by Lexi Wilson
“Plenty of couples deal with children and still find time for romance.”
She shook her head. “Sure, they do. Eventually. Go talk to any couple dealing with a newborn and you’ll find the baby is everything. It doesn’t matter. Let’s be real about what happened. We’re not a couple. We had one night together.”
“It could be more.”
“Maybe, but just not right now.” Morgan locked eyes with me. “I need to know that you agree. If you can’t agree to that, then I’m not sure I can help with Sasha, no matter how much I want to.”
I wanted to tell her no. I wanted to tell her that what she was saying was ridiculous, but she was right. Sasha was the most important person in that room, and I needed Morgan’s help for the moment. Being stubborn about trying to date her would only result in her leaving both me and the baby.
“That sounds reasonable,” I said quietly, defeated.
“I’m not trying to be cruel,” Morgan said. “I’m just trying to think of the baby.”
I resisted a laugh. If anything, her focus on Sasha only fueled my attraction.
It was fine. I’d take her deal for now, and I’d prove to her that she was wrong. We could be together without Sasha suffering.
Chapter 24
Morgan
Monday morning, in the office, I looked around at my handiwork. I nodded to myself satisfied. I leaned over to finish setting up the playpen.
Daniel was off taking care of some sort of errand at his bank involving him placing legal documents into a safety deposit box. From what little he’d told me, it had to do with trust funds he’d set up for Sasha. He wanted to make sure he had backup documentation in a very secure place.
Before he’d left, he made a few orders and a short time later, a playpen, bouncer, and a few bags of supplies were delivered to the office.
The idea was by the time he got back, I’d have it all set up in the corner of the room. I’d be able to work from my desk and easily check on the baby in her playpen or bouncer. Easy peasy.
That was the theory anyway. Theory often has trouble when it hits reality, and that Monday was no different.
“Easy unfolding, sure,” I said, pulling at the playpen. It was a good thing I wasn’t at home, or I might have already gone at the baby furniture with a hammer.
I snickered at the thought of Daniel walking in and finding me over a pile of destroyed baby furniture, looking like some sort of crazed maniac.
The stupid playpen was supposed to be a travel model that unfolded within seconds, but I couldn’t seem to make it move more than a few inches without the plastic creaking. Just pulling harder was the only plan I had available to me, but I was afraid if I pulled too hard, I might break something, and then I’d not be in much better shape than if I’d just gone at it with a hammer anyway. Which I was seriously considering at that point.
After five minutes of tugging and probing at different angles, I finally managed to find a previously covered latch, and the whole playpen unfolded.
My cheeks heated for a second. The whole thing seemed obvious when I thought about it, and I realized that if I’d read the instructions more closely, I probably wouldn’t have wasted so many minutes being so frustrated. Still, I’d won and ultimately defeated the Playpen of Doom, and I didn’t even have to hammer it into submission.
I resisted the urge to cheer for myself, not wanting to risk waking up the baby. Not that she was a huge problem when awake, but I figured she’d be pretty annoyed if I startled. I knew I was, and I wasn’t a baby.
Sasha had slept soundly in her infant seat through the whole process, oblivious to my frustration with allegedly easy to set up furniture.
The more I thought about her sleep patterns, the more amused I grew. The truth was that she seemed to sleep well enough. She had the occasional problem with gas, but it wasn’t like she’d developed colic or anything like that. It just was that she wasn’t sleeping all that long. During the day it wasn’t such a big deal, but I could easily see why it’d be an issue at night when Daniel was trying to get some sleep.
With the equipment all set up, I started looking around the room. There were a lot of exposed electrical outlets, sharp edges, that sort of thing.
I sighed. Eventually, we’d need to baby proof the entire room, but the baby wouldn’t be moving on her own for a while. Even when she started moving, it’d be easy enough to set up a fence or something to keep her away from too much danger. A little baby prison for her safety.
Shaking my head, I realized the whole thing was surreal. A year before, setting up a room for a baby would have destroyed me. Maybe even only six months before, but now I didn’t feel any stress at all. If anything, other than worrying about how this room might contain some hazards for a crawling baby in six months, I was excited. I liked the idea of being around an infant all day and helping take care of her.
Apparently, all that therapy I’d paid for wasn’t worthless. Maybe it was too much to say all my problems were gone, but I’d definitely been able to move on in a significant way.
I glanced at my hand where my ring finger had been. There was only the faintest hint of the ring line remaining from the ring I’d once worn. No, I hadn’t moved on yet. Not totally. I still needed to go through with the divorce paperwork.
There was no doubt in mind, really. Whatever love I had for Blaine had vanished years before. It was only stubbornness at this point. It didn’t matter for the moment. It’s not like I was planning to marry anyone else anytime soon.
I wasn’t even sure if I’d ever get married again. Losing the baby hurt, but not being able to depend on my husband had been the real blow.
Then again, had I really moved on? Despite all my lectures to Daniel about keeping the focus on Sasha, it was hard not to remember our night of passion together.
I sucked in a breath, warmth pooling in my center. Just because I wasn’t in love with him didn’t mean I didn’t want him, and my body certainly reacted to him. Everything about that night had been wonderful, and if Sasha wasn’t in the picture, I would have gladly pursued a relationship with him.
Was it simple lust for was there something more? I didn’t know, and I didn’t want to torture myself by spending too much time thinking about it, either.
“This looks great,” a voice said from behind me.
I yelped and spun around, my hand over my heart. Daniel stood in the doorway.
He put up his hands in front of him in a placating manner. “Sorry, didn’t mean to scare you. I didn’t realize you hadn’t heard me come in.”
“It’s okay,” I said, my cheeks heating. “I guess I was just too deep in thought. Sorry.”
The last thing I was going to admit was that I’d been thinking about us, let alone that I’d been thinking about the time we slept together. Daniel had agreed to put things on hold, but I didn’t think for a minute that he still wasn’t just as interested in us being together as he’d been the day before.
“Well, like I said, this looks great,” Daniel said. “Almost like a nursery but decorated in a boring office style.” I laughed. “I almost feel like everything’s going to turn out all right.”
“You didn’t before?”
“Let’s face it. I might have money, but I’m the most unprepared single dad ever.”
I tossed his words around in my head. The word choice was interesting and specific. He’d not called himself a guardian or even an uncle. He’d called himself a dad. It was a good sign.
Sasha was his niece, and he’d only barely started taking care of her, but he already had invested a lot more emotion and responsibility into the whole thing than I’d expected.
A warm smile appeared on my face.
“What?” Daniel asked.
“Nothing. Just thinking about some things.”
I hadn’t been sure before. Sometimes when Daniel was talking about the baby, I’d wondered if he resented the baby. After all, Sasha was a responsibility he’d never planned on, a responsibility
that had only come about after the tragic death of his sister. It’d be easy for him to resent the little girl or see her as nothing more than a reminder of death.
Although I knew he had his issues with his sister, that didn’t mean he didn’t love her. He wouldn’t have spent so much time making sure she was taken care of if that were the case.
Being a good single parent was kind of like being a hero. It usually wasn’t about someone making a choice as much as rising to the occasion.
Memories flooded into my head of a huge teddy bear on my birthday, skating lessons, a birthday party with homemade decorations.
I shook my head, a wistful expression on my face. “You’re wrong.”
“Wrong?”
“About being an unprepared single dad.”
“Oh? You really think so? I wasn’t even sure before this if I was going to have kids. A lot of the information in that book, What to Expect When You’re Expecting, was completely new to me.”
“It’s just I know a little bit about this.”
Daniel nodded slowly, a concerned look on his face. I could understand why he was worried. After all, he knew about my tragic past, but I also needed him to know that I had a loving past that we could both draw on to help Sasha.
“I was raised by a single dad,” I said.
“Oh. Really?” His brow rose.
“You sound so surprised.”
Daniel shrugged. “It’s just that everything about you is so professional. I guess I’m just projecting too much of my own life and childhood on you.”
“You had a Mom, Dad, white picket fence and all that?”
“Yes, pretty much. Even friends of the family who got divorced got remarried again pretty quickly. Where I grew up, it seemed like the worst thing an adult could be was single.”
I peered at him. “Yet you are.”
Daniel grinned. “I’ve always had a rebellious streak, but we aren’t talking about me. We are talking about you and your dad.”
For a moment, regret washed through me. I’d loved my dad, so I didn’t know why I was suddenly so reluctant to talk about him. Maybe I just didn’t like the vulnerability that came with Daniel knowing more about my past, especially since I wasn’t sure if we’d be pursuing a relationship.
“My dad wasn’t a billionaire, of course, but I can really sympathize and understand what you’re going through. Keep in mind that I turned out all right, so I imagine Sasha will turn out fantastic.”
Daniel took that in for a few seconds. “Do you mind if I ask you a personal question?”
I shrugged. “I’m the one who brought up my past. It’d been pretty weird for me to suddenly complain now about you digging more into it.”
He took a deep breath. “What happened to your mom? Did she die in childbirth?”
I could see the pain in his eyes. Most people in America didn’t know someone who died in childbirth. It’d shocked me as much as it’d shocked him. I guessed that before he wouldn’t have made that assumption, but the sudden loss of his sister now colored everything around him.
The death hadn’t been all that long ago after all. It only made sense that it would linger over him like a cloud, just like my child’s passing had hung over me, infiltrating my every thought and action for these last few years.
I understood Daniel on more levels than I think he could truly appreciate.
“No, she didn’t die in childbirth,” I said softly. “She just took off when I was still a baby. I never really bothered to try and connect with her. She wasn’t there when I needed her, so I didn’t care about finding her later.”
“I’m sorry.”
“Don’t be. I’m not even angry about it. It’s more that I just don’t care. It’s hard to be angry at someone you never even knew.”
“I suppose.”
I could see the hint of anger in his own eyes. It was sweet that he wanted to avenge my childhood honor, but it was more important he understood why I’d brought up my father.
“It’s not something that has bothered me for a long time,” I said, and shrugged. “I just wanted to let you know that good things can come out of difficult circumstances.”
“Thank you, Morgan. I appreciate the thought.”
“Well, we probably should get to work while we can before that baby wakes up.”
Daniel looked at me for a long while and then nodded. I didn’t know what that look meant, maybe pity about my father, but I didn’t care. I didn’t want to dwell on my past. I just wanted to focus on Sasha and her future.
Chapter 25
Daniel
The minutes ticked along like it was any other normal day at the office, even though everything about it was different. I’d slept with Morgan, and now my infant niece was hanging out in the office. If anyone had even brought this idea up a month before, I would have laughed at the whole thing as absurd.
But there I was, the billionaire single father.
Plus, everything about the arrangement only seemed to relax me more, like it was the perfect and most logical set-up, which made no sense. It wasn’t like most people brought their babies to work, and I certainly wouldn’t have encouraged it if anyone had asked me about it.
The whole thing made me wonder if I should establish some sort of family-friendly policy. It wasn’t exactly all that fair that I got to bring in a baby to work while my employees were shelling out tons of money for daycare.
I scratched my eyelid as I thought about that. I also couldn’t have every random person bring their kids.
After rolling the thoughts around for a few minutes, I nodded to myself. I owned the building, and although I was earning a lot of passive income from renting out floors to other businesses, there were still more than a few open floors. It didn’t seem like it’d be that hard to throw some money together and start a daycare for my employees.
I didn’t need to run the damn thing. I could hire actual professionals, just no one from that blasted nanny agency.
Nodding to myself, I felt satisfied with the idea. Morgan was already having to deal with a lot, so I figured I’d have to find someone else to look into it for me.
I returned to work, now feeling even better than before.
Every once in a while, over the next couple of hours, I looked over at Morgan at her desk. I was curious if she could handle Sasha. I didn’t bother to close my door as it wasn’t like either of them were noisy, and I wasn’t doing any teleconferences that day.
It also helped that I liked seeing Morgan with the baby. It was yet another thing that brought a smile to my face about the whole situation.
The thing was it wasn’t so much that I thought the baby would be too much for Morgan, but the baby combined with her normal job could have easily overwhelmed her. But from what I could tell, dealing with Sasha wasn’t slowing her down at all.
Not that I was all that surprised. Morgan was a strong person. Given what she’d gone through, she was probably stronger than me. She’d managed to push through her pain and return to work.
For that matter, she’d gone from an entry-level employee to an executive assistant through her own hard work. I suspected she could easily have made the leap over to management herself if she’d been so inclined. She had both willpower and the intelligence for it.
Chuckling over that thought, I opened an email from my potential investment partners in England. They had been waiting to hear back from me on some specific questions, and though I hadn’t been totally isolated from work, a lot of things had been placed on the sidelines while I eased into the situation with Sasha.
The world hadn’t waited for me, though. Email after email appeared in front of me. I wondered how many words I’d typed by the time I’d gotten through the first twenty. The twisted part of all of this was that I was only dealing with the high-priority material that Morgan hadn’t been able to deflect. I could imagine the torrent I’d be dealing with otherwise, despite my feeble attempts to try and do some work from home before.
I pondered all of that for a moment as I downloaded an investment report. Once finished, I started skimming it.
The problem with wealth is that it brought its own complexity. You couldn’t run a multi-billion-dollar company with just an assistant and a handful of employees, no matter what some people thought.
Even my house required a number of different support employees, like housekeepers, gardeners, that sort of thing. Maybe they didn’t live there, but I still needed them to avoid having to live in a much smaller place.
Some people had all these cutesy ideas about some guy working out of his original building with his original employees and making it big without having to change. It’s the illusion that you can keep your connection to your simple roots and still have the resources to do almost anything you wanted. It was also utter nonsense.
Being a billionaire made me fundamentally different than most people on the planet. It wasn’t a point of arrogance or elitism, but rather a simple recognition of a truth. I had more resources at my disposal than some countries, and I wouldn’t pretend to be some simple guy who didn’t accept that fact.
The idea that money didn’t have to change people was garbage and not how the business world worked. Companies grew in size and power, and that brought with it a requirement for additional levels of organization, middle management, and operations.
This all translated into a lot of moving parts and individuals. It was like a human versus a jellyfish. They were both animals, but the human had many more complicated and specialized parts.
In terms of my company, this was normally a good thing, because it meant people could think for themselves, and I wasn’t completely overwhelmed with every random decision. Unfortunately, I hadn’t made things independent enough apparently, and now I had a lot of different employees and managers treading water and waiting for direction.
It’s not like everything had ground to a halt, but it did feel good to start digging the company out from the hole I’d created and really flex my business muscles after being on the sidelines for a bit.
