Page 73 of Knocked Up in Alaska

Chapter Twenty-One

Oh, dear. Things were getting ugly.

Trent caught up with her outside The Goose, where she stood under the covered sidewalk with her big tote over her shoulder and Shayla strapped to her chest, waiting for Ford to arrive and open. She was early. Ford was a little late. She was cornered. Literally.

“I’ve texted you more than once.” With his arm braced on the wall behind her, he smiled down at her. “If I didn’t know better, I’d think you’re avoiding me.”

“I’ve just been really busy, as I said in the original text I sent back.” His family could bring an important new investment and tourist draw to their town. She didn’t want to alienate him. She cupped her hand around Shayla’s head, sheltering her despite the substantial shelter of the carrier. Trent didn’t need to be interacting with the baby. “Between my daughter, my job, and my class, I guess I don’t have a minute to spare. It’s nothing personal, but my life is pretty full right now. You know how it is,” she added, though he clearly didn’t have the first clue. He had a cushy job in a successful family business, loads of disposable income, and practically no real responsibilities. Add in the air of entitlement and a poorly hidden attitude that she should be thrilled to have attracted his attention, it was all she could do to maintain her manners.

“I keep telling you, Lilah, you’ve got to make time for yourself.”

By which he meant for him. He slid his finger under her chin and tipped her face toward his, in a move she found overly familiar and condescending. While the sidewalk wasn’t busy, she became painfully aware of the intimate picture their pose portrayed to anybody who happened by. She moved her chin away from his touch and prepared to sidestep and say something firmer, when a low, flat voice said, “I need you inside, Lilah. You’re on the clock.”

Muffling a sigh of relief, she did her side-step and moved to Ford, who didn’t look up from unlocking the bar. When he pushed the door open, he turned to hold it for Mia and her and added, “Not open,” for Trent’s benefit, then closed it with a solid slam.

Mia hit the lights and then sort of danced over to Lilah with a secret smile and happy energy. “Guess what,” she invited as she eased Shayla out of the carrier.

More than willing to turn her attention to whatever had put the flush in Mia’s cheeks, she offered a smile of her own as she unstrapped herself from the carrier. “What?”

“I’m staying.” She nuzzled Shayla as she said it.

Not sure she understood correctly, Lilah glanced over at Ford, who was rounding the bar. “Staying?”

He looked up, met her stare with a steady one of his own.

“In Captivity,” Mia explained. “I’m not leaving at the end of the summer. I’m gonna stick around, stay with Ford. I’ll go to school here in the fall, but”—she bounced the baby in her arms—“I’ll still have time to spend with my girlie here, and stuff.”

Ford’s lips turned up into his stealth-smile, and her heart bloomed. “That’s wonderful.” Following her own happy impulse, she gave the girl a hug. Over Mia’s shoulder, she held Ford’s gaze. “I didn’t dare say it out loud,” she admitted, “but I hoped maybe you would.”

“I still have to work out the details with her mom and dad,” Ford replied with a firmness that suggested he was in the driver’s seat this time around, and he didn’t intend to take no for an answer, “so we’re not quite ready to go prime-time with the news—consider yourself inner circle—but yeah, that’s what we’re going to do. She wanted to tell you right away.”

She eased back and smiled at the happy teen. “I’m honored to be part of your inner circle, and I’ll keep it to myself until you tell me otherwise. I know how to keep a secret.”

Mia grinned and bounced a giggle out of Shayla. “I heard that about you. Yes, I did,” she added as she rubbed noses with the baby. “I heard your mommy kept a really big secret for months and months and months.”

She knew Mia referred to how she’d kept her pregnancy under wraps, but her guilty conscience ran straight to the mental vault where she hid her deepest, darkest secret—that she’d dumped the pregnancy on Shay the very morning of his death and then, relieved to have someone else shouldering some of that burden, let him fly off without a thought to how it might weigh on him. That it might weigh heavy enough to knock him right out of the sky.

“Hey, sorry.” Mia’s smile faded. “Lame joke.”

“No.” She quickly shook her head. “No, you’re fine. I just remembered why I came in early. I was hoping to ask you and your…and Ford”—she looked over at him—“if you could watch Shayla for a couple hours tonight.”

He stopped in the process of scooping grounds into the coffeemaker and pinned her with an indecipherable look that still managed to make her stomach clench. Silence stretched for a long, tense beat until he jerked a thumb toward the kitchen. “Can I talk to you in private?”

And now she felt like a schoolgirl being called to the principal’s office. Battling anxiety she’d done nothing to earn, as far as she knew, she nodded and kept her chin high as she walked briskly through the door to the kitchen. Measured footsteps behind her told her he followed.

“My office,” he said and put a hand on her arm to guide her down the narrow hall. The casual contact somehow made her feel even more out of line. What had she done wrong?

She waited, silently stewing, while he unlocked the office, flicked the wall switch so the overhead lights blinked on, and then held the door and gestured her in. Once inside, she turned, crossed her arms, and stared him down while he shut the door. When he faced her and mirrored her stance, she lost the slippery grip she had on her patience.

“What’s the problem?”

“Have a seat.”

“No. I think I’ll stand. What are you angry about?”

He let out a breath and dragged both of his hands through his hair. “I’m not angry. Okay, I am,” he conceded when she raised her brows at him. “But that’s not your problem.”

At a loss, she threw her arms out to her sides. “What is the problem?”

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