The Baby Arrangement

by Lisa Dyson

  Bree should have expected he wouldn’t agree easily, but it felt like a punch to the gut. She gathered her things in her arms and opened the door. “I’ll let you know what I decide.”

  CHAPTER NINETEEN

  A WEEK WENT BY, and Nick still hadn’t talked to Bree since she left with all her things. And he’d been miserable. Everywhere he looked, he was reminded of her. Working on the nursery was almost impossible, but he knew he only had a few more weeks until he would hopefully need it.

  He still didn’t know if she’d fight him for sole custody. All he wanted was for the three of them to be together. He’d do anything to make that possible. He’d tried calling every number he had for her, texting, emailing. He left messages at work, at home, on her cell. She hadn’t bothered to answer him in any form.

  He’d contacted her friends, too. They were torn. As much as the women wanted Bree and Nick to be together, they had to take her side. He understood, but that didn’t help his situation.

  Pete had been no help, either. His attitude was that if she couldn’t get past the fact that he hadn’t told her about a little thing like the restaurant needing money, then he was better off.

  The one person he hadn’t yet told was his mom. She was so excited about being a grandmother and possibly a mother-in-law that he couldn’t bear to break her heart. And that’s what would happen when she found out.

  Surprisingly, his mom was stronger than he’d expected. “We’ll do whatever it takes to fight her,” she told him firmly when he finally went to her with the news. “She’s not going to do to you what her father did to her mother.”

  “You know she’s got money, as well as her dad’s money, to back her up.” He didn’t see how he’d ever win a custody fight. “Besides, that’s not what I want.”

  “What is it you want?”

  “I love her, Mom. I want the three of us to be a family. I just can’t get that through to her. She won’t even take my calls.”

  “She’s afraid,” his mom said. “I saw her reaction to the baby shower. Being a mother has never been a goal for her. And she probably feels like she was never given a choice. Which is scary, I’m guessing.”

  “I suggested that to her, but she denied it. We both know she doesn’t like to fail, so she doesn’t even want to try. Anyway, at this point, I’m not even sure if she wants custody. On one hand, she doesn’t think she has any motherly instincts. On the other, I’ve watched her become so attached to our daughter.” His emotions surfaced. “I don’t think she realizes that her attachment is the first sign of maternal instincts.”

  His mom hugged him then. “You keep fighting, Nick. Keep reminding her that you’re here and want her in your life. Don’t let her forget that for even a moment.”

  * * *

  NICK HAD BEEN RIGHT.

  That had been Bree’s recurring thought since she’d walked out of his house last week. But the fact that he was right didn’t mean it fixed the problem.

  She was afraid. Afraid to fail, afraid to be hurt, afraid to take a chance. And she hated being afraid.

  She also hated not knowing what to do about it.

  “There’s some water in the cooler in the armrest,” her limo driver told her. Her father had sent a car to pick her up. He wanted her to meet her baby brother. This was not going to be a fun afternoon.

  “Thank you.” She helped herself and took a long swallow.

  She’d spent the past week crying her eyes out and when her father called this morning with the invitation, she decided that she needed to pull herself together and move forward. Seeing her father—and probably hearing his advice regarding Nick again—was a good first step. He’d probably be thrilled to hear that she and Nick had split up.

  Just the thought brought her emotions bubbling to the surface again. She took another long drink of water, trying to tamp down her feelings. Someday she’d get over him completely—stop loving him. She just needed to move ahead to that point quickly.

  Her daughter elbowed her in the ribs, reminding Bree that she would never get over Nick completely as long as their daughter was in the picture. With Bree’s recent luck, this girl would probably be the spitting image of Nick. Which meant she’d be gorgeous.

  Damn those pregnancy hormones that were kicking into overdrive and making her work hard to keep her tears at bay.

  Traffic wasn’t too bad and, before she knew it, the driver pulled up in front of her dad’s house. She was invited in by James, the butler, who from his undisguised look of surprise, hadn’t been told that Bree was pregnant.

  “Congratulations, Ms. Tucker,” he said.

  “Thank you, James.” She handed him her pashmina.

  “Your father is in the den.”

  She walked down the hall, hearing conversation before she reached the den.

  “Bree!” Her stepmother greeted her first. She had an infant tied onto her in some kind of hammock. Was that something else Bree needed to own? “It’s so good to see you.” Linda softly smoothed her son’s nearly bald head. “This is Calvin Lee Tucker Junior. We’re calling him CL.”

  Bree smiled appropriately or, at least, she hoped so. “He’s so little,” Bree said.

  “Not when you’re trying to give birth to him,” Linda said under her breath. “And he’s gained a pound and a half since he was born.”

  “Wow.” The birth video she and Nick had watched in Lamaze class played through her head. She wondered if she was strong enough to survive giving birth, let alone raising her daughter. As she’d been doing, she shoved away the question of who would raise her little girl. She had no right answer.

  “Isn’t he a wonder?” her dad said proudly as he kissed his son’s head. He’d been talking on his cell phone when she’d arrived, which was the conversation she’d heard. “A hearty, healthy son.”

  She watched her dad and wondered if he’d ever been like that with her.

  “Look at you.” Her dad finally greeted her with a pat on the upper arm. “You look ready to pop.”

  Again she tried to smile, but wasn’t sure she was succeeding.

  “Come, sit down,” Linda told her. “You can put your feet up if you need to. I know my ankles disappeared those last few weeks before I delivered.”

  “I’m fine,” Bree told her. She was being so nice. “So have you hired a nanny to help out?” She posed the question to her father.

  “Oh, no. No need for that. Linda has time off from work and I actually enjoy getting up for those middle-of-the-night feedings.”

  Bree’s eyes widened. “You get up with CL during the night?” She knew for a fact that after she’d been born he’d had three shifts of nannies so she was taken care of twenty-four hours a day.

  “Of course he does,” Linda verified. “He and CL do their bonding when he’s changing his diaper.”

  “You change diapers?”

  Her father laughed. “Yep. Never thought you’d see the day, did you?” He shrugged. “I guess I didn’t know what I was doing back when you were born. The nannies kept telling me I needed to spend more time with you, but you know me and work.”

  Yes, she did know him and work.

  Linda excused herself when CL began to fuss. “Speaking of diapers, this little guy needs a clean one.”

  When Bree was alone with her father she asked a question she’d never considered before now. “So you’re not different with CL because he’s a boy and I was a girl?”

  “Oh, no. Of course not, Bree. I was just too hardheaded to see what I was missing out on back then. I’m truly sorry that you would even think that.” He took a seat opposite her and leaned forward. “Now, tell me what’s going on with you.”

  She couldn’t remember the last time her father had made that request. “Well, Nick and I are no longer together.”

  His eyeb
rows rose. “What about custody?”

  She shrugged. “We haven’t come to a decision yet.” Her pride wouldn’t allow her to tell him he’d been partially right about Nick needing her money. Not that she even cared about that anymore. She knew him well enough to know that he had a lot of pride and would never be with her for her money. But he should have trusted her enough to tell her about his financial woes.

  “First thing you should do is get yourself a good lawyer. You don’t want to end up paying child support to that guy.” Now he was sounding exactly like the father she knew. And for some reason that gave Bree the comfort she needed today.

  * * *

  TWO DAYS AFTER her due date, Bree’s water broke. She’d been getting ready for work when it happened.

  She placed a hand on her abdomen and spoke to her daughter. “I guess this means you’re ready for us to meet.”

  She tried to be happy, but ever since breaking up with Nick, she’d been sad. She wanted him there, wanted him by her side as their daughter was born.

  But her pride kept her from returning his calls.

  Her aunt Karen had told her to give him a chance to make things right. But she’d resisted her advice, as well as that of her well-meaning girlfriends, who had told her the same thing.

  Right now she had other things to worry about. She picked up the phone and called Roxie. She barely got out a sentence when her friend said, “I’ll be right there.” And then she hung up.

  “So much for letting me speak,” she told her watermelon of a belly. Then she checked her condo for anything that needed doing, and she made sure her packed bag was sitting by the front door. When she was ready, she rolled her suitcase to the elevator and went down to the lobby to wait for Roxie.

  It wasn’t Roxie who showed up.

  “Nick?” Her breath caught in her throat. “What are you doing here?”

  “I’m taking you to the hospital.” He took her suitcase from her and began rolling it to his car.

  “But where’s Roxie?”

  “She’ll come to the hospital when I text her after our baby’s born.” He wasn’t asking her if this was okay—he was telling her.

  “What if I don’t want you there?”

  He looked directly at her. “You don’t have a choice. Now, do you want a ride to the hospital or would you prefer to take public transportation?”

  She was silent as she got into his car and buckled up. “I hate being manipulated. You know that.”

  “Yes, I do know that. And so does Roxie. Right now, we outnumber you.” He started the car and they took off to the hospital.

  They said very little on the drive and then as they got settled into a labor room.

  “Looks like you’ll be a while,” the nurse told her. “You’re only dilated two centimeters. Why don’t you do some walking.”

  “Two centimeters!” she said when they were alone. “It’s going to take forever to get to ten.”

  “Come on,” Nick said, holding out his hand. “Let’s take a walk. We need to talk.”

  “Really? You want to talk now? Haven’t we said everything there is to say?” Truthfully, she wanted him to say something that would change her mind about him. Make her believe they could make a go of it. Say something to make her believe in herself, in her ability to be a mother. She just didn’t know what those words were.

  “Now’s as good a time as any,” he said, and followed her out into the hallway.

  “So what do you want to talk about?” she asked softly as they walked past other patients and hospital employees.

  “First, I want to tell you that I love you, and I never stopped loving you.”

  She stopped suddenly and looked at him. He’d taken two more steps before stopping and turning to her.

  “Just saying that doesn’t make everything right again,” she said.

  “I know.” They began walking. “There’s more to it than that.”

  “Go on.”

  “I want us to be together. All three of us. I don’t care about that damn legal agreement we signed.” He looked her straight in the eyes as they walked slowly down the hallway. “I understand that you don’t trust me. I should have been honest with you and told you about my financial problems.” He ran a hand through his hair. “I was embarrassed. I didn’t want you to know. At least not until I fixed them on my own.”

  She knew him well enough to know that he was speaking from his heart.

  He stopped walking and faced her. “I never had any intention of asking you for a loan through your company. Pete urged me to, but I didn’t want money to come between us. Especially after we slept together. Even more so after finding out this little one was on her way.” He touched Bree’s abdomen, the warmth of his hand thawing her heart.

  They continued to walk and got to the end of a hall, where they turned around to go back the other way.

  “I wish you had been honest with me instead of having me find out by accident. You made it difficult to trust you.”

  He nodded. “I understand that. So this is what I propose. I’ll sign a prenup or anything else you want me to sign. Just as long as you don’t rule out the three of us as a family.”

  She had to stop moving when she had a labor pain. She’d had some easy ones before this, but now she had to do her Lamaze breathing.

  “Just keep focused on your breathing,” Nick told her as he softly stroked her back. “You can do it.”

  When the pain subsided, she straightened, and they began to walk again.

  “Last week when my grandparents were here,” Bree said, “they asked about you. I told them that we’d broken up. I could tell that they didn’t approve. And some of the things they said began to make sense to me.”

  “Like what?”

  “At one point, they told me how much I was like my father.”

  “That must have gone over well,” he quipped.

  She ignored him and continued. “They compared what I was doing to what my father did to my mother by keeping her away from me. They even asked me if I would hire a nanny to take care of our daughter since I would be raising her alone.”

  “They knew that I would be involved, too, right?”

  “Yes, but they also knew that I’d need someone to live in because of having to get up for work every day.”

  “Everything they said seems to be right on the money.”

  “I know. That’s why it’s been bugging me so much.”

  He stopped walking and turned to her. “What does that mean?”

  She swallowed. “It means that I need to stop acting like my father. I need to believe you when you say you don’t want my money. Most important, I need to listen to my heart.”

  “And what does your heart say?”

  She looked into his eyes. “My heart says that I love you and this baby girl, and I don’t want to lose either one of you.”

  “I feel the same way.”

  “That’s not all,” she said. “You were right about me. I have so many doubts about becoming a mother. I have no idea what I’m doing, Nick.”

  He shook his head. “That’s not true. You have wonderful maternal instincts. You’re just not paying attention. I’ve seen you bonding with our daughter already. That’s the first step. You already know each other.”

  “But there’s so much to learn.”

  “And that’s what you’re so good at. You became an expert at pregnancy. So now you’ll learn about being a mother the same way, as well as from experience.”

  “But what if I make mistakes?”

  He smiled. “Every parent makes mistakes. It’s part of the process. You know they say first children are ‘practice children.’”

  She gulped. “First children? Does that mean what I think it means?”

  �
��Bree, I want more than just one child with you, if you’re okay with that, of course.” He pulled her close then, as close as they could get with her belly in the way. “I love you,” he said into her ear. “I love you more than you’ll ever know. And, no matter what the future holds, we’re in this together. Mistakes and missteps, as well as wonderful times.”

  “I love you, too,” she whispered. “Promise you’ll always be there for us?”

  “I promise.”

  After standing there in an embrace for a few minutes, their daughter once again interrupted when Bree had another labor pain.

  When it was over, Bree took his hand and said, “Come on, I think it’s almost time for us to meet our daughter.”

  EPILOGUE

  Three months later

  “I’M NOT SURE why I let you guys talk me into having the wedding here,” Bree told Roxie, Hannah and Amber as they were having their hair done at the salon on Isla de la Blanca. “It would have been much easier to do it at home.”

  Nick’s mom spoke to Bree’s reflection in the mirror. “But this is so much more meaningful. Years from now, you’ll be happy you chose to do it here.”

  “You tell her, Emily,” Amber said with enthusiasm.

  “Yeah, she doesn’t have a sentimental bone in her body.” This from Roxie.

  Hannah spoke up. “Well, she did finally agree to even having a wedding. We need to give her credit for that.”

  Bree couldn’t help smiling. “That’s true. But when it came to the actual ceremony, you guys made every arrangement. All I had to do was show up.”

  “You wanted simple, so that’s what we did,” Emily said. “Besides, your only job is to take care of my granddaughter.”

  “I hope she’s not fussing for Nick,” Bree said. “She refuses to take a bottle even after I’ve spent the time to pump.”

  The girls laughed.

  “What’s so funny?” Bree wanted to know.

  Roxie answered, “Who could have guessed that a sentence like that would ever have come out of your mouth?”

  “Okay, fine, I get it,” Bree said. “You’ll see. Someday all of you will be in my position and you’ll realize how much a baby changes you.” She could hardly believe it herself.