Angel Mine. Sherryl Woods

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      Heather wished she’d been able to deliver her news in a less-public setting, wished she’d been able to wait as Jake had instructed her to do, but sometimes fate made its own timing. She’d pictured a dozen different scenarios for making the big announcement, but in none had she imagined blurting it out in the middle of a sidewalk while Todd stared at her as if she’d been speaking gibberish.

      In fact, if Todd wasn’t the strongest, most emotionally controlled man in captivity, she had a feeling he would have fainted right there on Main Street. He certainly looked as if he would rather be anyplace else on earth. Fortunately she hadn’t counted on seeing a joyous outburst, so his stunned, silent reaction didn’t cut straight through her the way it might have.

      “Well? Aren’t you going to say anything?” she prodded.

      “Why should I believe you?”

      Those weren’t exactly the words every woman dreamed of hearing after she’d just told a man he was a daddy, but she’d anticipated little else. Todd was the kind of man who expected life to occur in a nice, orderly procession of events. He worked to see that it did just that. She’d skipped straight past any announcement of a pregnancy and delivered a three-year-old into his life. She held on to her temper, because she could understand the shock he must be feeling and knew she was to blame for that much, anyway.

      “Because I don’t lie?” she suggested mildly, refusing to be insulted by the question.

      If she thought about it, she supposed it was natural enough for him to doubt her. After all, she hadn’t told him the truth four years ago. In fact, she had deliberately avoided his calls—from the moment she’d learned she was pregnant, turning her back on their promise to remain friends after the breakup. She could have handled friendship with an ex-lover, but not under those circumstances. The baby had changed everything. Pride and a fierce streak of independence had made her determined to keep the secret.

      She met his gaze evenly. “If you need one, have a paternity test done. Seems to me that a glance in the mirror would be enough proof, but do whatever it takes to make a believer of you,” she told him with a shrug of feigned indifference.

      He looked as if the suggestion made him vaguely uncomfortable, probably because he had been thinking about demanding that very thing and knew how small-minded it made him look.

      “You want money, I suppose,” he said, his voice flat.

      Heather wished she could say no, wished she could throw the question back in his face and walk away, but money was part of what she needed, what Jake had just told her she deserved. Not for herself, but for Angel.

      “That’s only part of it,” she said.

      “And the rest?”

      “I want you,” she said. What had ever made her think she would savor this moment? Instead, she found she was getting precious-little enjoyment out of the stunned disbelief on his face.

      “Just like that?” he asked incredulously. “After four years apart, after refusing to return any of my calls, you show up and claim you want me? Sorry, babe, but it just doesn’t ring true. You’ll have to work on your delivery if you expect me to buy that.”

      “It’s true,” she insisted.

      He returned her steady gaze with blatant skepticism. “What’s the matter, Heather? Can’t you cope with being a single mom, after all? Obviously you thought you could or you would have done the honorable, sensible thing and told me about our daughter a long time ago. Instead, you chose to cut me out of her life. Obviously you thought you’d both be better off without me.”

      The fact that he’d hit the nail on the head grated. He shouldn’t be able to read her so well, especially not after all this time. She was supposed to be the unpredictable one, the one who kept everyone guessing.

      “Oh, for heaven’s sake, not for me,” she snapped. “For Angel. She needs her daddy.”

      His gaze narrowed. “What do you mean, she needs her daddy?”

      “She’s a little girl. She needs you to be in her life, to know that there’s somebody besides me she can count on. Over the last three years, I’ve realized how important that kind of stability is for a child.”

      Todd’s complexion paled. “No,” he said with a ferocity that stunned her. “Never. Get that idea right out of your head, Heather. You want money, okay. If Angel’s mine, we’ll work something out. As for the rest, forget it. It will never, never happen.”

      And before she could react, before she could challenge him, he simply turned and walked away. Fled, really, without once looking back.

      “Well, that was interesting,” she murmured as he disappeared from view.

      It looked as if she’d finally found the one thing that could rattle Todd’s almost scary composure. Obviously this was precisely the reaction that Jake had anticipated. The only question was why the most self-possessed man she’d ever known would be so terrified of one little three-year-old who was his spitting image.

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