Read Online Because of the Baby by Debbie Macomber - Free Book Online Page B

to be sure her aim for the bucket was on target.
    â€œThe odds of your getting pregnant from our one and only…lapse must be astronomical.”
    Leave it to Matt to get egotistical over something like this. The man was marinating in his own testosterone. Men and their pride! Karen would never understand it.
    â€œTrust me, Matt, this is not the time to gloat.” The nausea worsened and she closed her eyes, fearing she was about to lose whatever was left in her stomach.
    He chuckled, then seemed to realize she wasn’t joking. She must have gone even paler, because he reached over and smoothed the hair from her brow.
    â€œWhat can I do?” he asked gently.
    It was his tenderness that nearly did her in. Karen had to fight back tears. “Nothing,” she whispered, taking a deep breath. “It’ll pass in a minute.” Sometimes it did, and other times it didn’t. “It might be best if you left—I don’t feel up to company.”
    â€œOh, no, you don’t,” Matt warned. “I’m not walking out of this apartment until you and I have made some decisions.”
    â€œWe have nothing to decide.”
    â€œWhat about the doctor and hospital bills?”
    Karen hated to admit her pocketbook was hurting. The medical bills were beginning to mount. The health insurance provided through Paragon, Inc., paid eighty percent, but thetwenty percent she had to pay herself grew with each doctor’s visit. She didn’t need a calculator to realize that with the difficulties she’d already experienced, she would soon run into the thousands.
    â€œAre you offering to help?” she asked stiffly. Matt had never been good with money. It used to drive her crazy the way he’d write checks without keeping a balance in their checkbook. He’d often stack up two or three months’ worth of bank statements before he’d reconcile their account. He claimed he wasn’t irresponsible or reckless; he just wanted to make the effort worth his while.
    The moment he’d mentioned his plans to be an accountant Karen should’ve realized that effort was doomed. He’d never been interested enough in numbers.
    â€œThe baby’s my responsibility, too,” he told her.
    But it went without saying that Matt was in no position to be giving her money. Not with launching Hard Luck Lodge. He’d sunk every penny he could scrounge plus his entire inheritance into this venture. Knowing Matt the way she did, Karen doubted there was anything left.
    â€œI know, but—”
    â€œKaren.” He clasped her hand between his and got down on his knees beside her. “It makes sense to put this nonsense aside once and for all. We belong together. We always have—now more than ever.”
    â€œNonsense?” Did he honestly believe that the agony of their divorce had been a trivial decision on her part? Leaving Matt and filing for divorce had been the most difficult, painful thing she’d ever done. For him to make light of what it had cost her emotionally proved he’d never understand her.
    â€œOkay, so you don’t want to move to Hard Luck,” he said as if living in the Arctic was all that held her back.
    She closed her eyes, stunned that he knew so little about her.
    â€œDo you?” he asked hopefully.
    She opened her eyes, confused by his question.
    â€œWould you agree to marry me and move to Hard Luck?”
    â€œOh, Matt, please don’t ask that of me. Not now when I feel so sick.”
    â€œI want to take care of you.”
    He was going to have his hands full running the lodge. As for taking care of her, well, she’d been doing a fair job of that herself.
    â€œNo,” she said. She needed him, perhaps for the first time, yet as hard as she tried, Karen couldn’t put the past behind her. Matt had fallen short of her expectations so often. He’d made promises in the past and let her down. There was so much