She unflinchingly met his stormy gray eyes until he turned away and began to pace in front of her desk. “I didn't think it was important. At first, I wasn't even sure if you knew or not.”
“After the Boston Pops concert, you knew it would matter to me but you said nothing!”
He stopped to face her again. “All right, I should have told you. But right now, we have a bigger problem. You're pregnant and we need to figure out what to do.”
His cavalier dismissal of her concerns about Donovan Construction fueled her temper. “We? I thought we agreed there would be no 'we.”'
He smiled grimly. “That was before I knew I was going to be a father.”
“Well, don't worry then. You're not,” she snapped.
“I fathered the child you're carrying!” His eyes narrowed. “Or were you lying?”
“I admit you made a small contribution. That's a far cry from saying you're going to be a father.”
“A small contribution?” he snarled as he advanced. “I'd say it was a major contribution to our mutual enjoyment.”
“I was raised by a single parent, and the baby and I will be just fine on our own.”
He halted, seemingly arrested by her words, and then stuffed his hands in his pockets. “So you know that a single parent can do just fine, but having two helps.”
She'd made him furious, and surprisingly she didn't get nearly as much satisfaction from that as she thought she would.
A muscle twitched in his jaw. “Your baby is a Whittaker. Are you sure you want to deny your child all the advantages that entails?”
She met his gaze steadily. “I wouldn't deny you access to the baby, if that's what you really want. But,” she added, “despite whatever you may believe about women, money isn't what I want. For myself or this baby.”
He frowned and seemed to choose his words carefully. “All things considered, whatever I believe about your motives isn't relevant anymore.”
''It's very relevant.” She shook her head. “Listen to yourself! You're talking about all the material things you could provide for this baby.”
He looked grim. “That's the customary male role. Breadwinner. Provider. Are you going to deny me that?”
“I'm not going to deny you anything important, Quentin. I'm not going to stop you from seeing your son or daughter. But I don't need anything else.” Except you, always you.
He looked like he was about to say something and then changed his mind. He nodded curtly, turned on his heel and stalked out.
Liz sagged into her chair and finally allowed herself to give in to the tears. She'd accomplished what she'd set out to do, which was tell him off and take a stand about being able to raise the baby on her own. So why did she feel so miserable?
* * *
That night Allison dropped by unannounced. In her typical no-nonsense style, her friend wasted no time in cutting to the chase. “Lizzie, when I mentioned you were pregnant, Quentin left his office like he had the devil nipping at his heels.”
“Allison, I—” Liz swallowed. It was going to be hard to broach this subject with her friend, no matter how long they'd known each other, no matter how many secrets they'd shared. They were in her living room, Allison having just dropped into an armchair while Liz took the couch.
“Have you talked to him?” Allison demanded. “I swear, if he's insulted you, I'll, I'll—” Allison paused for breath. “Well, I don't know what I'll do exactly, but it will be really painful for him.”
“Ally—”
“He can be overprotective, but that doesn't mean he needs to pull his boorish older brother routine with you.” Allison fumed. “I mean, he already has me for that! And besides, he has to respect you for deciding—”
“Ally, I'm having Quentin's baby.”
“What?” For once Allison looked flummoxed. “How…? Why…?”
“You missed 'where' and 'when,”' Liz said dryly.
“Now's not the time to joke around!” Allison's brows knitted. She tossed the cushion she'd been toying with on the coffee table and walked over the fireplace.
Liz had known this was going to be difficult. She just hoped Allison wouldn't be mad at her forever.
Right now, Allison looked a lot like her courtroom self.
“Okay, I think I just ran through several emotions there.” Allison blew a breath. “You're in luck because angry and hurt passed in about two seconds, and now I'm just happy.”
“Oh, Ally.” She should have known Allison would be loyal.
“How could you not have spilled the beans?” Ally held her hands out in exasperation. “You let me think… well, you know.”
Liz cleared her throat. She and Ally had had very few secrets from each other, but this one was a doozy. “You're Quentin's sister. You would have felt compelled to tell him about the baby, and knowing you, you would have browbeat him, too.” She gave a weak smile, then added, “Anyway, we had a terrible argument.”
Allison's eyes widened. “Ooh, I would have loved to see that! Quentin never gets out of control. Ruins the cool CEO persona.”
“I provoked him,” she admitted.
Allison chuckled and folded her arms across her chest. “Even better. Was he furious that you hadn't told him right away about the baby?”
“Not only that. I was angry. Did you know that Quentin owns Donovan Construction through a holding company?”
Allison's mouth dropped open, then she strode over to plop herself back down in the armchair, seeming to need the support. “Oh, my.”
“Oh, yes. A crucial fact he failed to mention even after he… we….” She felt her face heat.
“I see.”
“My father's ecstatic. I'm not only going to produce the long-awaited grandbaby, but I'll be bringing the family business back into the family. Quentin will carefully manage it, of course, until—” she crossed her fingers and let her voice drip with sarcasm “—with any luck, it passes to the wee grandson.”
“Agh.”
She nodded grimly. “Exactly.”
“What was Quentin's reaction?”
If only he'd had one! “He figures he should have told me about the company, but he didn't think it was important enough to mention at first.”
Allison rolled her eyes.
“He insists on accepting financial responsibility for the baby.”
“Naturally. Quentin's been accepting responsibility since he was in the cradle.”