Page 46 of Daddy's Unexpected Gift

“Did you have a successful outing?” he asked.

“Did I get everything done I intended? No. But Georgie and I did not run into any issues, and we even successfully found food. So, that was a success.”

“Shall I unpack everything?”

“No, just put it on the table in the kitchen. We can deal with it in the morning. I need to get Georgie into bed.”

“Then I will wish you a good evening now, and I will see you in the morning,” Wayne said as I carried Georgie down the hall.

She fussed slightly before calming back down. I sat with her for a long while, gently patting her back, soothing her to sleep. How had this tiny little person come in and changed everything in such a short amount of time? I would do anything to protect her. And to think I didn’t even know of her existence a few short weeks ago.

Reluctantly, I left her bedside. I tucked the baby monitor into my pocket, but I knew her patterns now. She would sleep for a good, long while.

I began rummaging through the packages, getting everything set up the way I wanted. The longest part of the entire process was wrestling the phone out of the thick plastic shell case. I set the account to my credit card and programmed my number into it.

Wayne kept a corner of the kitchen set up like a home office for himself. I raided his supplies and found paper. Writing the note was easy.

I’m not giving you up. Don’t give up on us. My number is programmed. There is no reason anyone at your job needs to know.

I folded it and tucked it in against the phone. I carefully unwrapped the tote bag I purchased and placed the phone in the inner pocket before rewrapping everything meticulously. In the morning, Wayne would arrange for the gift and some flowers to be delivered.

All I had to do now was wait. I was not particularly a patient man, and this was going to chew at my resolve. Eventually, I made my way to bed. Tomorrow was going to feel like a very long day.

In the morning, Georgie woke me. We did our routine, a clean diaper, a warm bottle, snuggle time, and back to sleep for a few hours before beginning the day. Wayne had arrived by the time we were both dressed and ready for the day.

“More nanny candidates today, Mr. Sterling?” Wayne asked.

“Thank you for the reminder. I need to cancel those. Could you arrange to have this delivered along with some flowers to Cecelia? Her address is on a note page under the gift bag. Time it so that it arrives after she has gotten home after work.”

He nodded, and I took Georgie with me into my home office. I had calls to make and appointments to cancel. Georgie was a disruptive assistant. She smashed her hands against the keyboard of my laptop and tried to grab my phone out of my hands. If I put her down in her bounce toy, she complained that I was ignoring her. Everything took longer than it needed to. My foul mood was reflected by the baby, and neither of us had a very nice time. We were both cranky and whiny.

The day dragged, and it was an eternity of time before my phone rang with the one call I had been waiting for.

“Cecelia,” I said as I answered the phone.

“Sterling, what have you done?” she asked.

“Don’t you like the gift?”

She laughed. “Thank you, the tote bag is very thoughtful. But I think it cost more than I spent on my car.”

I laughed. “You can’t keep carrying everything in your arms.”

“What am I going to tell them at work?” she asked.

“I don’t understand,” I said. She wasn’t making sense. “It’s a tote bag. You could have bought it yourself.”

“No, Sterling, I couldn’t have. This bag costs more than I make in two months.”

“Does that mean you aren’t going to accept it?”

“What?” she practically shrieked. “It’s not every day someone just gives you an Hermès bag. Hermès, really? I should tell you I won’t accept it, but I do love it. And the phone…”

“There is no way they can trace the phone. If you leave it at home, your work won't even know about it,” I explained.

“I know, but why?” she asked.

“Because I want to talk to you, and you won’t call me on your own phone even with my phone number in those files you carry around.”

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