CHAPTER 3

	As Hannah opened the door to the office she heard a series of scuffling noises. 
By the time she stepped inside, her three co-workers were quickly lowering themselves
into their chairs, all very short of breath, although they pretended not to look at her. 
	“Back to work, the fun’s over,” she said, sarcastically, and noticed their stiff
facades crumple, knowing they had been caught.  She said nothing more to them, and
settled into her own chair as if the past ten minutes hadn’t even happened. 
	Inside, however, she was a nervous wreck.  Her life had just been tumbled
upside down, and she had to find a way to right it again.  Finding herself pregnant had
been a blow, but she was not the type of girl to terminate a pregnancy, regardless of the
situation. She’d vowed to carry this through, and to do it on her own, and now Cole
McKinley was sticking his nose into her business and making waves. 
	Her business, damnit!  It had nothing to do with him!
	She groaned and put her head in her hands. Of course it had something to do
with him.  It had a lot to do with him! It was his baby, afterall.
	But I don’t need his pity! she argued with herself.  I don’t need anything from him!

	Cole was waiting for her when she stepped out of the elevator after work. She
groaned and headed across the lobby and he fell immediately into step beside her. 
“How are you getting home?”  he asked, as she kept her gaze on the front doors. 
Maybe if she ignored him, he would go away, she thought, though she highly doubted
that.
	“I take the bus,” she said.  “I always take the bus.”
	“I’ll drive you,”  he said flatly, leaving no room for objection.
	“I’ll take the bus,” she repeated, as she stepped out the door and turned down
the sidewalk.
	“I’ll drive you,” he said again, reaching for her arm and spinning her around to
face him.
	“I’ll scream!” she warned, as she found herself face to face with him.
	“Hannah, just let me drive you home.”
	“You don’t need to,”  Hannah hissed under her breath as she tried to shake his
arm off of hers, giving a fake smile to someone passing by.
	“I want to,” he said, gripping her arm tighter.
	Hannah glared at him.  The last thing she wanted was for him to find out she
lived in a tiny one bedroom apartment that could fit entirely within the living room of the
fancy penthouse she had awakened in the morning after the Christmas party.  She didn’t
need his pity, and she didn’t need his money, and the less he knew about her
circumstances the fewer chances he had to try to force his sense of responsibility on her. 
	“Please, Cole — “ she started, and he cut her off before she had a chance to
finish.
	“There, that’s more like it,” he said, nodding, and drawing her back towards the
McKinley Holdings Building.
	“Cole!” she gasped, as he ushered her down the ramp into the underground
parking garage.  She had to be careful not to trip on the slope, so she couldn’t shake
herself free of him, but her expression let him know what she was thinking.
	“My car isn’t far away,” he said, pulling the remote door lock from his pocket. 
Sure enough, Hannah saw the headlights blink as they reached the bottom of the ramp
and walked along the row of cars to the fourth one.  Almost as if he didn’t trust her to
actually get into the car, he opened the passenger door for her and helped her inside
before walking around to the driver’s side and getting in.   Hannah sat stiffly in the
leather seat, looking straight out the window. 
	“Relax,” he said, as he started the car and pulled out of the parking space.  
	“I do not normally get into vehicles with strangers!” she said, for lack of anything
else argumentative to say.
	“Good,” he nodded his approval.  “That means my baby is in good hands.”
	She shot him an angry stare. “And I’ll have you know, I’m not in the habit of
jumping into bed with total strangers either!”
	They had reached the top of the ramp and as he stopped the car at the edge of
the street, he turned to look at her.  The expression on his face melted her resistance
instantly.
	“No, Hannah, I never once thought you were. And for the record, neither am I.” 
The look on his face was so genuine that Hannah swallowed hard and turned to look out
the window, whispering her address with a shaky voice she was surprised he could even
hear.  In silence, he pulled out onto the street.

	“This is where you live?”  Cole craned his neck to look through the passenger
side of the front window at the house Hannah had told him to stop in front of.  She held
her breath, waiting for a disapproving comment to follow, but instead, he nodded. 
“Looks like a nice place.  Got a yard there and everything for the baby.”
	Hannah closed her eyes and took a deep breath, then reached for the door
handle.  “Thanks for the ride home, Cole,” she said as she opened the door. 
	“I’ll pick you up Monday morning,” Cole said, and she stopped with one foot out
of the car.
	“Cole, you don’t have to do this.  I am quite capable of taking the bus to work like
I have since I started working for Bradshaw & Rosen, and like I have continued to do
since I’ve been pregnant.”
	“I want to,” he insisted, as if that made all the difference in the world and negated
any reason for her to argue further.  “Eight-thirty OK for you?”
	Hannah sank back in the seat and threw her head back against the head rest.
“No, Cole, eight-thirty is not OK.”
	He shrugged.  “Earlier?”
	She turned her head to face him.  “Look, Cole, please do not start doing things
for me. I’m doing fine on my own.  I’ve been doing fine for the past seven and a half
months, and I will still be doing fine tomorrow, and the next day.  Nothing has changed
just because now all of a sudden you know I’m having your baby.  It’s the same baby it
was this morning when I took the bus to work, and it’s the same baby it was last week
before Ty started making you think about who’s baby it was.”
	“But Hannah, you don’t have to take the bus to work.  I want to help out.”  He
looked at her with genuine concern, and Hannah sighed and shook her head.  It wasn’t
so much that he thought his word was law, she thought, but more almost as if he
couldn’t understand that anyone would not take anything he offered. Had he never been
refused before? 
	“I appreciate that, Cole, but I don’t want any special treatment. I don’t want my
life to change overnight.  I’ve gotten used to things the way they are, and I can handle it,
believe me.  Let’s face it, I don’t mean anything to you. You don’t even know me!  I’m
just an accident that happened, and you don’t need to bend over backwards to try to
make amends after the fact.” She unfolded herself from the car again and closed the
door, ignoring Cole’s voice as he called after her, and walking up the sidewalk along the
side of the house. 
	When she reached the back of the house, Hannah looked back to make certain
he had gone, then opened the door that led to the stairs for her upstairs apartment. 
Cole seemed pleased to think she lived in the main house, so let him think that. She was
quite comfortable with her one small bedroom, sitting room and kitchenette.  If she
moved her bed right up against the wall, when the time came, there would be room for  a
crib, and she and the baby would manage perfectly!

	On Monday, Hannah half expected Cole to be waiting outside the house when
she came around the corner from the back stairs in the morning, but he was nowhere to
be seen.  Breathing a sigh of relief, she headed down the street to her regular bus stop. 
Perhaps she had gotten through to him afterall, she wondered.
	At the McKinley Holdings Building, there was no sign of Cole either, however she
noticed the other McKinley lounging against a pillar in the middle of the lobby the second
she stepped inside. She ignored him, and shared an energetic conversation with
Thomas about the basketball game he had taken Melissa to on the weekend, then
turned towards the elevator. As she neared the pillar, however, Ty straightened up and
fell into step beside her.
	“Oh great, is he sending out the troops now?  Listen, the sooner both you
McKinley’s learn I don’t need a baby-sitter, the better,”  Hannah said, without looking at
him and without missing a step. 
	“Well, in a few months you will need a baby-sitter,” Ty said in mock
thoughtfulness, and Hannah glared at him. He lifted both hands up as if she were
holding a gun against him, and shook his head. “OK, OK, that was uncalled for, I’m
sorry.  Can I just talk to you for a minute?”
	She looked at him with a wrinkled brow. “Why should I let you?  I don’t know you. 
I don’t know either of you. I don’t need you McKinleys rushing into my life like knights in
shining armour telling me what I need and what you can do for me.  What I need is for
you both to go away!”
	Ty rested his hand on her arm.  “Please, just hear me out. Just a couple of
minutes and I promise I won’t bother you again.”
	She glanced down at his hand, which he immediately removed, and held up in a
peaceful gesture.  She crossed her arms and stood still, waiting for him to talk.  He
looked around the lobby a little concerned.
	“Can we go over there and sit down where it’s not so crowded?” he suggested.
	Hannah actually laughed, but she followed him to the small sitting area off to the
side of the lobby. “You mean you don’t want everyone to hear what you have to say? I’m
surprised.  Your brother wasn’t concerned about that when he barged into my office the
other day.” 
	Ty winced. “I’m sorry about that.”
	She shrugged. “You had nothing to do with it.”
	“Well, actually, I did,” he said, looking a little sheepish now. When Hannah gave
him a questioning glance he continued, “It was me, acting dumb in the elevator, that
drew attention to you in the first place, remember?”
	“How could I forget?” she groaned.
	“I’m sorry I did that.  I had no idea it was the truth! I was just taking any
opportunity to razz my older brother, like I always do. It was supposed to be a harmless
dig at him.  I was shocked when he told me that — “ he stopped and glanced down at
her belly.
	Hannah shrugged. “What’s done is done.  That’s the way I have to look at this
entire portion of my life.  You can’t take back what you said, I can’t take back what
happened in December.  I’m moving on, and I’ve been doing fine without either of you
messing in my life.”
	“He wants to help, Hannah.” Ty looked at her with genuine concern.
	“He doesn’t have to,” Hannah insisted. “Just because he knows now, doesn’t
mean all of a sudden he has to start looking after me. I don’t want anything from him.  If I
did, don’t you think I would have gone pounding on his door months ago?  I’m not like
that, McKinley. He should be happy I’m not asking him for anything.  I don’t need his
help, and I don’t want his pity.”
	Ty shook his head. “Believe me, he’s not pitying, but he does feel responsible,
and he just wants to help. If you won’t take his offers then at least think about the things
you’re going to need that he can buy for the baby.  He would never leave you high and
dry, he’ll support the baby.”
	To Ty’s surprise, Hannah’s expression turned angry and she started to get up. “I
am not a charity case, Mr. McKinley. I do not need any McKinley money,” 
	“Whoa!” Ty put up his hand and she reluctantly sat back down again.  “Look, I
think you need to know a few things about my brother.”
	“I don’t need to know anything about your brother,” she insisted.
	“Just hear me out, please?” he looked at her with puppy-dog eyes, and it was all
Hannah could do to keep from laughing at him.  She leaned back and crossed her arms.
	“I’m listening.”
	“When I was sixteen, our parents were killed in a car accident,” Ty began, and
Hannah’s expression softened immediately.
	“I’m sorry!” she exclaimed softly, looking at him with wide eyes.
	Ty shrugged, and grinned at her. “What’s done is done,” he said, borrowing her
own words. “Cole had just graduated from University with his degree in Business
Administration.  He had always been business minded and his plan was to work his way
to the top of some company some day.”
	“Well, by the looks of things, he did that,” Hannah commented, casually looking
around the lobby.
	“No, he didn’t.” Ty frowned slightly again. “McKinley Contracting was our father’s
business. When our parents died, all the responsibility of the company fell on Cole’s
shoulders, not to mention the job of raising me.” Ty smirked. “I wasn’t exactly the easiest
of those two tasks.”
	“I don’t doubt that!” Hannah chuckled at this, imagining that to be a pretty true
statement, considering what little she had seen of the two brothers in action together. 
	Ty smiled and went on. “What I’m trying to say here is, Cole gave up his own
dreams and came home, because he felt he had to, not because anyone told him to. 
Responsibility is a very big word in his vocabulary.  He isn’t the kind of man to ignore
what he feels is his duty, and if he’s responsible for something, he gives it his all.”
	Hannah was listening thoughtfully, beginning to get a clearer idea of why Cole
was so hung up on helping her.  With a sigh, she looked at Ty.  “OK, I can understand
what you’re saying, but you have to understand my side of this too.  I didn’t ask for this
to happen, and after it did, I never asked for his help. I don’t hold him responsible any
more than myself.  It takes two to Tango, as they say, and it makes me very
uncomfortable taking money that I don’t feel I deserve.”
	It was Ty’s turn to laugh, and Hannah glared at him. “What’s so funny about
that!? I told you, don’t want charity, McKinley.  Your brother doesn’t have to pay me off
to clear his conscience.”
	Ty shook his head. “No, that’s not it at all. It’s just that the women Cole has had
the misfortune of being involved with have been very glad to have his money dropped
freely in their laps like greedy whores.”
	Hannah gasped. “I am not a greedy whore!” she exclaimed in a hushed voice,
this time standing up completely, looking around to see if anyone had heard them. 
	“I didn’t say you were!” Ty stood up beside her. “I’m making a mess of things
here, I’m sorry.  It’s just that Cole is used to women eagerly taking his money for much
less valid reasons than this.  I imagine he has a hard time realizing there is a woman in
existence who wouldn’t take as much as he offered and then come back for more.”
	“Oh,” Hannah frowned.  She had nothing more to say.  A lot of what Ty had said
made perfect sense, and she could understand why Cole had persisted in his attempt to
help her out. Still, she had always believed she should work for her own living and not
mooch off anyone else.  Never in her life had she taken advantage of anyone for
personal or financial gain, and she wasn’t about to start now.
	It is his baby, she reminded herself. There are women out there begging for child
support, and here he is freely offering to help and you are looking a gift horse in the
mouth! Way to go, girl!’  She frowned to herself and sighed.
	“I’m late for work,” she said flatly, glancing sideways at Ty.  He said nothing, just
nodded and let her turn and walk away.   
	When she had found out she was pregnant, she had felt so embarrassed at
having done something so completely out of character, that all she had been able to
think about was keeping it secret. Creating a facade that made everything look normal,
and making sure not to draw any attention to herself had been her focus all these
months. It had been easier to fabricate a boyfriend who dumped her than to admit she
had got drunk at the Christmas party and ended up in bed with, of all people, Cole
McKinley himself! Avoiding a scandal at all costs.  She was in this alone, and she would
handle it alone. Never once had she given any consideration to how Cole might feel
about the situation.  She’d told herself it was none of his business.  It was her baby, her
life, and he just did not fit into it.
	Maybe she had been wrong?