Page 1 of Accidental Baby Daddy

Chapter 1

Lexie

“Alexandra!”

The sound of my fiancé screaming my name as I bolted around the side of the church put a fire under my butt, and I pumped my muscles harder, my thighs aching.

The grass and gravel threatened to bowl me over, but I managed to stay upright, hitching the train of my ten-thousand-dollar wedding dress up around my hips to keep from tripping on it. My head was spinning, but it also felt empty.

I just needed torun.

When I turned to look back to make sure that Dick wasn’t gaining on me, I saw that he’d given up, doubled-over and panting as I made my way to the highway. The venue was close to the airport, only about a five-minute drive. I was in great shape though running in a wedding dress was a lot different than running in workout gear.

All I knew was that I couldn’t stay there. I couldn’t marry Richard Whitman. Not because I wasn’t in love with him, although that was one of the reasons. But because wewanted different things out of life.Muchdifferent things. Besides, I was tired of being treated like a doormat.

The only belongings I had on me were five-hundred bucks in cash and my driver’s license, both stuffed in my bra. My phone, my purse, everything else was back at the church or at Dick’s house. It had never felt like my house, even though we’d been living together for almost a year.

Dick’s things were Dick’s things, and he didn’t share. He was very clear about that.

“You can buy your own things,” he’d say whenever I’d complain. He managed all the money. I worked part-time as Dick's personal assistant because I had plans to go back to school. It never happened, however, so lately I’d been looking for a full-time position.

The last time I’d seen Dick before the wedding, we’d gotten into an argument. We were always getting into arguments.

“You should stop all that job searching,”he complained as I scrolled through a job site.

“Why would I do that?”

“Because I’ll take care of you,”he promised, kissing my cheek as if that was supposed to somehow reassure me in a romantic way.

Dick had a lot of money and always had. He was born in upstate New York and had settled in the city to play the stock market. I wasn’t exactly sure what his job position entailed, but I knew it earned him a lot of zeros in his bank account—that along with the trust fund his parents had set up for him.

The Whitmans were well-known in New York. When I first began dating Dick it had seemed like dating royalty in a way.

He took me to all the fanciest places, bought me themost expensive, beautiful jewelry. I was wearing the heart locket encrusted with diamonds that he bought me on our fourth date when I fled the church. I guess I got caught up with all the money, all the fame, definitely the financial stability.

It wasn’t that I felt unwanted by Dick, it was more… transactional. For a kid who didn’t feel like a priority to my parents—or anyone else in my life—there was comfort in that, regardless of the condition of our relationship.

I take that back; I suppose I was a priority to at least one person. But there was no reason to think about that now.

Oliver was another lifetime ago. I was a different person then and I’m sure he was, too. So what if Dick never made me feel like Oliver did? So what if when we were in bed he never even made me come?

Relationships aren’t all sex and excitement. You have to work at them.

But there was no working on my relationship with Dick. As I was walking down the aisle, I couldn’t help but think about how much Dick whined and complained, how our kids would end up having his big, stupid nose and how they’d be whiners, too.

I had to get out of there.

JFK is a huge airport and I just needed to make it to one of the gates...

I prayed while I thudded down the side of the highway, exhausted, sweating. I prayed that I had enough money for a plane ticket to Dallas, Texas, near my hometown of Wagontown.

I didn’t have anywhere else to go.

Dick had made it so that I was isolated and I didn’t have any friends, but at the same time, I simply hadn’t made any. I moved away from Wagontown because I had to get out ofmy parents’ house, had to get away from my little sister—the golden child. It wasn’t that I didn’t love my family, of course I did, but I always felt like I came second fiddle to Gillian.

I never really discussed my childhood or my homelife with Dick. He never asked where I grew up, never seemed to be interested. But at least with Dick, I felt like number one. I helped him with his work, we spent a lot of time together, even when he was busy. He’d been sweet and attentive at first, and I’d clearly been a priority in his life. So when he got down on one knee at our favorite restaurant, I’d said yes immediately, throwing my arms around him.

I thought it was what I wanted.

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