Page 49 of One More Baby for the Boss

“A road trip?” Alex looked at Elijah for confirmation.

“I thought the two of us needed to do something together,” he said softly. “I had a feeling you might approve.”

It felt like he was trying to say something else — something more. She shivered slightly and wished she had the sweater she kept in the staff room. It would have made her feel better to be wrapped up in something warm.

“You came on a road trip — here?” she asked, still trying to piece together in her mind what was going on, how they had come to be in Herald Springs at all, much less in her donut shop.

“I have a long weekend from school,” Jack explained. “We’ve been driving all over the mountains.”

“You have?” She felt incredulous. She’d been worried that Elijah might not be paying enough attention to Jack in her absence, but now it seemed that that wasn’t the case at all. He’d taken his son on a road trip. It was nearly impossible to imagine Elijah doing something like that, and yet he had. He had decided to step away from his work for long enough to devote time to Jack.

It warmed her heart. She’d had to leave them, it was true, but it was clear that she’d left her mark on them anyway. They had been changed by having her in their lives, and she was so glad to know it.

“All over the mountains,” Elijah said quietly, and again, Alex had the uneasy feeling that he was trying to say something more than what his words conveyed. She wondered whether she wanted to know or not. It was an intimidating thought.

“Have you been enjoying your trip?” she asked Jack. Keeping the conversation focused on him was easier than turning to Elijah. She wasn’t ready to speak to him yet, although she knew she was going to have to eventually.

“It’s been kind of boring until now,” Jack said. “There’s nothing to do in any of these towns.”

“You haven’t done anything fun?” She glanced at Elijah. “I could give you some recommendations of fun things to do, maybe.”

“The fun part is riding in the car with Dad and getting to see the mountains,” Jack said. “And it’s been nice because I knew you were in these mountains, Alex. But I didn’t think we’d actually see you here.” He turned to his father. “Did you know we were going to find Alex, Dad?”

“I hoped we would.” Elijah’s gaze was still steady on Alex.

She had forgotten how unbearably handsome he was. He towered over her. His hair was a bit longer than she remembered, but as always, he wore it well. She couldn’t help remembering what it had been like to run her fingers through it, and she longed to do that again. She felt her body leaning closer to him, almost as if she was being drawn in magnetically. She gripped the counter behind her, feeling as if she was physically restraining herself from moving closer to him.

“You hoped you would?” she repeated.

“Jack told me that you were in the mountains,” Elijah explained. “I didn’t know if you meant that literally or not, but I had to come up here and see for myself.”

“Why?” Alex asked. “You didn’t try to stop me when I left. You didn’t mind seeing me go. Why would you come after me now?”

The idea of it gnawed at her. She wanted to be happy about seeing him again, but she couldn’t let go of what it had felt like to walk away from him and to know that he didn’t care. He hadn’t tried to make her stay. He hadn’t wanted her to stay. And she had spent the past month moving on. It was true that she hadn’t gotten him out of her head yet — far from it — but that didn’t mean she wanted to see him again. If anything, it only made this more difficult. How was she supposed to face him after what had happened?

“You shocked me,” Elijah said. “Leaving like you did — you took me by surprise, Alex. It was so sudden. I didn’t know what to do. What could I have done?”

“Anything. You didn’t do anything. You just let me walk away.”

He sighed. “I thought that was what you wanted me to do.”

“I don’t know what I wanted.”

“Do you have a minute to talk?” he asked. “Maybe we could sit down and try to figure out what went wrong that day. I’ve been longing to go over it with you.”

“I’m supposed to be working.” She wasn’t sure she felt up to talking to him. It had only been four days since her pregnancy test, and thoughts of the baby still occupied every waking moment. How was she going to look him in the eye and have a conversation with him, all while knowing that she was keeping such a massive secret from him? She couldn’t do that. And she couldn’t reverse her position and tell him the truth just because he happened to be here. If she told him, it would have to be because she had thought it out and decided it was the best thing to do, not because he had shocked her by appearing at her place of work.

“You can take a break, can’t you?” Elijah asked.

His eyes were so soft. Nothing like the way he’d looked at her on their last day together, when she had been sure he didn’t give a damn what she did. The way he was looking at her now reminded her of the conversations they’d had late at night, after Jack had been in bed. The way the two of them had opened up to one another about the traumatic things in their past. The way she had felt safe to confide in him — something she hadn’t felt with anyone in a very long time.

And now he was standing in front of her, giving her that look and asking her to take a break and talk to him, and she found herself incapable of refusing him. She couldn’t have refused him anything.

“I can talk,” she said.

She had to be careful, she knew. This was so dangerous. She didn’t want to come clean with him about her pregnancy, but if she was going to keep it to herself, she needed to navigate this conversation carefully. She led him over to a booth in the corner of the shop and sat down.

“Hang on,” Jack objected as they took their seats. “Dad, you said I could get a donut.”

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