Page 31 of Next Door Billionaire's Surprise Baby

Her huge blue eyes stare at me in excited wonder.

“Your uncle, Kane, is here!” I exclaim, tickling her sides and causing her to giggle. When I look up, I see Kane gazing at us. Or rather, gazing at Skye. I realize Skye’s eyes look a lot like his eyes. I watch his every reaction carefully, down to the bobbing of his Adam’s apple when he swallows hard.

He looks like a father seeing his child for the first time.

I hold Skye with both hands and hand her to him, “Here. Hold her.”

Kane reaches out to take her, and the way he holds her is so gentle, like he's touching something sacred. A kind of warmth that I can’t explain fills me at witnessing this precious moment.

As I predicted, Skye is happy to see him. Her chubby little hands reach out to grasp his face as her eyes study him with a baby-like curiosity.

It's becoming increasingly impossible to keep my tears from filling up my eyes. Fiona is moved too. I notice her wiping her eyes discreetly, and I do the same.

After what seems like an eternity, Kane whispers to Skye, “You look just like your mom.”

I let out a teary laugh at his statement. He turns his head and smiles, “She’s so beautiful, Chloe.”

Fiona moves across the room to where I’m standing, and her hand grabs my upper arm. “This is truly a touching moment for all of us,” she sniffs and starts pulling me to the kitchen, “Chloe and I are going to have a word alone, and then we’ll be right back.”

I follow her into the kitchen, and after she circles around me, “You brought him here?!”

“I know,” I apologize, “I’m sorry, but it was on short notice. He really wanted to see her.”

My best friend waves her arms around in a dramatic way, “No, no, no…I’m not worried about that. I’m just shocked that I finally got to meet him. And I’m in my hoodie and sweatpants.”

I admire her cute hoodie and sweatpants, “It’s not that bad. You look adorable. He took me out to the fancy five-star restaurant dressed like this!” I stress, gesturing to myself.

We shake our heads together, and Fiona laughs.

Suddenly, Fiona’s gaze takes on a rare serious look, and she lowers her voice even further, “Have you two…?”

I know perfectly well what she means but still choose to play dumb, “Have we two what?”

“You know…” she urges, “Did you two do it?”

My surprised expression is all the confirmation she needs, and she gasps loudly, “Chloe Kate Smith!”

I shush her by putting my hand over her mouth. The last thing I want is for Kane to hear us.

“It was just once, okay?”

Her eyes narrow, and I’m afraid she’s going to be upset for not telling her until now, but she cackles instead, “And from the looks of things, it’s going to happen again.”

And very soon, in fact.

I don’t have to look at my watch to know that time is passing by pretty quickly.

“Whatever,” I tell her, “We’re leaving soon.”

She nods, pouting, “Yeah. The three of you can have a perfect little family time while I mope around alone.”

Lies.

“I don’t think a night of wild sex with Jared counts as moping around alone, but okay.” Jared is her boyfriend of two years, who happens to be in his last year of medical school.

I pull her into my arms and whisper, “Thank you so much.” I really appreciate her for watching over Skye each day.

She hugs me back and whispers, “I’m glad you’re finally moving on.” I open my mouth to protest, but she senses it and speaks before I can, “You can deny it all you want, but that's what's going on." She pulls me back and runs her fingers through my hair, “Just be careful this time, okay?”

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