The Right Reason To Marry

Daniel was waiting. He ushered Liam into his private office, shut the door and gestured toward the sitting area on one side of the room. “You look like hell. What’s going on?”

“I need to talk.” Liam sank to the leather sofa. “You know Karin Killigan?”

“Of course.” Daniel dropped into the club chair.

“Karin and me, we had a thing last winter.”

Daniel frowned. “Wait a minute—Karin’s pregnant, right?”

“Yeah. How did you know?” Did everyone know but him?

“Keely told me.” Keely was Daniel’s wife.

“How did Keely know?”

“She hung out a little with Karin at Madison and Sten’s wedding. According to Keely, Karin was noticeably pregnant then—but you missed the wedding, right?”

“Right.” He’d felt bad to miss it, but he’d had a work conflict in Portland, one he couldn’t put off or get out of.

Liam owned Bravo Trucking, which he’d built up from a few rigs that hauled strictly for Valentine Logging into a fleet with over two hundred trucks and two hundred fifty employees. His original terminal was nearby, right there in Warrenton. Last year, he’d opened one in Portland, too.

Daniel was leaning forward again. “Are you saying the baby is yours?”

“Yeah.” The word scraped his throat as he said it. “Karin says she’s been trying for months to work up the nerve to tell me. I probably still wouldn’t know if I hadn’t seen her coming out of Safeway a couple of hours ago.” And he had that feeling again, like if he sat still, he might just lose his mind. So he jumped up, paced to the door and then paced back again.

Daniel said, “You never mentioned you were dating Karin.”

“Dating?” He stopped by Daniel’s chair. “I wouldn’t call it dating. It was only a few times, whenever she could get away. She wanted it kept just between the two of us. I agreed it would be the way she wanted it and I never told anyone else that we were hooking up.”

“Liam,” Daniel said quietly. “Sit back down. Come on, man. It’s all going to work out.”

He dropped to the couch again. “I guess I’m kind of in shock.”

Daniel got up. “Scotch or water?”

Liam braced his elbows on his spread knees and put his head in his hands. “Neither. Both.” Dropping his hands from his face, he flopped back against the cushions and stared up at the ceiling.

Daniel asked, “Didn’t you and Karin date in high school?”

“Briefly.” Liam shut his eyes. “I always thought Karin was cute, you know? Senior year, she asked me to a Sadie Hawkins dance. We had a great time. I took her out to a show a couple of weeks later. But when she started hinting that she wanted to be exclusive with me, I told her what I told all the girls, that I didn’t do virgins and I wasn’t getting serious with anyone. Ever.”

“Classy,” remarked Daniel wryly. “And I’m guessing that was it for you and Karin in high school.”

Liam let out a grunt in the affirmative. “When we met up last December, it was so great to reconnect with her. She’s smart. She takes zero crap, you know? A guy can’t get ahead of her. Better-looking than ever, too, with those gorgeous eyes that look blue at first glance but are actually swirled with green and gray. Plus, she has all that wild, dark hair. And her attitude is seriously snarky. She’s fun.” He couldn’t help recalling the shock and guilt on her face when he’d stopped her at Safeway. “Not so snarky today, though. She really felt bad, that she’d waited so long to tell me...”

“Here you go.”

Liam opened his eyes. Daniel stood over him, a bottle of water in one hand, a glass with two fingers of amber liquid in the other. “Thanks.” Liam set down the glass on the side table and took a long drink from the water bottle. “I should go.” He drank the rest of the water and set the empty bottle by the untouched glass of Scotch.

“Hold on,” said Daniel. “I thought you said you needed to talk.”

“I did talk.” He rose and clapped his brother on the shoulder. “Thanks for listening.”

Liam’s new house in Astoria was four thousand square feet and overlooked the Columbia River. He’d had a decorator in to furnish it in a sleek, modern style, lots of geometric patterns and oxidized oak, pops of deep color here and there.

As a rule, coming home made him feel pretty good about everything. He had a thriving business, a fat bank account and a gorgeous house. By just about any standards, he’d made a success of his life so far.

Today, though, a big house and money in the bank didn’t feel all that satisfying. He was going to be a dad. Just like that. Out of the blue—at least, that was how it felt to him.

Karin had kept saying that he didn’t have to do anything right now.

Wrong.

He needed to do something. He just didn’t really know what.

Maybe he should call Deke Pasternak. Deke was in family law. A little legal advice couldn’t hurt about now, could it?

The lawyer answered on the second ring. “Hey. Liam. Good to hear from you. How’ve you been?”

“I just found out I’m going to be a father. Baby’s due in a week.”

Usually a fast talker, Deke took several seconds to reply. “Well. Congratulations?” He said it with a definite question mark at the end.

Two could play that game. “Thanks?”

“So... You want to meet for a drink or something?”

“How about a phone consultation?”

Five slow beats of complete silence, after which Deke asked, “You okay, man?”

“I’m working on it. Just bill me for this call and tell me what you think.”

Deke did some throat-clearing. “What I think?”

“Yeah.”

“About your being a dad?”

“That’s right.”

“Are you asking as a friend or do you want my legal opinion?”

“You’re billing me, aren’t you?”

“Uh, sure. So this isn’t anyone you were dating seriously, then?”

Liam thought of Karin again, standing there by the sliding glass door in her brother’s empty kitchen, looking miserable. “Why does that matter?”

“Let me put it this way, how did you find out that the baby’s yours?”

“She told me.”

“Ah. Right there. That could be a problem.”

“Well, she should have told me sooner, yeah. She admitted that.”

“No, Liam. What I mean is, what she told you proves nothing.”

“She’s seriously pregnant, man. I saw her with my own eyes.”

“Not what I’m getting at. I’m trying to say that before you take her word for it, you need to let me arrange for DNA testing. It’s best to clear up any doubts right out of the gate. I hate to say it, but it’s a possibility that this baby isn’t even yours.”

Liam had always been an easygoing sort of guy. He never got worked up about anything. But hearing Deke Pasternak imply that Karin Killigan had lied to him about her baby being his? That just pissed him the hell off. “You’re way off base there, Deke. She already mentioned a DNA test, as a matter fact. She’s a straight-ahead woman and she’s not trying to trap me.”

“I’m just trying to help you.”

“No. Uh-uh. You don’t know this woman.”

“Well, I—”

“She would never try to trap a man—she’s so independent, she called off our relationship before I could figure out a way to convince her that we should even have a relationship. She wasn’t even going to tell me about the baby until after the birth. I think she would have put off sharing the big news with me forever if that had been an option for her. But she’s a good woman and that wouldn’t be right. So, no. If she says the baby’s mine, it’s mine, damn it.”

“Liam. Come on. Don’t get me wrong. I’m not disrespecting the, her, mother of your child.”

“Yeah? Coulda fooled me.”

“I only meant that it’s important to prove paternity once and for all. You need to get irrefutable proof and proceed from there. You do that, you know where you stand. And when you know where you stand, you can decide what to do next.”

Why was he even talking to Deke? The guy had always irritated him. “You just don’t get it, do you, Deke? I’m going to be a father. Like in a week! I have no clue how to be someone’s dad.” True, in the past year or so, he had been thinking that it was time for him to start considering having a family of his own.

But not in a week, for crying out loud!

“I’m sorry, Liam. But I don’t really think it’s legal advice you’re looking for here.”

Liam had to agree with that. “You’re right. Gotta go. Have a good one, Deke.”

“You, too. Ping me anytime you—” Deke was still talking as Liam hung up.

He dropped his phone on the sofa table, took off his boots and stretched out on the couch. That lasted maybe thirty seconds, at which point he realized that no way could he keep still.

Sitting up again, he put his Timberlands back on.

He needed to...know stuff. A lot was expected of a guy as a dad. Witness Daniel, for example. Married at nineteen with three brothers and four sisters to raise. And now he had twins from his first wife, Lillie, who’d died shortly after the twins’ birth. Twins, and a daughter with his second wife, Keely.

The responsibilities never ended for a guy like Daniel. He worked all day and then went home to a wife, a couple of three-year-olds, a nine-month-old baby girl and their youngest sister Grace, who hadn’t moved out on her own yet. Daniel made it all look pretty effortless, mostly—or at least, he had since he and Keely got together. He was a happy man now.

Liam could learn a lot from Daniel. He really shouldn’t have just jumped up and run out of his brother’s office like that. He had a million questions and Daniel would be the one to answer them.

However, to get advice from Daniel, he would be required to sit still and listen. That wasn’t happening. Not now, not today.

Grabbing his phone and the jacket he’d shucked off when he entered the house, he headed out again—back to Valentine Bay and Valentine Bay Books down in the historic district, where the fortyish blonde clerk greeted him with a big smile. “How can I help you?”

“I’m having a baby. It’s my first and I need to know everything.”

“Well, of course you do.” She led the way to the baby and childcare section and recommended a few books on first-time fatherhood.

He grabbed those. “I’m just going to look around for a while.”

She left him to it. An hour later, he’d chosen more than twenty new-dad and baby books. After all, he had a lot to learn. And that could take a lot of books.

Back at home, he stuck a frozen pizza in the oven and sat down to begin his education in fatherhood.

At two on Saturday morning, he was still reading. Not long after that, he must have dropped off to sleep. He woke to daylight at his breakfast nook table with his head resting on The Expectant Father: The Ultimate Guide for Dads-to-Be.

He made coffee, had a shower and called both of his offices, where for once everything seemed to be rolling along right on schedule.

At a little after nine, he was knocking on the door of the house on Sweetheart Cove, a bag of baby books in one hand—just the ones he thought had the most to offer, in case he needed to refer to the experts while discussing his upcoming fatherhood with Karin.

Karin’s daughter answered the door. She was a cute little thing with big blue eyes and curly hair in pigtails.

“You came yesterday, didn’t you?” the child demanded at the sight of him.

“That’s right, I did.”

“Grandpa told us to stay in the great room when you came, but I peeked.” Her little mouth drew down at the corners in a puzzled frown. “Who are you?”

Otto Larson appeared from the living area. He wore a patient smile. “Coco, this is Liam Bravo. Invite him in.”

“Come in, Liam Bravo.” She swept out an arm in the general direction of the arch that led to the downstairs living area.

“Thank you, Coco.” He stepped into the foyer.

“You’re welcome.”

Liam shut the door as Coco darted to her grandfather and tugged on his hand. Otto bent close and she whispered in his ear.

He gave Liam a wink. “Yep. Liam is one of those Bravos. Your Aunt Madison is his sister.”

“I knew it!” crowed Coco. She aimed a giant smile at Liam, one that showed a gap where she’d lost a couple of lower teeth. “Aunt Madison is my friend and we have to be careful and not talk about her to most people because she is a movie star and she needs her privacy. But since you’re her brother, I can say what I want about Madison to you.”

Liam made a noise in the affirmative.

Coco Killigan chattered on. “I’m seven and I go to second grade. I have two best friends in my class and for Halloween, I will be Jewel from 101 Dalmatians.” Coco pointed at the bag of books dangling from his left hand. “You brought books. I like books.”

“Coco,” said Otto fondly. “I think Liam’s here to talk to your mom.”

Coco giggled. “Okay!” and skipped away through the arch into the other room.

“Come on,” said Otto. “I’ll get Karin.” He turned and led the way into the first-floor living area, where a boy a couple of years older than Coco sat at the table with a laptop, a paper notepad and a stack of schoolbooks. Otto introduced the boy as Ben, Karin’s son.

“Nice to meet you,” said Ben, sounding much older than his nine or ten years. He had straight brown hair and serious brown eyes.

As Liam tried to think of what to say to him, Karin spoke from behind him.

“Liam.”

He turned to her. She wore jeans and a long, ribbed sweater that clung to the front of her, accentuating her enormous belly. Her wild hair was pinned up in a sloppy little bun. She wore no makeup and the shadows under her eyes made her look tired—tired and soft and huggable, somehow. He wanted to wrap his arms around her and bury his nose in the curve of her neck, find out if she still smelled as good as he remembered.

“I wasn’t expecting you.” She didn’t seem all that happy to see him.

Too bad. He was going to be around. A lot. She would need to get used to that. “I said I’d be back.”

She glanced past him, at Otto. “Dad, I’ll just take Liam on upstairs?”

“Fine with me,” the older man replied.

She focused on Liam again and pasted on a tight smile. “This way...”

Liam followed her back into the foyer and up to the empty top floor, where she offered him a seat in the living area.

He took the sofa and set the bag of books at his feet.

“So, how are you doing?” Karin lowered herself into one of the chairs.

He had so many things to say and no idea where to start. “Uh. Good. Fine. Really. I talked to my lawyer.”

“Well, that’s good.” She gave an uncomfortable little laugh. “I think...”

Now she looked worried—and he didn’t blame her.

Seriously? Deke? He had to go and mention Deke? Nothing good was going to come of telling her what Deke had said. “He, um, wasn’t helpful, but the point is I’m realizing that everything is workable. You need to know that I will provide child support—and I’ve read a little about parenting plans. We’ll get one of those.”

“That’s great.” She sat with her knees pressed tightly together, like someone waiting for an appointment she wasn’t looking forward to.

He leaned in. “I also want you to know I’m here for you, Karin. Whatever you need, I’ll make sure that you get it.”

She nodded at him, an indulgent sort of nod, like he was her seven-year-old daughter, or something. He felt a flare of annoyance, that she so easily categorized him as someone she didn’t have to take too seriously.

The annoyance quickly faded as he realized he missed her—missed the real Karin, the woman who kissed him like she couldn’t get enough of the taste of him, the one who was always ready with some wiseass remark.

He wanted the real Karin back.

He also wanted her to learn to count on him, to trust him, though he’d never been the sort of guy who was willing to work to gain a woman’s trust.

But he’d never been almost a father before, either.

Somehow, impending fatherhood changed everything. She was the mother of his child and he wanted her, wanted to be with her, to take care of her.

One way or another, he would get what he wanted.

Karin wasn’t sure she liked the way Liam was looking at her. It was a thoughtful kind of look, a measuring look. It was also intimate, somehow.

He was a beautiful man, all golden and deep-chested, with hard arms and proud shoulders. It would be so good, to have those arms around her, to rest against that strong chest. Looking at him now, in the gray light of this chilly fall morning, she couldn’t help wishing...

No.

Never mind.

Bad idea.

She and Liam weren’t a couple and they never would be.

“So,” she said to break the lengthening silence between them, “What’s with the bag of books?”

“Research.” He granted her a proud smile. “You know, first-time fatherhood, pregnancy, labor and delivery. All that. I’ve got a lot to catch up on and I’ve been doing my homework. I stayed up late trying to get a handle on all the stuff I need to know.”

He was too sweet. He really was.

She’d been awake half the night, too, feeling bad about everything. And now she sat across from him waiting for him to get thoroughly pissed off at her—that she’d gotten pregnant in the first place when he used a condom every time. That she didn’t bust to the baby when she broke it off with him and then, for all those months and months, that she’d never once reached out to let him know he was going to be a dad. He probably wondered if she ever would have told him.

And frankly, if he hadn’t spotted her at the supermarket yesterday, she had no idea when she would have pulled up her big-girl panties and gotten in touch with the guy.

They stared at each other across the endless expanse of Sten’s coffee table. Liam looked like he had a million things to tell her—tender things. Kind things. Helpful things.

The man truly wasn’t angry. Not yet, anyway. He was sweet and sincere and he just seemed to want to be there for her and for the baby, to do the right thing.

His kindness reminded her sharply of how much she’d liked him when they met up again last year. In addition to his general charm and hotness, Liam Bravo, high school heartbreaker, had grown up to be a good man.

And right now, that just made her want to cry.

He said, “I was thinking...”

“Yeah?”

“Looking back on that night in March when you broke it off, I knew there was something weighing on your mind. I should have tried harder to get you to open to me.”

She couldn’t believe he’d just said that. “Liam. You were great. Don’t you dare blame yourself.”

“Look, I just need to know what you need.”

“I’m good, I promise. Everything’s pretty much ready. We’re just waiting for the baby to come.”

He frowned in a thoughtful sort of way. “Have you been going to childbirth classes?”

“I took the classes, yes. Like I said, I’m ready.”

“A labor coach?” he asked and then clarified, “Do you have one?”

“I have two, as a matter of fact—Naomi and Prim.” Naomi Khan Smith and Primrose Hart Danvers had been her best friends since kindergarten. Both women were married now. Naomi had two boys.

“Prim and Naomi. Makes sense.” He’d grown up with her BFFs, same as she had. “And even though I get that you’re all set and Prim and Naomi will take good care of you, I want to be there, when the baby comes.”

She tried not to picture him standing beside her while she sweated and groaned with her legs spread apart. If he wanted to be there, he had the right. “Yes. That’s fine. Great.”

“So you’ll call me, when you go into labor?”

“I will, absolutely.”

Liam had a million more things to discuss with the soon-to-be mother of his child. But sitting here across from her in Sten Larson’s too-quiet great room, he couldn’t seem to remember a single one of them.

She just looked so brave and uncomfortable—and alone. Beyond being smart and good-looking and self-reliant, there was something that hurt his heart about Karin Killigan, something walled-off and sad.

“What else?” she asked. He knew she was trying not to sound impatient, but it was obvious to him that she couldn’t wait for him to leave.

And why stay? She didn’t really want him here, there was nothing he could do for her at the moment—and he hated the feeling that he contributed to her sadness.

“Nothing else—not right now, anyway,” he heard himself say.

She stood, a surprisingly agile move given the size of her belly. “Well, all right then. Come by anytime. I mean that. Or call. Whatever.”

“Thanks.” He grabbed his bag of books and followed her down to the lower floor.

Her little girl stuck her curly head into the foyer as Karin was showing him out the door. “Bye, Liam Bravo.”

“Bye, Coco.”

“Can I call you just Liam?”

When he glanced at the silent woman beside him, she shrugged. “Up to you.”

He gave Coco a smile. “Just Liam works for me.”

“Okay! Bye, Liam. You can come and see me anytime.” Coco waved as Karin ushered him out the door.

Liam went back to Astoria and had breakfast at a homey little diner he liked. From there, he went on to his office at the Warrenton terminal and put in a half day of work.

That evening, he drove the few miles to Valentine Bay and stopped at the Sea Breeze on Beach Street for a beer. His baby sister Grace was behind the bar. She served him his favorite IPA and asked him if something was bothering him.

“It’s all good,” he lied and Gracie left him alone except to give him a refill when he signaled for it. He sat there sipping his beer, feeling kind of gloomy, going back and forth over whether or not to just tell his youngest sister that he was about to be a dad. At some point, he would have to break the big news to the whole family.

Soon, actually. The baby would be here in no time at all.

It all felt so strange. Completely unreal. He still had no clue how he was going to do it—be a dad.

But he wasn’t giving up. Uh-uh. Karin and her sad eyes weren’t keeping him away. He would be there for her and for his kid whether she wanted him around or not.

“Is Liam your boyfriend, Mommy?” Coco took a big sip of her milk and then set the glass carefully down. She picked up her fork and speared a clump of mac and cheese with ham.

Karin and her dad shared a glance across the dinner table. Otto lifted one bushy eyebrow. Karin read that look: it’s as good a time as any.

She cast a sideways glance at Ben. He was watching her, wearing what she always thought of as his Little Professor look. Serious. Thoughtful. Ben never just burst out with things the way Coco did. He watched. He waited. He made carefully considered, responsible decisions.

“As a matter of fact,” Karin said to her daughter, “I’ve been meaning to talk to both you and Ben about Liam.”

“I like Liam!” Coco speared a green bean and stuck it in her mouth.

Dear God. Where to even start? “I like Liam, too,” Karin said, trying to sound relaxed and natural and feeling anything but. “And several months ago, I...went out with him.”

Ben’s forehead scrunched up the way it always did when some complex math problem didn’t compute. “You were dating Liam?”