Eleven

ELEVEN

Brock

This was a disaster.

She left so fast.

There was a part of me that wanted to go after her, to get her to stop and listen to me, so she'd understand.

But I could see the toll the entire situation was taking on Mia, and the last thing I wanted to do was upset her more than she already was.

Of all the days for Mia to mention the two of us having dinner together, it had to be today.

Talk about regret.

The timing of this couldn't have been any worse.

If only I had sealed the deal with Mia days ago. I'd seen her nearly every day over this past week when we both got home from work. I could have chosen any one of those opportunities to set something in stone, and I hadn't.

It was stupid.

And now, as I watched her make the final trek to her front door, I realized just how big of a mistake I made.

Because it became clear very quickly just how much my decision had impacted Mia. I didn't need her explanation to know what was going through her mind. She refused to listen to what I had to say, obviously believing the worst was the case.

I had a feeling Mia thought my hesitancy to have dinner with her tonight had to do with what I'd learned from her today. News of her pregnancy didn't bother me; it didn't make me not want to spend time with her or get to know her any less. I was still just as interested in her. Sure, it came as a shock, because there hadn't been any prior indication from her that she was pregnant, but that didn't mean I suddenly wasn't attracted to her.

I still thought she was fantastic, and I knew I had barely scratched the surface of who she was.

It took a tremendous amount of willpower not to go after her, but judging by how upset she already seemed to be, I didn't think that pushing it now would be a wise idea.

I had every intention of clearing the air, though, because the last thing I wanted was for Mia to believe the worst about why I'd declined her request to have dinner together tonight.

If it had been any other day, I wouldn't have hesitated to cancel my plans. Unfortunately, tonight was not a night I could simply reschedule. It was my mom's birthday, and my brother and I were taking her out—along with Izzy—to celebrate. This dinner had sort of become a tradition for us once we were old enough to make it happen for her.

My parents had divorced when Chris and I were still kids—I was thirteen at the time. While I could look back at it now and realize that everyone did the very best they could at the time, especially given the circumstances, the reality was that, as a teenager, I hated not having my parents living together. I hated being a teen who didn't have his dad around all the time and needing to split time between both homes. I hated my family being broken apart.

Once I was old enough to drive, things got a little bit better. While most of our time had been spent with our mom, if Chris or I wanted extra time with our dad, she didn't stop me from taking the car and driving us to his place for a few hours.

And now that we were all grown and on our own, we made the time during special occasions to get together with each of them. It made the holiday season a little chaotic, but I still held out hope that one day we'd all be able to be together. My mom and dad had done a good job of not pitting Chris and I against the other parent, so I believed I had a reason to be optimistic. Izzy had certainly softened both of them in recent years, and they'd managed to make it to and through her birthday parties without incident.

The moment Mia disappeared behind her door, I stepped back into my house and closed my own door. For the next little while, I fought the urge to run after her immediately. I did things I'd been meaning to do around the house just to keep myself occupied.

And when it was time, I got myself ready for dinner with my family.

By the time I hopped into my truck to head to the restaurant, I felt no better about the situation with Mia. As I backed out of my driveway, I realized it was probably a mistake to not have immediately cleared things up with her. The best thing to do might have been to give her an hour, allow her to pull herself together, and head over to explain myself.

I didn't.

And if I attempted to do it now, I was going to be late.

So, I had no choice but to accept the wave of regret that washed over me. When it came to what I wanted, especially with Mia, I needed to make better choices.

For now, for tonight, I'd focus on my family and the celebration I was having with them.

Tomorrow, I was going to fix things with Mia.

"Did you see Mia today?"

I'd just barely gotten myself seated at the dinner table with my family after wishing my mother a happy birthday when my niece took over leading the discussion.

Her eyes were pinned on mine. "What?"

"Did you see Mia today?"

"Mia? Who's Mia?" my mom asked.

"She's Uncle Brock's new neighbor, Nana. And she's so pretty and fun."

Suddenly, I had three sets of eyes on me—Izzy's were curious, my mom's were questioning, and my brother's were amused. He didn't hesitate to share more details to make the situation worse. "Izzy's been talking about Mia nonstop since I picked her up from your house last weekend. She keeps asking when she can come back for a visit. I thought the interest would die down within a day or so, but it hasn't been that way at all."

I let out a sigh of disappointment at the thought of what Mia was doing now, about how upset she'd been today. Not wanting to have the conversation enter negative territory, I settled my attention on my niece and smiled reassuringly. "I did see her today. In fact, guess what she did?"

Izzy's eyes widened as she leaned in excitedly. "What?"

"She baked cookies this morning and brought some over for me to try," I shared.

I didn't think it was smart or necessary to point out that Mia had brought the entire batch over for me. My mom and Chris would have read more into that at this point, and the only way to clear it up would be to explain the reason for that in front of Izzy. It would have been one thing for me to tell my brother about Mia's pregnancy in confidence, but to expect Izzy to keep things private was an unreasonable expectation for an innocent five-year-old.

Clearly believing there was more to the story I wasn't sharing, my mom asked, "Did you help her with something? Is that why she brought you cookies?"

I shrugged. "I mean, I haven't done anything major recently. I helped her with snow removal a few times over the winter. And she actually needed to borrow two eggs from me this morning to make the cookies. I guess that was a reason she felt compelled to share."

"How does Izzy know her?" she pressed.

I wanted to laugh.

Moms. They were like private investigators.

Even when Chris and I were kids, my mom always knew when someone wasn't being entirely truthful or when something happened that she should know about. We'd get home from school, and she'd ask about something specific that happened while we were there. We never understood how she knew, and when we asked her, she insisted that it was a superpower of being a mom. I was beginning to think she hadn't been lying.

"Mia was out for a walk in the neighborhood last Saturday, and she happened to be heading back to her house when Izzy and I were outside," I explained. "I introduced them, and Izzy invited Mia to have lunch with us that afternoon. That's all. It was entirely innocent."

"What does innocent mean, Daddy?" Izzy chimed in.

"That word has a few different meanings, princess, but Uncle Brock just means that your lunch together with Mia was simple and fun," Chris explained.

"Oh," Izzy replied as she nodded slowly with understanding. As quickly as she took that in, she turned her attention to my mom and said, "Nana, I can't wait for you to open your presents. Daddy got you a special one at the store, but I also have one that I made for you."

My mom's face lit up. "You know that one is going to be my favorite, right?"

I let out a sigh of relief, because from that point forward, the conversation had shifted away from the discussion about Mia and on to other topics. And while Izzy did a great job of keeping everyone entertained and distracted with her random thoughts and discussions, with one look at my brother, I knew the conversation about Mia was far from over.

The four of us enjoyed a nice dinner together, followed by dessert. Of course, we also showered my mom with some gifts before the evening was over and helped her carry them all to her car when we left the restaurant.

Chris and I were parked closer together on the other side of the lot, so we took off in that direction with Izzy after our mom thanked us for a wonderful birthday.

We got to my brother's car first, and after I said goodbye to Izzy and lifted her into the backseat to make sure she was safely buckled while Chris started the car, I got the interrogation I'd been expecting.

Chris had turned on a movie in the car for Izzy and closed the door as we stood beside it. Then he said one word to me. "Cookies?"

I gave him a nod.

"Did something happen between the two of you since last Saturday that would prompt the delivery of cookies to you today?" he pressed.

Shaking my head, I answered, "No."

He narrowed his eyes. "So, you expect me to believe she shared these for no reason?"

"She's pregnant," I blurted.

"What?"

"Mia woke up this morning and was craving lemon cookies," I started. I went on to explain how and why she didn't have eggs and needed them, but also realized after she made the cookies that she didn't want to eat them. Of course, I shared how she hadn't wanted to throw them out, so she thought she'd see if I wanted them, and in the midst of our conversation, she revealed she was pregnant.

"Why didn't she keep the cookies for the dickhead boyfriend?" Chris questioned me.

"Because he left her on Christmas Eve when she shared the news about the pregnancy."

"Are you serious?"

I nodded.

"Wow, that's horrible."

"I know. And the worst part is that while she was at my place earlier today, she asked me if I wanted to have dinner together tonight. Obviously, I couldn't because we had this planned, but before I could explain the specifics, she got the wrong impression. Or, I think she did."

"What do you mean?"

"Before she left my house last week, we talked about getting together for dinner one night, but we hadn't managed to plan that yet. So, when she asked me about getting together for dinner tonight and I had to decline, I think she believed it was because of this news about the pregnancy, because she excused herself so quickly and was out of the house in a flash," I explained.

He gave me a nod of understanding. "Did you go over and set the record straight with her?"

"No. She was upset, and I didn't want to make it worse."

Chris shot me a look that indicated he believed I'd made a grave mistake. "I'm thinking that unless this pregnancy news changes how you feel about getting to know her better, the sooner you explain what happened tonight, the better."

"Yeah, I've been thinking the same thing all night," I confessed.

Following a beat of silence, Chris asked, "What's the deal with the ex? Has he been around?"

I shook my head and shrugged. "I don't think so, but I don't know for sure."

Clapping a hand on my shoulder, he said, "If you like her, I think it's important you continue to show her that you're a good guy. This way, if the ex does come around, she knows what the difference is."

My lips twitched. "You know I'm the older brother here, right?"

"I can't help that I'm the wiser one," Chris teased.

I rolled my eyes and said, "I've got to go."

"See you later, Brock. Good luck."

"Thanks, Chris. I'll talk to you later." I knocked on the back window, and Izzy turned to look at me. Waving, I said, "Goodnight, buttercup."

She waved back. "Goodnight, Uncle Brock."

With that, I took off toward my truck, hopped in, and drove home.

My hand was balled into a loose fist as I knocked on the door.

I wondered if I knew I'd been lying to myself when I said I'd wait until tomorrow to rectify the situation with Mia.

In a way, I guess I knew the conversation tonight at dinner would eventually lead to her, if for no other reason than the fact that Izzy would bring her up.

But on the way home, I thought about the discussion I had with my brother in the parking lot. Though I wouldn't admit this to him for fear of inflating his ego, he was right.

The sooner I explained why I couldn't have dinner with her tonight, the better.

So, considering it wasn't that late, I decided it was time to address it immediately. I pulled into my driveway and parked my truck in the garage before marching right over to Mia's place.

There was no turning back.

I heard the locks on the door go, and a moment later, when Mia was standing in front of me, I started questioning myself.

Maybe I should have given this a bit more thought.

Because Mia was dressed in the sexiest thing I'd ever seen. Or maybe it wasn't even what she was wearing that was sexy. Maybe it was her.

Evidently, she'd gotten herself ready for bed. She was standing in front of me wearing what could only be described as a romantic midnight blue nightgown that clung to her body in all the right places.

It looked soft and comfortable, stopped just a few inches shy of her knees, and had a V-neckline that showed off her cleavage and ample breasts. The evidence of her pregnancy was as prominent as ever with the way the material molded to her body.

My hands balled into tight fists as I fought the urge to reach out and touch her. The only thing that helped marginally was the matching robe she had pulled on over it, but considering it was just a few inches longer and hadn't been tied shut, I was fighting a losing battle.

Fortunately, Mia spoke and forced my attention away from her beautiful body. "Brock? What are you doing here?"

"I—" I stopped to clear my throat. "I wanted to come over to clear the air."

"Pardon?"

"I'm sorry about earlier today," I said. "I get the feeling you got the wrong impression about my response to you asking if we could have dinner together tonight."

"Brock, it's really okay if you're not interested," Mia insisted. "Honestly, I understand."

Shaking my head, I insisted, "That's just it, Mia. I am interested. It's just that my mom's birthday was today, and we planned to take her out for dinner."

Her eyes widened, something changing in her expression. It was like hope had bloomed inside of her. "You had dinner plans for your mom's birthday tonight?"

"Yes. I tried to tell you earlier, but you ran out of my house so fast that I couldn't. And I realize now I probably should have come over sooner, but I didn't want to upset you more than I could see you already were. In fact, I was just going to come over tomorrow morning, but I thought on it, and I didn't think either one of us should go to bed tonight without me making it clear where I stood."

Mia's throat moved as she swallowed hard. "Where do you stand?"

I didn't hesitate to tell her the truth. "The same place I did a week ago. I'd love to have dinner with you. And if you're not busy tomorrow night, I'd like to invite you over to do that."

Shock and awe were written all over her face. But she offered a slow nod in return as she said, "I'd love to have dinner with you, too. Tomorrow evening works perfect for me."

I smiled at her. "I'll have dinner ready by six."

"Six is perfect."

Unable to resist the urge, my eyes dropped down and raked over her body once more. When they returned to her face, that now had a hint of crimson in her cheeks, I said, "Goodnight, Mia."

She nervously bit her lip before a small smile appeared. "Goodnight, Brock."

With that, I turned and walked away.

And though I'd expected I would sleep better, knowing Mia understood I wasn't turning her down, I found I still had some trouble sleeping.

Because every time I closed my eyes, I couldn't stop envisioning her in that nightgown.