Billionaire's Second Chance Triplets_A Billionaire's Baby Romance

by Ella Brooke

  “Can I help you find someone?” she asked, adjusting a thick pair of glasses. “Are you here to see— Oh, are you here for Kit? She’s not home!”

  “I thought that might be the case. Though it’s good to know she isn’t just ignoring me.”

  “Oh, no, not at all. She’s in the hospital.”

  Grant’s insides turned to ice water. “What?”

  “Her father came by to pick up a few things for her. She fainted at work or something and hit her head. They’re keeping her a few days for observation, he said.” The woman shook her head. “It’s awful, but it seems that she’ll be okay. But when you’re pregnant, you have to be extra careful.”

  “Do you know which hospital they went to?”

  “No. I’m so sorry. You could give her a call. Though she might not be answering right now if they’re having her rest.”

  Grant nodded and thanked the woman profusely. He pulled out his cell phone as he headed back down the stairs.

  “Okay, Dr. Gossip Queen,” he said when his mother picked up.

  “Excuse me?”

  “Here’s the plan: Either you help me now, or you never see your grandkids, ever. Kit doesn’t like you, and I’m iffy on you after that scene you made last week. But I need to know which hospital she’s in, and I know you can find that out for me so I can check to see that she’s okay.”

  “Why don’t you just call her?” Adele snapped.

  “Because I took my cruel mother’s words to heart and pissed her off. She’s angry with me, and rightfully so. We wouldn’t have fought like that if you had just minded your own damn business. Kit isn’t insane. She would’ve told me as soon as she came to terms with the pregnancy.” Grant waved to the doorman on his way out. “You don’t know her like I do. She wouldn’t try to trap me. She was already scared about our relationship moving too fast, and she was scared that I couldn’t commit when it came time. She wouldn’t do this on purpose. She just needs my help now. Be a mother and help us.”

  “You don’t have to be so dramatic,” Adele scoffed. “Give me a few minutes.”

  “Okay.”

  Grant got into his car and rested his head on the steering wheel. Calling his mother had been a long shot. He’d probably not called her for anything since he was ten years old. With her busy schedule of surgeries, and his father’s busy schedule of surgeries, if he hadn’t been with the housekeeper or nanny, he had been on his own. His adult life had served to teach him that reaching out to others was a completely futile activity.

  He didn’t want that. Not for Kit, not for their children.

  Not long after, his phone rang again.

  “Mom?”

  “She’s at UCSF Medical Center. I called her mother, and Catherine answered right away. It’s good that I was the one to call, though, because her mother is not happy with you at all. That’s Catherine, though. She’ll come around if Kit ever forgives you.”

  “We’ll see if that happens. Thanks, Mom.”

  “I told her that what happened between you was, in part, due to a conversation that you and I had—”

  In part? Grant suppressed a growl as he started his car.

  “Because I was angry with you for being, I thought, irresponsible. She explained that Kit was taking an herbal supplement that interfered with her birth control. That is something that happens, and not enough laypersons really know about it.” Adele sighed. “I regret that things have turned out this way, Grant. Do try to smooth things over with her.”

  “I will do my best.” Grant pulled out of his parking space one handed and ended the call. He couldn’t help but notice that his mother’s allergy to actually admitting fault and apologizing was still raging. He didn’t have time to think of it now, though. He had to see Kit.

  ***

  By the time Grant had arrived at the hospital, suffering through mid-day San Francisco traffic, he had sent a large bouquet and called ahead to the hospital. It was going to be tricky to get in. Though he hoped that he could with the help of status and a little cash to warm the palms of the people in reception.

  Grant had to slow down to a quick walk after bolting from his parking spot to the entrance. The woman at the information desk looked pleasant, if a little bored, and smiled up at him when he arrived.

  “Hello. How can I help you today?”

  Grant glanced at her nameplate. “Alice, could you direct please me to the room of Kit Hardwick?”

  “No problem,” she said easily.

  Grant blinked. He’d expected them to bar him from seeing her, but he realized that if he’d managed to hit during visitors’ hours, and no one had asked them to restrict people from seeing her, there was no reason for him to have to bribe his way in.

  Sparing a few seconds to scold himself for being dramatic, he walked hurriedly to the room Alice had looked up for him. His heart was going wild in his chest. After not being able to reach her for days, he could barely contain his nerves; he was both elated and terrified.

  His pace slowed as he approached her door. He couldn’t see her from there, but he could hear her talking to her father James and someone else. A woman? He wiped his sweating palms on his pants and hoped he didn’t look too harried and insane.

  Kit looked small in the bed. The hospital gown swallowed her, and she was under several blankets. He was staring, and no one had noticed him yet, but all the words that he’d practiced in his head, both the angry ones and the pleading ones, crumbled on sight of her.

  She looked okay. The neighbor had said Kit had hit her head, but she wore no bandage and was a good color. She seemed fine.

  Then he was spotted by Tamara, who was sitting by Kit’s bed. Tamara frowned and pursed her lips. Kit turned her head. It was dead silent for a moment. So quiet he could hear the air ventilation system rattling somewhere above them.

  “Are you okay?” he rasped finally. He could barely manage the words.

  Kit’s eyebrows rose. “Well, apart from the obvious.”

  “I heard you hit your head.”

  James rubbed her back and nodded. “Got a good conk on the way down. She got a good looking-over by the doctors, and had a CT scan. Good thing Kit-Kat’s head is so hard.”

  “It’s one of my best traits,” Kit muttered.

  “I know I appreciate it,” Grant said, his chest opening up finally with a sense of relief. “But… Why are you still here? Wasn’t that a few days ago?”

  “Annoyingly, I’m being observed. Apparently my blood pressure has been high. For some reason,” Kit drawled.

  Grant blinked several times, trying to process what that meant. Was it his fault? Had he stressed her so thoroughly that she couldn’t handle it in her condition?

  Kit’s expression softened. “Babe, I’m pregnant thrice over and have been trying to keep it from my employer. It’s been…difficult, to say the least.”

  “I see. Well, then you should take time off from work.”

  “This is what I’m saying,” Tamara said bluntly.

  “I don’t want to get fired,” Kit said. “I know, I know. Legally they can’t, but they could find cause. It’s a freakin’ law firm.”

  Grant rubbed his fingers over his lips, frowning deeply. He spotted a large bouquet on the counter nearby. It had arrived before he had.

  “I’m gonna go visit the ladies’ and get some drinks. You want anything, Kit?” Tamara said.

  Kit shook her head and squeezed Tamara’s hand before she left. Then she looked to her father and whispered something. Trying not to be rude, Grant looked away, but he couldn’t help but hear bits and pieces.

  “—can’t keep doing this—”

  “—at least try. You’ll be upset later—”

  “—love him.”

  James rose and gave Grant a pat on the shoulder before leaving the room. Grant found it hard to swallow, but he stepped closer to the bed.

  “Kit, I’m so, so sorry,” Grant started.

  “I know. I got your messages. I just… This is real
ly hard for me. I’m drowning here. This is scary. And you just lost the plot on me.”

  “I know! I shouldn’t have ever talked to you that way. My mother just found out from yours what happened, and if I had just listened… If I hadn’t taken what my mother said to heart….” Grant shook his head. “She gets to me. I’m a grown man, but she does.”

  “What do I do three or four months from now when she gets to you again? What do I do two years from now, with three children, when you panic again?” Kit pressed.

  “I won’t.” He sat beside her and took her hand. “You have to give me a chance, Kit. I promise you, I won’t listen to her. I won’t ever attack you like that again.”

  “Yeah. We’re safe,” she said sarcastically. “Because for sure, I won’t ever piss you off ever again.”

  “I don’t know how people learn to fight without breaking up.” Honesty was probably his only weapon right now. “Neither of our parents managed to do it. I can only hope that we break the mold.”

  “I really think your parents were just competitive, Grant. They never divorced, but it’s part of their blood as surgeons to fight for their position and always be right. As for mine…” Kit sighed. “Their interests are just too far apart. It was never going to work.”

  “We do have shared interests, don’t we? Haven’t we always— Well, I’ve always felt more comfortable when you were around. I suppose I should’ve said so at some point. Fundraisers, home, work, it’s never quite right, but when you’re there, it’s all worth doing.” Grant looked down at the ground, feeling raw and exposed. It was unfair, but he’d never been comfortable admitting how awkward things got for him. He simply didn’t know how to connect with people.

  Kit made that so easy.

  Her fingers touched the bottom of his chin, lifting his head. They looked into one another’s eyes.

  “Kit, I love you so much. You’re everything to me. I know it hasn’t been much time, but I don’t know if I’ll survive losing you.”

  “I don’t know if I can survive you breaking my heart a third time,” she replied in a tight voice.

  Grant leaned over her and kissed her softly. “I won’t. I swear, I won’t. From now on, whenever we’re afraid, whenever we’re unsure about each other or our relationship, we talk to each other first.”

  “I don’t know if that’s realistic. I’m not going to be easy to be around for the next…” She looked up, doing some math mentally. “Six months and three weeks.”

  A thread deep in his stomach seemed to tug at the thought. Every mention of the fact that Kit was pregnant made him feel strange. Exposed and unsteady, but in a good way. He reached over, tentatively, toward her stomach. His hand stopped, and she took it and pressed it against her abdomen. It was still flat…

  Mostly. His fingers felt her firm belly. Hard where it hadn’t been hard before, and then…a small bump.

  “Oh, my God.”

  “I know,” Kit laughed. “I’m so terrified.”

  Her laugh continued, nervously, until tears started to stream down her cheeks.

  She was so strong. So brave to get this far on her own. If he hadn’t come with her today, he knew that she would’ve determinedly continued through a difficult pregnancy and raised them on her own.

  He bowed over her, kissing her lips and wiping the tears from her cheeks.

  “I love you,” he repeated, only realizing now that moments ago had been the first time he’d ever said it out loud. “I love you more than anything.”

  Kit pressed her forehead to his and drew in a shaky breath. “I’ve always loved you. Always. So much that it scares me. So much that I could never fully be with anyone else. My heart is yours, all of it.”

  She kissed him again, firm and demanding and hopeful. “So please, please, take care of it.”

  “I’m going to take care of all of you.” Grant looked into her eyes, and now he begged. “Please move into the penthouse. You have your room for whatever space you need—whether you want your own work or just to get away from me and my ridiculousness for a few hours—and I have other rooms. We can set up a nursery. You and I can live there with the kids, and we will work this out as we build on what we have together.”

  “Okay,” she whispered, the word of consent a blessing on their love.

  Chapter Fourteen

  Kit

  As a highly educated woman who was no fool, Kit had expected that a triplet pregnancy would not be easy. She had expected that she would get much bigger with three than with one. That was just basic math.

  She had not been prepared to get so big so fast.

  Even when her pants had started to grow tight before she even knew she was pregnant, that hadn’t indicated to her that she would look like she was smuggling a cantaloupe under her clothes by the time she was starting the second trimester. She’d had to get new bras to accommodate her swelling breasts, and though Grant seemed more than happy with her body, she was alarmed with the amount of weight she was gaining. Her body was changing all around her, and so quickly that she didn’t have time to adjust to one change before another one hit.

  Kit had been forced to cut back on her hours at work drastically, and the situation made her feel terrible. Mr. Pines had been so good to her that she hated to be such a burden. He’d told her that her time consulting for SideHustle did count, and they could do without her in arbitration and court for a while… The reality was, though, that it would be better for them if they just replaced her. Gable definitely would have.

  Of course, sitting in a courtroom crying would be less than useless, so she understood his position.

  Kit stood in front of the mirror in nothing but her underwear and a cami, trying to determine if stretch marks were starting on her hips or ass. She’d definitely gained weight, and not just in her burgeoning belly. Forget her little cantaloupe. Before this was over, she would be smuggling one of those prize winning watermelons you saw at a state fair.

  Her panties stretched tightly over her cheeks, biting a little into the flesh around her hips. Thanks to her new bra, nothing was pinching there, but her breasts bounced noticeably just out of her line of sight. It was hard not to be aware of them all the time.

  Behind her, Grant appeared, kissing her shoulder as he wrapped his arms around her. She sighed and turned her head back to give him a kiss.

  “How do you feel?” he asked gently.

  “Like a manatee.”

  His thumb stroked over her belly as he kissed her again. She was so swollen, everywhere, that she could feel a throbbing between her legs just from that small touch. And it was only going to get worse.

  “You’re the most gorgeous manatee in the sea,” Grant teased.

  “You’re awful. Don’t you know you’re supposed to tell your girlfriend she isn’t fat?”

  “Well, obviously, you aren’t.” He dropped down in front of her and cupped the sides of her belly worshipfully. “Hello, sweet peas. I hope you’re all very comfortable down there while you make your poor mother so very uncomfortable.”

  Kit could only laugh as he peppered her belly with kisses. Her hand caressed over the back of his hair, and she felt so grateful that he was still with her. She had almost ruined this. Well, he’d had a strong hand in that, as had his mother. But she had promised herself, even when she needed space, never to push him away again. The extra room had helped quite a bit…though she used it less for sleeping and more for a space to relax on her own. She doubted it would remain that kind of space as the triplets grew up, but for now, she could indulge her hormones.

  “I have to get to the office, unfortunately. I’ll be issuing some press releases today.” Grant stood and pulled her close to him. “But tonight, I’ve made reservations for us.”

  Her heart leapt, then dropped. She’d been spending a lot of time in the penthouse, so of course she was excited to go out with him, but she really, literally had nothing to wear. Except yoga pants and a few roomy tank tops that she’d normally kept for exercising. Ev
en those were now straining to cover her belly entirely.

  “Where are we going? Sea World?”

  Grant pinched her ass and leaned in with a grin. “Not at all. I plan to romance my wonderful girlfriend tonight.”

  Kit frowned. She placed a hand on her belly and looked down. Grant’s hand covered hers.

  “Rest up. I’ll take care of everything.”

  She gave him a kiss before he left for the day, then went to the closet to look through her clothes for anything that might be appropriate. It was an impossible task. Her fingers grazed over the gorgeous burgundy lace number that Grant had given her for their big night out that had turned into a huge fight. She petted her belly thoughtfully. If she’d worn it, what would he have thought?

  Giving up, Kit donned her trusty yoga pants and went to the sitting room to work on some legal documents that Gable & Pines had sent to her. The work was easy, but mentally consuming, and by the time she was finished, she’d polished off the plate that Malika had set out for her, along with a large glass of milk.

  Hungry again, because when wasn’t she hungry, she went to the kitchen where some Greek yogurt was waiting for her. She reclined against the kitchen island as she ate it, looking up only when Malika appeared with a middle-aged woman in tow.

  “When you’re finished, Diane is here to fit you for some clothing,” Malika said.

  “It’s good to meet you,” Diane said.

  Kit put her yogurt down and shook the woman’s hand. “A fitting?”

  “I have a lot of different kinds of clothes, and I’ll take some general measurements today so that I can alter things and have them sent to you as you get further along,” Diane explained. “I’ve done this sort of work for women before. The last thing you need right now is having to go out to buy new clothes every week.”

  “I mean, I could, but I’d have to do it in my underwear,” Kit said.

  Diane smiled and excused herself to wait in the sitting room.

  Kit smiled, a little excited. Of course, Grant would have dresses made for her. He loved to dress her, the big weirdo.