Chapter 28

I rested my hands in my lap and looked over the table at Oliver. He looked tired. More so than usual. He hadn"t shaved in several days, leaving his chin covered in a mess of brown and silver stubble. His hair was slightly longer and messy, as though he hadn"t brushed it in a couple of days.

He looked like a different man from the professional, put together Oliver I was used to. Sexier, if I was honest with myself.

I arched one brow and waited for him to speak. No way in fuck was I making this easy on him.

He scrubbed a hand over his face. "I"m sorry you feel the way you do about what I did. My intention wasn"t to upset you. The opposite, in fact. I did what I did because I love you. I saw the way you looked at Cat"s belly. I saw the longing in your eyes. You said you weren"t ready to have a baby, but I think otherwise."

"Obviously," I said simply. "Who gave you the right to make that decision?"

"Me," he said. "I took it upon myself to make that choice. I did what I did with your birth control. I brought Toby and Cole in on everything. They would have been involved either way, but I decided to open the line of communication and let them in."

I made a vague sound in the back of my throat. "But you decided not to let me in. That seems like somewhat of an oversight." That might be the understatement of the year.

He propped his elbows on the table and steepled his fingers. "It wasn"t an oversight. I wanted to give you a gift. And I did. How could I regret helping the child growing inside you to exist?"

I leaned forward and propped my own elbows on the table. "Are you listening to yourself? Do you know how fucked up that sounds?"

"I know it"s an unorthodox present, but I thought you"d like it better than another bunch of flowers. Anyone can buy you those. They sit in a vase for a few days, then they die. Instead, you get a living gift. One which will bring you so much joy. You"re going to be the most amazing mother."

I couldn"t decide what was more fucked up, his reasoning or the fact it actually made sense. I must be losing my mind. Now I got used to the idea, I was looking forward to meeting my baby. I didn"t care if it was a boy or a girl, I"d teach them how to be the best, most badass versions of themselves they could be. Was what he did so wrong?

Apart from the fact it was illegal.

Regardless of everything, I had no plans to tell the police. Oliver was an incredible, caring doctor and Opal Springs needed him. But there was something I needed to know.

"Have you ever messed with anyone else"s medicine?" I asked.

He looked at me directly, his blue eyes intense. "Never. Never before and not again. I"ll swear on anything you want."

"What if I forgave you and you decided I wanted another baby?" I asked. "Would you do it again then?"

He hesitated.

"That was what I thought." I adjusted my glasses and shook my head. "You can"t go around deciding things like that on behalf of someone else. You wouldn"t do something like that to Cat."

"I wouldn"t have to," Oliver said. "If they thought she wanted another baby, her boyfriends would deal with it."

I couldn"t deny the accuracy of that, but they"d probably talk her into it, not pull tricks like Oliver did.

"Can I ask you something?" I asked.

"Anything," he said earnestly. The heels of his hands pressed together, he spread his fingers apart. "I"m an open book."

He was anything but that, but I decided not to bring that up right now.

"You said you don"t regret what you did, but do you really care that this baby might not be yours?" I didn"t know why that mattered, but it did.

"In a way I do," he said slowly. "I love the idea of my child growing inside you. But I"m going to love the baby regardless. As long as you"re the mother, then I don"t care who the father is." He reached over and curled his fingers around mine. "I love you, Marley-Jane. You"re the most important person in the world to me. Everything and everyone else is a distant second at best."

"Even—" I started to say.

"So it"s true." Cat stopped beside the table and looked down at us. "You are seeing each other."

I pulled my hand from his and sat back. "Not necessarily," I said. "Right now, we"re having a conversation. Nothing more than that. You"re welcome to join us if you want."

She looked like she might refuse, but Easton strode up behind her and placed a hand on the back of her neck.

"I think it"s a good idea," he said. "You don"t hold grudges. Why hold one against your father and Marley?"

"What Easton said," I said brightly. "Please." I gestured towards the two empty chairs at the table.

Reluctantly, Cat let Easton pull out a chair and help her down into it. He sat down beside her, close enough that their shoulders were almost touching. No one would ever doubt his feelings for her. They were good together.

"How are you feeling?" Oliver asked. Always the doctor and father. His expression had softened, like it always did when he spoke to his daughter. No one could doubt his love for her either.

I have to confess, some of my anger towards him melted away. He did what he did out of love, even if it was fucked up.

"Tired," Cat said. "Looking forward to getting this bowling ball out of my stomach." She rested her hands on her round bump.

"You"ve never been so beautiful," Easton said. He looked at her like he didn"t know whether to fuck her or gobble her up. Clearly he liked seeing her so pregnant.

"I"ve never felt more like a whale," she said. She sighed heavily, but she was absolutely gorgeous. Her red hair was lush and thick, falling to her shoulders in waves.

"Easton is right, you're beautiful," I said. "Glowing."

"Easton is always right," Easton said with a grin.

"So humble too," I teased. "It must be a thing with Opal Springs men. Especially the Ghouls."

"You"re not wrong," Cat said. "Try living with three of them." She rolled her eyes, but followed that with an affectionate glance toward Easton.

"Ignore her," Easton said. "She loves every minute of it." He seemed absolutely certain of that. He"d never been short on confidence, even when he was a carpenter, not a professional winger. He was always certain the Ghouls would turn pro. If they hadn"t, he would have signed with a team in another city. He had talent to spare and he knew it.

"Keep telling yourself that," she teased.

He kissed her cheek and got back to his feet. "I"ll go and order us some lunch." He disappeared off to the front of the coffee shop.

Cat"s gaze lingered on his ass until it was hidden behind a handful of people and tables.

She looked toward me, then to Oliver. "I don"t know what to think. Marley told me what you did. I wish I could say I"m surprised. You always did think you knew better than everyone else."

"I"m a father and a doctor, it"s my job to know better than anyone else," Oliver said.

He couldn"t have looked any more smug if he tried. And there I was, thinking hockey players had big egos. Now I thought about it, they were as bad as each other.

Unfortunately for me, that was part of their attraction. They were confident to the point of arrogance, but they never gave up on what they wanted.

"There"s that Opal Springs humility," I said, addressing the comment directly to Cat.

"I noticed that," she said with a smirk and a nod. "I thought things were bad in Melbourne. I think these guys might be a hundred times worse, they just hide it better."

"That sounds accurate," I said. After a moment and a soft sigh, I said, "I"m sorry about everything. We should have told you what was going on from the start. It might have been easier if we had."

She smiled softly and cocked her head a couple of degrees. "Probably not," she said. "It was always going to be weird to think of my father and any of my friends doing…you know."

"Having sex?" Oliver said helpfully.

Cat wrinkled her nose. "Please, never, ever say that again. Give me some time to get used to the idea of you going out on dates and spending time together. The rest of it is nothing I need to know. If there is anything to know." She looked back and forth between us again.

"That"s up to Marley," Oliver said.

"Now you leave something up to me," I said. "I need some time to think about everything. I can"t just jump right into forgiving you and trusting you again."

"Will you at least agree to come back and work for me?" He looked pained. "I have a temporary office manager, but she"s not you. She doesn"t understand the way I like things done."

I only had to hesitate for a few moments before I nodded. I liked my job. Whatever happened between Oliver and I, I enjoyed working in the surgery.

"I might need a pay raise before I can be convinced." I couldn"t resist trying.

"It"s all yours," he said. "We"ll discuss exactly how much later." He looked as though if I insisted on double, he"d agreed to it. Since that would mean the patients had to pay more money, I wouldn"t ask for that, but a little bit wouldn"t hurt.

"Deal," I said. "I"ll start back on Monday morning."

He looked relieved. "Thank you. I"ve been lost without you." He was clearly referring to more than just the surgery, like he might unravel if I kept him at arm's length much longer.

"Of course you have," I said. "I"m amazing." He was also very particular about the way he liked the surgery run.

When I first started working for him, it took me weeks to figure everything out, so he didn"t have to keep rearranging things and watching over everything I did. Eventually, we had the place running like clockwork. I"d gotten good at anticipating all of his needs.

And then there was the fact I hated the idea of another woman working closely with him. Even after everything, I couldn"t stop the pang of jealousy and possessiveness that passed through me. He wouldn"t cheat, but the idea of another woman seeing him the way I did made me want to scratch her eyes out.

"It isn"t just the men of Opal Springs who are humble," Cat teased. "If you ever get sick of working for my father, you can come and work for me. I"m thinking of starting my own surgery after the baby is born."

"Does that mean you don"t hate me anymore?" I asked.

"I never hated you," she said. "I"m sorry I was nasty to you. I was just surprised, that was all." She leaned over to give me an awkward hug.

"Hopefully there"s no more surprises like that in the works." We both looked at Oliver meaningfully.

He raised his hands. "If there are, I"m not aware of them. Which doesn"t mean there aren"t."

I shook my head and groaned. "Figures." Hopefully there weren"t any more bad surprises at least. I"d had more than enough of those to last a lifetime.

I barely finished that thought when Cole approached the table.

"Toby needs to see us. All three of us."