Page 32 of Worth the Risk

Her question startled a laugh out of me. I couldn’t even try to deny it. “Uh… yeah. Yeah, I am.”

“I knew something was going on with you,” Kirsten continued. “I noticed that you ordered a non-alcoholic drink at dinner the other night. And I heard that doctor friend of yours asking how you were feeling.”

“You suspected that I was pregnant from just that?”

She shrugged. “You also skipped the wine tasting. I actually thought maybe you were hiding a drinking problem. But a bun in the oven makes sense too.”

I chuckled again. It was a strange relief that someone else knew. I’d been walking around with this huge secret I was keeping from all of my friends and family on the island, and it was more of a burden than I expected it to be. Like I was hiding a part of myself from everyone.

And God, I was so tired of hiding.

“So, who’s the dad? I thought you were single?”

Maybe I should have at least hesitated to tell her. After all, I’d told Ford it was too late to go public, and we hadn’t talked about how we’d handle everyone learning that we were going to have a child.

But again… I was tired.

“It’s Ford.”

Kirsten smiled. “The hot blonde doctor? Good for you.”

“Yeah, kind of. I mean, things between us are… complicated.”

“Ah. I’ve done the complicated thing before. Some men just don’t know a good thing when they have it. Make him earn his place in your life, girl.”

I thought about last night, the way he made me moan and shudder in the bathtub without taking anything for himself. And his apologies. And the delicious cheesecake that I ate in bed after he left.

“I am.” I wasn’t sure if it would all work between us, but over the last couple of days, I’d started to realize that I might want it to.

“What does Ryan think about all this?”

“He doesn’t know yet. In fact, no one knows about this. The pregnancy or my relationship with Ford. And I don’t want them to find out while we’re here for the wedding. I’ll tell Ryan and Jake and everyone else in my own time, okay?”

She mimed zipping and locking her lips. “Don’t worry, I won’t tell anyone.”

I nodded, happy with that. I just had to get through a few more days on the island, and then, I’d go back to my real life and figure out how to share the big news.

Little did I know, Kirsten’s lips weren’t really zipped at all.

Chapter Twelve: Ford

“If I ever get married, my bachelor party will be epic,” Jake said, sipping his beer.

We were sitting in armchairs by the windows in the resort lounge, along with Ryan, Damien, and Gordon. There were a couple of other guys here that I didn’t know, friends of Ryan’s that had arrived today so that they could join the bachelor party and enjoy Sirona Isle for a bit before the wedding on Saturday, but they were mostly on the dance floor or at the bar.

The lounge was a low-key setting for Ryan’s bachelor party, and I liked it. It fit my more laid-back personality well.

Jake was a different story.

“You, get married?” Damien snorted. “I don’t see that ever happening.”

Jake grinned. “Stranger things have happened, my friend. But you’re probably right.” He tipped back his beer bottle again, polishing it off. “No matter. I don’t need a reason for a wild night. And on that note…”

He got up and sauntered over to the bar, approaching a group of women with the confidence of a true Casanova.

Ryan shook his head. “You know, I kind of thought he’d start to settle down by now. But he’s been a playboy for so long that I’m starting to think he’ll never get serious with someone.”

“Some men don’t have it in them to commit to one woman,” Gordon said.