Although a logical conclusion given how much sex figured into their relationship, it was the absolute last thing that Phillip had expected to hear coming out of Whitney's mouth. He wasn't sure what he was expecting, the news that she had caught some international bug or that the overseas food wasn't agreeing with her anymore...but that revelation certainly wasn't it.
Pregnant.
She was having a baby.
HIS baby.
Phillip's jaw fell open.
He was going to be a father.
It wasn't a direct conclusion, of course. There was a small, small chance that Whitney was going to follow the two word revelation with "but it's not yours" or something like that, but Phillip knew her better than that. This was his child.
"I--" He trailed off, his smooth, feline charm gone for the moment. He felt like a cat flailing in mid air, trying to find the right position that would allow him to land on his feet. Trying and failing to make himself say something right. "Wow."
He thought back to his parents, and their long, happy marriage. His child would never have that. He and Whitney both worked so much, fought more, and she was always going here, there and everywhere. How were you supposed to take the kid to the doctor regularly when you were moving around all the time? When you had international conference calls? Didn't kids need doctors? Regular feedings? Clean clothes and diapers and...
There was no way one person could do all of that alone, Phillip realized. Not without a nanny, and Phillip certainly didn't want his child to be raised by a nanny. He wanted the kid surrounded by people who loved him, not people who were paid to be there. Because one person could never do the job alone, and because Phillip thought even with two people living separate lives on different continents couldn't hold a chance of raising a child the right way--the way his parents raised him--his next words were less of a question than a hopeful response to the fact that he had yet to make a real response to her revelation.