?” I ask when he finally relents, and I catch my breath. “What are we going to do about Jayne?”

“We aren’t going to do anything. This is my mess. You have enough to deal with already, what with the store and the baby. I’ll figure this out. And, as for what comes next…I plan to spend every minute I can showing you just how much I love you, starting now.”

He leans into me, pressing his lips against mine in a soft kiss. His touch is gentle at first but quickly turns heated as he opens his mouth and deepens our connection. It’s fast and slow at the same time, my body molding itself against his as he kisses the breath from my lungs.

I finally pull back, needing to say something before this goes any further.

“Brandon,” I exhale against his lips.

“Yeah?” His word is just as breathless, the growing evidence of his arousal pressing against my thigh.

“You do have your purposes, you know,” I repeat.

His head falls forward. “Woman, if you stopped that just to bust my balls some more, I might be liable to tickle you to death. Or at least until you pee.”

I giggle, our breaths still mingling in the air between us. “No. I just wanted you to know that there’s one purpose you serve that outweighs all the rest.”

“Oh, yeah?” he murmurs, moving his lips down to my neck, clearly not interested in what I have to say. “And what’s that?”

“Yeah,” I breathe out on a moan, my eyes rolling back in my head as he trails his tongue along my jaw. “You make my heart skip a beat every time you look at me. It’s how I know I’m truly alive. And that I’m deeply and undoubtedly in love with you, too.”

He pulls back, his eyes flicking over my face. “You are?”

I nod. “I think I have been since the moment you strolled into Ian’s living room and hit on me.”

“Excuse me. My living room. I was just letting that sorry bastard stay there out of the goodness of my heart.”

“Oh, right. Technicalities.”

“I’ll show you technicalities,” he says, pressing his groin deeper into my thigh.

I roll my eyes and giggle. “That doesn’t even make sense. But, okay, show me whatever technicalities you’ve got.”

He dives back into our kiss with renewed vigor, his lips and hands making their way over every single inch of my body. When he reaches the hem of my shirt and pushes it up around my waist, he pauses, looking me square in the eye.

“You still want to know what comes next?”

I laugh. “If you say me, I’m going to punch you in the junk.”

He gives me a devilish grin before his face grows serious again, and he continues, “Everything.”