Total pages in book: 91
Estimated words: 86335 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 432(@200wpm)___ 345(@250wpm)___ 288(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 86335 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 432(@200wpm)___ 345(@250wpm)___ 288(@300wpm)
Paige’s eyes go wide. “You’re…staying in town?” she chokes out. “A partnership like this can take weeks to finalize.”
Everyone’s gaze volleys from hers to mine, and I assume they’re confused as to why she’s questioning me because they don’t know what we know—she doesn’t give a shit about who’s handling the deal. She wants to know why I’m here when the COO doesn’t handle shit like this. Why I wasn’t shocked to see her when I walked in. Why I’m insisting on staying for as long as I am.
“That’s okay,” I tell her. “I’ve booked a room at the Bradford Hotel in Houston.” I stand and drag my gaze away from her to Cathy. “You have all my information. Once you email my assistant everything, we’ll look it over and discuss it, and then we can schedule to meet again.”
“Perfect,” Cathy says. “I’ll show you out.”
“Actually,” I say, “I have a couple of things I’d like to discuss with Miss Abrams.”
I meet Paige’s nervous gaze.
“Of course.” She forces a smile onto her face and rounds the table. “Why don’t we discuss it in my office?”
“Perfect.” I give the other associates a smile. “It was wonderful to meet all of you, and I look forward to working with you on this partnership.”
I follow Paige out of the conference room and down the hall. She stops at the receptionist’s desk and asks her to cancel her lunch appointment.
The receptionist looks like she wants to ask why, but Paige doesn’t give her a chance to before she heads down the hall with me following.
When we get to her office, she stands at the door for me to go in first, and then she closes the door behind her.
Once we’re both alone, I bring up the elephant in the room, not wanting to beat around the bush. “You’re pregnant.”
Her eyes bulge, and her hand goes to her stomach. “How did you…”
“Your assistant. When you ran out, she said you had morning sickness.”
Paige sighs. “Sorry. I didn’t mean to lie…”
“It’s okay,” I tell her, removing the space between us. “I came here, hoping to see you, but I was too late. I spent two months fighting with myself to respect your wishes for me not to contact you and then another two preparing the deal with Kingston so I could have a reason to see you. I should’ve just messaged or called. But I didn’t, and you moved on.”
“You did all this just to see me?” She crosses her arms across her chest, and I can’t help but glance at the way her breasts rise slightly, straining against her top. “So, the partnership with Kingston, it’s all a ruse?”
She purses her lips, and I shake my head, gesturing for her to have a seat on the sofa. She does so reluctantly, and I sit across from her, itching to touch her but keeping my distance because she’s not mine to touch.
“The deal is legit,” I tell her. “My brothers bid on it because we genuinely wanted to work with Kingston. But once you reached out, because they knew who you were to me, they gave me the option to handle it so I could come see you in person…”
“And then you could say it was business,” she finishes, a small smile curving in the corners of her mouth. “I was wondering why you requested me personally when my team generally handles these types of partnerships.”
“I thought I had it all figured out,” I say with a humorless chuckle. “But I was so focused on seeing you that I didn’t even consider that you might’ve moved on.”
“What?” She looks at me in confusion. “Moved on? What are you talking about?”
“You’re pregnant.” I nod toward her belly.
“I am,” she says with a laugh. “But spoiler alert: you don’t have to be married or even be in a committed relationship to get pregnant. Apparently, all you need is two people attracted to each other in London…or maybe Bath.”
She smirks, and it takes me a second to wrap my head around what she just said.
London…Bath…
We were together in London and Bath.
And now, she’s pregnant.
“Holy shit,” I breathe. “You’re pregnant?”
“I think we’ve established that,” she says with a small laugh.
“Why didn’t you tell me?”
If she got pregnant during our time together, that would make her—I do the math in my head—four months along. Yet I never heard from her once.
Does that mean…
Was she going to…
“Were you so hell-bent on not reaching out because of the distance that you were going to raise our baby alone?”
Paige’s face falls, and my first instinct is to go to her side.
“Did something happen? Is the baby okay?”
“The baby is fine,” she says softly. “But I don’t have your number,” she rushes out. “When I found the card in my purse at the airport, I knew I would be tempted to call you, so I threw it away. And then a few months later, when I found out I was pregnant, I regretted it. I swear I searched for you, but all I had was the name Nate and a couple of pictures of you. I even hired a PI, who couldn’t find anything. He was a total waste of money.”