Page 36 of The Billionaire's Bad News Baby

At least here it would be quiet. Kayla would have her own space, and he would have his. Dr. Albero was always within reach… This would be fine. It had to be.

CHAPTER 16

ELIO

As the next few days progressed, it became glaringly obvious that there was no possible way Kayla would be well enough to travel to the mainland, let alone back to America. It was like a battery in her had been drained, with only enough power to keep the flickering red light on, letting you know how empty it really was.

Elio had given Gianna the responsibility of seeing to Kayla’s needs, and even if he hadn’t, she probably would have taken on the role anyway. Isabella, as well, could be seen coming and going from the guest suite with small plates of fruit, dry toast, and cold drinks, reporting to Elio later on that she was slowly getting Kayla to be able to eat something that resembled meals again. Gianna, too, would update him with Kayla’s progress, which was slow and steady. Between his two employees and Dr. Albero, Elio figured Kayla was getting the best treatment from here to New York. So he wasn’t needed. That’s what he tried his best to convince himself, anyway.

Using work as an excuse, because it was always the perfect excuse, he avoided the guest wing altogether, giving Kayla space and privacy. He told himself that it was all for her benefit. Really, he felt like the one needing space, spending a lot of time outside watching over the vineyard and ocean. You couldn’t get more space than that, but he still felt trapped inside his own head. It was the same thoughts circling around, again and again, till the words were starting to lose meaning.

A baby. Kayla was having a baby. His baby. She had flown halfway across the world in order to let him know that she was having his baby. Which either proved that she was a much better person than he had given her credit for… or that she was dead set on getting a lifetime meal ticket from him. Whichever one it was, it didn’t change the fact that she was far too sick to leave the island, so once again they were thrown together purely by chance, trapped by an entirely different sort of storm. He would force himself to look the situation square in the face, but then the cycle would start again and Elio would be frozen by the thoughts, unable to muster up the concentration to get any work done, no matter how long he stared at his laptop screen.

Having kids… It’s not that he didn’t want kids; he had just honestly never thought about it. He’d never thought about having a family. The possibility had never crossed his mind, not when every fiber of his existence had always been focused on working. Since he was a child himself, the goal had always been to go into business, to carry on the family legacy, his father’s legacy and now… well, now it was just him. Except it wasn’t. Now it was him and Kayla and a baby.

He sat back in his chair and closed his eyes with a deep sigh. How was he ever supposed to figure out what to do with this mess when he couldn’t even think straight?

So he kept it simple. He left Kayla to rest and recover under the dutiful care of Gianna and Isabella, and he distracted himself with work. That strategy had never failed him before.

* * *

On the fourth day after Kayla’s arrival, Elio still hadn’t ventured far from the confines of his study or, like today, the balcony of his master bedroom. Watching the ocean stretching out to the horizon had turned into a sort of meditation for him, and at least while he was staring at that straight blue line, he didn’t think about anything at all. Not work. Not Kayla. Nothing. He knew that he was stretching out the inevitable, the fact that he would at some point, simply have to think about these things. But for now he stared out across the water, the sun sinking down to the horizon, desperate to keep some sort of control over his life for just a little bit longer.

He’d been working on the balcony, his computer open to various emails about the roll out of the next line of Oro wine products. Despite Noel Preston’s dramatic olive incident and the ensuing lawsuit, the business side of things had been going well. If anything, the drama Preston had kicked up in the name of his weird vendetta had only brought more eyes to Elio’s business. A competitor choking on an olive pit at a party didn’t seem to detract from the fact that Oro was a good product. As much as Elio hated to admit it, the scandal of it all might have been the best thing to happen at that stupid launch party. Either way, he was riding the wave while the going was good, not relying on one moment of success but, instead, preparing to be one step ahead at all times.

Then, a flash of blond curls, far below on the beach, caught his attention before he could continue with anything else. Was Kayla walking out along the beach? Gianna and Isabella were both brunettes. Had he finally lost it and been imagining things? He stood from the small table and leaned over the edge of the balcony to get a better look, but from this distance all he could tell was that it was Kayla and that she was alone, walking slowly along the sand. The relative amount of zen that he’d been able to muster went up in smoke as a new list of worries rammed their way to the front of his attention.

What if she fell? What if she fainted again? Was she alone or was someone with her just out of sight? Elio snapped his computer shut and made his way out of the house and down to the beach as fast as he could, breaking into a jog and not caring who saw. At least it didn’t take long to catch up to her, and as it turned out, she was alone, her back to Elio as he walked up behind her a hundred yards away, the wind and waves just loud enough that it seemed like she wasn’t at all aware that he was there.

“Kayla!” he called, and she jumped a little as she turned to find him there, eyes wide. Not only that but the closer he got, he could see how red her eyes were. She ducked her head to try and hide that fact from him, and that felt like a knife to the gut.

“What’s wrong?” he asked, right in front of her now, trying to catch her eye and failing completely. Kayla shrugged, her hands supporting her heavy belly, and looked out to the horizon which was now painted pink and gold, as if looking out there gave her the same sort of comfort that it did for Elio.

Then it hit him, all at once, like a brick to the face, how much of an insensitive idiot he’d been.

Yes, he was having a hard time sorting out how he felt about all of this. And sure, he was scared stupid about what the future might hold now that it was entirely unpredictable. But Kayla… she was utterly terrified; you could see it in her shoulders, in the tilt of her head, and it radiated off of her in unmistakable waves. She’d been terrified getting off that boat, sitting across from him, telling him everything that had happened since they’d last seen each other… telling him that the baby was his. She’d been petrified and still pushed through. Then she’d gotten sick enough that she’d been forced to be trapped on Malbia again, away from home, away from family. And he hadn’t once gone in to check on her. Good God, he wasn’t the one having a baby, bedridden in a foreign country, relying on the good graces of someone who was still more of a stranger than a friend. Elio felt sick with himself, his neck burning red with shame, especially as Kayla kept her eyes firmly on the ocean, maybe hoping that he wouldn’t notice the few tears that were still trying to escape her eyes, her lips pressed tight together so that they wouldn’t tremble.

“Kayla,” he said, gently this time, reaching out and placing a soft hand on her shoulder. “I’m sorry.”

That seemed to tip her over some sort of cliff edge and she hung her chin to her chest, tears running down her face till they dripped down her chin. Elio didn’t hesitate and pulled her to his chest, wrapping his arms around her and squeezing tight as he felt her shoulders trembling.

“It’s okay,” he said, the words muffled by the wild mess of her hair. That should have been the very first thing he’d said to her, so he repeated it now as if he could somehow make up for lost time.

“It’s okay, I promise.”

Kayla pulled away, wiping her face with her hands, which didn’t do all that much good. She was still staring at the ground like she was waiting for it to swallow her whole.

“I got your shirt all wet,” she said in a small voice.

“I don’t care about my shirt,” he scoffed, hands hovering back over hers.

“I think I need to sit down,” she said, her voice a little wobbly as she wiped her hands over her cheeks in another attempt to dry them.

Elio helped her lower down to the sand. She wasn’t green this time, at least, but she was definitely pale. He scolded himself internally. He should have been taking better care of her. Not the service staff, but him. He sat down beside her and waited till she’d collected herself a little more before saying what needed to be said.

“I mean it,” he said. “I am sorry.”

She looked perplexed. “For what? This is the second time I’ve shown up on your doorstep, uninvited, with life-changing news, and you’ve taken me in again. What do you have to be sorry for?”

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