His Reason to Stay

by Jennifer Hoopes

  She’d successfully avoided him all week, and a small part of her had hoped he would have left by now. He’d done his duty for his family and had run back to his job. To the life he’d made for himself, separate from Ellis Industries. She tugged at the loose collar of her dressing gown.

  That was a selfish wish.

  His family deserved to have him around during this time, and another part of her, the one she shushed on a daily basis, wanted him to stay forever. Why can’t his base be here?

  Was her fear really resentment and regret, or was it something else? Was it that she feared she wasn’t worthy of that kind of sacrifice? Was it that she feared if he stayed she would never know if she really could do this on her own?

  The door opened, and Dr. Kitt, along with a nurse named Amy, walked in. Dr. Kitt smiled. “You ready?”

  Tabby nodded, emotion already overwhelming her in the form of tear-pooled eyes and a lump the size of Canada in the back of her throat.

  She laid back as Amy typed something into the ultrasound machine to her right.

  “Okay, let’s meet this baby.”

  Tabby’s eyed remained glued to the twelve-by-twelve screen. Dr. Kitt squirted something warm on her belly and pressed a hard wand onto the mess, spreading it around. A rushing sound filled the silent room, and Tabby choked on a sob. Next to hearing her father or sister speak again, it was by far the most beautiful and peaceful sound in the world.

  Dr. Kitt remained quiet as he moved the wand in all directions, the sound never ceasing but the image distorting and reforming multiple times. Tabby blinked several times as her mind tried to make sense of what she was seeing. Was that a foot? A little finger?

  “Well, Tabby. They sound and look great.”

  “They?” Tabby croaked, and Amy laughed.

  “It seems the Ellis legacy is continuing in fine fortune. Two healthy babies. Probably explains why your morning sickness has been so strong.”

  “But at the last ultrasound, there was only one?” Desperation laced her voice. What was wrong with her?

  “These little buggers are identical, and it seems they’ve been playing hide and seek, lying right behind one another.”

  Two babies.

  Her nieces or nephews or both. A gift left behind from a terrible tragedy.

  “Can you tell? I mean what they are?”

  Dr. Kitt did some more maneuvering and shook his head. “Not yet. At least not to be certain, and with the way they’re situated right now, I would guess they plan on being stubborn for a while.”

  A tissue came into her blurred vision, and Tabby smiled at Amy. She hadn’t realized the floodgates were fully open.

  Dr. Kitt went through some more images, measuring and explaining, but Tabby heard very little. Her mind circled back to two babies. What a gift for the families. Families she no longer could keep in the dark. A man she could no longer keep in the dark.

  Still numb, Tabby got dressed, and Dr. Kitt came back in.

  “You okay?”

  She nodded.

  “I know it’s a lot. Surrogacy on a good day is an emotional roller coaster. But in your case doubly so because of the deaths.”

  Tabby cradled her stomach. Her nieces or nephews would never want for anything. She would provide everything they would’ve had growing up with Maisie and Isaiah.

  “At least you won’t be handling these babies on your own.”

  She nodded. “You’re right. The families will be a tremendous support, and I’ll tell them. I just wanted to make sure everything was as safe as it could be.”

  Dr. Kitt smiled. “Well, of course the families. But I also meant your co-guardian.”

  “My what?”

  “Your co-guardian. Maisie and Isaiah listed two guardians on the agreement. Standard form, really, although no one ever expects to have to use them.”

  She couldn’t ask. The words melted away every time she formed them to speak.

  “I take it from the blank look and pale face that you didn’t read the agreement.”

  “Why would I?” she shrieked. “It was my sister and brother-in-law. I was carrying their baby. I knew I was their backup, but nothing was supposed to happen.” Hysterics weren’t a part of her everyday routine, but these hormones had turned her into a weeping tsunami of Jekyll and Hyde emotions. She hadn’t given the paperwork even a cursory glance. Just signed her name next to the sticky arrow.

  Dr. Kitt placed a calming hand over hers. “Tabby, calm down. I didn’t mean to upset you, but the fact is, there are two of you responsible for these babies.”

  “Who is it?”

  The doctor sat back and crossed his ankle onto his knee. “Isaiah’s brother. Elijah.”

  …

  Eli’s plan had seemed simple. Find Tabby. Demand answers. Solve the problem. Only that plan was predicated on finding Tabby. He’d hunted her all week, only to find he’d just missed her or she was at a meeting or off site. He’d resorted to asking her stepmother, Lydia, only to get a blank stare and words that confirmed that no one had paid much attention to Tabby since the deaths. No wonder no one knew anything about her secret. They hadn’t even looked close enough to notice she had one.

  He lengthened his stride. Well, the running and hiding ended today. Tabby’s parting words to the boy at the charity event had mentioned Thursday. It seemed she’d gotten herself hooked up with a doctor. Eli growled at the thought of just what they might be doing together today. He acknowledged the flood of jealousy, despite having no right to it.

  Tabby wasn’t his.

  But the problem with jealousy was it had a mind of its own. And his jealousy urged him to find this little pretty-boy doctor and deliver a few choice words.

  Eli crossed into the open Asheville square. People moving in all directions. The dull murmur of conversation mixing with the auto noise from the surrounding streets. There was a fountain at the center, and on the brick surround sat Tabby, her posture slouched, her gaze glassy and unfocused. She clutched a manila envelope in her hand.

  He rushed over to her and kneeled. “What happened?”

  Glassy eyes met his, and the fear and longing punched him in the gut.

  “Did he hurt you?”

  She shook her head, confusion replacing her previous expression.

  “I’ll kill him.”

  “Wait! What are you talking about?”

  “That doctor. That boy. I swear, Tabby, I told you he wasn’t your type.” Eli ran a hand through his hair.

  Tabby stood, the manila envelope sliding to the ground. “Dr. Kitt isn’t anything to me other than a doctor. Not that you have a right to know that.”

  Eli snatched the envelope up to keep it from blowing away.

  “Give that to me.”

  Startled by Tabby’s tone, Eli glanced between her and the envelope. Her blue eyes were wide pools of fear, staring at the envelope as if it would harm her. He knew at that moment the answer to what was going on with her was inside the yellow flap.

  She stood transfixed as he lifted the edge and slid out the picture. His mind rejected what he was seeing. The picture proof positive of the one thing Eli wouldn’t have guessed even if given a hundred more clues.

  He stared at the images, unable to look at the woman across from him. “You’re pregnant.”

  “Yes,” she whispered.

  He laughed. Bitterness and resentment in such a simple gesture. “The sickness, the no alcohol, the weakness. All because of this.”

  She didn’t answer.

  Betrayal bubbled up and spilled over, wiping out concern and any other tender emotion. She was pregnant with another man’s baby. Another man had felt her skin, loved her, carried her though the peak of orgasms. And he’d been stupid enough to imagine a connection between them. To contemplate a future, despite a million hurdles.

 
“Who is he?” Where the hell had that come from? He didn’t want to know. Had no right to know.

  She snatched back the pictures and slid them inside. Her fingers fumbled with the flap.

  Chaos erupted in his emotions. Jealousy flowed alongside anger and betrayal. Nothing was as it seemed. Nothing was what it was supposed to be. Tabby shouldn’t be pregnant with another man’s baby.

  The bitter conclusion burned his tongue. The hell with rights and wants. “Who. Is. He?”

  She shoved him in the chest. “Don’t you dare start demanding things from me.”

  He caught her wrists lightly and pulled her close. The breaths of their anger mixing and mating. “Who’s the father of the baby, Tabby?”

  She lurched out of his hold. “Your brother. There. Are you happy?”

  Chapter Eight

  Eli stumbled backward. His brother? Was that why Sam had ignored his questions? Spouted off lies? My God, Tabby was pregnant with an Ellis. Only not his Ellis, but his twin’s. That was bitter irony, if he ever heard it.

  He was going to pummel Sam into the ground. Gone was the guilt over the reins Sam had upon his shoulders. His brother had broken a code. Sure, he and Tabby weren’t together per se, but Sam had to have known. Had to have realized the connection between them over the years.

  “When did you and Sam get together? I mean, did you at least wait until my feet hit a tarmac in a foreign country?”

  “Sam?” she croaked, tears openly coursing down her cheeks. Another time and place he would have gathered her up and dried them, but he couldn’t see past the red haze of betrayal.

  “Yes, Sam. The father of your baby. Does he even know?”

  And Tabby burst into laughter, collapsing back on the fountain’s edge. She alternated between sobs and chuckles, one minute as if he’d told the funniest joke and the next as if her heart had been ripped from her chest.

  Eli waited her out, each maniacal laugh rubbing him raw with betrayal and loss. Somewhere along the past week or so, he’d recognized her desire for him underneath the secrets, and he reciprocated it. Something linked them beyond the physical and his brain had traveled them down the impossible road further than he’d known. Grief may have brought him home to her, but she’d been with him long before he recognized it.

  Now it was gone. Gone with the image of a baby in black and white.

  Eventually, she quieted and looked up at him. Whatever she saw in his face sent her chin rising. She squared her shoulders.

  “The babies aren’t Sam’s, but they are Ellises.” She swallowed hard, and Eli imagined having to track down Lucas and Caleb. Good Lord, did she run through the entire clan while I was away?

  “They’re Isaiah’s. Isaiah and Maisie’s. The babies are your nieces or nephews.”

  It was Eli’s turn to stumble. He made it to the rough rock currently supporting Tabby and dropped down beside her. He held out his hand, and she placed the envelope on top. Sliding the pictures back out, he stared at the small profiles, the little noses, a foot, a hand.

  “I don’t understand,” he whispered.

  …

  Tabby had imagined a lot of scenarios playing out since the bombshells Dr. Kitt had dropped on her an hour ago, but arguing with Eli in the middle of an Asheville square over which of his brothers she’d slept with hadn’t entered the stratosphere. Tourists walked by. Northern accents mixed with y’all and twang. Each one oblivious to the monumental change occurring in her and Eli’s life.

  What type of person does he think I am? Was his opinion of her so low that he would think she ran through his family? Where was the man who had believed in her? Practically put her on a pedestal?

  Maybe she had built him up too much. Maybe her worries all along had been for nothing. If he believed she would sleep her way through his family, surely the protective and chivalrous streak she assumed he would exhibit had no basis in the here and now.

  Regardless, most of her secret was out. Part of her, the really selfish and perhaps self-preserving part, wanted to leave it at that. She would tell their families and be done. But was it fair to Eli? Fair to not let him make the choice? A choice she knew with all her heart would take into consideration everyone else’s welfare rather than his own.

  Wait. Did he know? Wouldn’t he have signed something also?

  “They came to me two months after the wedding. Maisie couldn’t carry a baby, and they wanted to know if I would be willing to be a surrogate. If not, they would look into someone else.”

  Eli grunted, flipping back and forth between the pictures. Tabby risked a glance. An emotion she couldn’t identify flitted across the strong jaw and haunted eyes. But still no recognition of his role. Maybe he didn’t know?

  “I agreed, and after tests and hormones and more shots than I could imagine, I was implanted three months ago.”

  “Did they…know?”

  The tears picked back up. “Yes. We knew it had taken and had heard the heartbeat. They’d taken the dads out to dinner to share the news with them.”

  A shaking hand reached out and grasped hers, hanging on for dear life. She understood the feeling of no firm footing.

  “Why haven’t you told anyone?”

  It wasn’t an accusation, and Tabby was beyond grateful for that. “I wanted to make sure. Well, as sure as I could be that everything looked good. That was today’s appointment. Where I found out that I’m actually carrying twins.”

  Eli laughed. “Damn Ellis genes.”

  Tabby smiled and squeezed his fingers. He hadn’t said anything about an agreement or knowing, so it was up to her to tell him and trust that she could turn him away when the time came.

  “I found out more today.”

  Eli moved closer and met her gaze. It was full of pride and concern and something else she refused to focus on.

  “Are you okay? You said the babies were, but what about you?”

  “I’m fine, or as fine as any other pregnant woman with twins. But any surrogacy, regardless of who the surrogate is, requires an agreement, and part of that is naming a guardian or guardians should something happen to both parents.”

  Eli nodded. “So you’re the guardian, I take it.”

  One nod in acknowledgment. She could leave it at that. Would anyone really think to question? Only Dr. Kitt knew. Her conscience, however, wouldn’t allow the lie. There had been too much evasiveness already this week, and she’d hated every minute of it, even if she’d thought it the best course for both of them.

  “Yes, I am. But today I found out Isaiah and Maisie had named a co-guardian.”

  Eli’s face blanked, and for the first time in their life together, she couldn’t tell what he was thinking. She could feel the tension in his hand, the ramrod way he sat on the hard edge of the fountain.

  “Who?” he croaked out then held up his finger asking for a minute. He turned away and ran his hand through his hair. “Six months ago. A stack of papers were left on my bed with a sticky note to look over and sign.” He faced her again, clasping his hands behind his neck and rocking side to side. “I didn’t read it. I figured it was something to do with stocks or a sale of something. I trusted my brother. He wouldn’t have me sign something detrimental to me. And then…”

  She waited. Met his gaze with encouragement.

  “And then I got an emergency assignment and left before talking with him. I left the signed papers on the bed.”

  “Eli.”

  Eli hauled her up into his lap and buried his face into the crook of her neck. His arms, his chest, everything surrounded her with support and hope and concern. It was everything she’d wanted and feared. And his next words confirmed that he planned on living up to his co-guardian duties.

  “We’ll get through this. Raise these babies with all the combined love of the Brodies and Ellises.”

  Her heart broke.

>   This was her worst fear. He was doing exactly what she knew he would do. Accepting everything and jumping in feet first.

  But at what cost to him?

  And even more, at what cost to her?

  …

  One day later and it was as if nothing had changed. Tabby turned to the side and smoothed her tunic over the small swell of her stomach. She didn’t need to hide anything anymore, but she loved her comfortable clothes. And Lord knew, being comfortable while upchucking on the bathroom floor had a certain set of benefits.

  Satisfied, she checked her purse, ignored the flashing email sign on the front of her phone, and headed downstairs. Catching sight of a signed print hanging above the fireplace, Tabby frowned. It was in black and white and showed a Tonkin Snub Nosed Monkey. One of Eli’s first big captures and a Christmas present many years ago. He’d told her it was a rare jewel in a country that had seen its share of turmoil and that it reminded him of her. Elusive, rare, but strong in its own way. The memory slid away on a smile quickly replaced by the aforementioned frown. Now that her secret was out, one that tied her to Eli way more than she expected, she had waited for the big ole honking protective axe to fall.

  Only it hadn’t.

  Sure, he’d helped her to her car and had helped her summon the families together for tonight, but other than that, nothing. No demands. No forceful butting into her life. No overbearing alpha male, I-know-it-all attitude. He hadn’t even followed her back to Gatlinburg.

  She snorted. Maybe she’d worked herself up for nothing? Maybe he was more scared than she was? After all, even though she’d dreamed of settling down with him, she really couldn’t ever see him settling down. He’d hightailed himself into a new career faster than one of the coasters at his family’s parks. Something about this life, this town, got under Eli’s skin and left him raw and bleeding. And since he’d left, he had controlled everything about his life with military precision, including his time home.

  The deaths. The babies. They were not in his plan. Did the thought of family make him feel lost in regards to planning and preparing?