Page 41 of The Billionaire's Bad News Baby

Kayla shrugged with a small smile. “No, I’m just my mother’s daughter.”

“She sounds terrifying, then.”

“In her own way.”

Despite Kayla’s cavalier attitude and barrage of teasing, Elio’s eyes drifted to her fingers, which were picking at the bed covers beneath her, nails pulling at the blanket in a nervous tic. Without thinking, he took her hand in his, stilling her fingers. Kayla snapped her head around to look at him. Any trace of humor was gone, replaced by surprise, and beneath that, Elio could see the anxiety that had been bubbling away this whole time. He said nothing, just kept holding her hand, letting his thumb rub gently back and forth across her knuckles.

“There we are,” announced Dr. Albero. “May I introduce you to your baby?”

Elio dragged his eyes away from Kayla and looked at the screen where, sure enough, the outline of a tiny infant made up of shifting black and gray lines was visible. He hadn’t thought he’d be able to make it out so clearly, but there it was, as plain as day. You could even see it moving, the outline of a small fist shifting around.

“Are you all right?” Kayla asked, and Elio looked up at her, blinking.

“Why are you asking if I’m all right?”

“Because you’re squeezing my hand really quite hard.”

He looked down and saw that he really was, his own knuckles white against Kayla’s. He loosened his fingers and pulled his hand away as if burned, embarrassed. But Kayla reached out, taking his hand in her own and giving it a light squeeze.

Even if Elio had wanted to talk after that, he didn’t think it was actually possible, not with the lump that was rapidly growing in his throat.

“Everything looks good,” Dr. Albero said, peering at the screen with a practiced eye. “Your preeclampsia is stable for the minute, and baby looks just fine.”

He looked away from the screen, and Elio just hoped that he looked a lot more collected than he felt.

“Do you know the gender already?” Dr. Albero asked Kayla. She shook her head.

“Why not?” Elio blurted out.

Kayla raised her eyebrows at him, that infuriating and adorable smile still hovering around her lips.

“I don’t mind either way,” she explained, giving his hand another quick squeeze as if he were the one that needed support. “I was happy for it to be a surprise. But if you want to know the gender…”

She left the question hanging, with Dr. Albero waiting for an answer from him as well. Elio shrugged, trying his best to come off like he wasn’t that bothered either way. He had been shocked by the ferocity of needing to know, not because of any actual preference, just because… well, he didn’t really know why. He couldn’t explain it, where this wave of intense feeling for the image on the screen had come from, so he certainly couldn’t explain it to them.

“I’d like to know, yes,” Elio said in his most neutral voice. Kayla nodded at Dr. Albero, who double-checked the screen, deciphering things only he could understand.

“It’s a girl,” he announced with a pleased smile. “A daughter.”

Well. A daughter. A little girl. Knowing that shouldn’t make a difference to how he was feeling compared to twenty seconds ago, but… well, this was a whole new level of feeling that Elio knew he’d never experienced before.

His eyes definitely weren’t blurry. Definitely not. And he was clearing his throat because he was thirsty, not for any other reason. Kayla seemed perfectly composed and so he would be too. But when she squeezed his hand, he squeezed back. Every time.

CHAPTER 18

KAYLA

Kayla was falling hard. She’d tried to deny it, tried to focus on other things, but when all there was to do at the moment was rest, she hadn’t been able to distract herself from the fact that her feelings for Elio had moved hard and fast in record time.

He’d been great, he really had. He was getting so excited for the baby, latching onto the idea of being a father. The way his face had looked when he found out they were having a daughter… That was what made Kayla realize how deep she was falling. And that absolutely terrified her. She needed to be practical about this. Yes, she was falling hard, but he was a reserved man, focused on his business. He hadn’t even thought about being a father until now. Kayla was petrified that if any hint of how she was feeling got out, he would run for the hills and she would lose what was the beginning of an amazing relationship between father and daughter. And she just wasn’t willing to sacrifice that.

“Are you okay?”

She looked up, and Elio was there, coming to check on her. Practical. She needed to be practical. And she needed to be quick.

“I just…” She began chipping at her own fingernails in a nervous habit that had developed over the course of the pregnancy. Elio noticed too and reached out a hand, placing it over hers to stop her. Kayla hated how good that felt. Here she was trying to put a little space between them, a future safeguard against more heartache that seemed impossible to deal with on top of everything else. Elio putting his hand on hers to stop her nervous tic made her want to crumble and throw caution to the wind. Well, throwing caution to the wind had gotten her into this situation in the first place, hadn’t it? She took a deep breath.

“It’s all just… a lot,” she said, carefully monitoring Elio’s face for a reaction. But once again he was reserved behind his own carefully crafted walls. “I just need a little space right now. Please.”

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