All By Herself (A BWWM Pregnancy Romance Book 1)

by Tasha Blue

  Daniel simply grunted instead of telling her that she was welcome and let himself out with barely a goodbye. He strode away from the building in a foul mood. Inside her apartment, Carla had no idea what she had done to make him so irritable.

  Was Daniel really so upset that she'd been asked on a date? He'd had months to make his move and hadn't done anything. She'd watched him date that blonde bimbo and was now suffering the consequences of his relationship, and yet she had never said a word, so how could he be so callous now? Carla called Lily to talk about it.

  "So he came in, heard about the date and stormed out?" Lily summed up after hearing the tale. "Wow, that is one love-struck pup."

  "Love struck?" Carla scoffed. "It was more like he was angry with me. I guess it's because he doesn't like complications in his life. He told me that's why he was dating the bimbo. He just likes things to be predictable and routine and I suppose that me having my own life is just too much for him to handle."

  "Don't take it that way, Carla." Lily replied. "He's definitely into you, like, crazily. I mean, you've told me that he never smiles and never shows emotion, like he's a statue, cool as a cucumber, but as soon as you meet someone else he flips his lid? A man who can keep his head in court and in a department store when a vile woman is screaming at him, but loses it when a woman he spends a lot of time with wants to spend time with someone else is very clearly in love. It's jealousy, Carla. Pure and simple."

  "Do you think?" Carla asked her uncertainly. "I mean, Dan's just so hard to read. He never lets anything show. I think it's the lawyer in him. He's trained to have this poker face, but sometimes I just want to see what's really going on underneath. I get glimpses of it from time to time when he forgets himself and starts laughing or when he gets excited about the baby and breaks character for a moment, but most of the time he just pretends that nothing can touch him. It drives me mad. I just want to know where he's at."

  "And where are you at, Carla?" Lily asked meaningfully. "Is he a fling, or just the father of your child or something more?"

  "All of the above." Carla sighed. "I admire that man. I care about him. He's been nothing but kind and supportive through all of this. He's not the player I thought he was; there's been nobody since Brooke, and he's doing everything with the case to save the bakery out of his own good will. There's so much good in him.

  Yes, I think I love him a little, but that's no good if Dan doesn't feel the same and there's just no way to tell. I'm in a position where I'm about to have a kid. I'm getting older. I can't be turning away men just in case Daniel lets me in someday. Michael is a kind, sweet, and open guy. I know what he's thinking. I know he likes me. It's plain, it's simple, it's easy. What's wrong with wanting simple and easy?"

  Lily sighed on the other side of the line. She didn't really have an answer for her. "I guess if you think this new guy will make you happy..." she pondered. "I just don't want you to make a mistake. You're crazy about the lawyer. I know you are. I know you like everything perfect all the time, but sometimes a little madness makes life interesting, you know?"

  The Final Chapter

  It was the day of the court case and Carla was waiting anxiously at home while Daniel battled on her behalf in court. She kept looking down at her cell phone in the hope that Dan would call, and twisting her hands together nervously. All of the gossip and nasty rumors about her bakery had taken its toll on her emotionally and on the business. She just wanted it all to be over.

  Suddenly, there was a knock on the door and Carla looked up at the clock to see that it was already the mid-afternoon. She raced to the door and pulled it open to find Daniel standing there with a rare grin on his face.

  "We won?" Carla gasped.

  "We won!" he told her happily.

  "Daniel, you're amazing!" Carla gushed, rushing to him and throwing her arms around his neck. "Thank you!"

  The lawyer accepted her hug and held her closely to savor the embrace. He'd become more comfortable with Carla than with any other woman he'd ever had in his life. He let her go and walked over to her tattered old sofa. He sat down and began to tell her what their victory meant.

  "She was found guilty of all the charges." Daniel explained. "The judge has granted a restriction order against her and any further harassment will be liable to criminal charges; which means prison. She was also ordered to pay compensation for lost earnings and trauma. It's a lot of money, Carla."

  He pulled out the figures from inside his suit pocket and handed them to her. Her face fell in shock and she looked at him with wide, disbelieving eyes.

  "Are you serious?" she asked him breathlessly. "This kind of money for some spurned woman's bitchy actions?"

  "She knew exactly what she was doing, Carla. It was a vindictive vendetta and the judge saw right through her. You had a good lawyer. I told you I'd run her into the ground."

  "This has to bankrupt her." Carla said with sudden panic in her voice. "The restriction order was enough. We shouldn't take this.”

  Daniel couldn't believe her selflessness and concern even after all she'd been through and he felt an almost overwhelming surge of affection for her which was turned bitter by his knowledge that she was seeing another man and that he still had to make that terrible choice. Suddenly the smile fell from his face, but he tried to keep his mind on the problem at hand and reassure Carla.

  "This is a drop in the ocean for Brooke." He promised her. "Take the money and use it to build up what she couldn't tear down."

  "I don't know what to say, Daniel." Carla confessed emotionally, wiping a tear from her eye. "Thank you." She smiled at him and hugged him tight.

  The next day at work Carla told Lily all about the win and the redheaded apprentice was just as incredulous at the sum.

  "You told me he was good, but that's just ridiculous!" she gasped. "He must be a wizard. A court room magician."

  "He's something.” Carla agreed.

  "What are you going to do with all that money?" Lily asked her.

  Carla sighed guiltily and prepared to confess something to Lily that she made her swear not to mention to anyone. Lily could sense the weight of the gossip and leaned forward across the counter with eager eyes.

  "Tell me!" she squealed impatiently.

  "You know how I always keep checking out premises in the city, you know, just in case?" Carla asked her.

  "Of course." Lily nodded. "You've been fantasizing about opening a second store there forever."

  "Well, there was this one place right in the middle of the city. It's the perfect location. Even with this win the cost is out of my price range." Carla said. "Still, I put in a ridiculously low-ball offer on the off-chance that I could get it.

  I know that a store like that in the perfect place just won't come up again. There's not another coffee shop or café on the whole street, but it's right on top of a whole bunch of offices and there's a bookshop and a music store..." She sighed longingly. "It's just perfect."

  "It sounds amazing." Lily agreed. "But what about Daniel? What would you do if the offer was accepted?"

  "It won't be accepted." Carla said assuredly. "I just made an offer on the off-chance. It won't be considered."

  "But if it was?" Lily pressed. "And not just Daniel, what about Michael?"

  "Gosh, I hadn't even thought about him." Carla realized with a guilty gasp.

  Lily rolled her eyes. "Of course you haven't." she agreed. "Because you're madly in love with Daniel. I dunno why you're with that old man."

  "He's thirty-nine."

  "He looks a hundred." Lily teased.

  "He's handsome," Carla said generously.

  "He's no Daniel."

  Carla sighed and thought about the consequences of leaving both men. She didn't think that it would matter much to Daniel. In the weeks that she'd been dating Michael, he'd become so distant and moody with her that she felt like she wanted to get away from him.

  Michael, on the other hand, was very sweet, but he just didn't get her heart th
umping or her blood running the way that Daniel did. He was a safe bet, but dull. Now that Carla had tasted passion and electricity, anything less just left her feeling unfulfilled and she longed for another night with Daniel, but Daniel wasn't interested.

  "There's no sense in discussing it." Carla said at last. "It's not going to happen."

  Although Carla was thinking a lot about the premises in the city, she soon found that there were going to be much greater things on her mind when her contractions started on the seventeenth of May, only two days after her due date.

  She had been in the bakery when her water broke and it had been Mrs. Shields and Lily who helped her waddle into the kitchen away from the customers and call Daniel in a panic. Then they called an ambulance and she was whisked away to the hospital where Daniel was anxiously waiting for her.

  It was the first time that Carla had ever seen him look nervous. He paced the corridors anxiously, rubbing the back of his neck and drinking obscene amounts of coffee from the vending machine to keep himself from thinking about the baby that was on the way.

  When a maternity nurse finally informed Daniel that it was time, he entered into the delivery room at Carla's side and squeezed her hand as she pushed their daughter Maria into the world.

  After the parents and friends and relatives came to gather around and coo and offer their congratulations, Daniel and Carla were finally left alone. Carla was enchanted by her daughter, but equally enchanted by the look of wonder on Daniel's face.

  His mask had slipped and she saw underneath it a man captivated by the sight of his newborn baby girl. He held her, and as he looked down at the tiny little face of his beautiful daughter, with her dark skin, dark hair, and his grey eyes, Carla swore that she saw him tear up for a moment, which made her heart well with joy because it showed he was not made of stone.

  "She's beautiful." Daniel said in a voice that was husky from emotion, although he quickly cleared his throat to rid his voice of the tenderness there. "Are you alright?" he asked her, looking at her in concern.

  "I'm fine." Carla promised. She reached out to lay her hand atop Daniel's and looked up at him with an exhausted but triumphant smile. "She's our little girl."

  For a few days after the birth, Daniel could not have been more attentive, more supportive, or more loving of Carla and her daughter, but after she was out of the hospital and back in her apartment, she noticed the lawyer beginning to return to his sulking ways. In fact, she noticed him change his attitude the very second he heard that Michael would be visiting.

  "Michael!" Daniel seethed. "It's not the best time."

  "Michael and I are a couple now, Daniel." Carla replied gently. "Is that going to be a problem?"

  In her voice was a silent plea for him to break character, break down, and tell her that he loved her. Instead, he grew stubborn and turned his back on her.

  "Do what you want."

  That was the way it was. Carla didn't know if Daniel was acting out because he was hurting, longing, or selfish, but there was simply no way to tell with him. Meanwhile, her relationship with Michael was ambling along, but Carla could tell that it would soon be on its last legs.

  Although there was nothing outwardly wrong with the relationship, it just felt like there was no chemistry in it either. It meant that when she received a call from a property agent when her daughter was just three weeks old, Carla decided to leave.

  She didn't tell Daniel right away that she was leaving for the city, for the same reason that he had never told Brooke about the pregnancy. She didn't want a big angry scene that was just too much for her to handle. Carla felt like she was in a place where Daniel didn't want her, Michael wasn't right for her, and she needed to take her chance for happiness where she could find it.

  She would get around to telling Daniel when the time was right, but for the time being, she confirmed her offer and began to get the paperwork for the move underway.

  Meanwhile, it was the middle of June and Daniel was running out of time to make his decision. He was desperate to go to the city and fulfill every dream he'd ever had. Every time that he thought about making the call to Pike and Turner to tell them that he would accept their offer, his thoughts would turn to his little girl Maria, and to Carla; to her gentle eyes, bright smile and kind and caring ways.

  He would think about how, despite all the drama and surprises, that he had never felt more himself, more calm or less alone than since he'd met her. He realized that no matter how much he loved the buzz of the courtroom and the thrill of building a fearsome reputation, it was sharing it with Carla that made it all feel worthwhile.

  Without her, the manic corporate world was hectic and he often reaped great rewards, but they began to feel empty since Carla started to date Michael and wins felt less like wins when Daniel couldn't tell Carla about them and have her share in his victories.

  He missed having a companion who didn't just want him for his money or reputation, but for all the things he was. Never once had Carla been jealous or dependent or spiteful. She was beautiful and humble and loving. She was his better half and he needed her.

  He made his decision. That day he left his office at half-past two and headed across town to her bakery. He walked in past the customers, past the wide-eyed Lily, and into the kitchen where Carla was whisking up a batter. She looked up when she saw him standing there with such determination in his stance and longing in his eyes, and then suddenly he was telling her all of the things she'd ever wanted to hear from him.

  "Carla, you are everything that is good in this world," he announced loudly. "You are kind and gentle and humble and you see the good in people all the time. I've accepted women who have wanted me for all the wrong reasons and I have chased women that I have wanted for wrong reasons all my own.

  I have told myself for years that committing to a woman would ruin everything that I had built for myself and that it would mean I had to make a choice between everything I've ever wanted for myself and being with her."

  He took a few steps toward her. "Well, that time has come now. I have been offered a partnership in the city; a chance to be a named partner at my own firm. It is the fulfillment of my life's ambitions two decades early and everything I ever wanted.

  I have only two weeks left to tell them I'm on board and yet, every time that I go to make that call, all I can think about is Maria and you, and the way you make me feel and suddenly everything I thought I wanted doesn't matter, because everything I truly want is right here. I want you, Carla. I love you."

  The whisk fell from Carla's hand and her eyes filled with tears. She began to laugh from happiness and relief and as she stared at Daniel, she saw everything that she loved in him. He was strong, capable, and he made her feel safe. He never backed down or shied away from a problem and his calmness and control made her feel like everything would be okay, no matter what was happening. When they spoke, she felt like he truly heard her and she felt special every time that she drew a smile from him when nobody else could.

  All their lives, they had both been looking for someone who fit in with what they thought they wanted, without realizing that loving the right person makes all those desires for career success, fortune, and glory, seem trivial in comparison. Carla wanted him desperately wanted him too.

  "I thought you didn't want me,” she confessed emotionally. Daniel crossed the distance between them and stood before her, breathless and determined. He shook his head meaningfully.

  "I want you more than anything. I want you more than a partnership. I want you more than the city. I love you, Carla. I choose you and Maria above all those other things."

  Tears of joy were now running down Carla's face and she threw herself into Daniel's arms. Those arms which had once been so slow to return her affections now tightened around her and she felt all his coldness become warmth and all the distance between them vanish.

  "You don't have to choose."

  "What do you mean?" Daniel asked with confusion.

  Th
en Carla explained to him about the store in the city, about how she was ending things with Michael and about how she had been ready to run away at the thought that he didn't want her, but was now overjoyed that he had finally told her how he felt.

  "We thought we were such different people," she said through her happy tears, "but we're both heading in the same direction. Let's go to the city, Daniel. You, me, and Maria. Let's build our lives without having to choose. We can have it all."

  A radiant grin broke out on Daniel's face and he swept her up in his arms to kiss her with a kiss that wouldn't lead into the bedroom, but would lead into a full and happy life together. Finally, he'd met that one person who could transcend everything else.

  Carla had come into his life and disrupted it, but, somehow, he'd still ended up exactly where he needed to be, but with a future laid out before him that was more satisfying than anything he could have ever imagined. Carla was breathless from her joy. She had it all. She would get to open a new store in the city and start a family with a man who loved her, and who she deeply loved.

  One year later, Carla and Daniel were at a wedding once more. Daniel helped her carry in the wedding cake with the poker table bridge-and-groom cake topper into the main reception where Lily rushed into Carla's arms to greet how old friend.

  "Congratulations, Lily!" Carla beamed.

  "It's so good to see you!" Lily gushed. "I was afraid you wouldn't make it, what with the bakery doing so well in the city."

  "I wouldn't have missed it for the world,” Carla said.

  That evening when Daniel and Carla danced, it was with everything exactly as it should be and then, after the party was over, Daniel asked Carla to walk with him in the beautiful grounds of the exquisite manor that Lily had hired for the day. Daniel walked her down a tree-lined path that was strung with glittering fairy lights that twinkled in the darkness.

  "It was a nice wedding," he thought aloud, "but one thing kept bothering me."

  "What's that?"

  "Well, I couldn't help but think that it should have been you and me up there getting married." he said. He bent to one knee and produced a beautiful diamond ring, which sparkled under the fairy lights. Carla gasped and her hands flew to her mouth. Her Daniel, who was so bad at the romantic gestures, loved her enough to ask her to spend her life with him.