Falling for Her Impossible Boss by Alison Roberts

Author:Alison Roberts
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub
Publisher: Harlequin
Published: 2012-10-04T21:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER EIGHT

‘YOU’RE what?’

Bella closed her eyes. Something was going wrong here. She didn’t know quite how she’d expected Kate to react to the news but she hadn’t pictured this. The way her aunt had gone as white as a sheet. To look as though…as though Bella had stabbed her in the heart or something.

‘I’m pregnant,’ she said for the second time. A whisper now.

‘Bella. How could you?’

They were standing in the kitchen of Kate’s house because she’d been cooking. Connor was running late, apparently. Bella was welcome to stay and have dinner with them both. Or she had been, until she’d summoned her courage and blurted out the frightening results of that damned test.

‘It was an accident.’

Kate’s snort was contemptuous. ‘So that makes everything all right? For God’s sake, Bella. You’re twenty-six. You know about contraception.’

‘It just…happened.’ Oh, God…that sounded so pathetic. How many times had Bella heard other people make an excuse like that and thought how stupid they were? No wonder Kate was looking so incredibly angry.

‘No, it didn’t,’ she snapped. ‘It was you being totally irresponsible. Again.’

Bella’s heart sank even further. She’d come here for help. She didn’t need a lecture. She needed advice. From the person she was closest to in the world. An aunt who was more like a sister. A best friend.

Something was bubbling away in a pot on the stove behind Kate. A pasta sauce, probably. The aroma of garlic and oregano should have been delicious but Bella was aware of faint nausea. The first physical symptoms of her pregnancy, or was it fear that she’d really gone too far this time and even Kate wasn’t going to be prepared to help her pick up the pieces of the latest disaster she’d created?

Kate seemed to have forgotten the pot. She moved her arms and it looked as if she was hugging herself. Instead of Bella. Yes…that’s the reaction she had expected. Desperately wanted.

‘Who’s the father?’ Kate’s voice was hollow. It was an automatic question. A way of filling a horrible silence.

‘Oliver Dawson.’

There was another silence as Kate absorbed what was clearly a shock.

‘Does he know?’

‘Of course not. I only found out myself five minutes ago. I’ve got no intention of telling him either.’

Kate’s breath came out in an incredulous huff. ‘You don’t think he might notice?’

‘He doesn’t have to.’ She could leave. Go somewhere else to have her baby. Her mother would help her if Kate wouldn’t but it was Kate she wanted to have on her side. To help her tell her mother, if nothing else.

Kate was staring at her now. She was actually shaking.

‘Don’t you dare… Don’t even think about it.’

‘About what?’ What was so wrong in keeping a father out of the picture? Millions of women did it. OK, it wasn’t ideal but it wasn’t a hanging offence, was it?

‘Getting rid of it,’ Kate said hoarsely. ‘You can’t. You mustn’t…’

It was Bella’s turn to stare now. She’d never seen Kate look like this. Ever. Her face seemed to be dissolving. Moving into lines of…grief?

‘It would haunt you for ever,’ Kate said.

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