Page 40 of The Sheikh and the Single Mom

He was almost as bad as the twins’ father, Nina’s ex.

Nina pushed that thought away. It was a completely different situation — she and Rashad had known each other only for a weekend, even if she’d let herself hope it might lead to something more. Though in some way, this felt worse — her ex had walked away from the idea of a family with Nina, but Rashad had walked away from her sweet children.

“Mommy, dinnertime!” Kate ran back into the kitchen, her pigtails bouncing as she went.

“Great!” Nina scooped her daughter up and set her on the counter. “Do you want to help me make the dough?”

“Yay!”

Miles arrived a minute later and was put to work slicing mushrooms and olives with his safety knife. Nina put on some of her favorite oldies and danced with each of her children as they worked, trying to keep memories of cooking alongside Rashad at bay. They’d only cooked together a few times, yet Nina wouldn’t forget anytime soon how he’d admired her children’s palates and cooking skills — and teased Nina for always following a recipe.

That weekend, they went to visit Nina’s mother, Amy. It was a fun weekend with lots of Grandma time for the kids. Nina tried to enjoy herself, too, but she felt tired. She’d always worked a lot, and she’d always spent a lot of time playing with the kids, but theaftermath of her weekend with Rashad was draining in another way.

After putting the kids to bed on Saturday night, Nina’s mother came into the room Nina was using with two mugs of chamomile tea.

“Hey, Mom.” Nina tucked her legs beneath her and closed her laptop, instantly feeling like a teenager again in her mother’s presence. Being in her childhood bedroom, which was still decorated with posters of Nina’s favorite singers and a trophy she’d won in a tenth-grade Science Bowl, certainly didn’t help matters.

“Hi, honey.” Amy handed her a mug and sat at the end of the bed. “I just wanted you to know that I’m ready to listen.”

“Listen to what?” Nina asked, playing for time. Amy chuckled.

“Honey, I’m your mother. You don’t have to tell me what’s wrong, but you can’t pretend that everything’s fine. I see you. Something’s up.”

Nina sighed. “It’s been a bit of a difficult time at work.” There was no need to get into her mess of a personal life right now. “There’s another company similar to mine planning to move into the US market. It seemed like we’d be able to work together, but now I think they’ll try to take over by force.”

“Hmm.” Amy sipped her tea. She still looked like the same woman who’d raised Nina, who had cut paper dolls with her and helped her put on nail polish and held her while they both cried about Aunt Katherine, Amy’s sister. “Well, if that’s really the problem, I’m sure you can handle it. You’re a great businesswoman — you’ve made me proud. Aunt Katherine would be proud, too.”

“What do you mean,if that really is the problem?” Nina asked.

“Again, I’m your mother. I’ve seen you stressed about work, and it doesn’t look like this. You look as sad as when Ricky Jenson stood you up for prom, sophomore year. Sadder, maybe. This feels personal.”

Nina thought of Rashad’s inscrutable expression as he’d told her that they would never be partners, business or otherwise. That had certainly felt personal, but she wasn’t ready to share that particular heartbreak with her mother. After all, Nina had been silly. She’d known Rashad’s reputation for being ruthless and conniving, and she’d still let herself fall for him and his kind words.

“It’s just business,” Nina said instead. Perhaps, in a few months, when Rashad was no more than a memory and she’d dealt with whatever he was going to do to put Heartbeat out of business, she’d be ready to talk to her mother about what had happened. Or maybe she wouldn’t.

“All right, honey.” Amy squeezed Nina’s shoulder. “But if you need some extra help this week, I could come back to San Diego with you to watch the kids and spend a little time together.”

Nina nodded. “That would be great, thanks, Mom. My regular babysitter would be relieved to have a little time off with finals coming up.”

“It’s a plan, then.” Amy drained her tea and got to her feet. “Good night, honey. I’ll see you in the morning.”

That week, Nina was beyond grateful to have her mother home with her. Even though Nina was a mother herself now, she still needed her own mom — and as it turned out, now more thanever, as she started to come down with the flu at the end of the week.

Work was normal, with no word from Rashad yet, though Nina still worried about what he had planned. Yet she felt increasingly tired as the week went on. Saturday morning, she burst into tears when she knocked over a glass. Then, Sunday afternoon, the smell of the kids’ peanut-butter-and-jelly sandwiches made her stomach turn. Nina saw her mother watching her, but neither of them said anything.

Monday, Amy should have gone home, but she didn’t. Nina should have gotten her period, but she didn’t.

Tuesday, Nina stopped at the drugstore on the way home from work and bought a pregnancy test.

She wanted to believe that it would be negative. It wasn’t that she didn’t want more kids — Nina loved the twins more than anything, and with a good partner by her side, she’d be happy to have several more. Yet the thought of being pregnant with Rashad’s baby, after what he’d done, was difficult to come to terms with. It was possible that Nina’s period was just late and that she had the flu, but Nina remembered how she’d felt when pregnant with the twins, and this was eerily similar.

Nina’s mother was playing with the twins in the living room when Nina got home. She smiled at her daughter as Miles and Kate ran to her and leaped into her arms. Nina twirled them around, then set them on the ground as dizziness overwhelmed her.

“Give me a few minutes to wash up, then we can play a game,” she told the twins. Amy watched her closely as Nina headed into the bathroom, though she didn’t say anything.

Alone in the bathroom, Nina unwrapped the test she’d bought, her hands shaking. She hadn’t taken a pregnancy test since the day she’d found out she was expecting the twins, but she remembered the drill. A few minutes later, the test was sitting on the bathroom counter as Nina set a timer on her phone and leaned against the bathtub.

What if she was pregnant? It would be hard to balance a baby with the twins and her work, even harder without a partner, and almost impossible with Rashad as the father when he was going to do all he could to put her out of business. Yet some part of Nina remembered the way it had felt to hold the twins as babies, with their little starfish hands and their chubby cheeks. She’d loved being a mother to babies — she’d just hoped that, if she had another one, she’d have a partner by her side.

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