She blinked in surprise. But then she stared down at her belly and realized that he was right. She only had a short time—weeks—until the baby would arrive. Six weeks? But babies often came early. And she was horribly unprepared.

In Houston she’d lived from paycheck to paycheck, just praying to be able to make rent and save money for when she had to take time off when the baby was born. There hadn’t been money for all the things people bought in preparation for a baby, so she’d never even thought about it.

Panicked now that she realized how unprepared she was, she stared in dismay at Ryan.

“Hey,” he said as he scooted over next to her. “I didn’t mean to stress you out. I thought you’d be excited to shop for the baby.”

“I don’t have anything,” she confessed. “No baby clothing. No crib. Diapers. Oh God, I don’t even know what-all I need. I was always happy to just make it through another day in Houston. I never looked ahead. It was too overwhelming.”

He gathered her in his arms and held her as he ran his hand soothingly over her hair. “There’s no hurry, okay? I’ll send out for some parenting books and magazines and for the next few days, I want you to rest, put your feet up and do as much reading as you like. Make a list. We’ll look at stuff together. It’ll be fun. We still have plenty of time before she gets here.”

She squeezed him in a tight hug. “Thank you. I think you just prevented a meltdown. I feel so awful. I don’t even have any cute baby booties. What kind of mother am I going to be?” she asked mournfully.

He squeezed her back. “You’ll be a wonderful mom. You’ve had a lot to deal with. Cut yourself some slack, okay? Now why don’t you go take a long soaking bath and get ready for dinner?”

She reached up and pulled him down to kiss him. It was on the tip of her tongue to say she loved him, but she swallowed the words and kissed him again instead.

He kissed her back, lingering over her lips, savoring the taste and feel of her.

It shouldn’t make her feel so sad that she still loved him. But she couldn’t shake the heaviness from her chest as she pulled away and then got up and headed for the bathroom.

* * *

“I got a call from Rafael today,” Ryan said over dinner.

Kelly frowned. “How is he doing? I still can’t believe he got into a plane crash, lost his memory and then fell in love with a woman he completely screwed over for land.”

Ryan winced. “You make it sound so…”