The Baby Surprise Read Online Free Page A

of his daughter, and it was unlikely he would gain either her trust or sympathy by making a move on her within two hours of meeting her. But he couldn’t deny he was tempted.
    Of course, he’d been overseas for the past year and a half and hadn’t been with a woman for even longer than that. In fact, he hadn’t been with anyone since the last weekend he’dspent with Olivia…likely the weekend their daughter had been conceived.
    Thinking of Emma reminded him why he was there, and he dropped his hand from Paige’s arm. But the air continued to crackle, the tension continued to build.
    â€œI don’t want us to be adversaries,” he said at last.
    â€œI don’t see how we can be anything else, not if it’s your intention to disrupt Emma’s life.”
    â€œI want to get to know my daughter. How is that disruptive?”
    â€œThe disruption will come when you disappear from her life as abruptly as you appeared in it.”
    She spoke with such conviction he guessed it was likely that she’d grown up with a father who was a transitory presence, too. He knew he had no hope of defending himself against her personal demons, so he only said, “Maybe we should continue this conversation tomorrow.”
    â€œWhy?”
    â€œBecause I just got home last night, I read Olivia’s letter this morning, then drove from Trenton to Syracuse to Pinehurst, all the while trying to get my head around the fact that I have a fourteen-month-old child I didn’t know anything about before today.”
    â€œI thought you’d be going back to New Jersey tomorrow, if not sooner.”
    â€œYou mean you wished I was.”
    She didn’t deny it.
    â€œI’m not going anywhere until we figure this out,” he assured her.
    â€œUnless duty calls,” she guessed.
    â€œI have almost two months.”
    But the skepticism in her eyes warned that she knew it was a promise he couldn’t make and confirmed that Paige’s apparent disapproval of his career was about more than thepossibility of his deployment interfering with his ability to get to know Emma.
    â€œThen I guess I’ll see you tomorrow,” she said.
    â€œWhat time is good?”
    â€œNot oh-five-hundred,” she warned.
    He smiled. “How about oh-nine-hundred?”
    â€œA much more civilized hour.”
    Zach wished her a good-night and made his way to the door.
    His first meeting with Paige Wilder hadn’t gone as well as he’d hoped. But nothing had gone quite as he’d expected since his plane had touched down at McGuire Air Force Base twenty-eight hours earlier. From the shocking news revealed by Olivia’s letter to his unexpected and undeniable reaction to Paige Wilder, his life was suddenly FUBAR.
    Yet, as he made his way to his SUV, he realized he was whistling and already looking forward to tomorrow.
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    Zach had spotted a couple of hotels on Main Street when he’d driven through town earlier, so he started to retrace his route, figuring he would check into the first one that he came across. He found “Hadfield House—A Bed-and-Breakfast” first. The sign outside promised private baths and hot breakfasts, but Zach only cared that there was an empty bed because he was too exhausted to go much farther.
    Thankfully he always traveled with a duffel bag packed with a change of clothes and some basic toiletries—he certainly hadn’t planned on staying overnight. He hadn’t planned on being gone more than a few hours—just long enough to make the trip into Syracuse, talk to Olivia, demand an explanation for the letter and her silence, and try to figure out what the hell they were supposed to do now.
    The news that Olivia was dead had been as much a shock as her revelation about the baby. And although he grieved the death of the vibrant young woman, he was also frustratedby the realization that he wouldn’t ever have the opportunity