How to Knock Up Your Nurse: A Billionaire Secret Baby Romantic Comedy

by Melinda Minx

  "Should I take my shirt off?" Silas shouted.

  The women in the crowd started screaming, and I felt a flush of jealousy at that.

  Silas grinned into the crowd and put his hands up. "I'll undo a few buttons. Then it will be a bit like a gi. Go easy on the shirt, Dennis, it's expensive."

  I rolled my eyes, but I realized I was smiling. He was already charming me again. I already felt transfixed, drawn to his magnetic pull. The problem was I couldn’t let him see me. I'd had his child and hidden it from him. Even if I suddenly changed my mind now, there was too much baggage to just go up to him and say hello.

  Still, I couldn't look away. Each time he undid a button, women started shouting. He kicked his shoes off, and then he leaned forward and gave the teacher a high five.

  The kids from the dojo were all sitting on the ground watching now. The little girl and boy who had fought were sitting next to each other and talking, but they stopped talking when Silas and their teacher started to spar.

  Silas and the teacher both ducked down low just like the girl and the boy had. The feints of the grown men looked more advanced though. Less telegraphed. I remembered how Silas had effortlessly disarmed and pinned down the frat guy in the bar so many years ago, but this opponent—even though twice as old as the frat guy—knew Jiu Jitsu too. I could tell by the way his hands moved that Silas wouldn't be able to just freely grapple him like he’d done to the frat guy.

  The teacher went in, and Silas sidestepped him, but the teacher grabbed hold of Silas' leg. Silas widened his stance so he couldn't be pulled to the ground, but the teacher did not let go. Something happened faster than I could see, and then Silas was on the ground with one leg pulled back and wrapped around the teacher's neck. The teacher clawed at Silas shirt, ripping it wider open.

  The women cheered louder as Silas’ rippling abs were almost fully exposed. "Rip that thing off, sensei!" someone shouted.

  "Mine or his?" the older teacher shouted back.

  Everyone laughed, but the teacher's face was turning beet red. He was drenched in sweat, and he pulled harder. Silas' shirt came off, and now without the shirt, the teacher couldn't seem to get a grip on Silas. Silas’ abs were somehow even harder than when I'd slept with him. He didn't look older, just stronger. Harder. Maybe more mature, some of that boyish charm had grown into a more seasoned and sophisticated allure.

  The teacher pressed with his foot to try to get a better grip on Silas, but then Silas got his knee up under the teacher's stomach, and he flipped him up over his head. Silas had flung him like a catapult.

  The teacher flew a few feet through the air, then landed flat on his back. There was an audible thwack as he hit the mat, and Silas stood up and fist pumped. He was totally shirtless. His hair was matted, and his muscles and veins were bulging. He looked like a Greek god who had just defeated some kind of hydra or cyclops.

  "That guy is so cool!" Elijah shouted. "Mommy! Mommy! Look! Look! He is so the cool guy!"

  Elijah started running forward, but when I tried to run after him, Bella dug her paws into the grass, and the suddenly taut leash pulled on me without warning. I lost my balance and crashed into the grass. Elijah kept running up toward the stage ahead of me.

  "Woah!" I heard the teacher say as I worked my way back up to my feet. "It looks like we got an eager little Jaguar here!"

  The teacher was still red-faced and panting from losing the fight, but he’d gotten the microphone again.

  I scrambled to my feet and jerked Bella to follow me. I cleared the crowd in time to see Elijah going up the stairs.

  "We'd be happy to have him join us," the teacher said, panting from exhaustion at his defeat, "but uh, whose kid is this?"

  I got to the bottom of the stairs just as Elijah reached the top. I ran up with Bella trailing behind, and then when I turned the corner, I saw Silas looking at me. The recognition on his face was very evident. He knew it was me. He'd already spotted me before I'd seen him, and judging by his reaction he'd had a few moments to already process things.

  His mouth was hanging open, and Elijah was running straight for him.

  I reached forward just in time to grab Elijah by the back of his coat. He tried to run further toward Silas, but his feet slid on the mat, and he didn't move forward any further. I was holding the leash behind me with one hand, and I was gripping Elijah's coat in front of me with the other. Silas was shirtless and speechless, just like the first time I'd met him.

  I pulled Elijah back and fell to my knees so I could pull him up against my body and stop him from bum-rushing his father. I put the leash under my knee, but Bella was just standing still now anyway.

  I looked up at Silas with a sheepish grin and waved nervously. "Your nipple looks better."

  "Is that your kid?" he asked, pointing down at Elijah.

  "No, it's just a random child that I'm clutching to my bosom."

  "Is that..." Silas pointed down at Elijah, and I saw realization wash across his face in that moment. Maybe he'd pieced together from Elijah's age and from the way I was acting that it was his, or maybe he'd already seen himself in our little boy's face and eyes.

  "Is that the nurse, Uncle Silas?" the little girl with the ponytail asked.

  Silas looked over toward the little girl and gave her a cutting gesture across his neck.

  "Nurse Emily?" the girl said, louder. "Nurse Emily!"

  Oh, God, she was looking right at me.

  I looked at her with confusion. Why did she know my name? "Yes?"

  The little girl smiled. "Uncle Silas told me about you. He didn't tell me you had a kid though."

  The teacher was talking into the microphone now. He was standing in front of us while giving out contact information for the dojo. The kids were dispersing throughout the crowd to hand out flyers. Attention had shifted away from us, and I doubted anyone could hear our voices.

  Silas was walking toward us. He looked dazed and confused. "Shaken" was probably the best word to describe it.

  "Emily," he said, and then he fell to his knees on the mat. His chest and shoulders heaved. The sweat glistened all over his body. His eyes moved back and forth from mine to Elijah's.

  Elijah was squirming and fighting me, and I was so stunned by seeing Silas' reaction that I lost my grip on him. Elijah rushed to his father. He jumped just before reaching Silas, and then plowed right into him.

  Silas barely had time to hold his arms out. He caught hold of Elijah, but Elijah tried to pull on his arm. "I'm gonna Jiu Jitsu you!"

  Silas just stared down at his son, dumbstruck. Elijah pulled on his father's arm until it was behind his body. He grunted and tugged, and Silas did nothing to fight back.

  "What's his name?" Silas asked me.

  "Elijah," I whispered.

  We were both on our knees facing each other. It was like that moment just before Elijah had been conceived. I could tell we both were thinking it.

  "Your nipple didn't fall off," I said, pointing forward.

  "No," he said, "I had a very good nurse. Why didn't you tell me?"

  Elijah grabbed hold of Silas' other arm and pulled it behind his body. He was tugging on both arms now, but Silas was just looking at me with a confounded and desperate expression on his face.

  The little girl with the ponytail sat down right across from us. "Hi, Nurse Emily, my Uncle Silas is a really good guy. I think you should give him another chance."

  Elijah had grabbed hold of Silas's shoulders and was trying to pull him down and pin him to the ground.

  "Your little boy can become a Jaguar," she said, "I started when I was about as little as him, and look how good I am now."

  "He's strong," Silas whispered.

  "Silas," I said, scooting closer to him.

  Bella laid down in front of Naomi and rolled onto her back. Naomi started scratching her stomach.

  Silas finally broke his gaze from me. I could tell he was hurt.

  "You made it clear..." I said, "that you were...a bachelor."
>
  His mouth moved, but no words came out. Finally he looked up. "Can I get to know him?"

  I nodded, tears forming in my eyes. "I think that would be really good. God, I'm so sorry, Silas."

  I scooted closer still to him, and the next thing I knew I was hugging him. My face was buried against his bare and sweaty chest, and my tears were running down his big pectoral muscles.

  "Hnngg! Huhhh! Aggggggghh!" Elijah shouted as he climbed up onto Silas' shoulders.

  I started laughing. "Those are Elijah's ninja noises. He thinks you're a ninja."

  "We're not ninjas," Naomi said, "we're Jitero."

  "Jitero!" Elijah shouted as he pulled down on Eljiah. "Mommy! You got him?"

  "I'm hugging him, sweetie," I said. “I’m not trying to Jiu Jitsu him.”

  Silas hugged me back, and then Bella got jealous and jumped up on my lap.

  "Are you a doctor now?" Silas asked.

  I nodded against his chest. "I am."

  Bella started making desperate whining noises, so I used one hand to pet her and soothe her.

  "You're going to stay here?" Silas asked.

  "I am. Are you..."

  I trailed off. I was going to ask if he was single, but it felt like a question I didn't have the right to ask right now. As far as I was concerned, Silas had a right to be a part of Elijah's life from this moment forward, and that was the end of it. If Silas wanted nothing to do with me, I'd consider that fair. I didn't expect his forgiveness, and I certainly didn't expect him to want to just pick up right where we'd left off when I'd bolted off to Alaska despite him wanting me to stay.

  "Are you happy?" I asked instead.

  "I think I am now," he said, his solid chin resting against the top of my head.

  10

  Silas

  We walked together to the playground.

  Elijah freaked out at the size of it and immediately rushed up the ladder and started stomping on the bridge.

  "He looks like me," I said, shaking my head in disbelief.

  "It was hard to forget you when I kept seeing you in his face."

  "So you wanted to forget me?" I asked.

  We were sitting on a bench in the shade. I’d bought a t-shirt from the farmer's market. It was tight and barely fit me, and it had a corn on the cob wearing sunglasses on it giving a thumbs up. It wasn't something I'd usually wear, but It felt odd to walk around shirtless with a belt and dress pants on.

  "I don't know," she said, biting her lip. "I didn't want to guilt or pressure you. I didn't want you to think I was just trying to get money from you either."

  "God, Emily. Why would I have thought that?"

  She looked fucking beautiful. More beautiful, if that was even possible. Motherhood had made her even more feminine. More nurturing. Softer in some ways, but harder in others. I had to admit I was less than happy about being first told I had a son when he was four years old. When I'd already missed a large chunk of his early life. Still, when Emily asked me "Are you happy?" I knew the answer immediately in my head.

  No. I wasn't happy. I hadn't been in a long time. And now? Fuck, it was too early to say for sure, but this felt like it could become happiness. I had a fucking kid. I hadn't wanted one, that was for sure. Maybe even if Emily had told me when she "was supposed to" I would have freaked out and handled it poorly. Maybe right now, in this moment, was the perfect time for me to find out. I felt more ready now than ever to be a father and to hear this news.

  I couldn't be mad at her. It was the wrong way to handle this. She hadn't meant it to hurt me. She'd more or less correctly assumed how I'd have reacted. I'd explicitly told her I never wanted kids, and what was she supposed to do with that information? Tell me I had a kid?

  I took her by the hand. I cupped her small hand in mine and looked right into her eyes. "Emily, I don't blame you for anything. This is...this is the best news I could have gotten. I'm a dad, and even better, you're the mom. I mean, I have a kid with you."

  "So you're single?" she asked, laughing.

  "Terminally single."

  She smiled, but it faded just as quickly. "We have to be very careful now, Silas. Elijah just thinks you're ‘cool Jiu Jitsu guy.’"

  "I am.” I laughed.

  "I mean he doesn't know you’re his father."

  "When are we going to tell him?"

  "Soon," she said. "Very, very soon."

  "Like right now?"

  "Maybe tomorrow."

  I nodded. I could wait a day. Hell, I probably could use a day to process things. Elijah was going to remember the moment that he found out I was his father for the rest of his life. I didn't want him to remember me wearing this ridiculous tshirt when I told him who I was.

  "I've been a mom for four years now, Silas."

  "I've been a dad just as long," I whispered. "Fuck."

  She squeezed my hand. "I'm sorry, I didn't mean it like that. It's just, I've known longer. It's different with kids. If we're going to try dating again, we have to put Elijah first. Do you understand?"

  I nodded. "I do. I saw how Noah did that with Naomi."

  "Noah is your brother? I heard Naomi call you Uncle Noah."

  I shook my head. "Naomi’s not my biological niece. Noah is my business partner. Naomi’s just grown up around me."

  "She seems like a very sweet kid."

  "When she's not destroying her opponents, then yeah, she's a sweetheart."

  "Elijah really wanted to pin you down."

  I grinned ear to ear. "He's got fight in him."

  I looked up and saw Elijah barreling down the slide. He leapt off the end of the slide and waved at us. "Mommy! I'm jumping! Look! Look!"

  He jumped up and down in pure excitement. I remember how Naomi used to do that at this age. He'd be taking a serious nap this afternoon, by the look of things.

  "Can you play with me, Jiu Jitsu Guy?"

  I stood up and smiled ear-to-ear. "I'd love to play with you, little man."

  "You're the monster," he said, "you gotta go hiding in the slide. Then you pop out and scare me. That slide. Go hide in that one over there!"

  He pointed to a green, tube-shaped slide. I raised an eyebrow at him. If he told me exactly what slide to hide in, it wouldn't be much of a surprise, but this was a kid who sounded like he knew exactly what he wanted, so I ran up the slide and curled up into a ball to fit inside of it.

  I wormed my way up the slide a bit. I heard a few kids at the top about to come down.

  "The monster is in here!" I shouted up at them. "Go away!"

  "Come on, man," one of the kids said.

  "If you're old enough to 'come on, man' me, then you're too old to slide!" I growled back at them.

  "Dick," one of them said, and they stomped off.

  I heard Elijah giggling as he ran toward the slide. "Monster? Monster? Where areeee youuuuu, Mr. Monster?"

  I slammed a fist into the inside of the slide.

  Elijah giggled louder.

  "Monster? Are you in there?"

  He was just at the entrance to the slide, but he couldn't see me, because I'd wriggled up halfway into the tube.

  "Monster?"

  He sounded genuinely confused now. If I had to guess, he made Emily play this game, but she never went the extra mile to really hide all the way up in the slide.

  I let out a roar, and Elijah laughed even louder. I heard him stomp on the bottom of the slide, and he started climbing up.

  I growled, and my voice echoed down the slide.

  Elijah turned the corner and saw me. He burst out laughing, and I started very slowly letting myself down the slide. I didn't want to hit him, but I wanted him to see me coming.

  He let out a playful scream and slid down away from me. I made sure he was faster than me, and I came out of the slide a few seconds after he'd cleared it.

  I jumped out onto the wood chips and roared. Elijah threw up his hands and ran toward Emily.

  "Mommy! Mommy! Jiu Jitsu Guy is such the scary monster!"
<
br />   "Scarier than me?" she asked, faking surprise.

  "He go up all the way in there! I didn't see him, and I have to climb up, and then he goes RRAARRRRRRR!" Elijah put up his hands like a monster and made a big scary face to his mom.

  "You guys want to get something to eat?" I asked. "I know a good pizza place just across from the park."

  "We gotta do it again, Mr. Monster."

  I cocked my head at him.

  Emily gave me a big, warm smile. "The better you do at being Mr. Monster, the more times you have to do it over and over and over again."

  "Ah," I said. "Then let's work up an appetite. Which slide should I go in now, Elijah?"

  "That one!" he said, pointing to the same slide we were just in.

  “You have a fucking kid,” Noah said.

  “I have a fucking kid.”

  “With Nurse Emily.”

  “She’s a doctor now. Dr. Engel.”

  “She’s always going to be Nurse Emily to me, man.”

  I’d told Noah and Naomi about her. I’d asked Noah for advice when she left, when I’d been tempted to try to reach out to her again. He told me to follow my gut—or maybe he’d said to follow my heart?

  I hadn’t trusted myself enough. I’d felt too aloof. Here had been a woman who knew what she wanted and was going for it. Giving up New York City to go live in fucking Alaska to get what she wanted. I’d remembered how it had felt when Noah and I had signed our first few authors. We’d started Blackwinters Publishing from the fucking ground up. We’d both gone into debt to get things rolling, and we’d sacrificed everything else in our lives to get to where we were now.

  I’d related to Emily’s ambition, and I didn’t want to ruin that for her. I’d decided that I didn’t trust myself fully. I’d been really into her after just that one night, but what if I forced her away from her dream, and then I hadn’t been good enough for her?

  So I’d gone with my heart—or maybe it was my gut—and not gone after her. I’d told Naomi about her from time to time, when she’d asked me if I was ever going to get married. I didn’t say I was going to marry Emily, but I skirted around the issue by telling Naomi that I needed to find the right woman. I’d described Emily to her, as an abstract concept rather than a woman, but Naomi knew how to push me.