Accidental Billionaire Daddy

by Holly Rayner

  Does he want to be a parent with me, or on his own? she wondered. More visions of split custody swirled in her mind. But if he wants to share custody, why would he make a room for Joy?

  Ben spoke, and his words brought Maia more clarity. “I’m absolutely sure,” he said. “I know this with every cell of my body. I want you and Joy to move in with me, Maia. I want us to be a family.”

  Then, to Maia’s surprise, he got down on one knee.

  He reached into his pocket and pulled out a small, dove-gray box. As he lifted the lid, he held it out so that she could see the contents within.

  Maia saw the flash of a diamond within the box. Given the veil of tears that blurred her vision, the sparkling diamond looked more like a star, shining in the night sky. Light sparkled off its surface. Though she couldn’t see details, she knew it was an engagement ring.

  “Maia,” Ben said in a deep, rich voice. “I know that our relationship hasn’t followed a predictable path. This child we’re going to bring into the world is an unexpected, miraculous surprise. It’s hard for me to understand this, but on some level, I know that even if we tried to plan this out, we never could have managed. Life brought us together, and I’m incredibly grateful for that.”

  Maia placed a hand on her chest. Her cheeks felt warm with tears.

  Ben went on. “I’ve loved you since the moment I first met you. I barely let myself acknowledge that. Seeing you every day brought happiness into my life. You’ve changed me—for the better. I would be honored if you would be my wife.”

  Wife. The world thrummed through Maia’s body. In her wildest dreams, she hadn’t imagined that Ben Briars would ever propose to her. Now, he was on his knee before her, holding out a diamond ring.

  “Yes,” Maia said, without another moment of hesitation. The word slipped through her lips as a whisper. She repeated it, louder this time. “Yes, Ben. Yes!”

  Happiness filled her, like bubbly champagne. When she held out her left hand, Ben slid the ring onto her finger. The band felt cool. Ben’s grip was warm as he clasped her hand, then placed his lips on the back of it.

  Then, he stood up. Maia felt as though she was dreaming as she saw him lean down toward her. The kiss he placed on her lips was better than any sensation she’d felt in her life previously.

  She knew, in that very instant, that her life would never be the same. From that moment forward, Ben would be by her side.

  She returned his kiss, wrapping her arms around his neck and pressing her body into his. His firm, lean, strong body held her up as she melted into him, giddy with happiness.

  When they parted, Maia felt as though she was standing on a cloud—just like the puffy white clouds that dotted the ceiling of the room before her.

  Through her tears, she saw Joy bound toward them.

  “Mommy, the toys!” Joy said happily, as she pointed to the box on the far side of the room. “So many to play with! Can we stay?”

  “Yes, honey,” Maia said. She allowed her daughter to take her hand and pull her into the room. Ben followed, close behind. “We can stay,” Maia said.

  It felt so good to say these words. She would no longer be parenting alone.

  Epilogue

  Eight Months Later: Maia

  A crisp breeze swirled around Maia, and she hugged the tiny infant boy, Eli, to her chest, protecting his face from the wind. He wiggled slightly in her arms and made a soft cooing sound.

  Ben, standing at Maia’s side, peered over her shoulder. “How’s my little guy?” he said in a soft tone to the baby.

  Eli squirmed again.

  “I think he might be hungry,” Maia said.

  She felt Ben’s arm, strong and reassuring, loop around her shoulder. He kissed her temple. Joy, who was standing with them in front of the hospital where Eli had been born, spoke tentatively. “Is he sleepy?”

  “That, too,” Maia said with a soft laugh.

  Though he’d just been born the day before, it was already clear to Maia that he was going to be an easier baby than Joy had been. He had a calm demeanor, and a contented smile curled on his lips most of the time. He cried for mere seconds when he wanted to be fed, and he was a sound sleeper.

  She knew intuitively that the next few months would be nothing like her first few with Joy. Not only was Eli a very calm and contented baby, but also, Maia had Ben’s help.

  Over the past months since their engagement, Ben had proved to be a very attentive, caring partner. During her labor, he’d stayed by her side and offered support. Maia could hardly believe how smooth and stress-free Eli’s birth had been.

  Now, just twenty-four hours later, they were all heading home.

  A shimmery reflection of light off of a windshield caught her eye, and she turned to see a stretch limo approaching. She recognized it as the limo service she and Ben had been using of late. The driver, a man named Charlie who had become familiar to her over the past few months, steered to the curbside and parked. Ben moved toward the back of the car and pulled open the door, revealing the infant car seat and toddler seat that they’d had installed earlier in the week.

  “I get to sit next to Eli!” Joy said happily, as she climbed up into her seat. Now that she was four, she was old enough to fasten her own seat belt.

  She was also old enough to take pride in being a wonderful big sister. She even wore the white long-sleeved shirt that her nana from Iowa had sent, which had the words, “I’m a big sister!” printed on the front in glittery pink font.

  Maia grinned as she watched her daughter pat the infant seat. “Right here, Daddy! Put him right here!”

  It still sometimes brought tears to Maia’s eyes to hear Joy refer to Ben as “Daddy.” She’d started this soon after the engagement.

  I should be used to it by now, Maia thought, as she let Ben lift Eli from her arms.

  While Ben situated Eli in his seat, Joy started singing one of the many lullabies she’d learned by heart. Eli’s tiny face scrunched up, and he brought his little fist to his lips.

  “Look! He likes my song!” Joy said.

  Maia and Ben laughed and climbed into the spacious back of the vehicle.

  It felt so good to walk through the front door. Maia longed for a hot bath and her own bed. While Ben ushered Joy to the kitchen, so the two could cook dinner, she carried Eli up the stairs to the nursery, where she fed him and then placed him in his crib.

  He was so tiny. So precious. She watched his chest rise and fall as he slept. He’s going to look a lot like his dad, she thought, as she let her eyes wander over his little, perfectly formed features.

  Her heart felt so full.

  The sound of footsteps made her turn. Ben entered the room. He had a dish towel over his shoulder. A warm, delicious scent of herbs and spices followed him. “Dinner’s almost ready,” he said in a whisper, as he joined her by the crib. He placed his arm around her. “How’s he doing?”

  “Fast asleep,” Maia said happily, as she leaned her head against Ben’s strong chest. “He’s a good baby. So peaceful.”

  “We’re very lucky,” Ben said. They watched little Eli sleep for several minutes. Ben rubbed Maia’s arm. “How are you feeling?” he asked her.

  “Tired,” she admitted. “A little bit hungry.”

  “We can take care of that,” Ben said confidently. “Joy is turning into quite the chef. She and I cooked that roast chicken recipe that you made last week.”

  “The one my mother sent?” Maia asked.

  She felt Ben’s chin gently graze the top of her head as he nodded. “That’s the one,” he said. “Joy took care of mixing up the spices. I let her sprinkle them on.”

  “I hope she wasn’t in charge of measuring them,” Maia said with a soft chuckle, as she remembered the incredibly salty pancakes they’d all eaten the week before, after Joy had insisted on being the one to measure out the salt. It turned out that putting a four-year-old in charge of that particular task wasn’t all that wise.

  Ben chuckled, obviousl
y remembering the pancake incident as well. “I measured everything out—but she stirred. I think it’s going to turn out well. I even added some of those shallots and red potatoes that you picked up at the farmers market the other day. It wasn’t in the recipe, but I think they’ll roast up nicely in the juices from the chicken.”

  Maia turned into him and wrapped her arms around his waist. “I guess Joy’s not the only one turning into a chef around here,” she teased gently. She hugged Ben, then looked up at him.

  He leaned down and kissed her. Then, still looking down at her, he grinned. “No more microwaved meals for this guy.”

  Maia laughed and laid her cheek against his chest. It felt so good to let Ben hold her. She savored the feel of his arms wrapped around her. “Ah… a home-cooked meal sounds nice,” she said. “I thought for a moment that you decided not to cook and ordered takeout. I thought I heard the doorbell ring.”

  “You did,” Ben said.

  “Who was it?” Maia asked, pulling away and looking up at Ben.

  “A real estate agent,” Ben said. “I asked him to stop by, if he had any news.”

  “News about what?” Maia asked. She’d seen signs out in front of the townhouse next door, but she had no idea why Ben would be involved in the sale.

  “The townhouse next door,” Ben said, confirming the connection that Maia had made. “I had an idea about it… We can talk about it later.”

  “Now I’m curious,” Maia said. “Give me a hint.”

  “I think maybe we should buy it,” Ben said. “We could renovate to combine the two houses, creating a bigger house for us—now that we have a growing family.”

  Maia looked to the infant, sleeping soundly in the crib. In just a few years, he’d be a little boy, running around the house.

  “We do have a growing family,” she said happily. The thought of a third or fourth child flitted through her mind, unexpectedly. She and Ben hadn’t yet discussed the possibility of having more children.

  As if Ben was reading her mind, he spoke. “And it might continue to grow… if we have more after Eli.”

  She looked up at him, smiling. “Yes,” she said happily, “that’s true.”

  “We don’t have to decide anything now,” Ben said. “We have plenty of time to figure everything out.”

  “We do,” Maia said. It was such a gift to know that whatever her future held, Ben would be there at her side, through it all.

  The End

  I hope you’ve enjoyed Ben and Maia’s story! Keep reading for the first chapter of the previous book in this series, The Baby Pact

  Happy reading!

  Love, Holly x

  The Baby Pact

  Chapter 1

  Rhea

  Rhea Wilson crunched through the snow that coated the path leading up to Harris Hall. At the doorway, she stomped her feet a few times, ridding them of as much snow as possible before going inside.

  She needn’t have bothered. The entryway of the dorm was soaking wet, puddles of water everywhere. Rhea sidestepped the biggest ones as she made her way to the stairs, then jogged up to the third floor. She pulled out the lanyard that hung around her neck from inside her coat, unlocked the door to her room, and let herself in.

  Her roommate, Kaylie, was out, thank goodness—probably out with her boyfriend. She and Kaylie were friends, but tonight Rhea definitely didn’t want the company of someone who was so happily in love. Not after the date she’d just been on.

  I’m cursed.

  She toed off her shoes, tossed her coat over the back of her desk chair, and flopped down on her bed, gazing up at the ceiling. This had not been the way she was hoping to end this night. She had done her best to keep her expectations low—it wasn’t the first bad date she’d been burned by this term—but somehow, they never failed to surprise her.

  With a sigh, she sat up and gathered her strawberry blond hair behind her head. She had spent such a long time styling it for tonight, first straightening her natural frizzy curls, then putting them back in one by one with a curling iron so that they would be soft and defined. Now, she wound her hair up into a messy bun on top of her head.

  She should never have wasted her time. She should have expected that things would go the way they had.

  I just need to stop letting people set me up! I don’t know why I keep falling into that trap!

  Today’s setup had been courtesy of her project partner in Latin class, who had gathered from their few casual conversations that Rhea was single. She supposed she had gotten a bit swept up in all the excitement as her partner had described the guy she knew and how perfect he would be for Rhea.

  It was so tempting to let herself believe that there was someone perfect for her out there!

  She grabbed her makeup remover and went to work on her face. Rhea didn’t usually favor heavy makeup, but a night out on a date had felt like the right occasion to get a bit experimental. She’d wanted to play with her look a little bit, to try something different, and she had been happy with the results. But now she was eager to get back to being herself.

  I wonder how Zach’s date went? she thought.

  She smiled wryly, shaking her head. He was probably still on his date. She was home early, after all. They had agreed to touch base in the morning and share the details with one another, but now that Rhea’s evening had been cut short, she was eager to get down to the debrief.

  I’ll text him, she decided. Maybe he won’t be home too late and we can get together and talk tonight.

  It was worth a shot.

  She reached for the purse she had carried all night. Ordinarily, she would have just stuffed the things she needed into the pockets of her jeans, but the pants she had chosen tonight were much more fitted than her usual pair—again, in an effort to impress her date.

  She pulled out her phone and wrote a quick text to Zach.

  “How was your evening?”

  Before she could hit send, however, her phone flashed with an incoming text.

  “I sure hope your date was better than mine!”

  Rhea couldn’t help laughing aloud. I was just about to text you!

  “You read my mind, I guess. Home already?”

  “Yup.”

  She set the phone down and stripped off the blouse she had been wearing, exchanging it for a cotton tank top and a hoodie. When she picked the phone up again, Zach had replied.

  “Want to meet up and debrief? I could use someone to talk to.”

  Rhea grinned. This was exactly what she wanted—a way to end the night on a high note, as opposed to sitting around and stewing about everything that hadn’t lived up to her expectations.

  “Definitely,” she texted back. “Hill’s?”

  “Meet you there in 20.”

  She sprang up from the bed, totally reinvigorated, and checked herself briefly in the mirror. Her hair was a bit messy, but nothing that would make her embarrassed to be seen in public, and no streaks of makeup remained on her face. She debated for a moment changing her fitted, flattering pants for her more comfortable pair, but decided that the nice ones might as well see a little bit more action tonight. They made her feel bold. Confident.

  She pulled her shoes back on, shrugged into her coat, and grabbed her purse. Locking the dorm room door behind her, she made her way down the steps and back out into the night.

  It was amazing, she reflected, how the prospect of seeing Zach had the ability to turn her whole night around. But then, she supposed everyone felt that way about their best friend. It was just that a best friend wasn’t something Rhea had ever really had before.

  She had been so isolated growing up. She knew she was lucky to have wealthy parents—she had never wanted for anything, and it was thanks to them that she had been able to attend the college of her choice. But their money had also driven a wedge between Rhea and her peers. She had never been able to relate to the things her classmates were going through, the struggles of normal, middle-class teenagers.

  Now tha
t she was away from home, in college, things were a bit different. It was possible to go through days and weeks at a time without being reminded of her parents’ money, and she was sure that her classmates had no idea how wealthy her family was. She deliberately dressed to match the styles that other students on campus were wearing. No one needed to know that the hoodie she’d thrown on this evening was a designer garment. It looked just like everyone else’s.

  And not having that barrier between herself and her peers had allowed Rhea to find real friendships for the first time in her life. She wouldn’t have traded that for anything.

  Zach had been her first friend at college. The two of them had met at a party the first semester of freshman year, and they’d spent the whole evening in the corner laughing together as the party went on around them. Now, two years later, Zach was probably the person Rhea trusted most in the world. He was the only one she wanted to talk to tonight.

  Hill’s Pub was only a few blocks from the heart of campus, and even though Rhea arrived quickly, Zach had beaten her there. She spotted him at a booth in the corner with two bottles of beer in front of him, and he waved her over.

  She started to sit opposite him, but he rolled his eyes.

  “Don’t be stupid,” he said. “It’s cold in here. That window in the back is still busted. Sit by me.”

  She nodded and took the seat by his side. “Are they ever going to fix that?”

  “God only knows.” He handed her one of the drinks. “Here. To bad dates.”

  She clinked her bottle against his and took a long pull.

  “Want to talk about it?” he asked.

  She shrugged, pulling off her coat and tossing it onto the seat across from them.

  “He was just annoying,” she said. “All he wanted was to talk about himself and how great he was.”