Page 46 of The Plus One Professional

“For your room.” She motioned to the luggage rack. “Mine and my sisters’ room isn’t ready yet, so do you mind if I put my bags in yours for now?”

“Sure.” I did not mind at all if she put her bags in my room. I would mind if she decided not to stay in it. “No problem.”

We followed the porter through the grounds that reminded me of a European garden. The place had a very old-world, old-money feel to it. He explained a little about the history of the vineyard, and then talked a little bit about the room, which had a gorgeous view and a private hot tub. When we arrived at the villa, he brought in our bags, and I tipped him twenty bucks.

As soon as I shut the door behind him, she said, “I don’t have cash to pay you back for that, but make sure to add it to the invoice.”

“The invoice?”

“The bill for this weekend.”

Fuck.I knew that I needed to address the fact that I would not be accepting any money for this weekend.

I was trying to come up with a way to break it to her that I would not be invoicing her at all, when my phone buzzed. I pulled it out. The message was from my sister’s phone, but it was from the twins. They had a video game high score and needed to tell me.

I sent back an applauding meme.

“Everything good?”

“Yeah, it’s my nephews. They’ve been playing my Super Mario Brothers on my old Nintendo console, and they just beat all the levels and saved the princess.”

“That’s awesome!” She smiled widely. “How many nieces and nephews do you have?”

“One niece and two nephews. What about you?”

“None. I can’t wait, though. I think I’m going to be an amazing aunt. That is, if my sisters ever have kids. Billie never wanted them. Birdie does, and she’s engaged, but her fiancé is a musician and on the road all the time. She doesn’t want to be a single parent.”

I nodded. “My sister is a single mom. It’s tough.”

“Yeah, I bet.”

“So, do you just want to be an aunt? Or do you think you want kids?” I was shocked when I heard the question leave my mouth. I’d never asked a woman if she wanted to have kids before.

When I was younger, I always thought I wanted to be a dad and have the family I never had. But after everything that happened, my desire to have kids of my own shifted. My idea of family shifted. I was already responsible for three lives and needed to be there for my sister. I thought that the dream of having my own family was dead. Buried. But Bailey, it seemed, had resurrected it.

When I looked into her eyes, when I spent time with her, she made me want things I didn’t have any business wanting.

“Um, yeah, I think I want kids of my own. I mean, I always thought I did.”

I read between the lines of her response. She’d thought she was going to have a family with Simon, and now she wasn’t so sure. Who was this asshole that could lead a woman like Bailey on for twenty years?

“What about you? Do you want kids?” she asked.

Part of me wanted to confess that she had done CPR and revived my desire for a family. But I knew that wasn’t fair. What I wanted didn’t matter. I didn’t have the luxury of living my life for myself.

“No. I don’t think that’s in the cards for me.”

She grinned and nodded, but I swore I saw a flicker of disappointment in her eyes, which told me that I had responded the correct way. There was no way I would ever sell her a dream or make her believe that I could be the man I was incapable of being.

Her phone dinged, and when she pulled it out of her purse, I saw a wide smile lift on her face. I was jealous of whatever she was looking at, because I wanted to be the one putting that smile on her face.

“Good news?” I asked.

She lifted her head, and I could see she was confused by my question.

I motioned to the phone which was still in her hand. “You lit up when you looked at it.”

“Oh,” she sighed with an even wider smile as she turned the phone around so I could see it. “It’s my Cat Cam.”

---