Page 11 of The Baby His Secretary Carries

Her laptop bag arrived and they worked while putting away a refreshing green-bean salad followed by a pasta course of pesto over gnocchi brightened with cherry tomatoes and yellow zucchini. A light cake with ricotta icing was their dessert.

By then, Molly was fully intoxicated by good food and the thrill of working directly with Gio, responding to his dynamic decision-making in real time. It was like dancing, but a really sexy tango, where she had to match every beat, count and step.

When Gio rose to speak to the doctor, who was on his way out, Molly finally caught a breath. She drew out her personal phone and sent Sasha a text, asking to set up a call.

It was tagged “read” immediately and three dots appeared.

“You have two phones?” Gio asked.

Molly jolted and almost dropped it.

“I didn’t hear you come back,” she said with a shaky smile. She clicked off the screen and set it face down on the table so only the bright floral phone case was showing. “It’s for my sister, mostly. She knows I’m busy and in a different time zone, but she sends me things constantly. I love it, but I can’t have that on my work phone. I would spend all day clearing notifications from her so I could see what’s actually on my plate.”

“I don’t know much about your family. Do you have other siblings?” He retook his chair and nodded for coffee. “Where does everyone live?”

He wasn’t really interested. He thought he should know these things because he wanted her to pretend to be his fiancée.

Molly had pushed that ruse to the back of her mind while they ate because it created such a disconcerting shiver in her chest.

“What did the doctor say about your grandfather?” she asked as a dodge against replying.

“Nothing good.” His tone was very somber.

“I’m so sorry.” She looked to her hands in her lap, thinking about how much his grandfather seemed to mean to him and how defeated the old man had sounded at not knowing who would steward the family empire after Gio.

“I want his last days to be happy ones, Molly,” Gio said quietly.

“I know.” It sounded as though Ottorino onlyhada few days. Where was the harm in a white lie? In a bit of hand-holding to comfort both of them?

The harm would be in the way it would feed into Molly’s already thick catalog of fantasies, but she could bear it. It wasn’t as though Gio was leading her on. She knew exactly what he expected of her and it was purely a pantomime for his ailing grandfather.

“It would only be him, right? That we would pretend for?” She lifted her lashes. “We would keep it inside that room?”

Would they kiss? She veered her gaze from his stern mouth. Surely, that wouldn’t happen.

“Sì.”

“The promise you made me.” She looked down again, so he understood she meant her pregnancy. “It includes him.”

“I know.” He nodded.

Her phone pinged, making her jolt at the possibility it was from Sasha, but even as she turned it over, it pinged three more times in rapid succession.

“See?” she said wryly. “Cat video, dance video. ‘Can you do my homework for me?’” She showed him the gif with a man on his knees, hands clenched in a plea, with the wordPleeezepulsing over it.

“How old is she?” His eyebrows drew together with curiosity.

“Eleven. And this is such a dilemma.” Molly pondered her response. “If I text back, I run the risk of her teacher realizing she’s texting in class. She’ll lose her phone for the day, which is a suitable consequence. On the other hand, I like her to know I’m here for her as much as possible.” She spoke aloud as she replied, “‘I’m in a meeting. Say you forgot it in the library, then do it while you’re there.’”

“Not bad.”

She shrugged and set aside the phone again.

“That’s quite an age difference. You’re twenty-five?”

“Six.” She debated briefly, then told him what she told anyone if the topic of her much younger sister came up. “My mother wasn’t planning to have more children. She and my father divorced when I was six, mostly because Mom’s career as a midwife was so demanding. After that, I gave up on getting the little sister I wanted, but a situation came up where a young mother was looking to place her child in a private adoption. Libby joined Mom and me and she’s been an absolute joy and blessing in every way.”

So much so that Molly had wanted to help Sasha in the most reciprocal way she could.

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