Page 41 of Baby Bombshell for the Boss

“Oh, they really don’t,” he said. “And I’ve got my phone in case anything comes up. But I could stay home with you. We could work on putting the crib together. We’ve been dragging our feet on that.”

It was true. The beautiful crib that they’d ordered weeks ago had been sitting in a corner in the nursery, still in the box it had come in, waiting to be put together. They did need to get that done. And although Ivy had done her best not to ask for help on too many things, this was something she needed him for. Her belly was big enough now that it would have significantly hindered her in her ability to put the crib together. Besides, she didn’t want to lift the heavy pieces. That really wouldn’t be good for her. She wasn’t too proud to ask for help with something like that.

And she was seriously tempted by the offer. How great would it be to have him here with her all day? To work on a project together, to laugh at each other’s jokes and enjoy their time together… it sounded amazing. Relationship or not, there was no getting around the fact that she and Elliot had amazing chemistry, and that would always draw her to any offer of spending time with him. She would always want his company — she knew that now.

It worried her. Realizing that her attraction to him was this powerful was concerning, because she didn’t know what it meant for the future. How was she going to deal with it when he was out of her life? He might not ever be gone completely, since they were having this baby together, but that didn’t change the fact that there would come a day when they wouldn’t be joined at the hip the way they were now. He’d said that she could stay here as long as she liked, but he hadn’t meant forever. He hadn’t meant that they would live together for the rest of their lives, or even until their baby grew up. At some point, she would need to get a place of her own.

She believed he would always want to be a part of the baby’s life. That was a good thing. They would always know each other. But would their relationship fade to a once-a-week meeting? Less than that? Passing their child back and forth to satisfy some custody agreement, but not sharing each other’s lives at all?

Ivy didn’t know. And maybe it was time for her to start preparing for the possibility that things would indeed go that way. It would break her heart if and when it happened, but should she really be letting herself get in deeper and deeper with him when it might not last?

“Go to work,” she told him. “You need to be there, and I’ll be fine. I really wanted to catch up on my soaps anyway. Just promise you’ll call me if anything weird happens with the painters, okay?”

“I will call you if they spill a drop of paint on our new carpets,” he said, with a light laugh that let her know he wouldn’t do any such thing. He probably wouldn’t have called her even in an emergency. He did such a good job protecting her, caring for her, and she knew that he didn’t want her to have to worry about anything.

It was equal parts touching and maddening.

He went to the door, tossing one last charming smile over his shoulder. Ivy felt herself melt, as she always did when he turned on the charm. He was so attractive to her. She let herself fantasize one more time about the day the two of them would have if he did stay home with her instead of going in to work. It would be picture perfect — the kind of thing she dreamed about and always had.

But it wasn’t something she could let herself have. She had to let him go.

She relaxed into the couch cushions and reached for the remote. The distractions of bad TV would get her through the day, and she would see him again tonight. As hard as it was to pull away from him, to spend the day without him, she knew she was doing the right thing. She couldn’t let herself give in — she couldn’t indulge the fact that she thought she might have really fallen in love.

One day, her life would require her to move on from him, and she knew that she needed to be ready to face that day when it came.

CHAPTER 19

ELLIOT

Ivy wasn’t aware that Elliot was in contact with Janelle. At least, Elliot didn’t think she was. And that was what was going to make this surprise work.

It was actually Janelle who had reached out to him, looking up the phone number for SmartSilver and asking to be put through to him. It usually wasn’t possible for people to reach Elliot through that channel, but when the receptionist had told him who was calling, he’d taken the call happily.

“So you’re the guy who knocked up my sister,” she’d said, getting right to the point in a way that had both surprised and impressed him. In another world, he could have seen himself hiring her — directness was definitely a quality he looked for in his employees.

“That’d be me,” he said, unable to keep amusement out of his tone.

“Nice to talk to you,” she said. “I hope you’re treating Ivy well. You’ll have me to answer to if you don’t.”

“You shoot from the hip, don’t you?”

“No one messes with my big sister, that’s all. Not even the CEO of SmartSilver. I don’t know if other people in your life are afraid of you — you seem like someone who’s surrounded by yes-men — but I want you to know you don’t intimidate me. I’ll be a thorn in your side as long as you’re in my sister’s life.”

“Or we could be friends,” Elliot said mildly. “We both care about Ivy, right? We should be on the same side.”

“Do you mean that? You really care about her?”

“Of course I do. She’s having my child. Besides, I think Ivy’s great. Why do you think I asked her to move in with me?”

It had obviously rocked Janelle. Elliot could tell he wasn’t what she had expected. And for the past month, the two of them had been in regular communication. She was the one who’d let him know that tonight was Ivy’s birthday. “And you’d better do something nice for her,” Janelle added. “Order takeout for her or something, because she won’t do it for herself.”

Elliot knew that was true. He’d known Ivy long enough to have realized that she wouldn’t do anything special to treat herself. She hadn’t even mentioned her birthday to him. And he couldn’t let it pass unremarked upon.

When he got home, he found her sitting in front of the TV watching a game show. “This is ridiculous,” she told him, gesturing at the screen. “I can’t believe they can’t guess the phrase.”

He looked at the screen. “I don’t know what it is.”

“It’s obviously ‘Personalized Stationery.’”

---