The Baby Arrangement
Page 1
A nine-month business deal
Bree Tucker’s company is her everything. So when she becomes pregnant after a fling, she knows she can’t be a mother. She has no room for a baby in her life and zero maternal instinct. But the father, Nick Harmon, vows to raise the child on his own. Fine by Bree. Thing is, he wants to be right by her side for the next nine months. That can only mean trouble. Nick makes her feel things no other man has. Surely her growing attraction to Nick is pregnancy hormones and not the idea that he’d make a wonderful dad...
“You’re asking me why I want to make you dinner?”
Bree nodded. “Yes. Why do you want to have anything to do with me? All I’ve done is turn your world upside down. You should be enjoying this time before you have all the responsibilities of fatherhood.”
Nick hadn’t thought about it that way, and he didn’t want to think about it that way. “I’m just as responsible for this situation as you are.” He turned off the engine and opened the car door. “Now, come on. Let’s go see what’s in my fridge to eat.”
He came around to her side of the car and opened her door. He reached in to give her a hand as she got out and then, as if completely natural, she leaned into him and their lips met in a kiss.
A kiss filled with promise for things to come.
Dear Reader,
Everyone has had those days. The ones where things don’t go as planned. A flat tire on the way to work. You need to pick up your sick child from school, so lunch with friends is out. A flight delay. But what if that unplanned event didn’t just shake up your day but your entire life?
That’s what happens to Bree in The Baby Arrangement. She sees her life one way, with no possibility of straying from her plan to put all her energy into her expanding company. And then she meets Nick...
I hope you enjoy this first book in my new series. Stay tuned for more stories about Bree’s friends. Visit lisadyson.com to find out when they’ll be released.
I love hearing from readers. Please email me at lisa@lisadyson.com.
Wishing you the very best of days,
Lisa Dyson
LISA
DYSON
The Baby Arrangement
Lisa Dyson has been creating stories ever since getting an A on a fifth-grade writing assignment. She lives near Washington, DC, with her husband and their rescue dog with a blue tongue, aptly named Blue. She has three grown sons, a daughter-in-law and four adorable grandchildren. When not writing, reading or spending time with family, Lisa enjoys traveling, volunteering and rooting for her favorite sports teams.
Books by Lisa Dyson
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Contents
CHAPTER ONE
CHAPTER TWO
CHAPTER THREE
CHAPTER FOUR
CHAPTER FIVE
CHAPTER SIX
CHAPTER SEVEN
CHAPTER EIGHT
CHAPTER NINE
CHAPTER TEN
CHAPTER ELEVEN
CHAPTER TWELVE
CHAPTER THIRTEEN
CHAPTER FOURTEEN
CHAPTER FIFTEEN
CHAPTER SIXTEEN
CHAPTER SEVENTEEN
CHAPTER EIGHTEEN
CHAPTER NINETEEN
EPILOGUE
EXCERPT FROM THE SOLDIER'S FOREVER FAMILY BY GINA WILKINS
CHAPTER ONE
HOW WAS BREE TUCKER supposed to relax and kick back when she’d been so obviously abandoned?
She couldn’t figure out where the heck her friend Roxie had gone. She scanned the other people around the tiki bar once more with no luck. She and Roxie had come over to order drinks, and now she was nowhere in sight.
Thinking she’d walk around the bar to the other side, Bree took a step back from the bar without looking. She immediately tripped over something and gasped as she fell backward. Somehow she ended up in someone’s strong arms instead of butt-first in the sand.
Her gasp had heads turning in her direction. Great. She’d managed to attract unwanted attention from the mostly men around the bar. She turned her head to see who’d caught her, and her gaze collided with a pair of deep brown eyes with long, dark lashes. She blinked and slowly disengaged herself from him.
“Are you okay?” He was probably the nicest-looking man she’d seen since arriving on Isla de la Blanca earlier in the week for a working vacation with her girlfriends slash coworkers.
“Yes, I’m fine. And thank you for catching me. I’m sorry about that.” She straightened her bright blue romper and tossed back her long hair. “I’m not usually that clumsy.”
Her rescuer smiled, his eyes twinkling. A neatly trimmed dark beard set off perfectly straight white teeth. “It was my fault. I wasn’t paying attention, and my legs got in your way. I’m the one who should apologize.”
“But I shouldn’t have stepped back without looking.”
“Let’s call it a draw,” he suggested.
“Deal,” she said, then looked around again for her friend. “Have you seen a redhead? I’ve misplaced my friend Roxie.”
He shook his head. “I haven’t seen her.”
She whirled around as she checked out the nearby area again. She shielded her eyes from the glare of the setting sun off the clear azure water of the Caribbean Sea. “Did anyone see where my friend went?” she asked the men around the bar. “She’s got red hair and is wearing a dark green top with white shorts.”
She’d been well aware that the guys hanging out at the tiki bar had been paying a lot of attention to her, whether they were actually speaking to her or merely ogling. So she decided to use that to her advantage in locating Roxie.
“I’ll be happy to help you find her,” a sloppy drunk propped on a bamboo bar stool told her with a crooked grin before he belched and reached out to her, nearly falling off his perch.
Bree took a step back. “That’s okay, I’m sure I—”
“She has all the help she needs,” said an older man who appeared from nowhere, his Jimmy Buffett Parrot Head affiliation obvious from his Hawaiian shirt and straw hat with a Margaritaville button attached. “At your service, ma’am.” He stepped forward abruptly, his drink sloshing over the rim of his glass.
“She’s fine,” her rescuer growled from behind her. He took Bree’s elbow. “She doesn’t need anyone’s help.” Before Bree could say a word, the man guided her away from the bar and maneuvered them through the growing number of people looking for fun.
“Hey, come back here!” called several of the men left behind.
“Wait! Where are you taking me?” Bree stumbled in the sand and nearly lost a sandal. She jerked her arm away when they were barely fifteen feet from the bar, hopping on one foot while she tried to adjust her shoe. “Stop already!”
“I was getting you out of an uncomfortable situation,” he explained.
“What do you mean?” She could hold her own with a bunch of drunks. “What uncomfortable situation?”
“So what?”
He continued. “You’re a woman alone with a bunch of drunk and gawking men.”
“And?”
“And some might get the wrong idea.”
She ran her tongue over her bottom lip and squinted at him. “The wrong idea?”
He shook his head. “You really have no idea what kind of signals you’re giving off, do you?”
She was doing no such thing. “So I’m supposed to be comforted by your macho manhandling of me for my own good?” She scowled. “Dragging me away to this secluded area where you can do whatever you want to me just because I might have tugged at my ear or scratched my leg in a way that turned you on?”
In truth, they were anything but secluded, with people barely a few feet away, but she wasn’t about to admit that she’d possibly overreacted.
“How do I know you’re not the one I should be worried about?” she said. “I don’t even know your name.”
“Believe me, my intentions were honorable.” He cocked his head and shrugged. “I’m sorry if I misread the situation.” He turned to leave without a backward glance.
Good riddance, she thought as she watched him walk away. Too bad Sir Condescension thought he had to play hero, even if his overt sexiness made him extremely appealing.
Oh, well. She didn’t need him sticking around, even if she had promised her girlfriends she’d try to be more open to meeting new people while on this working vacation. She just didn’t need a know-it-all jerk.
Who was she kidding? At thirty-three years old, she avoided new relationships altogether. Period. She had enough people in her life, even if none of them happened to be a love interest.
Her girlfriends might think she needed a vacation fling, but this latest encounter proved Bree had been right all along. Her time would be better spent on her company’s future, the only thing she truly cared about besides her girlfriends.
Bree searched again for Roxie and the others, the crowd growing more raucous as the sun all but disappeared and the tiki torches were lit. A pig had been roasting on a spit since early last evening and when she inhaled the scent in the air now, her stomach growled. She had to find the girls and then get some food.
Isla de la Blanca, off the Puerto Rican coast and named for its pure white sandy beaches, had been her coworkers’ choice of a working vacation spot, not Bree’s. Although, she had to admit, she hadn’t gotten tired of the constant seventy-eight-degree weather and sunshine. So different from January in their hometown of Arlington, Virginia, where highs of forty-five degrees were sarcastically called balmy.
Her best girlfriends had all spent their free time this week getting massages and facials, frequenting the small shops and kiosks in the tiny village, as well as discovering the island’s vibrant nightlife. After much coercion, and since they’d accomplished their work goals, Bree had finally agreed to put her job aside and join them tonight. At least for a little while. She still had some phone calls to return and a report to read.
“There you are!” Bree shouted, waving her hand as she made her way through already intoxicated patrons to where her girlfriends were gathered around a wicker table under the palm trees, coconut-shell cocktails with straws and paper umbrellas in their hands. Bree tilted her head at Roxie. “Why did you disappear? Didn’t you see me nearly fall on my butt?”
They all chortled and spoke at once.
“It’s not funny,” Bree said, but she couldn’t keep a straight face. “Listen, I didn’t bring you all down here just so I could give a bunch of drunks an eyeful!”
Again they laughed. Bree knew when she was outnumbered, so she plopped into the single empty chair, crossed her bare legs and pretended to sulk.
“I’m sorry, Bree,” Roxie said, appearing anything but remorseful. “I found a server to come over here so we could order our drinks, and then I got distracted. When I came back to find you, you were gone.” She handed Bree a cocktail and pointed to the plate of food they were sharing. Their hotel offered free appetizers during happy hour and the girls had taken advantage.
“What happened anyway, Bree?” Showing her usual empathy, Hannah’s voice was filled with concern. “Are you okay?”
Bree shook her head and reached for a cheese cube. “Yes, I’m fine. I just tripped and fell into some guy’s waiting arms. Typical macho guy who thinks every woman is a damsel in distress.”
Hannah’s mouth formed an O and her dark brown doe eyes nearly popped out of her head. “Wow! Was he cute?”
“Invite him over!” Amber said, and then lowered her voice. “Unless he was a troll. Was he a troll?” Amber was nothing if not a straight shooter.
“Not even close.” Bree pursed her lips as she remembered the heat that had suffused her before she’d brushed him off. Or had he been the one to brush her off? Either way, he was in the rearview mirror.
Hannah interrupted Bree’s musings. “Where is he? Do you see him anywhere?” Hannah craned her neck, searching for the guy she’d never even seen.
“Was he hot?” Amber wanted to know. “I bet he was hot. You never follow up when a good-looking guy shows interest.”
“Give her a break,” Roxie said. “Just because the two of you are looking to hook up doesn’t mean everyone is.” Roxie’s longtime boyfriend had recently moved to California for his job, and they were still working out the long-distance romance thing.
Bree looked around, telling herself it didn’t really matter if the guy who’d caught her had disappeared. “I don’t see him. He must have found someone else to annoy.” She shrugged, trying to sound nonchalant, but she’d bet the women who’d known her since freshman year of college weren’t fooled.
Truthfully, the man had made her heart accelerate wildly. His dark hair was full and thick, and just long enough to be sexy. He had a strong jaw under that closely trimmed beard. He was a little above average in height, with lean musculature, and way above average in sex appeal in his khaki shorts, faded Dave Matthews T-shirt and boat shoes. Then again, she’d always been a sucker for guys with intense brown eyes. Too bad those eyes came with such a macho attitude.
“We could walk around and maybe accidentally run into him,” Roxie suggested, using finger quotes.
The others started to get up, but Bree raised a hand to stop them and changed the subject. “Not so fast. First of all, I’m not interested. Second, I want to get your opinion on something—work related.”
There was a collective moan as the women dropped back down into their chairs.
“I want to offer a bartending class,” she told them. “Watching the bartender over there gave me the idea.”
“Bree! We worked all week on our five-year goals,” Roxie whined. “You promised we’d have the evenings to actually vacation, and now you’re back on the subject of work.”
“Yeah!” Amber and Hannah chorused.
“And you also promised to hang out with us tonight!” Amber added.
“I know, I know. And I will.” Bree held up one finger. “But I really want your opinion. We could offer mixology training for women, especially for moms who would benefit from working nights while their husbands can be home with their kids.”
The other three women bobbed their heads. “I like that,” Amber said. “And it would be a faster turnaround than some other training we’ve considered.”
“Also a relatively well-paid position if you consider tips and location of the bar, like at a high-end-hotel lounge compared to a local bar or a chain restaurant,” Hannah added.
Bree’s private company, BeeTee, Incorporated—based on her initials—had been born during her junior year of college when she’d discovered her talent for composing résumés and guiding women into the ri
ght jobs. Her business degree, as well as her absorption by osmosis of her excessively rich and powerful father’s phenomenal business savvy, had given Bree the knowledge to grow her female-based employment-and-retraining business. Two years ago, they’d branched into investing in women-owned businesses. Several years before that she’d brought her three best friends from college along for the incredible ride, knowing full well that they came with their own unique talents.
Last year the company had grossed over four million dollars, and they were well on their way to doing better this year. Bree had used her private financial resources to start up the company, but Roxie, Hannah and Amber received yearly stock options on top of their salaries as compensation for their dedication and hard work. Bree still owned the majority of BeeTee, but she ran it pretty much as if the women were full partners.
They discussed Bree’s idea for a few more minutes, until Amber held up her hand and said, “Enough! We agree it’s a great idea, but now it’s time to play.” She straightened her back and peered out at the people around them. “Let’s find us some new friends.” She waggled her eyebrows and fluffed her dark hair with her airbrushed fake nails. “Ooh!” Amber crowed, pointing to something behind Bree. “And here comes a splendid specimen, indeed!”
Bree took a sip of her drink, enjoying how smoothly the liquid went down her throat, and didn’t bother looking up until she heard a familiar deep voice.
“Good evening, ladies,” her sexy rescuer said smoothly, then tapped Bree on the shoulder from behind. “I believe this is yours.”
She gasped and her drink went down the wrong way, sending her into a coughing fit.
* * *
THE WOMAN FINALLY stopped coughing and angled her head around until their eyes met. Nick Harmon dangled the earring where she could see it. He’d discovered it when he’d gone back to the bar to get a fresh drink and felt obligated to find her.
The woman narrowed her dark blue eyes and uncrossed her incredibly long legs. He’d noticed her back at the bar before she’d fallen into his arms. How could he miss her?