Christmas Baby For The Billionaire. DONNA ALWARD
was the hard part. Just this morning she’d come to work like any other day. There was comfort in that. More than anything, Jeremy transported her out of her comfort zone and she struggled to find her feet in order to deal with this conversation.
She met his gaze again. “Our circumstances are a bit unique, you know. We had a fling. We live far apart, in two very different worlds. And I have no idea how to structure a co-parenting arrangement with someone who is, in many ways, a stranger.” She took a breath. “You have resources I don’t and I would lose in any sort of power struggle if you made a play for custody.” There. She’d said it. No sense beating around the bush.
He sat back then, the questions in his eyes replaced by… Could it be? He was hurt by her last statement. Or at least offended. Her pulse was hammering so hard right now she couldn’t quite trust her observations.
“Do you really think I’d do such a thing?”
She sat up straighter. “As I said, we don’t really know each other, do we? It wasn’t a chance I was willing to take. I’d die before letting someone take my baby away.”
Jeremy tried to breathe through the cramping in his chest. He’d been looking forward to surprising Tori today. Work had brought him back to the area on behalf of a client and he’d imagined reigniting the flame that had raged between them last summer. Truthfully, he hadn’t been able to get her out of his head, and this work trip on Branson’s behalf had given him the perfect excuse to get her out of his system once and for all.
Instead he’d found her carrying his baby. The pregnancy shook him to the core, but the veiled accusation he’d just heard…that was a real gut punch.
He was a straight shooter and liked to think he was a good man. But right now he held back the words forming in his brain and those already stuck in his throat. Because he was confused, and angry, and another emotion he couldn’t quite place. Hurt was part of it. And maybe disappointed. It was just a mess.
With his child stuck in the middle.
This was his worst nightmare. A family, kids—a wife, even—were not on his agenda.
“We used protection,” he said numbly.
“Which isn’t a hundred percent reliable. We were pretty careful, but…” Her hazel eyes met his. “Not careful enough, I guess. Believe me, this was not planned.”
His suit jacket felt too tight, and his tie strangled his throat. But he kept his hands firm on the arms of the chair. His gaze stole to her midsection again, though most of it was hidden behind the desk.
His child. With a woman he barely knew, someone with whom he had simply enjoyed a few weeks during a summer trip. And he’d come here with the sole objective of hooking up with her again. He ran his hand over his face.
He should have known that someday his behavior was going to land him in trouble. That eventually his casual approach to relationships would come back to bite him. No words of I love you, no commitments, no strings. That was how he liked it. And even though he’d enjoyed his time here, a few states and an international border had made Tori Sharpe seem like a perfectly safe…distraction.
He wasn’t really a player, but he’d classify his approach to romance as…cavalier. His best friend Cole called him a serial dater. Branson had silently agreed with the assessment. He hadn’t had a relationship that had lasted over a month since college.
He let out a breath and tried to relax his shoulders. “Okay. So the news is out now, like it or not.” He pinned her with his gaze. “And I have no idea what to do.”
The lines in her face softened. “That’s okay. I do. I don’t expect anything from you, Jeremy. I’m not going to come after you for exorbitant amounts of child support or anything. I’m going to raise this baby right here. I have tons of friends I can count on, and my mom is here, and we’ll be as happy as anything. I’ll even sign papers if you want.”
No child support? No contact? And raising the baby in this small town that was nearly dead in the off-season?
“Anything but that,” he replied.
AFTER JEREMY’S LAST statement, tensions had ratcheted up again. Tori had asserted that nothing was going to be decided that afternoon and perhaps they could pick up the discussion later after they’d both had time to think. He hadn’t looked happy, but Tori knew they could have gone around in circles indefinitely. It was going to take time to sort out, and she needed time to decide what she really wanted and how best to present it to Jeremy. Being caught on the fly had only made her panic, though she’d tried to cover it up as best she could.
She could compromise on a lot of things, but not on the basics. The baby would live here, with her. As far as his involvement went, that was negotiable. Now that he knew, she could hardly shut him out of everything and pretend he didn’t exist if that wasn’t what he wanted.
If she tried to cut him out of the baby’s life, she had the suspicious feeling he’d start throwing his weight around. And he had the money and connections to make things difficult. The fantasy bubble in which she’d held the memories of their time together was truly popped. It was like her mom said—if it seemed too good to be true, it probably was.
What a tightrope she was going to have to walk. Hopefully he was in town for only a few days.
He’d gone to check in to his room and she logged in to the reservations system to get the details of his stay. To her dismay, she discovered he’d booked twelve days. That took them well into December. And it was more than enough time for things to go seriously wrong. She tapped her fingers on her desk. How the heck was she supposed to navigate this?
She thought back to earlier, when she’d admitted flat out that she’d lose in a power struggle. His gray eyes had looked so shocked that she’d even think such a thing. He’d run his fingers through his hair, and his throat had bobbed as he swallowed. Her words had left their mark, and it boded well as far as being able to reach him. He wasn’t a cold and calculating monster, though she knew he was a tough negotiator when pushed. Watching him work closing deals last summer had shown her that, and she’d admired him for it at the time.
His wounded expression had also touched something in her heart she wished didn’t exist. She cared about him. Two weeks together in the summer had been more than enough time for her to develop feelings. Not love, certainly, but definitely affection. It hadn’t all been sexual. He’d been charming, and funny, and smart. In fact, he’d been nearly perfect. Even if she’d been absolutely fine knowing their time together would be no more than a whirlwind fling, it was hard to erase all of those memories and see him dispassionately as the father of her unborn child. He wasn’t just a sperm donor.
One morning they’d basked in the sunlight streaming through the bedroom window and he’d told her about why he loved real estate. It wasn’t just about the bargaining or the money. As his fingers had traced down her arm, he’d said it was about finding homes for people, places where they belonged and could be happy. And when he’d realized he’d let her in, he’d immediately backtracked and said it was just a big bonus that his clients were all stinkin’ rich.
But it had been a defense mechanism, she was sure. And she’d liked that glimpse into the man, and not just the fantasy.
Perhaps the best way to reach him was to approach the situation on a very human level. She could do that and still keep her other feelings locked away, right?
She put her hand on her tummy, wondering when she was going to start feeling the baby move. So far she had the bump but she hadn’t really felt much. A few times she wondered if she might be feeling flutterings of movement, but she’d been told they were probably just gas.
Either