Read Online Baby on Board by Lisa Ruff - Free Book Online Page B

side-deck right behind them. She held out a hand that he ignored. Instead, he reached up and grasped her by the waist, gently lifting her down to the dock. He held her steady as she slipped into her sandals, then put on his own shoes.
    “I’ll see you guys around,” she said to Ian and Evan.
    “You feel better?” Ian asked.
    She smiled. “I will once I get to shore.”
    Patrick walked with her up the dock and to his truck. He helped her inside, went around the hood and got in the cab.
    “Kate. I—”
    “Skip the explanations, Patrick. Just take me home.”
    He hesitated, then stuck the key in the ignition. They made the journey back to her house in complete silence. Kate kept her head turned away from him, looking out the side window the entire way. At her house, he pulled into the driveway and turned off the engine.
    “Don’t get out,” Kate said. “I’ll see myself inside.”
    “I’m sorry, Kate.”
    She shrugged. “I know. Me, too. It’s over, so let’s just move on, okay?”
    She turned away and slid out, closing the door with a firm thud. Patrick watched her walk around the hood of the truck. She didn’t look at him once and he felt like banging his head on the steering wheel in aggravation. It had been a disastrous morning. Now they were back to square one or somewhere worse. He got out and followed her. He couldn’t just let it end like this. She was halfway up the steps when he caught up to her.
    “I really am sorry for what happened. Can we just talk about this, please?”
    She turned and looked at him, her eyes dark and enigmatic, before continuing up to the front door. “I don’t think there’s anything to say.”
    Patrick moved and took her arm gently, preventing her from inserting her key into the lock. “If I had known you would be so frightened, I would never have taken you out there.”
    “I know that, Patrick. You don’t have to keep apologizing. I’m as much to blame for what happened as you are. I should have told you I was afraid of the water.”
    “Then why won’t you talk to me?”
    “Because there isn’t anything else to say,” she repeated.
    “Of course there is. We have to talk about the baby, Kate. I want to be a part of its life, of your life. I think we can make it work between us.” His voice trailed off as he watched incredulity spread across her face.
    “You really are something, Patrick Berzani. You still think that, after this morning, there’s hope for you and me? Well, guess what? I’m thinking just the opposite. Today, you demonstrated precisely why I want you far away from me and this child.”
    “What did I—”
    “What made you think taking me for a sail was a good idea? Especially without any warning?”
    “I thought if I could show you how good it was out there—”
    “You told me you wanted to talk, Patrick. Not sail.”
    “I wanted to talk. Honest!”
    “I suppose we were going to have a nice chat, just the four of us? You, me, Evan and Ian? You’re hopeless.”
    “I didn’t know you were going to freak out.”
    “That’s not the point!” She was shouting so loud, the whole neighborhood could probably hear. “The point is that you risked my life out there and the life of our child!”
    “I didn’t!”
    “You didn’t ask me if I could swim. Or give me a life jacket. Or even tell me where one was,” she said, ticking off points on her fingers. “Does that sound like good father material to you? I’m four-and-a-half months pregnant , Patrick. What if I’d gone in the water?”
    Patrick ran a hand through his hair and walked to the edge of the porch. He turned back and looked at Kate. With her hair waving softly around her head, her face flushed with anger and her eyes bright, she looked beautiful. If only she wasn’t so stubborn. If only all his plans for the morning hadn’t gone so wrong.
    “So where do we go from here?”
    A car drew up in the alley next to the studio, drawing Kate’s attention. Her eyes flickered over