Page 78 of Baby For The Billionaire Silver Fox

“Thank you,” she said.

“But know this—I will not give you another dime, and you are not welcome to involve yourself in my life going forward.”

“Not even a Christmas card?” she asked, sounding hurt.

“Not even a Christmas card,” I said firmly.

Mandy shrugged. “Okay.” She tucked the check safely in her purse and walked out the door. She looked back once and gave me a small finger wave.

I closed the door and leaned against it. Sadness and relief swirled through me. I was glad to get rid of her and sad that she turned out to be so different from the woman I’d thought she was.

My mind turned to the bigger thing—the one I’d shoved in a back corner of my brain and closed the door on because it was too overwhelming to think about or deal with in the moment.

I scrubbed my hands over my face and looked around my loft. In my mind, all I could see was Nicole sitting on my couch or lying in my bed. I shut my eyes. When I opened them, the place looked empty and meaningless.

I couldn’t stand it. I wasn’t sure what to do now, but I needed to be doing something. I went down to the parking lot and just started walking. The trail along the river seemed like as good a place as any. I shut out the memory of the walk here with Nicole and Buddy.

I shivered a little in the cold. I moved briskly, hands in my pockets and eyes staring straight ahead. Then I opened the door to the back of my brain and let it all come out.

Nicole was pregnant. My God, that was a lot to take in. And it changed everything. Every. Little. Thing.

I was angry. She knew she was pregnant, probably before she even got to Cooperstown, and she didn’t tell me. That hurt. She just let me… what?… fall in love with her? Something I had vowed not to do again because I sucked at long-term relationships. See? This was yet another failure—done before the relationship had barely gotten off the ground. In my mind, we had begun a relationship, but maybe it was just me, all one-sided.

But I knew it wasn’t just my imagination. She liked being around me too. And she was just as physically attracted to me as I was to her. There was no denying we had chemistry.

Why the hell hadn’t she told me? I should have gone after her this morning, made her talk to me and explain. Screw Mandy. Dealing with her shouldn’t have been the first thing I did. Instead, I let Nicole run. Damn it.

I played over the times we spent together, looking for clues. Now that I knew what to search for, I did see them. All the times she said she wanted to be just friends. She wasn’t looking for anything but friendship. She was leaving after her contract was up. Then there were the times when I kissed her, and she stopped us before things got out of hand. Also, the times it did go further and how she acted afterward. I assumed she was uncomfortable with casual sex, but now I thought she was mad at herself for letting it happen. Shit, that couldn’t be right. It’s not like I was irresistible or anything.

Still, I kept going back to the fact that she hadn’t told me. I stewed on it as I stopped and scooped up some rocks to hurl as far up the river as I could.

A little light glimmered in my mind. What if she had tried to tell me? I thought back. The second night we made love, she said she wanted to tell me something. Not thinking anything of it, I shushed her and continued kissing her. I felt uncomfortable about that now. She tried to tell me something, and I distracted her because I had to have her. Fuck.

What about the night she came over because she wanted to talk to me? That was the night Buddy ran away, and we went into frantic search mode. Understandably, no serious talks happened then, either.

I hurled more rocks into the river as hard as I could. Did the fact that she hadn’t told me herself really matter in the long run? There was still the matter of the pregnancy. Nicole was going to have a child. She was going to be a mom. I smiled as I pictured her making inappropriate comments when the baby dirtied a diaper. But I could also see her holding a baby tenderly in her arms, looking at it with so much love. My heart squeezed at the thought.

I turned around and walked back into the wind towards my car. I wanted to run this by Bennett. Not that he was an expert on anything, and he never talked that much, but he was a single parent. Maybe he could give me his take.

“And you’re sure it’s not yours?” Bennett asked after I told him about Nicole being pregnant. He didn’t look at all fazed by my revelation.

I resisted the urge to roll my eyes. “Is that the first thing out of your mouth? No, it’s not mine. Mandy overheard her talking to Lexi about what a loser the father was and how he was out of the picture.”

He nodded. “Do you think Mandy will stay away?”

“I think so. I gave her a lot of money. Anyway, that’s not the issue here.”

“What is the issue, exactly?” asked Bennett. “Use your words.”

“Geez, I’m not five.” I frowned at him.

“Sorry, can’t always turn off the parenting.”

“I thought the issue was obvious. Nicole, this funny, quirky, beautiful woman I have feelings for, is pregnant with someone else’s baby. Plus, she’s leaving Cooperstown when her contract is up.”

“So it looks like you have a decision to make. You can let her go, let her move on, and you won’t see her or the baby again, except for the infrequent visit to Lexi’s. Which will not happen that often with a baby and all their shit in tow, believe me. Or you can decide to step up and be that baby’s loving father because you want Nicole, and it’s a package deal. But you can’t love just Nicole. You need to love the child too. That’s a huge deal. Think about it.”

I sat back. Bennett had certainly condensed it down. “Thanks, brother. For a cranky dude who normally doesn’t talk much, you’re pretty wise.”

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