Marco (The Men of Indecent Exposure #1) (2 page)

I had absolutely nothing to say. Nothing to add. None of this was registering inside my head yet.
Pregnant?
I couldn’t even tell you what this girl looked like if you paid me. All I knew was her name—Brynn.

“I know this all sounds crazy,” she admitted, taking the words right out of my mouth. “To be quite honest with you, Marco, I only remember
you
because I found your number in my phone the morning after. I can’t recall a whole lot of details either.”

This just kept getting better.

I felt a headache coming on and massaged my forehead. “So I… I don’t really know how these things are supposed to go.”

And I didn’t. Even with all the stupid, careless things I’d done over the years, this
was by far the stupidest.

“Well, I was actually thinking we’d meet and… I don’t know… talk?” she suggested. “Whenever you have time, that is.”

There was no way I was gonna put this off. I needed answers
now
. The sooner we met up, the sooner I could discredit her story and put all of this drama to bed.

“You have anything going on tomorrow?” I asked, already thinking of how to rearrange my schedule so we could take care of this.

She seemed shocked that I answered so quickly. “Um… no, actually. Tomorrow’s good.”

“There’s a restaurant across the street from The Alibi,” I suggested, inwardly cussing myself out for this even being an issue.

“Would noon work for you?” she asked.

My chest felt tight, but I tried to keep my voice even. “That’s fine.”

She paused for a second, maybe just to see if I had anything to add, and then one awkward goodbye later, we were off the call.

I sat there for a long time, unable to move,
definitely
unable to sleep.

This news consumed me, although, I doubted it was legit. At twenty-six, I still wasn’t ready for a kid. My life was hella busy and this was just not in my plans—not for a good five years or so, anyway.

Of all the ways I imagined tonight ending, having
this
dropped in my lap was not one of them.

Marco

A short
‘Almost there’
text from Brynn let me know none of the women already seated here were her. Arriving at the restaurant first lessened some of my anxiety, so I took a deep breath and followed the hostess to a table on the far side of the restaurant. I eased into the booth and folded my arms across my chest.

Watching.

Waiting.

…And sweating a little.

As I stared at
The Alibi
across the street, the place where Brynn and I had allegedly hooked up, my thoughts ran rampant.

What if this is legit?

What if that one, careless night links me to this girl, someone I knew absolutely nothing about, forever?

What if this is all a lie or she has the wrong guy?

I mean, yeah, she said she’s usually careful, but how would I know if that’s true or not? At the thought of what little care I might have taken for my
health by not strapping up, I set an alert on my phone to remind me that a trip to the clinic was in order. Typically, I went for STD screenings every six months, but that was based on the fact that I always wore condoms. In light of my current situation, it felt like I needed to go sooner rather than later this time around. Better to be safe than sorry. It was clearly possible that I shared enough with this girl to get her pregnant—
or so she says
—so there was no telling what she, in turn, could’ve shared with
me
.

My eyes were averted from my phone when a red sedan pulled into the parking lot. I didn’t get a chance to see inside, but I tried anyway, all the way up until the driver rounded the other side of the building and drove out of my line of sight. I checked my watch again. She was only eight minutes late, but it felt more like an hour.

In enough time for the driver of the car to have exited the vehicle and reached the restaurants’ entrance, a tiny bell over the frame rung and my eyes went there, to the door, to a face that all of a sudden made my world shudder to a stop.

I
did
remember her.

Her presence tripped a wire in my subconscious, bringing the nerve endings in my fingertips to life as electricity pulsed through them. And just like that, a phantom memory hit me like a ton of bricks, one that induced a recollection of how her full thighs felt as they filled my hands—firm, but still very soft; heavy. And then came the sensation of those same smooth thighs falling away from my hips as I lowered her back down to the floor.

She wasn’t just some chick playing games on my phone. No, she was real; this
situation
was real, but… that still didn’t mean the kid was mine.

From where she stood, her eyes found mine and I knew she remembered me, too. The hand she wasn’t clutching her purse with lifted into the air and then she waved just before being escorted over. I waved back. Watching her, it was no wonder I made sure she didn’t get away from me that night without having my number, even with all the alcohol I must’ve had in my system when we hooked up.

I love women—period—but I definitely had a type or preference and she was it—well put together, cute face, thick as hell… just like I liked. The closer she came, the harder I stared. She was probably about six inches or so shorter than me—I guessed 5’ 6” or 5’ 7”—and if I had to guess her size, I’d put her right around a fourteen or a sixteen. Her dark brown complexion stood out to me, too. I couldn’t remember ever seeing skin so smooth and even.

To sum up my impression of her: this woman was the definition of
bad
.

However, given the situation, this wasn’t the time to be checking her out. To break this hold she had on me, I simply reminded myself why we were here.

“Thank you,” she said politely to the hostess who brought her over. However, she didn’t sit right away when the woman left us. Instead, Brynn’s hand extended toward me and with it came the sound of the three metal bracelets on her wrist clanging together. Once I was finally able to stop gawking at the damn girl, it dawned on me that she was waiting to introduce herself.

I stood again and dark, brown eyes followed as I rose.

“I’m Brynn,” she said once my hand was in hers. A nervous smile brought out a deep set of dimples in her cheeks, bringing a sweet innocence to her face.

“Marco,” I replied, looking her up and down now that we were so close. Her jeans were form-fitting with a black top that matched her heels. The scent of cinnamon was heavy on her and the thought that came to mind was that she smelled just like a slice of warm apple pie.

Not thinking, I licked my lips.

It seemed like my stare made her self-conscious, so I toned it down as much as I could, but damn… she was beautiful. Too beautiful not to notice. I hoped she knew that was the only reason I couldn’t stop looking at her. Not because I didn’t like what I saw.

As she took her seat, she flipped her hair behind her shoulder, tucking a few strands behind her ear. She wore makeup, but nothing heavy; just enough to accentuate an already pretty face.

“I appreciate you agreeing to meet me,” Brynn said timidly. She laced her fingers together when she rested both elbows on the table.

I nodded once. “No problem. We’ve got quite a bit to discuss.”

Her lips pursed together and she took a deep breath in through her nose. “I know this is all really…
really
hard to believe,” she said, exhaling.

I had so many questions, but I didn’t know where to start, didn’t know which ones were okay to ask.

“When did you find out?” seemed reasonable enough.

Long lashes fluttered over her dark eyes when she gazed up. “A couple days ago,” she answered. “I took a test last week, well…
several
tests, but I didn’t get confirmation from the doctor until Thursday.” One of those dimples appeared with the faint, half-smile she gave. “Took me all this time to get up the nerve to call you,” she admitted.

The longer this went on, I won’t lie: the more real it became.

“H—how far along?” I stuttered. When she called, she said we met a couple months ago, but I wanted to know more specifically.

She cleared her throat again and I assumed that was a nervous habit. “Uh… ten weeks yesterday.” She zoned out and then her eyes found mine again. “I probably would’ve known sooner, but my cycle is
never
regular, and…” She paused. “…And I guess that was probably a bit too personal,” she concluded, trailing off.

We were both quiet for a moment, but then Brynn spoke again.

“And I probably should’ve led with this, but I honestly just called to tell you because I thought you had a right to know, not because I wanted or needed anything from you,” she explained. “I know we don’t know each other, like…
at all
; this is just one of those things. But my point is this: if you don’t want to be involved, I’m cool with that. I mean, I don’t know your situation, don’t know what you have on your plate, so I just thought you should know I’m not expecting anything.”

There was quite a bit of emotion behind her eyes—fear, uncertainty, worry—but she was trying to hide it all. Of course she was scared, though.

Her hand went to her forehead and those eyes, the ones I couldn’t stop staring into, shut as something occurred to her. “Oh my gosh. I’m such a… I didn’t even consider the possibility of you being in a relationship or…
married
even. I mean… I wasn’t… we didn’t…” she trailed off as worry spread across her face.

I shook my head and put her mind at ease. “No, it’s not like that. I’m not with anyone.”

A look of relief swept over her and I had to ask the same question, just so I knew exactly what I was dealing with. After all, we were drunk and things happened. Us hooking up didn’t mean she was single, too. “What about you? What’s your situation?”

“It’s just me,” she said at first, but then gave her response more thought, which made me curious what she was getting ready to add. Her expression changed. “I mean…
technically,
it’s just me,” was how she amended the statement, leaving me to wonder what that meant exactly. Her eyes stayed trained on the tabletop. “There’s a friend I started seeing recently,” she began, pausing to take a deep breath, “but… there was only one official date. A couple weeks ago, so… yeah, I’m pretty sure that’s over now.”

We both fell silent for a moment. I could see on her face that she felt at least as overwhelmed as I did, but she quickly faked a weak smile to mask it.

“But that’s not your problem,” she said, cutting into the silence. “It’s like I said: no hard feelings if you choose to bow out, you know? I get it. You’re not obligated to me, to this kid, so… yeah.” The smile broadened, but her eyes were tearing up at the same time, contrasting her expression when she added a casual, “It’s cool.”

I watched my youngest sister, Marcela, practically raise my niece, Isobel, on her own. For that reason, I knew better than to believe it was as cut and dry as Brynn was trying to make it seem. Besides, it wasn’t in me to turn my back on my responsibilities. I wasn’t that type of guy. I’d be lying if I didn’t say this was difficult to wrap my head around, though.

The waitress came to take our order and Brynn told her we needed a moment, although, I was sure she had no intention to order a meal any more than I did. The woman walked away and left us alone again.

All the air rushed from my lungs when I breathed deep. “I’m gonna need some time to think. Just… about everything,” was the only thing I could bring myself to say at the moment.

“Take all the time you need,” Brynn replied, sealing the response with another half-hearted smile, one that faded when she turned to gaze out the window beside us.

The overall vibe I sensed coming from her was that, with or without me, she was determined to do this. However, I was almost certain that, given the choice, no woman ever really wanted to endure something like this alone.
Who would?

There was still the likely possibility of this kid not even being mine, but I could no longer deny that Brynn and I had been together. Because of that, I didn’t really know
how
to feel at this point or what to think. Just yesterday, my world was all black and white, no gray anywhere in sight. But if this kid turned out to be mine, if I ended up being the father...

…that would change everything.