Skylar expected gruffness, not Kade to act as bewildered and awestruck as she’d been. She touched his forearm, offering him reassurance “Give yourself more than a day to process it all, Kade. I had six months to get used to the idea of a baby, while she was growing inside me. You’ve had six hours. The more time you spend with her, the easier it’ll get.”
“You trust me with her?”
“You wouldn’t be here if I didn’t. Besides, I didn’t know all that much about babies either. To some extent, it is instinctive. Only way to learn is by doing.”
Sky sidestepped him and wandered to the kitchen, shocked at how easy it was to leave Kade with their daughter.
He’d cleaned the counters and washed dishes. A pot of chili simmered on the stove.
A round bakery box with a chocolate frosted cake sat in the middle of the table. She sagged against the doorway. He’d remembered her favorite dessert.
Dammit. It’d be easier to keep this situation impersonal if he was a complete dickhead.
Impersonal. Right. A little too late for that. They had a child. The man had proposed to her not four hours ago. Apparently, he’d moved in. And apparently, she didn’t mind.
She expelled a heavy sigh and muttered, “Maybe I should’ve just said yes.”
“The offer still stands, Skylar.”
His deep voice next to her ear sent a shiver through her. “You scared me.”
“I know.”
Did he mean he knew sneaking up on her scared her? Or was he talking about his marriage proposal? Rather than dig herself into a hole, she bit back the demand for clarification.
During dinner she shared the abbreviated version of her pregnancy and Eliza’s birth while Kade pored over the pictures and information in the baby book. When Eliza began to fuss, Skylar taught him how to mix formula, how to warm a cold bottle and how to test the temperature. After he finished feeding Eliza, Sky tossed him a spit-up rag and instructed him on burping.
Kade listened so attentively Skylar half-expected him to whip out a notebook and jot down notes. It didn’t faze him when Eliza barfed all over him. Changing a diaper didn’t make him turn green. He walked the floor until Eliza fell asleep in his arms, and he still wouldn’t relinquish his hold on her.
“Seriously. Put her in the bassinet. She’ll nap for an hour and then she’ll want to eat again before she’s out for the night. Or part of the night. She still doesn’t sleep straight through.”
Reluctantly, Kade laid Eliza on her back in the bassinet, tucked a blanket around her and flopped on the opposite end of the couch.
He expelled a long slow breath. “We need to talk.”
She waited, half-afraid/half-curious about how this’d play out.
A beat passed. “First off, I wouldn’t have taken the job if I woulda known you were pregnant.”
“What would you have done? I didn’t find out until the end of November. By then I was a little more than three months along. And I did call your parents’ house to talk to you. I had no idea what I should do when your brother said you’d be out of touch until the following summer.”
He scowled. “You talked to Kane?”
“Briefly. I wasn’t comfortable having him pass on the message about your impending fatherhood.”
“So you kept the information to yourself?”
“What other choice did I have?”
“What choice did you have? Jesus, Sky, that’s the problem. You seem to think you get to make all the choices and keep all the control in this relationship. You have since day one.” Kade shoved a hand through his hair. “I’ll admit I made a mistake in not tellin’ you I wasn’t Kane. But you cut me off without lettin’ me explain my side of things.”
She bristled. “You pretended to be someone else. I slept with you thinking you were Kane. How is that my fault?”
“It isn’t.”
“At least we agree on that point.”
Kade sighed. “Skylar. I don’t wanna fight with you.”
When it occurred to her he’d used the word relationship, she looked at him oddly.
He stared right back, completely nonplussed. “Does anyone ever mix you up with your sister?”
“No. Even before India became the tattooed woman we weren’t hard to tell apart.
Different eye color, facial structure, body type.” India was lean and muscular and sometimes Skylar resented that she’d been cursed with a rounder, womanly physique, but they were easily distinguishable from one another.
“This ain’t an excuse, but you don’t have any idea how that feels. Not only am I saddled with an identical twin, but we also look just like our other McKay cousins in three counties. Some folks act as if we’re all interchangeable. So I’ve heard ‘one of them McKay twins’ or ‘one of those wild McKay boys’ my whole life. Seems I don’t have an identity beyond my last name.
“Might sound stupid, but I’d convinced myself that for once, the name I had, the name you knew me by, didn’t matter, because you were interested in the man inside.
Yeah, I realize it was dumb. But I didn’t have any idea on how to go about making it right back then.”
She waited, unsure of where he was going with this and unsure of how she’d respond.
Kade reached for her hand. “Except I can make it right now. Let’s start over.”
“It’s too late.”
“It’s never too late. Come on. I’ll go first.” He formally shook her hand. “Howdy, little lady. I’m Kade McKay.”
Skylar laughed.
“You shore are purty. Anyone ever told you that you have a beautiful laugh? Like bluebells in springtime.”
“Kade.”
“You maybe wanna go out with me sometime?” He grinned and gave her an exaggerated wiggle of his eyebrows. “Or do you just wanna skip all that normal datin’ stuff and have my baby?”
She laughed again. It’d been a long time since she’d made that carefree sound. She’d forgotten how Kade had tried to cajole her out of a mood during their dates, if she’d had a stressful day at the office. Not only was he sweet, he was the rare person who could make her laugh. She squeezed their joined hands. “You goof-ball.”
“C’mere.” He tugged her until she fell across his lap. His arms came around her, keeping her close. “You looked like you could use a hug.”
She twisted her neck to gape at him. “You remember that?”