by Dani Wade
“Oh, these girls keep me busy,” she said, “but it makes life happy, you know?”
“I do, indeed. My family is a big part of my life also.”
And he was not looking forward to hearing their thoughts when they found out he’d gotten his assistant pregnant. Definitely not what they’d had in mind when they urged him to start a family. Of course, it wasn’t what he’d had in mind, either. Family had been the last thing he’d been thinking about when he’d taken Ivy to bed that night.
“I love having a big family,” Auntie was saying, “Even though they came to me later in life. Do you have a big family?”
Paxton smiled and chatted about his two sisters and all his nieces. He truly loved his family, even when they were driving him crazy. He’d always been close with his siblings and his parents and grandmother. As the only grandson, they had high expectations for him and his future family. Almost as high as he had for himself.
Having a baby with Ivy didn’t fit into the plan. His stomach twisted as he imagined their disappointment. But regardless of whether this baby fit his stringent requirements for having children, the baby existed. Paxton was not the kind of man who could simply walk away.
It wasn’t just about responsibilities, either. He’d spent a lot of time with his sisters and nieces. He didn’t know where this was going, but those joyful thoughts of welcoming a child into the world and watching it grow were already taking hold.
Only a day, and he’d already been sucked in.
“Thank you for taking care of her,” he said, in a sincere effort to show his appreciation, despite what Ivy would have thought if she’d heard it.
The older woman’s smile was kind. “Ivy insists she’s handling it, but it is wearing her down, I believe. She doesn’t want anyone else to feel responsible, but that’s what family does.”
She leaned a little closer and lowered her voice. “I even postponed a trip with her sister Jasmine because I just don’t want her alone. And she needs her own bed right now, her own space. Not to be out at Willow’s place, away from her comfort zone.”
Paxton stared for just a moment, his brain kicking into overtime. Something started to take shape, but before he could analyze it, a soft voice drifted across the room.
“Somehow I knew you’d be back.”
Paxton was unsettled by Ivy’s resigned tone. Without thought, his chin went up and he said, “You shouldn’t doubt it. We’ll be a major part of each other’s lives from here on out.”
Inwardly he winced. Probably not the right approach at the moment. Unlike Ivy, Paxton knew he needed to keep his emotions out of this situation. He wasn’t sure how he felt about Ivy. About her being the mother of his child. He’d attempted to put every spine-tingling moment of their night together out of his mind...and had succeeded until the moment he’d returned home. But he didn’t want to think about it. Right now, he needed to focus on the child.
The one thing he refused to walk away from.
Not wanting to hover over her, Paxton crossed to the sofa, where she lay, and eased himself into the far corner. Ivy’s eyes widened before she pushed herself into a more upright position and pulled her feet closer to her. But not before he caught sight of her delicate feet with their bright pink toenails.
Once more he struggled to push back the memories.
“I’ll leave you youngins alone for a bit,” Auntie finally said, winking at Paxton. “I’m sure you have a lot to discuss.”
Indeed they did.
Paxton turned back to Ivy, then winced at her cynical expression.
“Any particular reason you’re trying to charm my aunt?”
Busted. “What are you talking about?”
“I’ve been watching you in action for a year and a half now. I’ve seen that same smile a hundred times. What are you trying to prove?”
That I’m not the bad guy here. “How are you feeling?” he asked, instead of answering her question.
She pushed the heavy fall of her hair back behind her ear. “Okay.”
He could spot the lie from a mile away, even without her grimace.
“Medicine helping any?”
She glanced down at the floor as if she was uncomfortable with the attention. “It helps me not be sick, but doesn’t take away the nausea altogether.”
She’d lost weight, he noticed again. Her high cheekbones stood out more than they had, creating a hollow beneath. There were dark shadows under her eyes, too. She was indeed having a rough time of it.
“The doctor says only about a month more...” she said, her voice weak. “Then we should start to see some improvement.”
As much of a jerk as it made him, he was about to use that little fact to his advantage. The idea that had teased him earlier now fell firmly into place.
As he looked into her cautious gaze, Paxton kept his expression serious. It would be all too easy to slip into charming-businessman mode, like he had with Auntie. That realm he could navigate easily. But Ivy would feel like she was being played.
He needed her on board. Not on edge.
“Ivy, I want to come stay with you.”
The shock that widened her eyes reverberated inside of Paxton. He couldn’t believe he was saying it out loud. But this made the most sense to him...and he hadn’t been able to come up with a better option to get the amount of information he needed.
Thankfully she didn’t mock his motives, or rage about the time they’d spent apart. Instead she seemed almost sad as she whispered, “Why?”
“We’re having a baby together.”
“Not really,” she countered. “I mean, we have created a child together. But we aren’t really together, are we?”
She had a point. Paxton stood, the need to clarify his thoughts pushing him to pace. “No,” he said. As uncomfortable as it might be, they needed to get this point out in the open. “For now, we aren’t together.” He pivoted to face her. “But we will always be tied to one another. And right now, I’d say I know as little about you outside of work as you know about me.”
She was already shaking her head. “I just can’t deal with this right now, Paxton. Maybe later—”
“That’s just it. I’ve had a lot of experience with pregnant women. You know that.” After all, she’d watched him go to appointment after appointment with his sister last year, when her husband was away on business. “Auntie says Jasmine wants her to go on a trip with them. Let me take care of you. It will be easier on you, and on—”
“How’s it going in here?” Auntie asked as she came back through the door with a tea tray. She set it on a little table near the couch. “Here’s some ginger tea, sweetheart. Sip this slowly.”
She handed a delicate teacup to Ivy, who raised it to her lips for a little sip before saying, “Thank you, Auntie.”
The older woman limped over to a recliner, then lowered herself into it gingerly. Ivy frowned as she watched, the questions obvious on her face.
“Actually, Auntie,” Paxton said, taking a chance despite the growing horror in Ivy’s expression, “I’m trying to convince Ivy to let me stay here for a while. Let me take care of her. Take the burden off you so you can go on the trip with Jasmine.”
Auntie glanced at Ivy with an almost-amused expression that he didn’t understand. “Now, young man, don’t you use me to put pressure on this young lady. She’s carrying enough guilt as it is.”
“I didn’t mean to—”
“Then you don’t know women as well as you think you do,” she said with a smile. “Most women feel guilty for something or other. Ivy has had to take a step back lately, let other people do the work while her body handles the process of creation. That’s not what she’s used to...but I do think you have a point.”
“You do?” Paxton hadn’t thought she’d come onboard without some persuasion.
“This isn’t really a
bout me,” Auntie chided him with a soft smile. “It’s about you and Ivy. And you can’t figure out anything about you and Ivy without working it out together.” She transferred her smile to the woman looking pale and panicked on the couch. “It’s hard to do that with distance...and a chaperone.”
A stubborn expression took up residence on Ivy’s face. “So you want to let someone you don’t know live here while you’re gone?”
“But you know me, don’t you, Ivy?” Paxton prompted.
“So why did you accuse me of getting pregnant on purpose? Obviously you don’t know me.”
Paxton gave in to the renewed desire to pace. He didn’t want to get into the particulars of his doubts, his accusations. But he wasn’t seeing a way out. Especially not with Auntie’s and Ivy’s gazes trained directly on him. The pressure to explain warred with the desire to be defensive about his mistakes. “It was a long time ago.”
“Did someone try to trap you into marriage?” Ivy asked, her wide eyes a sign of surprise he didn’t believe.
Auntie made a soft clucking sound of comfort.
“No,” Paxton assured her. Veronica hadn’t trapped him into anything. “I have simply been deceived in the past by women who want more than I care to give. While I don’t think that’s what’s happening here, the question had to be asked.”
Auntie laughed. “Son, if someone is scamming you, I doubt they’re just gonna admit it when you ask directly like that. But I can assure you, my niece is on the up-and-up. Besides, I doubt she was the one who brought the birth control to the party. Right?”
“Auntie!” Ivy cried, her pale cheeks flushing rose-red.
Paxton would normally have chuckled, but he was too lost in the memory of grabbing a condom from the bedside table. The box of condoms he’d bought. She was right. Birth control was always something Paxton handled himself. Only this time it had failed him.
He felt a low throb in his body, as if reminding him it had all been worth it. Too bad his body lied.
Then Ivy pressed a hand to her stomach and grimaced. As she lifted the teacup back to her lips, Paxton decided to give her some breathing room. Normally, he pressed hard when he wanted something. Pressed until he received the answer he wanted. But now wasn’t the time for that...and he had a feeling Ivy wasn’t a woman who would take it.
“Look, just think about it. I think it would be good for us.” Even if maintaining his distance would be harder under those circumstances. But he had to remember his life plan. This might be a detour, but he refused to be derailed from his own goals. Or his family’s expectations. “I’ll come by tomorrow.”
“Why don’t you just call?” Ivy asked.
Maybe he would press...just a little more. “Because regardless of your decision, you’re stuck with me. Yours is only a choice of location.”
Four
“Auntie, why didn’t you tell me?”
Ivy hated the whine in her voice, but couldn’t seem to suppress it. Every minute that brought her closer to having Paxton staying with her, in her house, alone together...well, her nerves were definitely on edge. She’d just found out that he was due to arrive in a few hours and would be staying for the duration of Auntie’s trip with Jasmine.
“Unlike Paxton,” Auntie said with a small smile, “I know how women work emotionally. There’s no need for you to feel responsible for my decision to have him stay here.”
Ivy glanced at Jasmine as they crowded around her bed in the far upper room of the house. “Really?” Ivy said. Jasmine had been just as bad, keeping their plans quiet until the last minute.
Her sister shrugged. “Not my place to tell you we were going, either,” she said. “Stop with the grumpy face.”
“Don’t I have a say?” Ivy asked, throwing her hands up in a futile gesture. “I’m a grown woman, perfectly capable of taking care of myself.”
“Not right now, you aren’t,” Auntie said. As she walked through the door, she threw back over her shoulder, “And guess what? That’s okay.”
No. It never was, in her book.
The energy drained from her, causing Ivy to plop down on the bed. “Am I doing the right thing?”
Both of Ivy’s sisters paused in sorting the laundry on her bed to stare at her. Unable to handle the astonishment in their looks, she turned away. She let her nervous fingers trace the hand-sewn stitches on the quilt Auntie had made for her for her eighteenth birthday. “I’m not myself, okay?”
“You must not be,” Willow said with an astonished tone. “Because I’ve never known you to ask us what the right choice is.”
“Ever,” Jasmine agreed.
Willow chuckled. “You keep this up, we might start to think you’re human.”
Ivy grimaced. It wasn’t so much that she thought she knew everything. She simply hated to burden other people with her problems, or her upkeep, or her needs or wants. She preferred to give rather than receive...ever since her parents had died and she’d found herself as the youngest child with everyone else struggling to support her.
As her brain entered yet another round of asking, What am I going to do about Paxton? She wilted. No nausea so far today, but her entire body felt drained. Hopefully the doctor had been right and she only had a little over a month of this to go. Then her hormones would calm down and the nausea would subside.
She could feel her sisters’ gazes on her, their concern, which was why they’d come over to help Auntie pack and get some things straightened up before their trip. But she wasn’t sure how to express herself right now. This baby seemed to have sucked the life from her brain, as well as her body.
She also suspected they wanted to check out the situation firsthand, make sure she wasn’t being forced to do something she didn’t want to do. Or that Paxton wasn’t even more volatile than the last row they’d seen, even though Ivy had assured them that that was unusual for him.
Jasmine tried to reassure her. “You don’t have to do this if you don’t want to. Even if he’s already at the door. We’ll figure it out.”
And leave Auntie disappointed that she couldn’t go with Jasmine and her daughter, Rosie, on this special trip. “I’m scared not to,” Ivy whispered.
That had them dropping the laundry and closing in. “Why?”
Jasmine grabbed one of her hands. “We’ll simply stay home if this is too much. You know we’ll do everything in our power to take care of you.”
Which was exactly what Ivy didn’t want. Her sisters both had their hands full these days. The last thing Ivy wanted to be to anyone was a burden.
She rubbed her palm over her lower belly. As much as this little booger was giving her fits, she loved it already. Sight unseen. “I know that. But I need to do this... There’s a lot at stake.”
Her sisters scooted closer. Jasmine draped an arm around her shoulders. “Are you gonna tell him?” she asked.
Ivy knew what they meant. The secret history their family shared with Paxton’s. The history he didn’t even know about. Oh, he’d heard the story, of course. Probably many times, considering it was one of his ancestors who had died when her family allegedly sabotaged one of his family’s most impressive cargo ships several generations ago. It had sunk off the coast of Savannah, with the family’s heir inside.
Her family had been accused of destruction of property and murder. There wasn’t any proof, but that hadn’t stopped the McLemores from destroying her great-grandfather’s life anyway, until he’d had to move away to protect the safety of his wife and daughter.
Only, he’d been innocent all along.
Jasmine had thought she was safe. After all, the family name had died with their mother. Their return to live with Auntie after their parents’ deaths went unnoticed by anyone aware of the tragedy. There had been no reason for Paxton to ever know his employee was hiding her true identity from him.
Now she was tangled up
in a web that felt deceitful, even though she’d never meant it that way. Despite the beliefs of Paxton’s family, her great-grandfather had been a good man. But she had no way to prove his innocence at the moment. Ivy raised her gaze to Jasmine’s worried expression. “What are the odds of us raising a child together without him ever finding out who I really come from?” she asked.
Well, they wouldn’t be truly together...not in the way she’d dreamed of before that magical night. But they would still talk, interact with each other, make decisions together, right? Now that she knew for certain Paxton would be a part of her child’s life, Ivy knew it would be important to stay on good terms with him.
As much as that was within her power.
Her stomach lurched for the first time today. This was not how she’d imagined having a child, nor how she’d imagined being with Paxton.
“I’m sorry,” Willow said. “Maybe soon I will have the proof we need. That’s why I went to Sabatini House, to see if I could find proof that the Sabatini pirates were actually responsible for sinking that ship, but I got a little distracted.”
Willow rubbed her own belly then. Her sister had found herself pregnant only a few weeks after Ivy. But her circumstances were much different...and happier. Ivy reassured her, “What you found there was far more important than family history.”
“Hopefully we’ll have the pieces we need to prove our family’s innocence soon enough,” Jasmine said.
“Should we have a plan?” Willow asked.
Ivy frowned as unease drifted through her body. “That seems wrong...devious, somehow.”
“Why?” Willow asked. “It’s called contingency planning. There are certain things you can’t control, but we need to decide ahead of time if there are circumstances where you need to give the details of our family history. Otherwise, the best plan is silence. For now.”
“I can’t think of any reason you would bring this up yourself,” Jasmine said with a shake of her head. “I think the plan should just be silence, unless he brings it up himself.”
