Page 30 of The Billionaire's Bad News Baby

“Uh, yeah, I do, actually,” Elio said, already embarrassed at himself for bringing it up. But Isabella was looking at him expectantly and pleased, waiting for what he was going to say. If he tried to swallow his words, she’d only start asking questions, prodding at him until she found out what it was that he wanted to eat.

“Um, I’ve really been craving an omelet lately.”

“Of course,” Isabella said, noting it down. “It’s not much of a challenge, but I’m sure I can get creative.”

“We have plenty of onions and tomatoes, I’m sure.”

“I would hang up my apron in shame if we didn’t have onions and tomatoes at all times.”

Elio offered up a polite laugh, made his excuses about getting back to work and fled the kitchen, wanting to smack himself over the head with a frying pan.

So much for not thinking about Kayla… come breakfast tomorrow, he’d be served another reminder of her time here.

CHAPTER 12

KAYLA

Months passed, and it felt as if they were gone in the blink of an eye. Somehow, at the same time, they were crawling past as slowly as a glacier melting. Kayla had always been stubborn to a fault, and so often throughout her life, it had been classed as a bad thing. But honestly, she didn’t know how she would have made it through till now without being as stubborn as a mule. Somehow, her “worst” trait had seen her through.

Quitting a stable career to go back to school and start from scratch in a different field had been hard. Working as a server to make whatever connections she could in various restaurants had been hard. Being seven months pregnant was hard. Doing all of it, with one thing stacked on top of the other… It was amazing that she still had her sanity intact.

But there was a flip side to all of the work and late nights and nausea and aching feet and studying. She was so darn proud of herself that sometimes it made it all feel like none of it was hard at all. The feeling of floating on cloud nine didn’t always last very long, and more than once, there had been tears in various bathrooms and a feeling that the persistent nausea that had plagued her pregnancy was going to knock her backwards at any given moment… But even with all of it on her shoulders, she kept trudging forward. She knew her future self would be grateful for it, especially when she was already kind of grateful for it all in the here and now. Besides, if her mom could do it, then so could she. There had been a precedent set, so even if sometimes it all felt impossible, Kayla had living proof in the form of Liz Harvey that it was doable. Not easy, but possible.

Though no amount of pride was going to make her financial situation any easier.

She was sitting at her mom’s kitchen table… well, now it was her kitchen table too. A lot of people would balk at the thought of moving back in with your mother at thirty-two, but with a decreased income and a baby on the way, Liz had pretty much insisted she move back in, and Kayla didn’t have to be told twice. She was lucky enough to have a good relationship with her mom, so she wasn’t going to look a gift horse in the mouth. But now she was sitting at their kitchen table, looking at the budget she’d drawn up on the back of a water bill, the numbers making her head swim. Even saving a massive amount of money on rent each month had only done so much to give her a bit of breathing room.

Babies needed a lot of stuff. Clothes and diapers and toys, somewhere to sleep and somewhere to have a bath, bottles, blankets… there seemed to be a new thing added to the list every day. Kayla hadn’t focused on the aesthetics or anything and instead bought items that were going to be at least safe and functional, although her mom seemed determined that this child would be well-dressed come hell or high water. Not that Kayla was complaining about that either, not when Liz would randomly appear with a very small sweater in hand and a million-watt smile. She’d only seen the pregnancy as a good thing, and Kayla couldn’t begin to count the ways that her attitude had made each day easier, rubbing off on her by osmosis.

What hadn’t helped was Kayla giving herself the mission to get back to Italy in order to tell Elio what was going on. After paying her bills, filling her car with gas, and checking things off of the baby’s “to buy” list, she was scraping literal pennies together to get a plane ticket to Italy. But airfare across the world was expensive, and it had been a whole lot easier when she’d had a law firm paying her way.

Looking at the budget written out in front of her, she knew that she was being kind of ridiculous. Well, not kind of… Just straight-up crazy. Several times, unable to sleep in the middle of the night, she’d sworn off the whole mission, called herself every version of “stupid” under the sun, and given up the entire scheme for the sake of whatever was left of her sanity.

But by the time morning rolled around and she had a few hours of sleep under her belt, Kayla knew that she wouldn’t be able to let it go. That stubborn streak was at work again, and she knew that if she didn’t at least keep trying to inform Elio of the pregnancy, then… well, she wouldn’t be able to live with herself. And it wasn’t like she hadn’t exhausted all of her other options. Phone calls didn’t even get through, and if they did, they went to an automated voicemail. Email was out. She couldn’t find a postal address for him, so apart from attaching a postcard to a carrier pigeon, getting herself on a plane was the only option left.

If she didn’t tell him… well, for one thing, it made the whole pregnancy feel like a dirty secret. And she definitely didn’t want her child to feel like they were a secret. Kayla’s dad may have opted out of being in her life, but at the very least, he had known about her existence. And Elio… maybe she was being idealistic, maybe she was just truly screwed up in the head, but she really had had a wonderful time with him on Malbia. Those few short days were on a constant loop in her head, their meals together, sitting on the sofa while the storm raged outside. The vineyard that glowed golden while the sun set and she tasted the wine that Elio had worked so hard on. Their night together and running away the next morning, not knowing how hard she would be trying to find a way back months later.

So here she was, counting pennies and falling short of a plane ticket once again. Kayla’s life always seemed to come back around to her sitting at a kitchen table wanting to smack her forehead against a solid surface.

“Have you had dinner yet?”

Liz set down her grocery bags on the kitchen counter and started unpacking them with well-practiced efficiency.

“No,” Kayla said. “Let me know what you want and I’ll get it started.”

Liz rolled her eyes at her. “I can cook dinner one night, you know. We can have pre-made lasagna and a salad. It doesn’t have to be this Michael-star quality all the time.”

“Michelin star.”

“What?”

“Not Michael star. It’s Michelin star.”

“Well, whoever’s stars they are, they can keep them tonight because I’m heating up some lasagna and tossing together a salad.”

“Okay.” Kayla wrote out a number on her budget neater, not wanting to mistake her sloppy three for an eight down the road.

“What, that’s it?” Liz said, sounding skeptical. “No more fighting, no verbal kickboxing, just okay?”

---