Stuck For the Holidays

My Christmas fling came with an expiration date. Nobody warned me it also came with twins.I only met Carson North because my mother plays bridge with his aunt. He's a Wyoming rancher with rough hands and a way of looking at me like nobody ever has. We gave ourselves four days, two nights, and a joke plan to do it again next December.The condom broke, and I handled it the way I handle everything, alone. Two weeks after he flew home, I was staring at a positive test in Holly Ridge.I called and gave him every way out. He got on a plane anyway.Now we have an arrangement, not a relationship, two thousand miles between us, and my promise to never expect anything of him. I've made promises like that my whole life.Then summer drags us both back to Florida, and I can't hide how much I need him anymore.If he stays, he loses the ranch and every acre he's bled for. If I make him go, I lose the first man who ever tried to hold me, and this time there's no next Christmas to wait for.