A Father for Her Triplets: Her Pregnancy Surprise Read Online Free PDF

kiss.
    But she scooted farther away from him. “You’re not getting what I’m telling you.”
    He frowned. Her crisp, unyielding voice didn’t match the heat bubbling in his stomach right now.
    Had he fantasized his way into missing part of the conversation?
    “What are you telling me?”
    “I was abandoned by my husband with three kids. We’ve been as close to dead broke as four people can be for four long years. It was almost a happy accident that the first bride asked me to bake her cake. Over the past year I’ve been building to this point where I had a whole summer of cakes to bake. A real income.”
    She slid off the railing and walked away from him. “I like you. But I have three kids and a new business.”
    His chest constricted. He’d definitely fantasized his way into missing something. He hadn’t heard anything even close to that in their conversation. But he heard it now. “And you don’t want a man around, screwing that up?”
    She winced. “No. I don’t.”
    The happy tingle in his blood died. He wasn’t mad at her. How could he be mad at her when what she said made so much sense?
    But he wasn’t happy, either.
    He collected the empty beer bottles and left.

CHAPTER THREE
    T HE NEXT MORNING , Owen blew through the kitchen and out the back door like a little boy on a mission, and Missy’s heart twisted. He was on his way to the sandbox, expecting to find Wyatt.
    She squeezed her eyes shut in misery. The Wyatt she remembered from their high school days never would have hit on her the way he had the night before. Recalling the sweet, shy way he’d asked her to the graduation party, she shook her head. That Wyatt was gone. This Wyatt was a weird combination of the nice guy he had been, a guy who’d seen Owen’s plight and rescued him, and a new guy. Somebody she didn’t know at all.
    Still, she knew men. She knew that when they didn’t get their own way they bolted or pouted or got angry. Wyatt wasn’t the kind to get angry the way her dad had gotten angry, but she’d bet her next cake referral that she’d ruined Owen’s chances for a companion today. Hell, she might have wrecked his chances for a companion all month. All because she didn’t want to be attracted to Wyatt McKenzie.
    Well, that wasn’t precisely true. Being attracted to him was like a force of nature. He was gorgeous. She was normal. Any sane woman would automatically be attracted to him. Which was why she couldn’t let Wyatt kiss her. One really good kiss would have dissolved her into a puddle of need, and she didn’t want that. She wanted the security of knowing she could support her kids. She wouldn’t get that security if she lost focus. Or if she fell for a man before she was ready.
    So she’d warned him off. And now Owen would suffer.
    But when she lifted the kitchen curtain to peek outside, there in the sandbox was Wyatt McKenzie. His feet were bare. His flip-flops lay drunkenly in the grass. Worn jeans caressed his perfect butt and his T-shirt showed off wide shoulders.
    She dropped the curtain with a groan. Why did he have to be so attractive?
    Still, seeing him with her son revived her faith in him. Maybe he was more like the nice Wyatt she remembered?
    Unfortunately, until he proved that, she believed it was better to keep her distance.
    After retrieving her gum paste from the refrigerator, she broke it into manageable sections. Once she rolled each section, she put it through a pasta machine to make it even thinner. Then she placed the pieces on plastic mats and put them into the freezer for use on Friday, when she would begin making the flowers.
    She peeked out the window again, and to her surprise, Owen and Wyatt were still in the sandbox.
    Okay. He might not be the old shy Wyatt who’d stumbled over his words to ask her out. But he was still a good guy. She wouldn’t hold it against him that he’d made a pass at her. Actually, with that pass out of the way, maybe they could go back to being friends?