“Is it showing anything yet?” Travis asked as he paced outside of Fin’s bathroom door.
The pharmacist he’d talked to had assured him that the pregnancy test kit he purchased was the easiest, most accurate over-the-counter indicator on the market. If the digital display spelled out “pregnant,” then he and Fin were going to have a baby together.
His heart thudded in his chest like an out of control jackhammer every time he thought of Fin being pregnant. He never in his wildest imaginings would have thought that at the ripe old age of forty-nine, he’d be anxiously awaiting test results to see if he’d gotten a woman “in trouble.”
When he heard the bathroom door open, he stopped pacing. The look on her beautiful face answered his question even before he got the words out. “You’re pregnant, aren’t you?”
He watched her take several deep breaths as if she needed fortification, then nodding, she walked over to sit on the side of the bed. “It was such a strong positive that it didn’t even take the entire amount of time the directions said it would for the results to show up.”
Before his knees gave way, he sank down on the mattress beside her, then, putting his arms around her shoulders, he tried to think of something to say. Hell, what could he say? He felt as if he’d just been hit right square between the eyes with a two-by-four.
“I don’t know how you feel about all this, but I’m going to keep my baby,” she said suddenly. Emphatically.
He shook his head. “I never doubted for a minute that you wouldn’t.”
She straightened her shoulders and turned to face him. The only indication of her turmoil was the slight trembling of her perfect lips. “Patrick forced me to give up Jessica, but this time I won’t let anyone take my child.”
Travis could understand why she felt the way she did, given that her parents had made her put Jessie up for adoption. But the baby was his, too, and he fully intended to be part of his child’s life.
Only now wasn’t the time to start discussing shared custody. Fin was about as fragile as he’d ever seen a woman and she needed his support. And he’d damned well give her the encouragement she needed or die trying.
“I give you my word that as long as I have breath in my body no one will separate you and the baby,” he said gently.
Tears welled up in her pretty emerald eyes. “There’s no way I could bear to go through that again, Travis.”
“I know, sweetheart, and I promise you won’t have to.” He pulled her into his arms and held her close. “I’ll be right beside you every step of the way and I’ll walk through hellfire and back before I let anyone or anything harm you or our baby.”
They sat in silence for some time before she pulled from his arms. “If you don’t mind, I think I’d like to be alone for a little while.”
He could understand her need for a little solitude. A lot had happened in the past hour or so and they both needed time to sort out their feelings.
“Are you going into the office today?” he asked as he rose from the side of the bed.
She shook her head. “My absence is going to raise a few eyebrows and generate more than a little speculation, but I’ll call Cade and have him take over for me today. Aside from the fact that I wouldn’t be able to concentrate, I’d like to see my gynecologist as soon as possible. Hopefully, she’ll be able to work me into her schedule sometime today.”
As she walked him to the door, he shrugged into his coat and picked up his wide-brimmed hat. “Will you be all right on your own or do you want me to go with you to see the doctor?”
“You really meant what you said about being there for me.” Her amazed expression and the sound of her voice left little doubt that he’d surprised her.
He caught her gaze with his as he touched her soft cheek with his index finger. “I never say anything that I don’t mean, Fin.” Giving her a quick kiss, he opened the door. “I’ll be back this evening to check on you and see that you’re all right.”
Stepping out into the hall, he put his hat on and closed the door behind him. The last thing he wanted to do was walk away from her. But they both had a lot to think about and things they needed to do. Fin was going to try to get an appointment with her doctor and he had to call his housekeeper, Spud, to see how the ranch was faring in his absence. Then, after a quick lunch with Jessie, he had to get fitted for that damned monkey suit she was going to make him wear when he walked her down the aisle.
While he stood on the sidewalk waiting for a passing taxi, he couldn’t stop thinking about the baby Fin was carrying. He shook his head in total disbelief. Most of his friends back home were becoming grandpas and here he was starting a second family.
When he and Lauren had discovered that she was unable to have children, they’d accepted the fact they would never have a child of their own and started the adoption process. And although Jessie wasn’t his biological daughter, she was, and always would be, his little girl. From the moment he’d laid eyes on her bundled up like a little doll in her light pink baby blanket, she’d stolen his heart. He loved her more than life itself and that would never change.
But the baby growing inside of Fin would be his own flesh and blood—a child he never in a million years expected to have. That was going to take some getting used to, especially after all this time. It was also going to take awhile to wrap his mind around the fact that his adopted daughter and his biological child had the same mother.
And if he was struggling to come to grips with it all, he couldn’t even imagine how hard it was for Fin. Within the past couple of months, she’d found her first child and become pregnant by that child’s adoptive father with her second child.
Sliding into the backseat of a taxi, he gave the driver the name of his hotel. As an afterthought, he asked, “Would you happen to know where I could order some flowers?”
“My cousin Vinnie’s a florist,” the man said. “His shop is a block down from your hotel. Tell him that Joe sent you. He’ll give you a deal.”
“Thanks, I’ll do that.”
Travis wasn’t certain what the protocol was, or even if there was one, for waking up to find that he’d impregnated the woman he’d just spent the most incredible night of his life making love to, but he figured a nice bouquet of flowers surely wouldn’t be considered offensive. He not only wanted to show Fin that he meant what he’d said about being supportive, he also wanted her to know how honored he felt that she was giving him a second go-round at fatherhood.
“What the hell’s going on, Fin?” Her twin brother, Shane, barged into her apartment as soon as Fin answered the door.
“Good evening to you too, Shane,” Fin said dryly. She wasn’t surprised that he stopped by on his way home from work. His apartment was only a few floors up from hers.
When he turned to face her, his expression was filled with concern. “Are you feeling all right?”
“I’m fine.”
He frowned. “Then why didn’t you come into the office today? I can’t remember the last time you took an entire day off and neither can anyone else. Cade and Jessie have no idea what’s going on and you have poor Chloe worried sick. She said you were having some problems with dizziness and she’s convinced that you’ve worked yourself into physical exhaustion.”
Fin had known that her absence would create a stir, but that couldn’t be helped. “Would you like to sit down while you’re taking me to task or would you prefer to stand?”
Her question seemed to erase much of the irritation from his handsome face. “Look, I’m sorry if I came across a little strong, but you’ll have to admit that missing a day at Charisma is completely out of character for you. Especially when we’re neck and neck in the competition for CEO.”
Fin could understand her twin’s confusion. She’d made it clear from the moment Patrick made his announcement about the contest that she had every intention of winning. But several things had changed in the past couple of months and she was having to realign her priorities.
“
I appreciate everyone’s concern and I truly didn’t mean to cause you or anyone else any undue worry, but I had some personal business to attend to.”
He cocked one dark eyebrow. “Would you care to elaborate?”
“No.”
He looked taken aback. “But—”
“As I told you, it’s personal.”
She could tell he was more than a little mystified by her lack of details. But as close as she and Shane had always been and as much as they’d always shared, she wasn’t about to discuss her pregnancy with him or anyone else. At least, not until she and Travis had the opportunity to talk things over and decide how to spring the news on everyone.
To soften her refusal to explain further, she smiled. “I’m sure there are things about yourself that you keep private, aren’t there?”
A slow smile began to spread across his handsome face. “A few.”
“Shall we agree to leave the matter alone, then?”
He nodded. “Agreed.” As she watched, her brother turned his attention to the beautiful bouquet of two dozen long-stemmed red roses arranged in a crystal vase on top of her coffee table. “Do those have anything to do with the personal part of your time off?” he asked, his smile turning to a knowing grin.
Reaching down, she snatched up Travis’s card before Shane had the opportunity to pluck it from the plastic pick and read it. “That, dear brother, is none of your business.”
The cad threw back his head and laughed. “I’ll take that as confirmation that it does.”
“Don’t you think it’s past time that you went on up to your apartment and left me alone?”
“Expecting the sender of those flowers to show up soon, sis?” he teased. Before she could get the words out, he answered his own question. “I know, it’s none of my business.”
“Give the man a prize,” she said, ushering him toward the door.
“All right, I’m going.” Opening the door, he stepped out into the hall and turned back to face her. “Then you’ll be at the office tomorrow?”
She nodded. “Of course. Where else would I be?”
His grin turn mischievous. “In the arms of whoever sent those flowers?”
“Mind your own business, Shane. And while you’re at it, have a nice evening,” she said, closing the door behind him.
She’d only made it halfway across the living room before a short knock had her turning back. “What part of ‘it’s none of your concern’ don’t you understand?” she asked as she jerked the door open.
“I take it that I’m not who you were expecting to see.”
Fin’s heart skipped a beat at the sight of Travis. He and Shane couldn’t have missed each other by more than a matter of seconds.
“I’m sorry, Travis,” she apologized, standing back for him to enter her apartment. “Shane felt it was his duty to give me the third degree about missing work.”
He nodded as he removed his hat and coat, then tossing them onto one of the armchairs, he reached out to pull her into his arms. “Yeah, when Jess and I had lunch this afternoon, she said that you’d put Cade in charge for the day and wondered if you’d said anything about not feeling well at supper last night.”
It was completely insane, considering the circumstances, but his strong arms surrounding her made her feel secure and more at peace than she could ever remember. “What did you tell her?”
“The truth.”
Fearing Jessie’s reaction, Fin’s voice trembled. “Y-you told her I’m pregnant?”
“No.” Stepping back, he kept his arm around her shoulders as he led her over to sit on the couch. “Jess asked if you’d mentioned it over supper, which you didn’t. I made it a point not to say anything about knowing that the sickness thing didn’t show up until this morning.”
Fin breathed a sigh of relief. “I know how close you and Jessie are, but would you mind me telling her about the baby?”
“To be perfectly honest, I’d really like it if you did.” He gave her a sheepish grin and hugged her close. “When Jessie was a teenager, one of my biggest fears as a father was that one day she’d tell me some pimple-faced kid had gotten her in trouble.”
“Didn’t you trust her?” Was Travis more like Patrick than she’d thought?
“Don’t get me wrong,” he said, shaking his head. “I’ve always had all the faith in the world in my daughter. It was the teenage boys with more hormones than good sense trying to talk the prettiest girl in the county into climbing in the back of their daddy’s pickup truck that gave me nightmares.”
Fin couldn’t help but smile. “You’re a wonderful father, Travis.”
He shrugged one broad shoulder. “As hard as it is to believe, I was a teenage boy once.” He chuckled. “Hell, at the age of seventeen, I think I was hard about seventy-five percent of the time. And if the truth is known, I probably caused more than a few dads some sleepless nights myself.”
If he was even half as good-looking in his youth as he was now, she could imagine that he had worried several girls’ fathers. “I suppose it is rather ironic that the very thing you feared for Jessie has happened to you now.”
He put some space between them in order to face her. “I know this was the last thing we expected to have happen and you have every right to blame me for not protecting you that night in the barn, but I’ve spent the day thinking about it.” He ran his hand through his thick hair. “Hell, I haven’t been able to think of anything else.”
“Me, either,” she said, reaching up to cup his face in her palm. “But I don’t want you to think that I’m assigning blame or that I regret what’s happened.”
“You don’t?”
“Not at all.” Placing her hand on her still flat stomach, she smiled. “This is a second chance for me. I missed out on so much when I was forced to put Jessie up for adoption. I never got to see her take her first step or hear her say her first word.”
“Horsey.”
“Excuse me?”
His grin widened. “‘Horsey’ was the first thing she said.”
Fin laughed. “Why doesn’t that surprise me? She’s always talking about her horse, Oscar.”
“He loves her just as much as she loves him.” Laughing, Travis shook his head. “I’ve never seen a horse mope around like he’s on his last leg for weeks at a time, then perk up like a new colt the minute she comes home for a visit.”
Uncharacteristic tears filled Fin’s eyes and she cursed her hormones for making her so darned emotional. “Thank you for giving her such a wonderful childhood, Travis.”
When he wiped a tear from her cheek with the pad of his thumb, her skin tingled from the contact and a warmth began to fill her chest. “Thank you for having her,” he said, his voice sounding a little gruff. “I know that putting her up for adoption was the hardest thing you’ve ever had to do, but raising Jess and watching her grow up was the best thing that’s ever happened to me. I wouldn’t have had that if not for you.”
“That’s why having this baby is so important to me,” she said, nodding. “I’m going to get to be a part of this baby’s life the way I never was with Jessie.” She could tell by the look in his sky-blue eyes that he understood, but she noticed an underlying shadow of concern there as well. Anticipating what bothered him, she rushed to alleviate his fears. “I want you to be part of his or her life, too. You’re the baby’s father and I would never deny you your child.”
The doubt disappeared immediately and she could tell he was relieved to hear that she wasn’t going to cut him out of the picture. “How are we going to handle this? With you living here in New York and me living in Colorado, it’s going to take some work.”
“I’m not sure,” she said honestly. “But we have eight months to discuss it and make plans.”
“With Jessie and Cade’s wedding coming up, the next couple of weeks are going to be pretty busy.” He drew her into his arms, then leaned back against the couch. “What do you say we postpone any serious discussion until after the cere
mony? That will give us a little time to think about it and see what we can come up with.”
“That sounds like an excellent idea. And in the meantime, I’ll find a way to break the news to Jessie.” Snuggling against his shoulder, she hid a yawn behind her hand. “How do you think she’ll react?”
His wide chest rose and fell a moment before he tightened his arms around her. “Your guess is as good as mine, sweetheart.”
Five
Fin stared at the young woman seated across from her at the dining room table and wondered how on earth she was going to broach the subject of her pregnancy. To say she was a nervous wreck was an understatement.
She and Travis had hoped she’d have the chance to talk to Jessie before he left to go back to Colorado. Unfortunately, with the approaching wedding and all the last-minute details to pull together, there hadn’t been enough time.
But when she learned that Cade was flying to the west coast for a few days to wrap up a lucrative advertising deal for Charisma the week before the wedding, Fin seized the opportunity and asked Jessie to have dinner with her.
“Fin, our relationship means a lot to me and I want it to continue to grow,” Jessie said without preamble. Fin watched her lay her fork down and catch her lower lip between her teeth as if trying to gather her courage. Then, taking a deep breath, she asked, “Have I upset or offended you in any way?”
Her daughter’s question was the last thing Fin expected and she hurried to put Jessie’s mind at ease. “No, honey. You haven’t done anything.” She covered Jessie’s hand with hers. “I know we’ve missed out on so much over the years, but you’re still my daughter. I love you. You could never do anything that would change that.”
“Thank God.”
The relief on Jessie’s face tore at Fin’s heart. She hated that she’d caused her daughter any undue worry. But she wasn’t sure how long the euphoria would last once Jessie learned about Fin’s pregnancy and who the father was.
Dynasties:The Elliots, Books 7-12 Page 65
