First Comes Baby...: The Loner's Guarded Heart by Michelle Douglas Page A

grew. ‘Sure.’ For heaven’s sake, they were having a baby together. How much more personal could it get?
    ‘You really mean to stay in Fingal Bay for the next six weeks?’
    ‘Yes.’
    She straightened. ‘Then I want to ask if you have enough money to see you through till then. Money isn’t a problem for me, and if you need a loan...’ She trailed off, swallowing. ‘I’ve offended you, haven’t I?’
    He had to move away to sit on a nearby bench. Meg thought him some kind of freeloading loser? His stomach churned. He pinched the bridge of his nose. No wonder she questioned his ability to be any kind of decent father to their child.
    ‘I’m not casting a slur on your life or your masculinity,’ she mumbled, sitting beside him, ‘but you live in the moment and go wherever the wind blows you. Financial security has never been important to you. Owning things has never been important to you.’
    He lifted his head to survey the house behind her. ‘And they are to you?’ It wasn’t the image he had of her in his mind. But her image of him was skewed. It was just possible they had each other completely wrong.
    After all, how much time had they really spent in each other’s company these last five to seven years?
    She gave a tiny smile and an equally tiny shrug. ‘With a baby on the way, financial security has become very important to me.’
    ‘Is that why you let your father gift you this house?’
    ‘No.’
    ‘Then why?’ He turned to face her more fully. ‘I’d have thought you’d hate this place.’ The same way he hated it.
    She studied him for a long moment. ‘Not all the associations are bad. This is where my mother came as a new bride. This is where I met my best friend.’
    Him.
    ‘Those memories are good. And look.’ She grabbed his hand and tugged him around the side of the house to the front patio. ‘Look at that view.’
    She dropped his hand and a part of him wished she hadn’t. The crazy mixed-up, jet lagged part.
    ‘This has to be one of the most beautiful places in the world. Why wouldn’t I want to wake up to that every day?’
    He stared at the view.
    ‘Besides, Fingal Bay is a nice little community. I think it’s a great place to raise a child.’
    He stared out at the view—at the roofs of the houses on the street below and the curving bay just beyond. The stretch of sand bordering the bay and leading out to the island gleamed gold in the sun. The water sparkled a magical green-blue. He stared at the boats on the water, listened to the cries of the seagulls, the laughter of children, and tried to see it all objectively.
    He couldn’t. Every rock and curve and bend was imbued with his childhood.
    But...
    He’d travelled all around the world and Meg was right. The picturesque bay in front of him rivalled any other sight he’d seen.
    He turned to her. ‘It’s as simple as that? This is where you want to live so you accepted this house as a gift?’
    A sigh whispered out of her, mingling with the sounds of the waves whooshing up onto the sand. ‘It’s a whole lot more complicated than that. It was as if...as if my father needed to give me this house.’
    He leant towards her. ‘Needed to?’
    She shrugged, her teeth gnawing on her bottom teeth. ‘I haven’t got to the bottom of that yet, but...’
    She gazed up at him, her hazel eyes steady and resolute, her chin at an angle, as if daring him to challenge her.
    ‘I didn’t have the heart to refuse him.’
    ‘The same way you’re hoping I won’t refuse Elsie.’
    ‘That’s between you and her.’
    ‘Don’t you hold even the slightest grudge, Meg?’
    ‘Don’t you think it’s time you let yours go?’
    He swung away. Brilliant. Not only did she think him financially unsound, but she thought him irresponsible and immature on top of it.
    At least he could answer one of those charges. ‘Early in my working life I set up a financial security blanket, so to speak.’ He’d invested in real estate. Quite a bit of