Free It Happened One Night by Lisa Dale

off the cliff.
    “I’m pregnant,” she said.
    His heart dropped, hit the bottom of his chest like an anchor hitting sand. “Are you sure?” he asked. “Because maybe it’s
     just… false symptoms. Did you take a test?”
    “Not yet. I’ll do it tomorrow after work… if you want to be there.”
    “Of course I’ll be there. It might all turn out to be nothing.”
    “Maybe.” She turned to face him, her eyes glinting madly in the moonlight. “But all signs point to yes.”
    “That’s why you’ve been sick.”
    She nodded.
    He got up and stood beside her. He tried to keep the panic out of his voice. “Does Ron know?”
    “How could he? I haven’t seen him,” Lana said, laughing with a kind of hysteria now. “I don’t even know Ron’s last name. Isn’t
     that funny? I don’t know where he lives. I don’t know anything about him. And I don’t think he’s going to look me up again
     anytime soon.”
    “How do you know?”
    “He hasn’t been by in a while. That’s all.”
    Eli was not an angry man. But now he couldn’t remember a time in his life that he’d felt so furious. His fingernails dug crescents
     into his skin. “We’ll find him.”
    “He doesn’t want me to find him.”
    Neither do I
, he thought. In the most secret corner of his mind, he worried not only for Lana, but for himself. What if she got married?
     He would lose her forever.
    “I can’t have a baby,” she said.
    “Why not?”
    “Because I have… I
had
… plans.”
    “Costa Rica?”
    “I can’t live in a jungle if I’m changing diapers and breast-feeding,” she said.
    “Would you… I mean, would you consider…?”
    “Abortion?” She shook her head. “I don’t think that will work for me. I mean, I’ve been a vegetarian for half my life. I can’t
     even eat a hamburger without feeling like I committed a mortal sin.”
    Eli nodded.
    “Adoption is probably the answer.” She looked at him, her gaze seeking his, looking for confirmation of how she felt. “I want
     to do something with my life. To not be pinned down. I’m not cut out for motherhood, so I see no choice but adoption.”
    She still had her arms crossed over her chest, her fingers curled around her shoulders. He wanted nothing more than to unfold
     those crossed arms and embrace her and rock her and tell her wordlessly that he loved her, that she had him—no matter what.
    But that wasn’t going to happen.
    “I know what you’re thinking,” she said. “And yes, we did use a condom.”
    “I wasn’t thinking that,” Eli said.
    “You know I don’t take anything,” she continued, toying with a wooden bead of the bracelet on her thin wrist. “I’m not on
     the pill. Something just… went wrong.”
    “What exactly happened?”
    “I don’t know. There must have been some kind of a tear.”
    He ran a hand through his hair and didn’t care if it looked a mess. He tried to ignore the anger, but it was there, a pinching,
     twisting pain. “I just don’t get it, Lana. Why were you with him?”
    “He’s an interesting person.”
    “They’re all
interesting
people. Every single time.”
    “Please,” she said, her voice pleading. “I don’t want to talk about this anymore.”
    He drew in a deep breath. The air was scented by the lake and something sweetly powdery on Lana’s skin. His heart was pounding
     and his mind reeled. He stepped toward her, to put a hand on her shoulder, to give what comfort he could. But the moment his
     hand was close enough that he could feel the warmth rising from her bare arm, she slipped away.
    She kicked off her sandals with a fury that sent them flying toward the trees.
    “What are you doing?”
    “What do you think?” With her back turned toward him, she pulled her dress over her head. She wasn’t wearing a bra; she rarely
     did. He saw the long bony curve of her backbone, the flexible strength of her shoulder blades, the trim column of her waist
     and hips.
    All at once he was struck by the