Page 37 of Surprise Baby for Mr. Fischer
“I get it. You’re lucky to have them.” On the really rough days with my parents, I longed for that sibling connection she had with her sisters.
She nodded. “So why are you really here, Lincoln?”
“Would you have told me if you figured out who I was? I mean, if I’d never come back.” I blurted out.
She sighed. “No. I’m sure at some point I would have realized who you were, but no, by then, I wouldn't have bothered to find you. Your life in the spotlight isn’t something I want for me, or this baby. I had a bad experience with the media, and I'm afraid of subjecting our kid to something similar."
With a slight twist to her mouth and the way she said spotlight, I wondered if there was more to her story. “I want to be here for both of you, Harper.”
Her head tilted. “What are you saying?”
“Can we get to know each other? And maybe I’ll be more ready when the baby arrives.”
“I don’t know, Lincoln.” She nibbled her bottom lip. “If you stick around, and I get used to having you here, it’ll hurt a lot if you decide to just leave. I don’t want our baby to see me like that, and I don’t want them to feel like they’ve been abandoned. He or she deserves to grow up feeling loved and secure.”
“I know I’m asking you for a lot. Please let me try to be there for both of you.” She and the baby deserved for me to give this my best shot. I wanted to be the man she needed. No holding back.
The fear in her eyes cut straight through me.
I edged closer to her wanting to banish the look from her eyes. I wanted to convince her no matter how this turned out I wouldn't abandon her or our child.
Words didn’t seem to be having an affect on her believing in me.
The desire to touch her, to show her I meant what I said, grew within me. I curled my hand around her jaw. “Please.”
She looked me in the eyes, breathing unevenly. “Maybe we start with appointments or something. And, if that goes well, we can see what happens from there.”
“Okay, but won’t I see you every day for the next week or two anyway, while you deal with the antiques?” I asked. I wanted to keep her close and get to know her better. Seeing her every day, even in the name of work, would be a start.
“You still want me to work for you?”
“If you’re okay with it. If not, I’d understand.”
“Well, sure. Honestly, working with you and the commission we’d get for all those pieces—I’d be a fool to say no. As for whether I’d work with you? I don’t think I could send my sisters in my place now that they know you’re the father of this baby. They might think the worst of you and that you decided not to try and work things out with me. They’re very protective of me. You might not make it out of Rhode Island alive if they thought you’d hurt me.” She gave me a small smile to soften the threat of her words.
I chuckled. “I definitely think Hope has some devious plans for me.”
“That might be true.” She winked. “You might want to stay clear of her until we get things sorted out.”
“Does she have assassin skills I need to be aware of?” My jaw slowly unclenched as we bantered back and forth. This was more like our conversations during our weekend together.
We’d talked for hours while relaxing on the private beach I had access to from my cottage. And the few times we were out she had me in stitches while we people watched. Harper would make up these colorful backgrounds for the people we’d see and we’d both take turns at imagining the conversations those people were having. Each story had been more outrageous than the last.
“Hope? Oh, no, not that I know of, but you never know with her. But you two will need to figure out how to tolerate each other very soon. I’m going to be moving in with her at the end of the month, just after Christmas. She and I talked about it a few months ago.”
“Why?”
Harper shook her head. “My landlord is increasing the rent, and it’s not worth it. Hope has a two-bedroom condo and has decided the path to becoming the favorite aunt is by living with me.”
“Why don’t you move in with me?” I blurted out.
Harper’s mouth popped open in surprise. “You can’t be serious. I don’t even know you.”
What she said was true, but the more I thought about it, the more I liked the idea. “Well, we can get to know each other better that way. We don’t have much time to figure out how we’re going to co-parent, or what this means for your plans to travel. When’s your due date?”
“April 11th.”
“That gives us four and a half months to get to know each other.” Four and half months didn’t seem like enough time for all we needed to do, but I’d make it work. Now that I’d committed to our child I wanted the baby to be born surrounded by love not uncertainty.
