Page 52 of One More Baby for the Boss

“Not piece.Pieces.” She opened her eyes. “Elijah… I’m pregnant.”

All the air rushed out of Elijah’s body. She couldn’t have shocked him more if she had told him she was joining the circus. “You — you are?”

“I know I should have told you,” she said.

“How long have you known?”

“Not long. A few days. And I would have said something — I should have — but I was so afraid, after the way things ended between us. I couldn’t do it. I couldn’t face letting you find out after the way things ended between us. I thought you might have been angry, or that you wouldn’t have wanted anything to do with us.”

“I couldn’t be angry,” Elijah protested. “How could I be?”

He got to his feet and pulled Alex up with him. Wrapping his arms around her and holding her close felt like finally coming up for air after being underwater for far too long. He had been near to drowning, but now he could breathe again.

“Pregnant,” he murmured, the wonder of that fact starting to take root in his heart. “We really are going to be a family.”

She looked up at him. “We are?”

“Never doubt it,” he told her. “I want to be a part of this, every step of the way. Say you’ll come back to Hope’s Creek.”

And finally, the tension left her body and she melted into his embrace.

“Of course I will,” she said. “It’s all I want too, Elijah.”

He tipped her face up to his and kissed her deeply, overcome with his own happiness.

EPILOGUE

18 MONTHS LATER: ALEX

“Jack! Carpool is here!”

Jack came skidding into the kitchen, his backpack slung over one shoulder, and grabbed a granola bar. He was on his way out the door when Alex snagged him by the back of his shirt collar and pulled him back. “You’re not getting away without a hug,” she informed him, and gave him a quick squeeze. “Don’t forget, Dylan’s mom is bringing you home from school today too, okay?”

“I won’t forget,” Jack said.

“Okay. Tell her thank you for the ride.” Alex ruffled Jack’s hair and he squawked in protest. He had recently become very interested in maintaining what he calledcool hair. He arranged it carefully, then turned to the high chair beside the kitchen table.

“Bye, Lee,” he cooed at his baby sister. She laughed and threw her spoon on the floor.

Alex groaned. “Really, Lee?” she asked. “Third spoon this morning. I’m going to have to start tying them to your wrists.Jack — you better get out there before Dylan’s mom takes off without you.”

“Bye!” Jack ran out the door and let it bang closed behind him.

Elijah came into the kitchen, still in his flannel sleep pants. “Did I hear Jack leave?”

“I think the whole county heard Jack leave,” Alex laughed. “It doesn’t seem to matter how many times I tell that kid not to let the door slam, he just isn’t going to hear it.”

“Want me to have a word with him?”

“Nah. There are worse things a little boy could do than slam an occasional door.” She went to Elijah and wrapped her arms around his waist. “You slept in this morning. Have a good rest?”

“Yeah, awesome,” Elijah said. “Thanks for getting the kids going.”

“No trouble at all.” It was a task the two of them shared equally. Elijah had gotten serious about confining work to specific work hours and putting it away to be with his family when those hours were over, and as a consequence he’d become a much more involved parent without even needing to try. It was obvious to Alex these days that he had always had the desire to be involved — she had been wrong ever to worry than he might not want to be there for his kids.

“What can I do to help?” he asked her.

“Get Lee a new spoon,” Alex said. “All the baby spoons are dirty, so you’ll have to wash one of the ones in the sink. She really makes her way through them nowadays.”

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