Page 77 of Surprise Baby for the Enemy

Emma was the first to leave, though. She didn’t even say goodbye. Before the cake was passed around, I realized we were a person short, and when I checked the front drive, her car was gone.

It’s the only part of moving out to the country that I regret. I brought Emma into the Warwick estate, then fucked off to live my best domestic life. She’s been training under Iris and making her own life for herself within the estate, but she’s still struggling to build friendships with any of her new peers.

Thankfully, I’ve been told by Iris that Paul swooped in and took her under his wing. As Morgan Speare’s former enforcer, he knew her father and probably knew of her as well. He was an outsider to the Warwick estate himself, just months before her. It gives them something to connect over.

Still. Something about her past, more than just her time as Silver, haunts her, and it’s something that not even I have managed to break through.

The door opens to our left, and Clara makes a loud shivering sound at the temperature. The dogs’ ears perk up at the newcomers, but unless I stand, they’re not getting up. Derrickimmediately untangles himself from me so she can have the seat beside me, bathed in the setting sun, along with her tightly bundled baby girl.

Bailey Warwick, my absolutely precious niece.

Thomas leans against the porch railing across from us, all soft smiles and warm eyes for his wife and daughter. Derrick takes the spot beside him and gives me a very similar look. And as warm as that makes me feel inside, I’m more happy these two men are finally able to exist within a casual distance of each other without glares and cool threats.

“Can I hold her again?” I ask Clara, who eagerly hands Bailey over. I feel like Derrick and I have been monopolizing her the entire evening, but honestly, how can we not? We’ve been chomping at the bit for our own kiddo to finally be here, and not just because we’re both exhausted by the pregnancy at this point.

BaileyBear is a sneak preview I can’t help but take advantage of.

I tap my finger against her little curled fist, and she immediately clings to me, melting my heart into a puddle. I kiss her forehead and boop her nose with mine, and she gurgles at my relentless fawning.

Unlike everyone else at the party, Clara and Tommy will stay with us through the holiday. Clara insisted, and I agreed, that it would be good to spend this time as one big family, since all told none of us have had the best experiences with that. Plus, I was there when Bailey was born, and I’ll feel a lot better having Clara here when my labor starts.

“Have you picked a property yet?” I ask Clara, who’s giving her daughter her softest brown eyes. I’ve meant to ask her all night, but inside the house the talk was far too loud.

Clara perks up at the question. “I think so,” she says. “The place downtown that we ate lunch next door to. Remember that one? I keep coming back to it. I’ve made a dozen sketches of howit would look with track lights on the ceiling and paintings on the walls.”

“You’ll have to show me,” I tell her, and she nods, her eyes sparkling.

I’m thrilled that she and Tommy are finally taking steps to set up her gallery, and more than a little relieved too. Obviously they’ve been busy for the last several months- first on a whirlwind European honeymoon, and then dealing with the last half of Clara’s pregnancy and the birth of their gorgeous baby girl, but… I’m glad her dream isn’t being left by the wayside. Clara’s admitted that Thomas is the one who’s refused to let it go, even though they’ve both been so enamored with young parenthood.

After how many years Clara’s dreamed of having a place to keep all her gorgeous work, my brother’s going to fight tooth and nail to make it happen. I’m proud of him for that. And proud of her for still wanting it too, despite how tired and busy she’s been.

“Any more letters?” Derrick murmurs to Thomas. I can tell he’s hoping I’ll be too busy with Clara and Bailey to hear him. Unfortunately, he spoke right into the silence between us. When I raise my head to listen in, he winces.

Thomas shakes his head, tearing his eyes off his daughter to look out over the fields. “I sent my response to the return address in London three weeks ago and-” He shrugs. “Nothing.”

Derrick’s brow furrows. “So, a prank?” he asks, voicing aloud what I think we’ve all been hoping since the last letter, the sixth, appeared.

“Anything is possible,” Thomas says, giving him a look.

Anything, like the two of them becoming in-laws.

This is the other reason we’re all staying here for the winter. It was Iris’s idea, but after some nagging, Thomas finally agreed. With six threat letters received and no response to our reply, we all assumed that it was either an elaborate prank by someoneelse disenfranchised by the end of the Speare family- or that whoever had been making contact had decided to take things up a notch. Since we don’t have contacts overseas who can look into the validity of these letters, the threat could realistically be coming from anywhere.

So, just to be safe, we’re here. Pretending that this is just a happy excuse to spend the holidays as one big weird family. A family that’s about to have a new member.

I feel Clara’s warm cheek rest on my shoulder, and hear the soft sound of a snore in my ear. If it were anyone else, I’d think it was a joke, but Clara’s too sweet to make fun of Thomas’s business talk. She’s really out.

Thomas straightens from the railing. “That’s my cue. Let’s get you girls to bed,” he says, holding out his arms for Bailey. I hand her over reluctantly, immediately missing the soft weight of her in my arms.

Clara wakes again just at the shift of my weight, yawns, but pushes herself up to standing. Since they had the baby, she’s practically been sleepwalking, and I know Thomas is all too happy to be dropping everything so he can spend more time with the baby and she can get some sleep. They’ve both been missing Europe, but winter in a farmhouse with family seems like a much more prudent option in my opinion.

Hilarious howIbecame the prudent one as soon as my best friend had her baby.

We say ourgood nightsandsleep wells, then Clara, Thomas, and Bailey slip inside. Derrick watches them go, then looks back at me, smiling with total contentment at what he sees.

I know the look he’s giving me. It means he’s been waiting all day to get me alone, and now we finally are. Despite how tired I am, my body wakes up under his lustful gaze, and I feel a familiar pang between my legs.

This man could turn me on if I were dying in the desert, and I’d let him.

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