Lady of the Lake

Nine

“I’ll let you know what the test results are in a few weeks.”

Dylan stopped checking out the family pictures on Violet’s wall and turned to stare at her. “Excuse me?”

He had driven her home after a nice lazy morning at his place, coffee and eggs and lots of groping. If it wasn’t for his game, he wouldn’t have taken her home at all, but he had to be at the airport in a few hours. She was wearing a pair of his sweat shorts, having pulled the drawstring so tight the shorts overlapped at the waist in a pleat. She’d put her bikini top on like a bra, then one of his smaller T-shirts. He liked seeing her standing there in his clothes, but he didn’t like the look on her face.

She seemed distracted as she glanced over at her answering machine. “Shoot. I was hoping Frank had called. I need to get my purse from him.”

“I can take you over to his place.” Dylan swung his keys around on his finger. “Now let’s go back to what you said before. Test results?”

He had a sickening feeling in his gut. One that told him his plans to have Violet on the road with him for the rest of the summer weren’t the same plans she was making.

“It will be two weeks before I’m supposed to start my period. If I’m late, I’ll take a test and let you know.”

No, no, no. He was not going to play along with this. “I was planning on seeing you before then.”

“Why?” She blinked up at him through her glasses, her arms up in her hair, twisting it around and around. She pulled a rubber band out of her kitchen drawer, and wrapped it around the bun she’d made from her thick hair.

He couldn’t believe what he was hearing. “Because I want to! Because last night we started something and it’s not finished yet. I want us to be together.”

She bit her lip, crossed her ankles. “That wasn’t something we even talked about.”

“So let’s talk about it now. I want to date. I want to see where this can go.” Man, this was ridiculous. He finally found the one woman he thought he could fall in love with and want to spend an entire lifetime with, and she was playing word games with him.

“I’m not so sure that’s a good idea. It could get complicated if I am pregnant and things don’t work out between us.”

“Then we’d be like a million other couples who aren’t together but have kids.” He put his hand in his hair in frustration. She was leaping way ahead on this one. He just wanted to take it one day at a time.

“Exactly.” She nodded. “Which is not what I want. This child is supposed to be mine and mine alone. No money, no interference. That’s what we talked about, that’s what we agreed on. If we date, and it ends in disaster, I don’t want to be dealing with custody issues and conflict when I should be concentrating on raising a child.”

Dylan felt floored. Slapped. Used. “So I really was just a sperm donor? Even after everything we…”

Shit. That hurt. That hurt bad.

Her eyes got moist, damn her. Like she was the one hurting. She put her arms around her middle and hugged herself. “I care about you, Dylan, I really do. In a way I can’t quite believe after just one night. But I don’t fit in your world, and you don’t fit in mine, and if there is a baby, it’s my sole concern right now. So yes, you were a sperm donor. And I should remind you that you offered, by the way.”

Because he was an idiot, apparently.

But God, he wanted her so much. He wanted this woman to be his, totally and completely, to want him the way he wanted her, to have a child together with him.

“Don’t…don’t do this, Vi. Please. We’ll just take things slow. I’m a reasonable person.”

Violet hesitated, than shook her head. “I can’t. Please understand.”

So that was it. Angry, hurt, confused, he scoffed. “I understand this is total bullshit.” He threw his hands up. “Goodbye, Violet. Have a nice life.”

The slamming of her door should have made him feel better, but it only made him grimace.

Well, that sucked. He’d just been dumped.