The SEAL's Surprise Baby - Leslie North Page 0,1

been, but she’d made no move to contact him. At least, not that he knew of.

“I did,” she admitted as she lowered the boy to the floor so that he sat supported against her legs. He seemed able to sit up pretty well on his own. Maybe he was an advanced little guy, Anderson thought, and then the kid stuck half the cloth book in his mouth. Guess not.

“So you waited for me to be on leave to drop this bomb,” he said, watching as she offered the baby a set of plastic keys in exchange for the now-wet book. She tilted her face toward Anderson before speaking.

“I waited because I wasn’t sure I’d tell you at all.” Those eyes that seemed to have their own light stared into his. “I don’t need you. I can raise him on my own and give him everything a child needs.”

“Except a father,” he pointed out, fully aware of the irony of his words. His father had been a crook and a wannabe con artist. Not exactly daddy-of-the-year material. Anderson’s grandfather hadn’t been any better. Fatherhood wasn’t in his genes.

“I grew up without one,” Violet retorted. “It’s never held me back.”

That much was true. She’d never been daunted by anything. Not that he’d seen. But raising a kid on her own had to be tough.

Did that mean he wanted to be involved? Hell, he didn’t know the answer to that.

“So why’d you show up at my door?” he asked, trying to understand her motive.

“I decided you had a right to know,” she said, touching the boy’s head. “And he’s so sweet. I couldn’t live with myself if you didn’t have the opportunity to experience that.” She cleared her throat, and he felt there was something she wasn’t saying. “So that’s why I’m here.”

He believed her, but something didn’t add up in his head. He let a minute pass in silence while he analyzed her words. Then he said, “You would have known you were pregnant before I was deployed on my last mission.”

“That’s true. I suppose I should explain a little more about that,” she said. “I’ve never been regular, you know what I mean?” He nodded, not wanting to get into a discussion of female issues. “So I was almost five months pregnant before I let myself believe it. When my clothes stopped fitting, I could no longer deny the reality, so I took a test and saw the doctor.”

“You weren’t sick?” Didn’t women know these things? There were signs, or so he’d always heard.

“Not a day. And I wasn’t tired either, like so many women say they are. It was an easy pregnancy.” She lifted the baby back onto her lap. “Anyway, by the time I came to terms with it, you’d shipped out—and I’d thought that was just as well, since we don’t…” Her mouth closed into a firm line.

“Get along,” he supplied. Both their working and personal relationships had been infused with tension, some of it sexual, but much of it a battle of wills.

“Right.” She swallowed, a surprising show of nerves on her part. “But I’m here now to give you a choice. Your son can be part of your life or not. If you decide you want nothing to do with him, I’ll never bother you again.”

Anderson started to say If he’s mine, and stopped himself. He had no reason to doubt her assertion, and the time frame worked. The kid… Nate… was his. Did Anderson want to be a father? He had never planned on it. But he also didn’t shirk his responsibilities. But, Jesus, it was a hell of a decision to be asked to make out of the blue.

He'd seen enough careless and irresponsible behavior from his own parents to know he didn’t want to emulate that. But could he do this? Could he be a dad? And what would that mean for him and Violet? He saw a future fraught with battles, which was not how he wanted to live.

But he’d fathered a kid, and that meant something. He’d pay child support. The Navy would help him set that up. Beyond the monetary, though… he didn’t know. His mind swirled, refusing to go in any coherent direction.

“Got it. Message received,” Violet said and got to her feet, interpreting his silence as refusal. She slung her bag over her shoulder and cuddled Nate close to her body.

Anderson had seen her in slinky dresses meant for nightclubs and in business suits, but she’d never looked