Page 94 of Surprise Baby for Mr. Fischer
What was I supposed to do with this place?
Hope and I had driven by the house, too curious to wait until the 12th. There was now a tall fence installed around the edge of the property, and the windows were in the process of being replaced. According to the letter I received three days after the first from Lincoln, he’d ensured the house would protect the baby and me.
It was a brief letter stating what improvements were made and why. The fence was to keep intruders out, the new windows made it hard for reporters to see inside, and a new high-tech security system was added to the whole house, including the garage. My traitorous heart longed for a few more sentences from him, even though I knew I’d been the one to create this distance between us. He was just abiding by my decision for us to stay apart.
Dad whistled as he entered behind me. “This is a nice place, Harper.” My sisters had wanted to come with me, but I refused. I needed to think and couldn’t do that with them chattering beside me.
“It is,” I agreed, still wondering if I wanted to live here without Lincoln.
“What’s up, baby girl?” Dad stopped near the large staircase heading upstairs and leaned against the railing. His eyes took in every detail of me and this house.
Before Lincoln, I would have given anything to have a place like this all to myself. A place to come home to in-between my travels. But now? “This house is too big for me to stay here all by myself.”
“Is that all?” He raised an eyebrow.
My gaze swept through the room on my right, fixated on the settee we hadn’t gotten rid of yet. How, in an attempt at convincing me he should keep it, he declared it could be our kissing couch. When I’d failed to look convinced, he’d grabbed me and pulled me onto his lap. His muscular thighs had held me easily, while his full lips seared mine with the heat from his kiss. “I miss Lincoln. I don’t know if I can live here without him,” I admitted. “Which is ridiculous. I’m the one who told him it was over. He probably hates me now.”
Dad grunted but kept his mouth shut.
“What?” I asked. Dad was always ready to give his opinion. Why the silence now?
He shrugged. “Nothing.”
“Nothing? Come on, Dad. Just tell me. You think I screwed up, don’t you?” My parents hadn’t said a word about the situation when I’d explained why I left Lincoln. I figured they would have understood my need to protect my baby, even if Lincoln couldn’t. Yet, their silence had said otherwise.
“Yes, I do,” he stated matter-of-factly.
I blinked a few times. Even though I was the one asking if I’d screwed up, I honestly thought he might have agreed with me a little. “You didn’t evenlikeLincoln all that much.”
He sighed. “Harper, I love you, and most of the time, you make the right decision, but no relationship is perfect. You ran at the first sign of trouble.”
I laid a protective hand over my stomach. “I had an excellent reason. You know what I went through afterThe Greatest Loser. I can’t do that to the baby. It would destroy me to see her face the same pain I did. I thought you understood.” My voice hiccuped on the last word.
He strode swiftly to me and hugged me close. “Baby girl, I do. On the parent side of that situation, I wanted to go after the guilty party and make them pay for the heartache they caused you. If I could have taken on your pain as my own, I would have, but being a good parent isn’t taking away the hurt our children face. It’s supporting them until they’re strong enough to deal with it on their own.”
“I don’t know if I ever became strong enough,” I whispered. “You saw the newspapers after Lincoln was exposed as the father. They tore me to shreds.”
“The tabloids did tear you to shreds. I know that ripped open old wounds. But you, my dear daughter, are stronger than those words.” He patted my back.
Tears coated my cheeks, soaking into Dad’s flannel shirt.
“Maybe, instead of focusing on that, you can think about all Lincoln has done to protect you. He threatened to sue anybody who continued to print those lies.”
“I know.” I was grateful to Lincoln for that, but it didn’t change the fact that it could happen again. The press could find ways around his threat and still print what they wanted.
“Do you honestly think the press will leave you alone now that word is out who her father is?”
I shrugged.
“He loves you, Harper,” Dad rumbled.
I hadn’t told my family that Lincoln had declared his love to me. “How do you know?”
Dad let go of me and spread his arms out wide. “He’s showing you by protecting you the best he can—from a distance. I bet it’s killing him to be away from the two of you.”
I sniffed. “It doesn’t change anything. We still can’t be together. Eventually, people will take less interest in the baby the longer he and I aren’t together, and then everything will be fine. Besides, what if giving me this house is his way of saying he doesn't want me to travel with the baby?”
“You and I both know you don’t believe that. He faced me and said he trusted you enough to travel with or without him. Do you want to live a life without him?”
