Page 58 of Secret Baby for the Bad Boy

“God, Shana...” But Lara's voice trails off, her anger seeming to deflate as tears slip down her friend’s face.

I stand there, well aware that anger solves nothing. The best we can do is move forward and make the best of things.

“We'll deal with this,” I say, glancing from Lara to Shana, wanting to assure them as I speak in a tone that’s firm but not unkind. “We'll fix it. Together.”

Lara nods. “Whatever it takes,” she whispers, reaching out to pat Shana’s hand.

Shana's tearful eyes meet mine, a silent thank you passing between us. Lara lets out a sigh of relief and I can see she trusts me, a fact that warms my soul. This is a setback, yes, but we're a team, and we'll handle it as a team.

“What happened?” Lara asks, sounding curious about what transpired to get things to this point.

Shana's eyes are red-rimmed, her fingers twisting a tissue into puffs of white dust.

“I met him at a conference,” she says, her low voice hushed and embarrassed. “He seemed... interested in me. Maybe a little too interested in me.”

“Your boyfriend?” Lara asks, and I stand back, wondering how the heck Lara didn’t know about her best friend’s boyfriend. But things click; if Shana had a bad feeling from the start, of course, she wouldn’t want her friend to meet him and confirm her fears.

Shana nods, fresh tears sliding down her cheeks. “I should have known—”

“Shana.” Lara's tone seems to get her friends attention and she continues to speak. “This is not your fault. Someone did this to you.”

“You didn't know,” I say, feeling bad for her. “We'll sort this mess out and you’ll meet a decent guy.”

“He did invent reasons to get me out of the room when my laptop was open and on.” Her heart seems to be breaking before us and I want to hug her, but Lara does instead. As Lara squeezes her friend, I continue puzzling out what to do next.

“I feel so stupid. How did I not see this?” Shana asks Lara.

Lara pulls back slightly, looking Shana in the eyes. “You couldn’t have known. People like that are good at hiding their true intentions.”

I nod in agreement. “The important thing now is to secure your data and make sure he can’t access anything else. We’ll start by changing all your passwords and checking for any malware on your laptop.” There it is, step one of a plan that’ll help us get this situation under control. And if they’re anything like me, just having a plan in place will help them both feel better about the whole situation.

Shana sniffles, wiping her eyes with a fresh tissue Lara hands her. “Thank you. I don’t know what I’d do without you both.”

“We’re here for you,” Lara says firmly. “We’ll get through this together.”

“I should have listened to my gut.” Shana lets out a laugh with no joy behind it. “I didn’t want you to meet him, Lara, because I knew you’d hate him and tell me to kick him to the curb.”

Lara shrugs. “He sounds like a loser and you can do better. But for now, don’t let him change how you feel about yourself or stop you from working.”

I take a deep breath, ready to get started. While I have step one of the plan already, my mind is working on the backend to form the next part. The harder part. That part that’s not just changing passwords and looking for malware. “Let’s get to work. The sooner we start, the sooner we can put this behind us.”

We gather around Shana’s laptop, ready to tackle the problem head-on. As we work, I can’t help but feel like this could be a problem moving forward. If it was this easy… security needs an overhaul. And I know just the guy to do it. Time to see if Vice is still looking for honest, aboveboard work. It would be nice to see him again, too. And as those thoughts fill my mind, another clicks into place. Not only could I ask Vice to head up security, but maybe I can convince Walker to help, too.

After all, he wanted to invest in the company. Maybe he’ll be willing to make this company worth investing in by getting rid of the impersonators. It’s worth giving him a call. And as the IT guy looks over the system, I step out into the hallway to make a call.

“I can’t wait!” Win is dragging both me and Lara along, clearly in a bigger hurry than we are, but only because we’re not four-year-olds with endless energy and an unmatched excitement for life.

We’d decided to bring him to the aquarium after I asked Lara if he’d ever been. She’d thought about it, then in a surprised voice said no. She seemed surprised because it’s the kind of place he’d go crazy for and she couldn’t believe she hadn’t thought of it before.

All the anger, tension, and betrayal of the day stops at the door, replaced by the wide-eyed wonder of our son. He tugs on my hand, eager, and I let him lead the way inside the darker space filled with tanks.

“Look, Daddy!” His small finger points to a circular tank where jellyfish hover, their tops undulating and their long tentacles drifting on invisible currents.

“Oh, they’re beautiful,” Lara says, and I give her a sideways glance. I can’t imagine anyone calling a gelatinous blob beautiful, but…

She elbows me, a smile on her face. “I think they’re pretty.”

“What? I didn’t say anything,” I tease back, leaning in to press a quick kiss to her lips as Win presses his face to the tank, clearly fascinated.

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