Page 48 of Baby Bombshell for the Boss

Ivy was struggling to her feet, and he quickly came forward to support her as she rose. “We need to get to the hospital,” he said, feeling as if he was on autopilot. He’d been thinking about this moment for months, but the truth was that in the past few weeks he had begun to wonder whether he would even be present for it. They saw so little of each other anymore that it was hard to imagine being here with her. He had wondered if he was going to just get a call from the hospital one day informing him that his baby had been born.

“How did you find me?” she asked.

“I saw you come in here,” he told her.

“No — I went when you weren’t watching.”

“I’ve been watching you all night.” Might as well admit it. “I kept thinking that you might come over to me.”

“And you wanted to make sure I didn’t?”

“No, Ivy. God. I was hoping you would.”

“Why didn’t you come over to me, then?”

“You were obviously avoiding me,” he told her. “I didn’t want to force my company on you. But then you snuck in here, and I wanted to make sure you were all right. And it’s a good thing I did,” he added. “Would you even have called me if I didn’t find you here?”

“I would have called you from the hospital.”

“How were you going to get to the hospital?”

“I was going to take a cab.”

“Ivy.”

“I can take care of myself, Elliot,” she said. “I don’t need you for everything, you know.”

“Not everything. But it’s okay to need me for this. Come on, I have a car in the garage.”

“You have a car?”

“It’s a company car,” he said. “I use it for emergencies. Business emergencies, usually.”

“Great,” she said. “With my luck I’ll probably end up giving birth in your company car. I’ll ruin the upholstery.”

“Do you think I care about leather seats right now? Let’s go.”

“I can’t.”

“What do you mean? We have to get to the hospital.”

She looked genuinely upset. “I can’t go out there in front of all those people,” she said. “And there were reporters outside — I don’t want to face them.”

“The elevator goes right to the parking garage,” he told her. “There won’t be reporters there. Your path will be clear. As for the people in the office, we’re just going to walk right past them, okay? Nobody is going to say anything. No one will try to stop us. It’s fifteen steps from here to the elevator. Hold onto my arm, look straight ahead, and let’s just go.”

He didn’t want to give her the chance to get in her head about it any more than she already was, so he pushed the door of the break room open and towed her out onto the floor.

A few people did look in their direction. It was natural, since they were the ones this party was honoring. But no one approached. No one said anything. And, Elliot thought, nobody seemed to realize that they were leaving the party until he pushed the button for the elevator. He thought people might have woken up to what was going on then, but the elevator came quickly, he got her on board, and they were whisked away.

He felt her relax ever so slightly. “I’m so sorry,” she said.

“Why are you apologizing?”

“The timing couldn’t be worse. If you want to put me in a cab and go back to the party, that’s all right. I’d understand. In fact, maybe you should. Maybe it would be for the best, because then people won’t ask questions.”

“Ivy. Stop,” he said. “Don’t you know that I want to be with you for this?”

Instead of answering, she gasped in pain and clutched his arm extra hard.

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