Erik paused, his eyes wide as he looked around the room. “I manhandled you?”

“Yup, but don’t worry. You didn’t hurt me.”

He let out the breath he must have been holding as he nodded. “Oh thank God,” he murmured as he ran his hand down his face. “I had a lot to drink and then Phillip pissed me off.”

“Oh?”

“Yeah, he’s an ass**le,” he said with a shake of his head. “Anyway, sorry about that. Was I mean?”

“No, not at all.”

“Okay, good,” he said. Still rubbing his face, he peeked at her through his fingers. “I’ve been looking for that shirt.”

Piper smiled. “According to you, you left it at my house for a reason.”

He looked away quickly before saying, “I poked your stomach?”

She laughed as she rolled her eyes. She didn’t understand why he felt the need to hide things from her, but whatever.

“Yup, and asked if the baby was yours again.” He shook his head, and she couldn’t help but grin. “It’s no big deal, Erik, don’t stress over it.”

“I’m really sorry. It will never happen again.”

“Like I said, I know how to handle you if you get out of control.”

He laughed. “How so? Are you a ninja, too?”

“No, but I did take self-defense classes in New York, so I know how to protect myself.”

“Of course you do. I swear you’re a jack-of-all-trades,” he said as he moved off the bed. He made his way to the bathroom and Piper laughed as she looked down at her Kindle. She liked that he thought she could do a lot of things. Usually guys thought she was flighty, not knowing what she wanted. Even her family thought that much of the time.

When he came out of the bathroom, he stood in only a pair of sport shorts. The same ones that didn’t fit him and hung extremely low on his hips. He was scratching his lower belly as he looked over at her.

“Why would I poke your stomach? That’s so weird.”

Piper shrugged her shoulders. “I think maybe you were trying to feel the baby move because you sat there for a good minute, staring at my belly.”

“Hmm, I guess I would do that.”

She would have never thought that he would want to feel her belly or the baby move. He hadn’t shown any interest until now. Did she want him to touch it? Last night, she really didn’t have a choice, he kind of just took control, but now she could offer him that chance.

Maybe if he touched her belly he’d feel more a part of things, more connected. It wasn’t always about what she wanted, which was him and her together; it was about the baby. She wanted her baby to have a daddy. She wanted her baby to have Erik.

So with a smile she asked, “You would?”

He shrugged his shoulders, his face warming with color while he looked everywhere but at her. He was embarrassed and that was the very first time she had ever seen him like that. “Sure, I’m curious, like any man would be.”

She looked down at her growing baby. “Would you like to feel it? Now, I mean?”

“Sure, I guess.”

But he didn’t move.

Erik rubbed his foot along his ankle, while Piper sat, waiting for him to come over to her. When she realized that he wasn’t going to make the move, she got up and made her way to him. When she was in front of him, he was still looking down and not at her. She rolled her eyes and lifted her shirt, her little bump only inches from him. He then looked up at her.

“I don’t know if the baby will move, but we’ll see,” she said, reaching for his hands. He resisted at first, but soon relaxed, letting her take his hands and resting them on her abdomen. His hands were big, warm, and callused; they also woke up every dirty bone in Piper’s body.

Remembering she was supposed to be building a moment between father and child, she moved his hands along the spots where the baby usually kicked.

“It’s hard.”

She laughed. “There is a person in there.”

Erik nodded while his eyes never left her belly. After a few more minutes of no luck, he dropped his hands. “It’s probably like ‘who the hell is touching my home?’ ”

Piper giggled. “Maybe, or it’s probably sleeping.”

“Yeah,” he said as he walked past her. Suddenly the baby kicked, and Piper whipped around, grabbing Erik’s arm to stop him. “What?” he asked as she took his hand and placed it where she felt the baby move. When the baby kicked again, Piper watched as the most beautiful smile spread across Erik’s gorgeous face. He looked up at her, bright with excitement, but then, all of a sudden, it disappeared. As if he was hiding it.

“Cool,” he muttered, and then he just walked away. She didn’t understand. He wanted to feel and the baby was still kicking! Why was he freezing up on her? What did she do?

Hoping to bring him back in, she said, “Our appointment for the ultrasound, to find out what we are having, is in two weeks, on the twenty-second.”

She watched as he nodded before he said, “Okay, I’ll be there.”

“Promise?”

He looked over his shoulder and for a second she thought she saw the guy she had been with for the last two days. He shot her a small smile and nodded as he said, “Yeah, I promise.”

* * *

Two weeks later, Piper was trying her hardest not to think Erik had broken his promise to her.

She sat in the middle of her ob-gyn’s office with her phone in her hand and her other hand tapping her knee. She didn’t know what was going on. He said he was going to be there; he promised. She had even reminded him of the appointment yesterday as she made dinner. He was playing his damn games, but he nodded his head and said he would be there. It didn’t make any freaking sense.