Page 27 of Baby Bombshell for the Boss

She drew a deep breath. “I had an appointment with a doctor yesterday,” she said. “I was trying to find out why I haven’t been feeling well.”

“And did they find the answer?”

“They did.”

“Nothing serious, I hope?”

“Very serious, actually, but not in the way I think you mean.” She refused to allow herself to hesitate, knowing that if she stopped talking now, she might not find the courage to begin again. “The reason I’ve been feeling sick is that — I’m pregnant, Elliot.”

He blinked. “You are?”

“Yes.”

He just stared at her for a moment, and she wasn’t sure if the full weight of what she was telling him had registered. “You’re the father,” she said, in case he had missed that somehow. “That’s why I wanted to come and tell you right away. I’m not trying to put pressure on you about it. But I thought you needed to know the truth. I couldn’t have kept this from you. It wouldn’t have felt right to do that.”

“You’re pregnant,” he repeated.

Ivy reminded herself how she’d felt when she had first heard the news. It wasn’t the kind of thing you could just let roll off your back. It was hard to absorb, and hard to appreciate all of the implications. “You can take your time,” she said. “If you’re not ready to discuss it, I can go home, and we can talk later.” It would kill her to do that — to walk away without any answers — but she knew that she had to respect that it might be what he needed right now. She’d taken plenty of time to adjust to the news. She’d had almost twenty-four hours now. Elliot had had less than five minutes. She couldn’t expect him to have processed the fact that he was going to be a father.

He shook his head. “Don’t go,” he said. “Just… just give me a minute.”

Relief filled her. She couldn’t imagine anything worse than having to wait for him to call her, wondering whether he ever would. At least now she knew she was going to get some kind of answer from him, even if it wasn’t the one she wanted.

“You just found this out yesterday?” he asked.

She nodded. “I’ve told my sister — I had to tell somebody — but other than that, nobody knows yet. I can’t keep it a secret forever, of course, but I wanted to talk to you first.”

“I appreciate that,” he murmured. “I’m glad you came to me. I know that must have been difficult.”

“It was,” she agreed. “But you needed to hear it, and you had a right to hear it quickly.”

“Thank you.”

He took a deep breath. She watched him. The emotions playing across his face were changing too rapidly for her to be sure of what she was seeing, but she thought the most prominent among them was pure shock.

“What do you need?” he asked after a moment.

“Nothing, right now,” she said. “I have an appointment with a doctor. I have prenatal vitamins. I’m all right. I just wanted to let you know — so that you could make a decision about what you want to do, I suppose. About how involved you’d like to be.”

“You can count on me to be there for you,” Elliot said quickly. “I want to do the right thing. Whatever money you need — for medical expenses, for the baby’s future, anything — you can just say the word, and I’ll be there. You don’t have to worry about that.”

Ivy nodded slowly.

She supposed that was a good answer. She didn’t usually think about Elliot in terms of his money, though she knew Janelle sometimes did. But since she was having a baby, money was a concern, and she couldn’t say it wasn’t reassuring to know that he would take care of everything she and the baby needed. She’d been in such shock about the fact that she was pregnant at all that it hadn’t occurred to her to think about the fact that she was about to have a baby and she still didn’t have a permanent job. She was sure that it would have been terrifying to get to that realization. But she didn’t need to worry about it. The money was there.

Yet it didn’t feel satisfying to hear him say that he would provide for the two of them. And in that moment, Ivy realized that money hadn’t been what she was hoping for. She had wanted so much more from him.

She’d wanted to know that he wanted this baby — wanted it the way she did. It was a surprise, to be sure, but she had known right away that she wanted this, even if the circumstances weren’t ideal. She’d always wanted to be a mother. The way it was happening was unexpected, but there was a part of her that was filled with joy at the prospect anyway. That was what she’d hoped for — to see the same joy shining through the shock she had known he would feel.

There was none of that. Instead, he seemed determined to live up to his responsibilities and nothing more. It was a good thing, and she knew she ought to be happy about it — and in a way, she was. But it was so much less than what she had hoped for.

Images of things that would never be flew through her head. She felt like they were slipping through her fingers. Celebrating her child’s birthday together — that would never happen. Working together to care for the baby if he or she got sick. Cheering together as the child learned to ride a bike. Could she even come to him if she had worries about the child’s future? Would he care about that?

That was what he was saying right now, wasn’t it? He was going to throw money at the situation and walk away. He didn’t want to care about it.

And she shouldn’t be surprised, because he had never misled her. He had never pretended to be anything other than this person who feared and loathed commitment. A child was the biggest commitment of all. If Elliot was to be involved with the baby, it would mean that the two of them would always be in each other’s lives. Neither one of them would ever be able to walk away.

Of course he doesn’t want anything more than a financial involvement. I should be grateful I’m even getting that, I guess.

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