Harper had no freaking clue what was safe or wasn’t in pregnancy.

  Falling back onto her bed and squeezing her eyes shut, she burst into tears.

  Chapter 10

  LOGAN TOOK A PULL OF his beer, standing in the kitchen of Raptor and Clarissa’s townhouse that night. Jackson “K-Bar” Clinefield and Ethan erupted into laughter beside him, and he realized he’d missed whatever they were talking about. His gaze shifted to the kitchen door. Troy and Caitlyn had just walked in, and he resisted the urge to go over and ask them about Harper.

  Maybe he should text her. Normally he didn’t sleep with a woman and just pull a disappearing act. The flowers on her doorstep that morning had thrown him for a loop though. It’s not like he’d expected her to become his girlfriend after that one scorching hot night, but he sure as shit hadn’t envisioned another man in the picture. Especially one who’d apparently dropped off flowers while he was standing shirtless in her kitchen.

  That didn’t stop him from feeling like an ass for the way they’d left things though. He’d basically implied they’d done nothing more than fuck, and then he’d bailed on her. He hadn’t mentioned how he’d loved the feeling of her slender body beneath his as they’d made love. How he’d loved holding her in his arms all night.

  They weren’t anything to one another, so what the hell was his issue with another man leaving roses at her door? Usually if he wanted a woman, he went after her. With Harper, he’d simply bailed.

  “What are you doing here alone, man?” Ethan asked with a grin. “Usually, you bring a date to these things.”

  Logan lifted a shoulder. “Maybe next time. I had beers with Ace and some of the guys last night.”

  “And?” Ethan asked.

  “And what? Did I meet anyone? The place was packed with beautiful women, but that was it. I went home alone, man,” he said with a chuckle.

  “Well hell. You don’t have some secret girlfriend that we don’t know about, do you?”

  Logan resisted the urge to groan. He wasn’t about to kiss and tell when it came to Harper, but shit. She was the last woman he’d been with. And although she’d been out of sight, she sure the hell hadn’t been out of his mind.

  He’d almost texted her when they’d gotten back from their op but had shoved his phone back into his pocket instead. He didn’t need that kind of complication right now. If he saw her again, maybe they could talk and clear the air.

  He shook his head. “Nope. No secret girlfriend.”

  Grayson and Hailey walked up to their group, hand-in-hand. You still couldn’t tell she was pregnant, but Grayson swore she complained that none of her clothes fit anymore. “Hey! Guys!” Grayson said, followed by a loud whoop as he clapped his hands together. “We’ve got an announcement to make.”

  “We already know you’re pregnant!” Troy ribbed him.

  Caitlyn lightly nudged him, telling him to shush.

  “Ha ha, jackass, very funny.” Grayson wrapped his arms around Hailey, pulling her close. She beamed as she looked at everyone, and Logan wondered what the big news could be. The room quieted down, and Grayson continued. “Hailey and I picked a wedding date. We’re getting married next month!”

  “Next month?” Clarissa asked in disbelief, immediately clasping her hands over her mouth at her outburst. “Sorry. I just thought we’d do a lot of wedding planning together.”

  “We’re keeping it small,” Hailey said. “We didn’t want to wait until summer. I’ll be huge by then, and I want to enjoy my wedding and not look like a whale in my dress.”

  “You wouldn’t look like a whale,” Clarissa said, the other women chiming in in agreement.

  Hailey flashed a grateful smile. “Well, let’s just say I don’t want a maternity wedding dress. Plus, you guys are getting married this summer. We’ll have a small wedding next month and be official by the time the baby arrives.”

  “I want to get Hailey and the baby on my military benefits anyway,” Grayson said. “It’s just easier if we’re legal before then. Neither of us wanted a long engagement anyway.” The other guys nodded. Everyone in the room knew the risks they took every time they deployed. No one in the Special Forces had an easy job. It was dangerous, despite the fact that they trained hard daily, and Logan didn’t blame his teammate for wanting to make sure his fiancée and future child were protected.

  “So when’s the date? We’ll want to let the CO know right away,” Raptor said.

  “Do you want me to design the wedding invitations?” Taryn asked.

  “Are you planning a big honeymoon? Somewhere better than Bagram,” Ethan joked. Ghost and Hailey had met there, and it felt like a damn lifetime ago to Logan.

  “God no,” Hailey murmured. “I’ve had enough of Afghanistan, beautiful as though it was.”

  Ethan’s girlfriend Kim shuddered beside him. She’d been kidnapped and held in the mountains, Ethan and the team rescuing her on a subsequent trip. He wrapped his arm around Kim’s shoulders and ducked down to brush his lips across her head.

  “Oh, I should introduce you to Harper,” Caitlyn said from across the room. “She’s an amazing baker. Her wedding cakes are phenomenal.”

  Suddenly everyone was talking at once. They’d celebrated when Ghost and his girl and gotten engaged, too, but this was a big step. They’d set an actual wedding date. Ghost would be the first man on their team to be married. Everyone was toasting them then, and a couple of the women already asking about wedding registries and other details.

  Logan took another pull of his beer, noticing Troy and Caitlyn both looking over at him. Shit. Had Harper told them they’d slept together? Not that it was anyone’s business, but he didn’t want his teammate pissed at him. It was more than possible she’d told her best friend though.

  Clutching his beer bottle, he crossed the kitchen towards them while the others continued congratulating Ghost and Hailey.

  “What’s up?” Logan asked as he walked over. “Both of you are looking at me like I grew another head or something. Is everything okay?”

  Caitlyn was wringing her hands nervously, and Troy clapped him on the back. “Have you talked to Harper recently?” he asked.

  Logan frowned. “No. I haven’t seen her since before our last mission. Why? Is something wrong?”

  Caitlyn and Troy exchanged a glance.

  “Hell. What’s going on? This isn’t about the slashed tire, is it? I never heard anything else from the police officer, and I assumed that was over and done with. Did something else happen?”

  “No, nothing like that,” Caitlyn said. “Although actually, that reminds me. Harper did have something kind of weird happen when I was in the hospital.”

  “What do you mean?” Troy asked, looking down at his girlfriend.

  “I almost forgot because I was so out of it the first day. Harper came to visit me after you left, and when she came back that evening to bring me a few things, she told me someone had smashed a bouquet of roses on her car in the hospital parking lot. She had no idea why or who could’ve done it. It’s not the same as a slashed tire but still strange.”

  The hair on the back of Logan’s neck stood up. The day they’d left was also the day he’d found roses on her doorstep. Flowers she hadn’t seemed to be expecting. Harper had said she wasn’t dating anyone. Was some ex-boyfriend of Harper’s bothering her? Logan had been annoyed another man had dropped off flowers at her door while he was inside, but smashing a bouquet of flowers on her car was fucked up. Plus, how had they known she was at the hospital? “Someone followed her to the hospital and smashed flowers on her car?” he asked, making sure he wasn’t misunderstanding.

  Caitlyn looked between the two men. “Yeah. Harper said someone had destroyed an entire bouquet of roses. There were smushed flowers and broken stems, and she said something about brushing them off the windshield of her car. I totally forgot because she never mentioned it again. We were so busy figuring out what had been damaged in my apartment and meeting with the police that the flowers seemed minor in comparison.”

  “Damn,” Troy said. His gaze flicked over to Logan before he looked down at Caitlyn again. “Has anything else weird happened to Harper since then?”

  “No, I don’t think so. She hasn’t mentioned anything at least. We both thought that was creepy, but it seemed to end there.”

  “Hell,” Logan said. “I should text her and make sure she’s okay.”

  “Yes,” Caitlyn immediately said.

  Logan raised his eyebrows as Caitlyn flushed. “It’s just, um, she wants to talk to you about something. Eventually. Not tonight,” she hastily added.

  Troy shook his head as Logan glanced over at him. “What’s going on?” Logan asked. “Is she okay?”

  “Yes. Sort of. She’s not hurt,” Caitlyn added.

  “Jesus. You two are freaking me out. What’s going on with Harper?”

  Troy took a pull of his own beer. “You should talk to her, man. Especially since I know you haven’t been in touch since you got back.” He cleared his throat. “Caitlyn talked to her earlier. There’s some stuff going on you’ll want to know about.”

  Logan looked at his buddy, lowering his voice. “Look, I’m not too sure that she wants to see me. We didn’t leave things on a great note. I’ll shoot her a text and make sure no one’s harassing her with the weird flowers and shit, but I doubt she wants to see me.”

  “She wants to see you,” Troy and Caitlyn both said at the same time.

  “Well hell. I guess I’ll stop over there.” He glanced at the rest of the party, where everyone was laughing and having a good time. The hell with this. He’d been thinking about Harper tonight, and if something was wrong, he’d rather find out sooner rather than later. Especially if some jackass was bothering her. She wasn’t his, but that didn’t stop the feeling of protectiveness coursing through him.

  Pulling out his phone, he thumbed a quick message to Harper.

  I’m stopping by.

  “All right. I’ll catch you two later. Caitlyn, someday we’ll have to actually hang out without my rushing off.”

  “Yeah. I’m sure we will.”

  His gaze flicked back to his buddy, but he couldn’t get a read on him. Mystified, Logan said goodbye to the others and headed out of Raptor’s townhouse. Rolling his shoulders, he once again began to feel tension coursing through him. What the hell was going on with Harper? And who the fuck was destroying flowers and leaving them on her car?

  If some asshole ex wouldn’t leave her alone, he’d have a word with him.

  He was confused about why Troy and Caitlyn had been acting so weird. It seemed odd they both knew something and wouldn’t just tell him what was up. He also felt guilty that he’d flipped over the flowers at Harper’s front door. If a guy had been bothering her, he shouldn’t have gotten upset about it. Thinking back, he never even really let her explain. He just acted like a dick because it had rubbed him the wrong way and then left.

  Climbing into his SUV, he muttered under his breath. He heard laughter coming from Raptor’s deck as he pulled his door shut, but he’d hang out with his buddies another time. This wasn’t the last party they’d have, and it sounded like everyone would be getting together soon anyway for Ghost and Hailey’s wedding.

  One way or another, he needed some answers tonight.

  TWENTY MINUTES LATER, Logan was pulling into Harper’s apartment complex. An eerie sense of déjà vu washed over him. He’d come here a couple of weeks ago after the team had rescued Caitlyn. This time he’d texted Harper before he’d shown up, and she’d sent him a simple, one-word response.

  Ok.

  He didn’t like that. Logan had expected her to tell him to go screw himself. But clearly, she wanted to see him. He had no idea what the hell was going on, but having his friends say he needed to talk to her left his gut churning.

  Something was wrong.

  Glancing around the parking lot as he walked in, his gaze shifted back to the building in front of him. Logan realized he could look right in Harper’s living room window. With the lights on inside her place, he could see her silhouette through the gauzy curtains.

  Logan clenched his fist. If some asshole was bothering her, he didn’t need to know when she was home. Did Harper even realize a person could essentially look right into her apartment? He didn’t know what the fuck the smashed-up roses were about, but sometimes small acts of violence could escalate. Were the flowers related to her slashed tire? Was it just a coincidence?

  If someone was harassing her, he would get to the bottom of it right now.

  Jogging up the steps to the second level, he knocked, cringing when it was louder than he’d expected. He was all keyed up, both from wanting to see Harper and from wanting to wring the neck of whoever had been bothering her.

  She opened the door, looking pale, wearing jogger sweatpants and an old tee shirt. Her dark hair was pulled back into a messy bun, and her eyes were red like she’d been crying. His stomach dropped. He wasn’t sure what he’d expected, but it wasn’t her looking like this.

  “Hey. Are you okay?” he asked, his gaze moving over her. Harper’s faint floral scent filled the air between them, and although she was nearly as tall as him, she still looked fragile. Soft and feminine. He didn’t like the fact that she’d been upset about something or the way it made his chest tighten to see her unhappy.

  “I was cleaning my apartment earlier,” she said. “Sorry it’s such a mess.” Logan nodded, his gaze sweeping past her. He saw a vacuum in the middle of her living room and some of her furniture askew, like she’d been cleaning behind it. Tissues littered the coffee table, and a bottle of water sat beside her phone. What the hell was going on?

  “It’s okay. I can move some of that back if you want me to. Can I come in?”

  She nodded shakily, her eyes starting to water.

  “What’s wrong? Are you sick?” he asked in a low voice, growing more concerned.

  “No,” she said, shutting the door behind him. She immediately locked it, turning back around to face him.

  “Has someone been bothering you? Caitlyn told me about the smashed flowers all over your car a couple of weeks ago. If some ex-boyfriend or someone has been harassing you—”

  “I’m pregnant,” she blurted out.

  “—I’ll make sure he never—Pregnant? What?” He stopped talking, staring down at her in disbelief. Her eyes were watery as she looked up at him, and he knew without a doubt that she was telling the truth. A single tear slid down her cheek, and he blinked, too stunned to move.

  “You’re the father,” she added needlessly.

  Logan still didn’t move a muscle. They’d had sex only once, and he’d worn a condom. He knew they didn’t provide one hundred percent protection, but hell. It was pretty fucking high. How the hell could she be pregnant?

  His jaw was still hanging open, and he couldn’t form a coherent thought. It was like his entire world had just stopped and then flipped completely on its side from that one little word. His life had been on a trajectory in one direction, and bam. Suddenly everything in his life had shifted. The course he’d been on before had simply vanished, and now he had a future with both Harper and a baby in it.

  Harper was still staring at him, and he swallowed, trying to gather his thoughts. Trying to will his brain to form any coherent statement at all. “Pregnant—hell. Are you sure? We used a condom. Maybe it’s just a false alarm.”

  She looked up at him, her lower lip trembling. “We did. And I realized today that my period was a few days late. At first, I thought it was just from stress or something. I’ve had a couple of weird things happening lately—”

  “Weird things? The flowers,” Logan said, his brain suddenly catching up with the conversation. “That’s fucked up that some asshole smashed them on your convertible. I thought the roses on your doorstep were from a guy you were seeing or something.”

  “No, I have no idea who sent them. Or smashed them. I haven’t even dated anyone in...well, months. I’m still a little pissed that you saw the roses at my door and basically stormed off that morning,” she said, her eyes narrowing. Logan didn’t like seeing Harper angry, but he’d much rather see that over her tears. He hated how damn helpless he felt knowing she was upset. He was a man of action. He solved problems and looked for solutions. He could calm her down if she was angry, but watching her cry was gut-wrenching.

  She crossed her arms, looking up at him. The tiny stud in her nose glinted in the lamp light. He didn’t miss the spark of anger in her eyes. She still looked gorgeous as hell though, all smooth skin, dark hair, and pink lips. He half wanted to lean down and kiss her, to taste all her sweetness. That wouldn’t exactly solve their current issue though.

  “You were pretty much a dick,” she said.

  “I was,” he immediately agreed.

  She opened and then shut her mouth, raising her eyebrows.

  “I can admit it,” he said, searching her eyes. “I shouldn’t have left like that. I didn’t have a claim on you. Hell, I never even asked you out. I had no say in who was sending you flowers or leaving them right outside your door. Although it burns me up that someone is bothering you.”

  She nodded, still seeming unsure if she believed him. “Well, that’s an entirely separate conversation. But to get back to the issue at hand,” she said, clearly growing flustered that he agreed with her. “I was late. I’m never late. My period is pretty much like clockwork. I ran out to the store today and bought a box of pregnancy tests. I figured I’d take a test to make myself feel better, and my period would probably start right afterward. I’d waste ten bucks or whatever for some peace of mind. Well, the joke was on me. I took one, and it was positive.”

 

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