The Baby Shower

by Tasha Blue et al.

  Laura found that Daniel was attentive and kind and thoughtful in a way that she thought the movies made up. He always seemed to know just when a cup of coffee could save her life and he wasn't afraid to do the dishes every now and then. He was dependable. Laura never had to chase him to come and pick up Annie or remind him of the things she needed. Daniel was simply there.

  It amazed her that they could spend so much time together and never argue. They stepped into their respective roles as parents with ease and pleasure, as though everything was exactly as it was meant to be.

  Laura came to understand that plans could change and that sometimes the new, unscripted plan was the best kind of all. When Sophie told her all that time ago that the key to contentment was letting loose, she thought her friend was a little crazy, but Sophie was right. Laura's one moment of carefree insanity had allowed her whole life to fall into place, much better than any plan.

  Her time as a mother started unexpectedly, but Laura quickly found that being a mother was what she was meant to do. Between Annie, her gift card shop and Daniel just around the corner, Laura didn't think that life could get any better. She felt complete.

  Laura and Daniel were growing closer as the months passed, but she didn't want to take anything between them for granted or put something fragile under pressure, so she never questioned where they were headed or asked any of the big and scary questions. Instead, she threw away the plan and let each day surprise her. She found that life was good that way.

  Spending days with Daniel and Annie in the park or at the pool were moments of pure joy in Laura's life. She loved nothing more than to watch Daniel fuss over their daughter and the day he presented their now two-year-old with a little red fire truck. She thought with fondness back to a time when he had told her how he'd imagined giving his child such a toy. In a way, both their plans were coming to fruition. It was simply that neither of them ever had the foresight to realize that they were the missing part to the other's plan.

  Everything came together so perfectly as they stepped into their roles as parents. Daniel's family loved Laura and, when Laura finally introduced Daniel to her own family, they loved him too. Even her brother, whom she'd once said she'd never tell about her night with Daniel, gave a handshake to the man when he met him at last and he was happy to be another one of the boys in Daniel's group alongside Michael and Sam, who also loved Laura. Laura thought the world of them too.

  Both of Daniel's firefighter friends were like part of their family now. It wasn't unusual for Sam to swing by with a present for Annie, or for Michael to stop in just to complain to Laura about his wife. These little interactions were part of the pace of life now and Laura loved every second. Their two families were slowly intertwining in a way that made it impossible for Daniel and Laura to not open up more of their lives to one another.

  Even Sophie came around to liking Daniel in time. At first, the protective friend had been wary of the absent firefighter, who so surely must have had some fault for her wayward best friend to fall for him. But, in time, Sophie came to find that Daniel had no secret past or hidden vices, and was simply a nice guy, who, like Laura, only managed to find a different type of girl when he'd stepped outside his comfort zone.

  Everybody around them could see the love growing between the pair as Annie grew month by month. Both were incredible parents who doted on their little girl and were kind and considerate to each other. The long and loving looks that passed between them didn't go unnoticed by those around them.

  “For heaven's sake, Laura,” her mother told her one day. “What is it going to take for you and that man to admit that you're in love?”

  “It's not that easy, Mom,” Laura laughed shyly. “We rushed in the first time, so now we're just taking it slowly. He loves Annie. He's not going anywhere.”

  Sophie too, urged Laura to act upon the strong emotions that she so clearly held for the father of her child.

  “What are you doing, Laura?” she asked her exasperatedly. “You spend so much time looking for the perfect guy and when he finally appears you start to play it cool. You've already had a kid together. Isn't the hard part done?”

  Laura didn't know what to tell them. Just as she and Daniel both knew on that hot afternoon a long time ago, that they needed each other in a carnal and wild way, they both understood now that their needs had changed. As so many things were between them, this too was unspoken, but Laura knew that Daniel was looking for a woman who would love him as he was and trust him implicitly. Daniel knew that Laura was looking for a man who would respect her for who she was, and stand by her side. Both became the person the other needed without needing to be asked, and it was this unspoken understanding that made the love between them so easily grow.

  It was almost eighteen months after Daniel returned, that the quiet tenderness between them at last became something more, when they were walking one day through the park. It was where Daniel had first held his child and promised to stand by her.

  It was a winter's day on this occasion. They had been walking side-by-side with their little toddler racing ahead of them when Daniel silently took hold of Laura's hand and Laura looked up at him with eyes full of love and gave his hand a squeeze.

  From there their affections grew more tender and more frequent. Daniel would lend her his coat on cold nights, or brush her hair from her face when it fell over her eyes. Laura would brush a crinkle from his shirt or rest a hand on his arm when he made her laugh. Then, one day, at a family trip to the zoo, Daniel had kissed her in front of the penguin exhibit and Laura felt like a teenager again, feeling weak in the knees as butterflies rioted in her stomach.

  Daniel moved in with Laura just after Annie's third birthday. They moved to a new house with two bedrooms. Annie had the smaller bedroom, which they painted pink and covered in castles and princesses, which left the larger room for Daniel and Laura to share.

  Nights spent in each other's arms were nights of complete contentment. Laura fell asleep every night knowing that she was loved and safe and woke up every morning glad to get to do it all over again. The endless monotony of failed relationships and missing pieces was over and Laura was finally living the unplanned life which had stemmed from an unplanned pregnancy and led to such sublime satisfaction.

  There were nights too, when passions ran high and Daniel forgot that he was a father and Laura forgot that she was a mother. Instead, Daniel was the captain who had accepted the last glass of water and Laura was the girl who had run out into the street in a revealing pair of shorts. On those nights, they appreciated each other in different, but very satisfying ways.

  Life was sweet and Laura enjoyed her new life with Daniel and Annie and felt no need to force anything or rush anything. She was so content in all she had that she could stay that way forever.

  One night, however, when Daniel and Laura were lying in bed together and Laura's head was lying against her man's chest, Daniel said something which made her eyes light up with happiness.

  “Let's make a baby,” he whispered to her. “Planned this time.”

  “Do you mean it?” Laura had breathed in reply.

  “Yes,” Daniel nodded, stroking back her hair and kissing her forehead. “I want to have a family with you, Laura. I want paddling pools and pink rabbits and bad Italian with you for the rest of my life.”

  Laura laughed delightedly and nodded. “Let's make a baby.”

  It wasn't the traditional order to do things. But Daniel and Laura's relationship hadn't followed the usual rules from the beginning. It was about a week after Laura announced that she was pregnant with Daniel's child a second time, that all the unspoken things were finally said aloud.

  The two had been walking home from the theater one night when they began to stroll down a street that Laura hadn't seen down in some time. They passed Marie's house first and then Laura spotted the light of the new inhabitants in the house where she'd used to live.

  “What are we doing here, Dan?” she giggled.
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  All of a sudden, Daniel dropped to one knee and opened a little velvet box. Inside glittered a beautiful diamond ring. Laura felt her joy rise up within her in an amazed giggle before he'd even spoken, but she stayed silent as he voiced his intentions.

  “This is where I first laid eyes on you,” he told her. “You were the most beautiful thing I'd ever seen. I will never forget what your eyes did to me,” he said in a low tone. “The night we spent together is a night that compares to no other. When I didn't see you again, I felt like I'd lost something exceptional and I spent months afraid that I would never feel that alive again.

  When you came to me again out of the blue and with a baby, you terrified me,” he said with a loving laugh. “But then I saw how strong and brave you were and I knew that here was a woman who was strong enough for both of us. I loved Annie the second I laid eyes on her, but you enchanted me, too. At first, I thought I couldn't get you out of my mind because you were a stunning woman; more beautiful than any woman I've ever seen.

  But then, as we have raised our daughter together, I got to know the real you and I found that you are independent and strong, but kind and loving. I came to find that the night that we first met each other was just beginning at the end.

  I didn't know it at the time, but you amazed me because you were the woman I was going to fall in love with. You were the woman who was going to give me a child that I would love more than life itself. And now that we're about to start that journey all over again, I know that there's no one else I'd rather be here with. Laura Clark, will you marry me?”

  Laura was so overwhelmed with love and joy that all she could do was nod silently with tears in her eyes and fall into his arms. When she told everyone about the engagement, they were thrilled. Everyone said it was about time.

  They began arranging the wedding immediately. Even though their relationship hadn't been traditional, Laura still chose to wear white and Annie was her beautiful little bridesmaid dressed in pink. Sophie and Daniel's sister were bridesmaids, too

  Daniel's best man was Sam, but Michael still found his way into the bridal party and there were photos of Daniel and all the other firefighters who had come to feel like brothers to her.

  Her own parents, Sophie, and Annie senior and Roger and the twins and all the other wonderful people in their life, were some of Laura's most treasured possessions.

  Baby Luke came along just six months after the wedding. Laura was pleased with herself for getting to choose both of their children's names, but she had named Annie after Daniel's mother, after all.

  This time, Laura was not alone with a newborn, but had her new husband at her side and Annie proved to be a very loving big sister. Not many one-night stands and unplanned pregnancies wind up in the perfect fairytale ending, but having the fireman's baby was about the best thing that had ever happened to Laura.

  When she thought back over their time together in those quiet evenings in their new marital home, she could only smile and still shake her head in that quiet disbelief that still remained after all this time, that a life that had gone so wildly off plan had turned out to be precisely the life she craved.

  And so a little family was created out of the madness. Daniel would go out to work fighting fires and Laura would take Annie to preschool, before taking Luke with her to the gift card shop as a new baby for customers to coo over.

  She would spend a pleasant day with customers and her baby and then go home to eat bad Italian with a man who really loved her. Their family was surrounded by people who loved them and they had no end of fun and laughter to their days. Everything turned out perfectly unexpected and unexpectedly perfect.

  THE END

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  Book10

  THE BILLIONAIRE'S

  SECRET BABY

  ALEXIS GOLD

  BOOK DESCRIPTION

  Billionaire businessman Roman Bruce is about to get the surprise of his life.

  A single night of passion with a beautiful young woman called Camilla has made him a father but he is blissfully unaware. However, after tracking the billionaire down Camilla is ready to introduce him to his baby daughter.

  She feels he has a right to know he has a child whilst deep down she also hopes he will be interested in playing a part in her upbringing. But, at the same time, she realizes she does not know much about him at all.

  One thing Camilla definitely did not know was that Roman is actually already married and it soon becomes apparent that their secret baby is not the only secret he is hiding...

  Chapter One

  They rode along in the stretch limousine, slicing down the asphalt highway that led from San Francisco to their private dock in Carmel. The two men occupying the back of the spacious car were looking out of the windows, watching the cities fly past them.

  The younger of the two men was sitting up a bit straighter in his seat, his fingers tapping his knee now and then, as he viewed all that they passed with an eagle's eye. "This is going to be an incredible weekend," he said to the slightly older man sitting across from him. Roman nodded and looked out his window thoughtfully, not looking at each thing as it passed, as much as staring past all of it and thinking deeply to himself.

  "I'm sure that it will be," he replied with a smile.

  Roman glanced at the younger man sitting near him. Allen was his employee, and though only a few years younger than he, Allen's eagerness and vibrant youthfulness was considerable without being immature. It was one of the things that Roman liked best about him.

  Allen was tall and thin with carefully combed brown hair. He usually had a wide, easy smile and a loping walk. He had a relaxed posture, which Roman was sure came from Allen's subconscious efforts to slump down from his height and fit in with everyone else. He managed to keep an air of professionalism about him, while still maintaining a laid-back demeanor, and it was the combination of those two traits in particular, that drew people to him and made him successful as one of Roman's sales directors.

  This was Allen's first business trip, not only with Roman’s elite yacht and sailboat company, but his first business trip altogether, and it showed in his excitement.

  Roman turned his warm brown eyes from his companion to the outside world again, this time watching the city and hills fly past him. The coast came into view before too long, and then he lost himself in the early afternoon lambent light that glinted off the waves rolling in to shore.

  It was his home, the water. He was most comfortable in or around any water, really, but salt water was his preference, and it made his job one of his great loves. He made enormous amounts of money selling yachts and sailboats out of his private marina on the San Francisco Bay, and had the passion of a child at play with the yachting club he owned.

  He was wealthy in finance and, he supposed, wealthy in life. He was married to a red-headed vixen whom he had fallen for on sight. It didn't take her long to wrap herself around him, and then wrap herself around his wallet and his lifestyle.

  Denise was gorgeous, from her bright red hair and her clear pale skin right down to her cosmetically enhanced body and six inch high heels. When other men looked at her, their thoughts went the same way that Roman's had when he first saw her, and there was no way to hide it. Roman had placed a giant rock of a ring on her hand as quickly as he could, and in the beginning they had set fire to their marriage bed almost constantly, but as the years grew older, she was often disinterested in him, too tired or not feeling up to forays of passion and heat.

  She had moved herself from their bedroom into her own room, and while she still loved being Mrs. Roman Bruce in the public eye, their private relationship was a hollow shell. He often thought it was ironic how quickly their love had burned through a white-hot blaze and had
died down to cooled embers. It made his heart lonely and sad, but he hoped that someday she might find an interest in him again.

  Roman thought it ironic that while his wife no longer had any interest in him physically, many other women did. He was tall and handsome in a rugged, almost dangerous way; deep brown eyes, full lips, a narrow nose and high wide cheekbones. Thick dark brown curls crowned his head and were cut short at his collar. His squared jaw was sharp and he often wore a carefully trimmed three-day beard on it, giving him the look of a weekend GQ model.

  He loathed ties, and though he was always well dressed in pants, a shirt, and most often a jacket, his shirts were usually unbuttoned just a bit, allowing some breathing room for the muscled wall of his rock hard chest. Women, for the most part, often gave him double-take looks and flirting eyes. They often lingered near him and leaned close to him. They held his hand an extra moment when he held theirs, they smiled and batted their eyes at him, and they laughed too often and touched his arms and his back when they thought they could. Women had been like that with him since he had left high school, and he was used to it, though he did not ever capitalize on it.

  Roman was enormously respectful of women, and he never took advantage of the countless opportunities he had to use them for whatever means he wanted. He felt strongly that women treated with dignity and respect would act with dignity and respect in return, and for the most part, he had found that he was correct in that regard.