âIs that a yes to my proposal?â
âItâs a maybe,â she said. âBut ⦠a strong maybe, I guess. Why is this so important to you? Most men wouldnât go to such lengths to ensure a connection with their child. And you donât have to, either. I wonât stand in your way of being a father, Logan. Not unless there were extreme, extenuating circumstances that forced my hand.â
âMy father died when I was two,â he said, almost abruptly. âAnd he was married to someone other than my mother, though she didnât know that for a while. Thereâs more to it, but the bottom line is that I want to offer my child a better foundation than what my father gave me.â
âYou can do that withoutââ
âPlease, Anna, donât say no.â Loganâs body, every inch of it from head to toe, remained in a locked, tense posture. But his eyes ⦠God, they yearned. Pleaded. âAllow me this honor.â
* * *
The Colorado Fosters: Theyâd do anything for each other ⦠and for love!
Chapter One
âHi, Logan! Iâm here to give you some news. Remember that one-night stand we had close to four months ago? Well, Iâm pregnant, and youâre the father, so...â
Oh, good grief. Really? There had to be a better way to tell a man theyâd created a baby together. On second thought, no, there wasnât. She barely knew Logan Daugherty and therefore couldnât predict how heâd react regardless of what words she used.
Anna Rockwood cringed and drove straight past Loganâs house for the third time in a row. She had to do this today. She worried that if she didnât, sheâd never find the courage.
Anxiety-induced nausea bounced around in her stomach, much like a runaway rubber ball. She rolled down the carâs window and gulped in a blast of fresh, cool October air. It helped to clear her head some, but didnât do much for her churning stomach or jumpy nerves.
Morning sickness wasnât the culprit, she guessed, but the length of time sheâd kept her pregnancy a secret from the babyâs father. Initially, a tsunami of shock and fear and the oh-my-God-what-have-I-done type of recriminations had swarmed her thoughts and emotions, making it impossible to consider sharing her condition.
It was an awful lot to take in. Anna had never planned on entering motherhood as a single parent. Her mother had died when Anna was young, still in grade school, and the pain of that loss hadnât fully dissipated. How could it? Everything had changed so fast for Anna and her two sistersâone younger, one olderâwithout Ruby Rockwoodâs calming presence in their lives.
Seemingly overnight, their father became a harsher, stricter, angrier caricature of himself, leaving little room for so much as a grain of happiness. All that remained was a series of increasingly tough days in which the girls did their best to stay as quiet and invisible as possible.
Thank God for Aunt Lola.
It had taken years for their maternal aunt to learn the truth of their home life, but once she had, sheâd fought for and won guardianship. By then, Annaâs older sister, Elise, had become an adult and had left Steamboat Springs, Colorado, behind. But Lola had given Anna and her younger sister, Laurel, a home that was once again filled with warmth and joy.
Anna was grateful to her aunt for every last thing sheâd provided, but the juxtaposition of her childhoodâgoing from the mostly sweet, pure years from before her motherâs death to the painful, difficult years with her drastically changed father as the sole caregiverâhad cemented Annaâs beliefs on parenting, and she wouldnât have purposely chosen to raise a child on her own.
Okay, she wouldnât be completely on her own. Aunt Lola would offer love and support. But even so, Anna couldnât pretend this situation was ideal or what she had wanted for herself or the children she would someday have. It wasnât. Simple as that.
What Anna had wanted, what sheâd wished for, was the traditional family unit. Two parents, preferably who loved and respected each other, raising their child as partners.
Naturally, there wasnât a darn thing she could do about that now. One nightâher first night back in Steamboat Springs after living in Texas for yearsâthat included too many drinks, a handsome cowboy and absolutely no willpower to speak of had altered her life forever.