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could kill the voice in her head that demanded justification for being deceitful. Well, not really deceitful, because she wasn’t pregnant yet as far as she knew. Okay, maybe a little deceit was involved, because she’d reassured him she had the birth control covered. Which she did. Just not the way he’d assumed.
    Maggie sat up and looked around the bedroom. Even empty, it was beautiful. The wall of windows across the front showcased the same spectacular view of the valley and mountains she’d seen from the main floor. Fluffy clouds drifted over the blue sky, creating erratic shadows across the grasslands below. The house should be decorated in natural tones that reflected the colors outside. Rust-brown, a muted blue mixed with various shades of green. The longer she stared out the window, the more colors she noticed.
    She blew out her breath and crawled to her feet. There was no graceful way of getting up off a mattress on the floor. JD had taken Spartan to a whole new level. And, of course, she had to wonder why, even though she didn’t want to know too much about him. She turned on the hot water in the shower and gratefully stepped in under the spray. The tiled shower was huge, big enough for two people to take a shower together. And wasn’t that much more pleasurable to think about than why JD preferred living in his brother’s house rather than his own? Or trying to decide if she was morally obligated to tell him she was trying to get pregnant?
    Maybe she didn’t have a problem. If a man like JD wanted to have children, he could have any woman he wanted. He obviously didn’t want a family. She closed her eyes, rested her head against the tiles. From the glimpses she’d seen of his character, she knew he’d make a wonderful father.
    She’d picked the wrong cowboy. It was supposed to be a wham, bam, thank you ma’am encounter. But her first attempt had derailed already. She liked JD. Hell, she could be crazy about him if she let herself. Which she wouldn’t. She didn’t want a husband. She didn’t want a boyfriend. She didn’t even want a lover.
    She wanted a baby.

Claire looked up at her over the top of her reading glasses and harrumphed deep in her throat, then went back to the spreadsheets laid out on the kitchen table. The pine table was a far cry from the antique desk Claire had in her office in Chicago.
    Men. They sure messed with your life.
    Maggie dropped into the chair on the other side of the table. “Oh, for heaven’s sake, don’t look at me like that.”
    “JD was in earlier. He was whistling. I’ve never seen him look so relaxed.”
    Maggie wiggled in her chair. Heavens, if she had a tail she’d be wagging it right now. “It’s not going to work,” she wailed.
    “Looked like everything was working just fine to me.”
    “I like him.”
    “That’s good.” Claire flipped a sheet over and peered at the one underneath. “It’s important to like the father of your child.”
    “But I’m not supposed to like him or get involved. It was supposed to be in and out and that’s it.”
    “I imagine you managed the in-and-out part?”
    “He was wonderful.” She sighed.
    “Then leave.”
    Maggie jerked her attention back to Claire. “What?”
    Claire smiled slyly at her. “Leave.”
    Devil’s advocate . It was an old game they’d played with each other for as long as Maggie could remember. One or two of them would challenge the third to defend their decision by saying the opposite of what they hoped would happen. Claire said Leave , but she meant S tay, and tell me why you should.
     “You’ve accomplished what you planned to do,” Claire continued. “If you stay, you and JD are going to get involved. More involved. What are you going to do when he finds out you’re pregnant? If you left now, your life would be a lot simpler. I still think you have to tell him you’re pregnant at some point, but it would be a lot easier telling him from thousands of miles away than right next