Doctor’s Fake Fiancée

by Charlize Starr

  They were tired from their day and the socialization, and they fell asleep within half an hour, which was good since Cole worked the following day and had to get up early.

  Lauren started working early in the morning, already missing Cole. She made a pot of coffee and sat at the table, writing her latest article and looking at the sun rising in the backyard.

  Jane came over a couple hours later. She plopped down at the table and looked at her friend. “I feel like a beached whale.” Jane opened her laptop and sighed. “I don’t know how much longer I can write this way.”

  “He’ll be out before you know it and you’ll ease into a schedule again,” Lauren told her, tapping at the keys. “You have room for a break since you’ve worked so hard the last year.”

  “I guess. This part is just uncomfortable. I can’t wait to hold him, though,” Jane said and smiled. “We’re going to name him Brandon James. Do you like it?”

  “I love it,” Lauren told her. She looked down at Jane’s belly and shook her head. “He said…I think…I must be crazy.”

  “What do you mean?” Jane asked and Lauren rolled her eyes.

  “Cole wants a baby now. He got all starry-eyed after the shower. We’ve only been married for a month.” Lauren stared at Jane, who was smiling at her.

  “I started trying right away,” Jane reminded her. Lauren licked her lips.

  “You knew each other longer. It’s different,” Lauren protested, thinking she was becoming more insane by the second.

  “It’s love,” Jane told her and shrugged. “Take a breath and jump.”

  They worked together through the day, with Jane napping a bit more than writing. Lauren fixed her snacks and made lunch for all of them when the guys got there. Adam took great care of Jane and Lauren watched thoughtfully.

  That night, Cole and Lauren were making love when she looked into his eyes. “I have a surprise for you,” she said.

  “What’s that?” Cole asked her. She leaned down and whispered in his ear. He grabbed her and moved inside of her with a big smile. “Really, Lauren? Are we going to make a baby?”

  She nodded and kissed him.

  They were at the hospital when Brandon was born and first in the room with the grandparents to hold him. Lauren spent every day with Jane after that, helping her with diapers and just cuddling the baby while her friend slept as much as possible. It was the best time of her life, and she especially loved seeing Cole hold the baby. Brandon was a gorgeous little boy and a perfect mix of his parents.

  Brandon celebrated his six-month birthday when Lauren told her friends that she was three months pregnant. Jane was with her and Cole when they found out that it was a girl and everyone cried.

  Holding Brandon helped Lauren through the difficult parts of the pregnancy, just knowing how amazing the end result would be. Cole spoiled her and did everything that he could while they waited for their daughter. He even helped plan her baby shower at their house.

  It was another casual party with tons of food and presents, with people that Lauren was finally getting to know and love. She felt like a part of the town now and knew that her baby would be as loved as much as Brandon was. She knew that the kids would grow up well here, attending the seasonal festivals and holiday events. They could play outside with miles of land and go to the ranch with their dads to spend time with the animals. It was a great place to grow up.

  She called Cole at work when she felt the labor pains starting, hearing him yell that he was leaving before the phone went dead.

  Cole came home and took her to the hospital while Jane arranged for her parents to watch Brandon so she could be there with Adam. He’d just turned one and was an adorable bundle of walking energy with Adam’s hair and Jane’s eyes.

  In the hospital room, Jane told Lauren that she was pregnant again in a whisper. “Why? This hurts, Jane,” Lauren said, gritting her teeth. She dropped onto her back and closed her eyes.

  “You’ll see,” Jane grabbed her hand and Cole kissed her forehead as he stared at his struggling wife.

  Once the epidural was administered and kicked in, the birth went smoothly. Lauren was pushing Lily out within six hours. Cole held her leg and stared into her eyes. The baby had red hair and chubby cheeks. They stared at her and Lauren held her, feeling utterly happy.

  Epilogue

  Life was all about the kids once they were born and the girls helped each other every day. Lauren never dreamed that she could be so happy with a husband and a family, but it was everything that she wanted. With help from friends and family, Lauren still managed to work and keep the money coming in while building her business. It wasn’t easy but every moment was worth it, with Lily being such a good baby that she hardly caused any trouble. Everyone loved her at first sight, and the little girl warmed easily to people after getting to know them, though Cole was overprotective of her.

  Jane had her daughter Nicole when Lily was six months old, throwing them all into an even crazier schedule than before. The girls joked about the six-month mark and kept up with their activities, still keeping their businesses going with some understanding clients and even more help.

  Cole and Lauren had a son a year later. Declan was dark-haired like his dad, but he had Lauren’s pretty eyes and made their family complete for the moment.

  Holidays became a big tradition, seeing Christmas lights and doing all of the holiday festivals together. The kids grew up together as if they were siblings. They did Easter egg hunts at the park and attended all of the various sales around town, and Lauren loved her busy life working and spending time with her family.

  She still talked to her Dad during the rare moments outside alone, looking up to see a shooting star occasionally as his answer. Declan had her Dad’s name as his middle one and Lauren swore that he looked like his grandfather.

  Cole made her his focus at night when it was just the two of them, talking or making love. Sleeping together for a few hours was a treat these days, but they wouldn’t trade their life for anything.

  Jane had told Lauren to just take a breath and jump into love, so she did. It was the best move that she ever made.

  *****

  THE END

  The Rich Cowboy's Baby

  Description

  OMG. He is so hot and so rich... but what if he finds out about this?

  Nadine couldn’t believe that Cole would cheat on her after they moved from her home state to start a new life together.

  Not only did he cheat, but he did it in his truck in a parking lot. She had given up a good job and a future to come here and support him in his dreams of becoming a rancher so he could live a more peaceful life. Nadine had given up everything.

  Is it fate when she meets Owen in the crowd as she runs away from the end of her relationship? Is it fate that she crashes into him, and he helps her to pick up the pieces of her life over the course of a night?

  Nadine never knew that a man could make her feel like that, but makes the hard choice to return to Chicago to start a new life for herself.

  But as fate would have it, she must return to break the news to Owen that he is going to be a father...

  It was so unexpected, and she is scared, but Nadine hopes there is a chance that they can rekindle things between them with their new situation.

  Will new information break all of that hope? Can she get past the idea that she got used all over again?

  Can Owen and Nadine find love through the turmoil and form a family?

  Chapter One

  The rodeo felt crowded as Nadine searched through the crowd for her boyfriend, Cole. He had just run to get them some beers while she waited in the stands for the bull riding event, but that had been half an hour ago. It wasn’t like she knew anyone here in Texas. She had come with Cole to learn the farming life so he could take over for his father down the line. They were both accountants back in Chicago and fortunate enough to make a decent enough severance pay to come here. She loved Cole, but she also loved the city life
and missed it a lot. Nadine sighed and wondered if he’d gotten sick and headed back to his truck to leave.

  For someone who claimed he loved her, Cole could be strange sometimes. She ran a hand through her curls and cursed the humidity before making her way through the crowd. Nadine didn’t feel right here, even after being in Austin for a month now. She was one of the few black women in Cole’s scene, and everyone just seemed to shun her most of the time. Maybe following him here based on promises of wealth and a peaceful life wasn’t the best idea, but Nadine had fallen in love with him during their two-year relationship. He seemed to be worth fighting for.

  Nadine checked the concession stand for her handsome cowboy, but there was no sign of him in any of the long lines. She shook her head and, after stumbling in the cowboy boots that he’d bought her again, she stared down at the pink leather. They were admittedly pretty, but she missed the heels she used to wear to work. Nadine left the food area as she took in the tempting scent of barbecue and corn dogs with a small sigh. They could get something when she found him.

  Nadine made her way out to the parking lot, pulling her black cardigan around her body to protect herself against the cool spring breeze she walked and listening to the sounds of the crowd cheering all of the action. She looked up at the sky for a moment to take in the stars before Nadine glanced forward to see Cole’s massive red truck at the edge of the dusty lot. The closer that Nadine got to it, the louder the sounds of moaning became and Nadine widened her whiskey-colored eyes as she moved a little faster. She crossed her arms over her generous chest as she watched Cole’s bare white ass moving between the legs of some woman as she eagerly begged him for more. “What the fuck, Cole?”

  He stopped moving and shifted onto his knees in the steel bed of the truck before he fell onto the woman, who was trying to cover herself as Nadine glared at the both of them. “I came here with you from a whole life that I had back home. Why did you even ask me of you didn’t want me to begin with?”

  “Nadine, let me explain.” He tried to get his pants on before the crowd that was listening to them drew closer, as he begged her to hear him out. “Nadine!”

  She pushed her way through the crowd as the anger turned into sadness, then desperation. Nadine had given up a fantastic job to move here. Even with the generous severance pay, the money had gone primarily into moving into their new condo at the edge of town, leaving her nothing. “Fuck. What am I supposed to do now?” Nadine didn’t know anyone well enough even to ask to stay with them, and there was no way in hell that she was going to forgive Cole. She ran around to the entrance of the parking lot, then she turned sharply and crashed into a sturdy body, falling to the ground.

  “Are you okay?” Nadine was crying too hard to answer as he helped her up and looked her over before she nodded and kept going to a part of the rodeo where she could be alone and collect her thoughts. She had seen it earlier when they arrived, and Nadine leaned against a tree as she played the whole scene back in her head. Their entire relationship seemed like a joke when she thought back to when they’d met at a deli in the city when she and Cole were both still in school. Despite their skin color being completely different, they had clicked and moved quickly into a long term relationship. Moving in together in Chicago happened within six months after they were both settled in accounting firms, and the move here had seemed like a no-brainer at the time. She loved him and expected marriage at some point shortly, but all Nadine had now was the shame of returning to Chicago only to tell everybody what had happened.

  That is, if she figured out how. Nadine had had no real need for a high-limit credit card before now, so she had nothing to work with. She hadn’t even found a job yet, though she’d been looking.

  She slid down the tree trunk in the dark, and her ass hit the soft grass as she started to cry again. So many emotions flooded her brain: rage, betrayal, heartbreak, disappointment and confusion, just to name a few. Nadine buried her face in her arms as she let it all out to try to get to a place where she could figure out just what to do.

  “Ma’am? Are you okay?” Her head shot up as she blinked to see the man she’d crashed into standing at the entrance to the trees with his hands in the pockets of his fitted jeans. He was wearing a black cowboy hat, and his voice sent shivers down her spine as his drawl settled over the clearing that she was sitting in. “I wanted to check on you after our collision back there.” He was clearly a local with that drawl, and Nadine looked slowly up his body before she tried to see his face.

  “I’m fine from that. The fall was nothing; it’s what caused me to run that I’m having an issue with,” Nadine admitted, as the man walked over and sat down in the grass across from her. He took off his hat to reveal tousled chestnut hair and a dimple that almost made her forget about all of her problems as he smiled crookedly. The light was dimmer here than other parts of the area, but it still showed off his full lips and tormented gray eyes when she took a closer glance at him. “I found my boyfriend with a girl in his truck just now. I moved from Chicago to start a new life with him here and now…I don’t know what I am going to do.” She wiped away the tears that flowed freely from her burning eyes. “I have no home, no car, nothing. I don’t even have money to get back to Chicago because I’ve been supporting his sorry ass.”

  He pulled something out of his back pocket and offered it to her. “Want a little distraction for the night?” It was a flask, and she shook her head as she stared at it. It was clearly expensive. “You’re not trying to drug me, right? Not that it would necessarily make this night worse.”

  “No, ma’am. I don’t find myself having to drug beautiful women to get them into bed with me.” At least he was honest. She shrugged and took the lid off before she took a long swig of the alcohol inside. It was a good whiskey, and she swallowed it before she took a slow breath.

  “That is just what I needed,” Nadine told him, as he watched her and settled back on his hands. “Want some?”

  “I’ll be driving you to a hotel for the night in a while, so I’ll hold off for now.”

  “Hotel? I don’t even have money for that.” Reality struck Nadine, and she took another swallow from the bottle. “What’s your name?”

  “The name’s Owen James. What is yours, if you don’t mind me asking?” He let his eyes drift down her body, over her tight fitting jeans and loosely buttoned plaid shirt with a white camisole underneath it that teased Nadine’s generous cleavage. She swallowed the lump in her throat.

  “Nadine Parson,” she replied in a soft, shy voice, as he extended his hand to her easily. It was evident that this man was a bit on the cocky side, but someone had taught him some good manners.

  “Pleasure to meet you.” She reached out to shake his hand as she smiled and he shook it firmly as the heat passed between them.

  Chapter Two

  The seriousness of her situation, as well as her growing attraction to Owen, made Nadine keep sipping at the bottle and soon she was giggling as she dropped back against the trunk. He moved closer to her and slipped a hand over her thigh as she stared into his eyes under the white lights that lined the fence. “Would you like to stay with me tonight?” There was a look in his eyes that told Nadine that he needed this as much as she did, a pain that she had picked up on despite his flirting and smiles. Owen had something of his own that he was going through, and Nadine found herself worrying about him more than herself.

  “Yes, I’d like that a lot.” She could pretend that everything was fine for a night and then deal with things tomorrow.

  “To my chariot, my lady.” Own stood and held out his hand to help her up as she smiled at him and allowed him to lift her into his arms. Owen barely paused before his lips crashed over hers and Nadine wrapped her arms around his neck as she pulled him closer. A kiss had never made her knees weak like this one did and she parted her lips at the prodding of his tongue against her mouth and moaned as he tasted her. They kissed for several moments before he led her urgently to a shiny SUV in t
he corner of the lot and opened the door for her before he kissed her again. A phone was ringing over and over as he pulled away with a ragged breath and ran around to his side. Owen started the engine with a quick twist of his wrist as the phone sounded again.

  “Shouldn’t you get that?” Nadine prodded him. Whoever it was seemed to need to talk to him, and Own glanced at the screen before he tossed the phone into the back of the Tahoe.

  “No. It doesn't matter.” His voice was dark, and she stared at him for a moment before he backed out of the space and headed to the main road with a hard press of the gas pedal. Nadine looked around as they drove, fairly sure that they were moving in the opposite direction to her condo—her old condo. Once she got the few things she’d brought along with her, Nadine would never see those rooms again.

  The car moved into the country with sprawling land and crops on both sides of them. Nadine looked at it and decided this part of Texas was beautiful as she leaned back against the comfortable leather seat. Owen took a sharp turn left into a long driveway and then a right to drive away from what looked like the main house. “Where are we going?”

  “I don’t live in the house. I have my own space,” Owen responded. He kept driving until they reached a top-of-the-line double wide trailer out in the middle of nothing but miles of land.

  Nadine allowed him to open her door for her and slid out before staring up at the stars in the sky. “Beautiful.”

  “Yes, you are,” Owen assured her, as Nadine looked up at him and soaked in the compliments to soothe her wounded soul. “That man was a fool to throw away somebody like you, if you don’t mind me saying so. I am not too familiar with relationships myself, but I would cherish one with the proper woman.”