Tied To You by Kit Tunstall, Kit Kyndall Read Free Book Online Page B

reality sank in.
    I was going to be a father, Gabriella was going to be its mother. I barely knew her, and that was a mutual situation, but I had a good feeling she would be an excellent mother for our child. I didn’t have such a good feeling about my family’s reaction to her.
    Annika would be well within her rights to want nothing to do with anything even remotely touching the Chastain family, and my mother was bound to hate her too. Not just because she was a Chastain, but also because she was a white girl working as a receptionist.
    It suddenly struck me as absurdly funny in a dark way that Gabriella’s stepfather and my mother actually had something in common. They were both against the idea of dating or marrying outside of one’s race, and my mother was further hung up on the need for someone to be professional and successful.
    She would regard Gabriella’s bachelor’s degree as worth little more than a high school diploma. In my mother’s view, she wouldn’t garner respect with anything less than a Master’s degree in her chosen field or an M.B.A. That she was working at the firm in one of the lowest-paid positions requiring the least education and experience would certainly appall my mother.
    I braced myself for the fight ahead, deciding I would focus on Mother and Annika later, after I had won over Gabriella. She had to be my primary focus, and I had to get her to trust me if I wanted to be part of my child’s life.
    “Would you like to have dinner tonight?”
    She shook her head. “No.”
    I frowned at her. “Do you have plans? Can they be changed? I think us getting to know each other is very important, don’t you?” Since she was being so stubborn and wouldn’t just let me do the right thing and marry her, I was going to have to do it her way. That meant dating before I convinced her to take my ring and my name, and if she was going to be resistant to spending time together, it seemed like a doomed endeavor.
    “It’s not that. I don’t eat dinner.”
    I scowled at her. “You’re pregnant. That’s completely irresponsible.”
    Gabriella glared at me, and I probably deserved it, but I was already feeling protective of her and the baby. “I don’t eat dinner because I get the worst nausea that time of day. I usually spend from six to nine p.m. throwing up, especially if I’ve eaten anything in the few hours before it. I can generally have a snack around eleven p.m., and sometimes I can eat a good breakfast, but usually this time of day is the only time I can really eat. Now, if you want to come over and watch a movie or something, we can do that, but do not bring food.”
    I nodded. “I’m sorry. I wasn’t trying to boss you around or criticize you.”
    She gave me a look that was full of skepticism, but was gracious enough to let it slide. “Are there any eggrolls left?”
    I looked at the box where I had been saving one out of the six that had come with the order. With a small sigh I hoped she didn’t hear, I passed it over. Eggrolls were my favorite, but she clearly needed it more, especially if this was the only time of day she could really eat.
    It seemed unusual to me, and I made a mental note to arrange her for her to see a specialist. She was seeing a midwife? Wasn’t that what she had said? We weren’t living in the dark ages, so perhaps it was an insurance issue. I’d have to handle that as well, making sure she was on my insurance as soon as she agreed to marry me. In the meantime, maybe I could arrange to beef up her benefits with HR.
    “You’ve gone quiet.” She gave me an unreadable look as she crunched into the last egg roll, somehow making it look sexy.
    I just smiled at her, not wanting to unveil my surprise yet. Okay, not wanting to deal with the fallout, because I had a feeling she was going to be stubborn about everything, and she probably wouldn’t appreciate me meddling with her insurance benefits just so she could see a real doctor. “I guess I’m still