Page 36 of Surprise Baby for Mr. Fischer

CHAPTER ELEVEN

Lincoln

Awarmth spread throughmy chest at seeing Harper. No matter how nervous I was about this conversation. I knew that being with her and our baby was where I needed to be. Now I had to show her that.

Harper’s hands curled into fists. “You just missed Whitney,” she blurted out.

“Who?”

Before responding Harper wet her lips and my brain shorted, remembering all the sexy things we had done with our mouths during our weekend together.

“Lincoln?”

Focus, asshole.“I’m sorry, what did you say?”

“Whitney was just here. She said you’d met the other day.” A tiny frown tugged down the corners of her lips.

I shook my head. “Maybe she has me confused with someone else?”

Harper gave a wry chuckle. “I doubt that. She has black hair, blueish-gray eyes, thin, pretty? She said you met at the grocery store.”

The annoying ebony haired woman who didn’t know boundaries.“Oh. Her.”

Harper gave me a thoughtful look. “She said you were about to give her your number.”

My lips twisted. “What? Hell, no.”

Her answering grin was all the confirmation I needed to know I’d answered correctly. I’d had two days to think things through—to decide whether I wanted to be a part of my child’s life or not.

It was the call with Max that helped me decide. I needed time to think about what he said, but in the end, I was done letting my parents’ poor life choices make my decisions for me.

My chest ached, and inside, a tiny voice told me to run as fast as possible, but whether I wanted kids or not, it was happening. The very least I could do was be there for Harper. There were two of us present that weekend. She shouldn’t have to handle this alone.

I want to do this, I reminded myself. When I looked into my future it was hard to imagine Harper and our baby not in it.

Her long auburn hair swished from side to side each time she shifted from one foot to the other, and her eyes assessed me as though she wasn’t quite sure what to say next. Dark circles framed her eyes. Was that from normal tossing and turning, or had she lost sleep over how I reacted?

“You doing okay?” I asked.

“I’m good.” She worried her hands, a clear indication she wasn’t telling me the complete truth.

A noise erupted at the back of the room, and we both jumped. Hope was lurking by the door next to a bunch of overturned boxes. Now that she knew we could see her, she crossed her arms over her chest and continued the glare from earlier. If I wanted this, I had more than Harper to win over.

I gave her a slight wave. She rolled her eyes.

“Hope, please,” Harper said, frustration evident in her voice.

“Fine, I’m going.” Hope sent one last withering glare in my direction. “I hope his next movie tanks,” she grumbled loud enough for me to hear before she slammed the door to the backroom behind her.

“I’m sorry about that. My family can be a bit protective of me.”