She's Having a Baby Read Online Free Page B

leaving. Her eyes were drawn to the small oval at the hollow of MacKenzie’s throat. “Nice cameo. New?”
    MacKenzie fingered it. So far, it was turning out to be a dud. “Yes, it is. Thanks.”
    Ann nodded, then dug into one of the pockets of her lab coat. “If you need to talk, this is my private number.” Ann pressed a card into her hand before leaving the room.
    MacKenzie was off the table in a blink of an eye. There was a show to oversee.
    She didn’t remember the trip back. It was one huge blur, hidden behind the recurring mantra: You’re pregnant, you’re pregnant. Her head throbbed.
    The call to Jeff was made the first chance she got, right after the program had wrapped for the day. Evenas she tapped out the old, familiar number, she could feel the butterflies in her stomach going into high gear again. But it had to be done. There was no way around it. Jeff had a right to know. And she wanted to get this over with as fast as possible.
    Jeff listened in silence as she choked out the words. When she finished, he was sympathetic and supportive, all the things that had attracted her to him in the first place.
    And then he said, “Listen, Mac, if you need money to get this taken care of—”
    â€œI don’t,” she said, cutting him off before he could say anything further.
    â€œThen you’re keeping it?” There was a clear note of surprise in his voice.
    Of course she was keeping the baby, she thought indignantly. How could she not? She’d always had a fondness for all creatures smaller than she was. She just wasn’t relishing the notion that her whole life would be replumbed and restructured.
    Hormones mounting another rebellion in her system, MacKenzie didn’t like the way he dehumanized what was happening. “It’s a baby, Jeff, not an ‘it.’”
    There was another long pause, as if he were choosing his words carefully. “I’m not interested in being a father, Mac.”
    Something shut down in her. It wasn’t that she was expecting him suddenly to declare that he’d been blind and could now see and from here on in everything was going to be coming up roses for them, but she didn’t like the guarded way he was approaching this. As if shewanted something from him. As if he were bracing himself for some kind of shakedown.
    Her voice grew more formal. “I know that. I just thought you had a right to know that there would be someone walking around with half your gene pool.”
    She swore she heard a sigh of relief. When Jeff uttered the next words, he sounded more like his old self. “I’ll have my lawyer draw up papers making arrangements for child-support payments.”
    For some reason, that just made her angrier. “I didn’t call you for that.”
    â€œI know. But I want to do this. I’ll be in touch.” He hung up as if afraid that she might still hit him up for something.
    She let the receiver drop back into the cradle within the small cubbyhole that was her office. And then left it at that. Left it with a hollow feeling in the pit of her stomach right beside the seedling that was her baby.
    Her baby, not his, not anyone else’s. Hers, she thought with a sudden cloud of tears welling up within her eyes.
    Grabbing a tissue, she blocked a wave of exasperation. There they went again, her emotions climbing onto the same roller coaster they’d been riding for the last week. Damn but she was going to have to get a handle on all this emotional stuff before she found herself being utterly derailed.
    Somehow, she made it through the remainder of the day, avoiding Dakota’s probing questions and getting everything prepared for the next day’s taping. Instead of staying beyond six, the way she normally did, she made it out the first second she could.
    Pausing only long enough to pick up the take-out food she’d ordered earlier, MacKenzie had every intention of