Page 56 of A Baby Surprise For My Billionaire Boss

He sank into it and glanced out the window. Maddie knew he was looking out and seeing the space she had longed to make her dance studio, though whether he was registering it as such was a different question.

“I’m guessing you have something for me to sign?” she said. It wasn’t that she was in a hurry for this meeting to come to an end, exactly, but she did want to feel as if she was in control of it, and sitting here waiting for him to speak first would have put the power in his hands.

He looked back at her, confusion etched on his face. “Something to sign?”

“Some sort of paperwork, I’d thought,” she said.

“What do you mean?”

“This is about the bank account you set up for me, isn’t it?” She felt a sudden spark of embarrassment. Maybe it wasn’t about that. Maybe she was coming across as rude or entitled for asking about that.

But shouldn’t she ask about it? It was no more than what he had offered her in the first place, after all, and besides, he should take care of his child. That wasn’t asking some unreasonable amount. No, this was just an awkward conversation, that was all. It made sense for her to feel awkward about it, but she couldn’t let that awkwardness keep her from doing what had to be done.

Eli shook his head. “I didn’t come to talk about money,” he said.

“Well, I think we should talk about it,” Maddie said determinedly. “If the arrangements haven’t been made yet, I suppose that’s all right, but I’m going to have doctor appointments soon, so this isn’t something that can wait forever.”

“I’m sorry,” Eli said. “It’s not my intention to make you wait. It’s just that there’s something else you and I need to talk about.”

Maddie frowned. “What else could we have to talk about? We don’t have anything else between us. Not anymore.”

He ran a hand through his hair. Maddie’s heart ached, remembering what it felt like to run her own hands through his hair. She steeled herself. This would be over soon enough, and she would be able to give in to all the feelings she was experiencing about it, but she wouldn’t let herself break down in front of him.

“That’s what I want to talk to you about,” he said. “The way things ended between us. I don’t like it.”

“What were you hoping for?”

He hesitated. “Charlie really misses you.”

It was the one thing he could have said to make her doubt herself. “I miss him too,” she admitted. “But it’s for the best that we ended things when we did. I couldn’t exactly stay in your house. I’m having this baby, Eli. Charlie’s a smart kid. He would start to ask questions, and what on earth would we tell him? I don’t know if he even knows where babies come from.”

“He does. He’s inquisitive. I had to tell him the truth about a year ago.”

“Okay, then he’d understand that a baby means a father,” Maddie said. “He’d want to know who. What could I tell him about that? The truth? A lie? There’s no good answer. You don’t want to be a part of this child’s life, and that means I can’t be a part of yours or Charlie’s.”

“This isn’t going at all the way I meant it to,” Eli murmured.

“If you don’t have the account ready, maybe it’s for the best if I just go,” Maddie said. It was unbearable, having to go through all of this for a second time. “You can get in touch with me when there’s something to talk about.”

“No, wait,” Eli insisted. “I do have something to talk about. It’s not just that I don’t like the way we left things. I don’t want us to leave things at all.”

“What are you saying?”

“I’m saying I want you to come back.”

It was the very thing she had dreamed he would say, but she had never imagined he could actually mean it. She couldn’t believe it now. “Why would you want that?” she asked. “You don’t want this. The way you responded when I told you…”

“That was unforgivable. I should never have acted like that. You took me by surprise — of course you did — but the baby is mine.” He sighed. “All I could think about in that moment was making sure you were provided for, Maddie. All I could think about was the thing I’ve devoted my life to — working hard to make sure that no child of mine ever suffers the way I did. I wanted you to know that there would be money for your baby.”

“I wasn’t asking you for money.”

“No. I know you weren’t. But in that moment, it felt like the most important thing I could do. You know I’ve been struggling at work,” he said. “You know I lost a client.”

“I know that.”

“But what you said to me has been ringing in my ears since the last time we talked, Maddie. You told me that I had things backward, that I was putting work ahead of family. I didn’t want to believe it. I couldn’t let myself believe it. And then you walked out of my life and I realized that my dedication to my work had pushed half of my family away from me.”

Had he called her family? Maddie trembled. Could he possibly mean all this? And if he did, could she accept it?

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