The CEO's Baby Surprise. Helen Lacey

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      “Superfluous?”

      Blake’s grin widened. “Yeah...like the foam on the top of an espresso to go... You know, there but not really necessary.”

      “You’re an ass.”

      His brother’s grin turned into a chuckle. “All I’m saying is that you haven’t taken a real break from this gig for years. Not even when...”

       Not even when Simone died.

      Four years, four months and three weeks ago. Give or take a day. She’d been driving back from a doctor’s appointment and had stopped at the mall for some shopping. The brakes on a car traveling in the opposite direction had failed. Simone had suffered terrible injuries and died an hour later in hospital. So had the baby she carried. He’d lost his wife and unborn daughter because of a broken brake line. “I’m fine,” he said, and tasted the lie on his tongue.

      “I’m pretty sure you’re not,” Blake said, more serious. “And something’s been bugging you the past few months.”

      Something. Someone. Green eyes... Black curling hair... Red lips...

      Daniel drank some beer. “You’re imagining things. And stop fretting. You’re turning into your mother.”

      His brother laughed loudly. They both knew that Blake was more like their father, Miles, than any of them. Daniel’s mother had died of a massive brain hemorrhage barely hours after his birth, and their father had married Bernadette two years later. Within six months the twins, Blake and Caleb, were born. Bernie was a nice woman and had always treated him like her own, and wasn’t as vague and hopeless as their father. Business acumen and ambition had skipped a generation, and now Miles spent his time painting and sculpting and living on their small hobby farm an hour west of Port Douglas.

      Daniel finished the beer and placed the bottle on the table. “I don’t need a vacation.”

      “Sure you do,” Blake replied. “If you don’t want to go to Australia, take a break somewhere else. Maybe Fiji? Or what about using that damned mausoleum that sits on that hill just outside Paris? Take some time off, relax, get laid,” his brother said, and grinned again. “Recharge like us regular folk have to do every now and then.”

      “You’re as tied to this business as I am.”

      “Yeah,” his brother agreed. “But I know when to quit. I’ve got my cabin in the woods, remember?”

      Blake’s cabin was a sprawling Western red cedar house nestled on forty hectares he’d bought in small town Colorado a few years back. Daniel had visited once, hated the cold and being snowbound for days on end and decided that a warm climate was more his thing.

      “I don’t need a—”

      “Then, how about you think about what the rest of us need?” Blake said firmly. “Or what Caleb and I need, which isn’t you breathing down our necks looking for things we’re doing wrong because you’re so damned bored and frustrated that you can’t get out your own way. Basically, I need a break. So go home and get whatever’s bugging you out of your system and spend some time with Solana. You know you’ve always been her favorite.”

      Daniel looked at his brother. Had he done that? Had he become an overzealous, critical jerk looking for fault in everything and everyone? And bored? Was that what he was? He did miss Solana. He hadn’t seen his grandmother since her birthday weekend. And it was excuse enough to see Mary-Jayne again—and get her out of his system once and for all.

      He half smiled. “Okay.”

Chapter Two

      “Everything all right?”

      Mary-Jayne nodded and looked up from the plate of food she’d been pretending to give way too much attention. “Fine.”

      “Are you still feeling unwell?” Solana asked. “You never did tell me what the doctor said.”

      “Just a twenty-four-hour bug,” she replied vaguely. “And I feel fine now.”

      Solana didn’t look convinced. “You’re still pale. Is that ex-boyfriend of yours giving you grief?”

      The ex-boyfriend. The one she’d made up to avoid any nosy questions about what was becoming her rapidly expanding middle. The ex-boyfriend she’d say was the father of her baby until she summoned the nerve to tell Solana she was carrying her grandson’s child. Raised to have a solid moral compass, she was torn between believing the father of her baby had a right to know, and the fear that telling him would change everything. She was carrying Solana’s great-grandchild. An Anderson heir. Nothing would be the same.

      Of course, she had no illusions. Daniel Anderson was not a man looking for commitment or a family. Solana had told her enough about him, from his closed-off heart to his rumored no-strings relationships. He’d lost the love of his life and unborn child and had no interest in replacing, either.

      Not that she was interested in him in that way. She didn’t like him at all. He was arrogant and opinionated and as cold as a Popsicle. Oh, she’d certainly been swept away that one night. But one night of hot and heavy sex didn’t make them anything.

      Still...they’d made a baby together, and as prepared as she was to raise her child alone, common courtesy made it very clear to her that she had to tell him. And soon. Before Solana or anyone else worked out that she was pregnant.

      She had another two weeks at the store before Audrey returned, and once that was done, Mary-Jayne intended returning to Crystal Point to regroup and figure out how to tell Daniel he was about to become a father.

      “I’m going to miss you when you leave,” Solana said and smiled. “I’ve grown very fond of our talks.”

      So had Mary-Jayne. She’d become increasingly attached to the other woman over the past few months, and they lunched together at least twice a week. And Solana had been incredibly supportive of her jewelry designing and had even offered to finance her work and help expand the range into several well-known stores around the country. Of course Mary-Jayne had declined the offer. Solana was a generous woman, but she’d never take advantage of their friendship in such a way...good business or not.

      “We’ll keep in touch,” Mary-Jayne assured her and ignored the nausea scratching at her throat. Her appetite had been out of whack for weeks and the sick feeling still hadn’t abated even though she was into her second trimester. Her doctor told her not to worry about it and assured her that her appetite would return, and had put her on a series of vitamins. But most days the idea of food before three in the afternoon was unimaginable.

      “Yes, we must,” Solana said warmly. “Knowing you has made me not miss Renee quite so much,” she said of her granddaughter, who resided in London. “Of course, I get to see Caleb while I’m here and Blake when I’m in San Francisco. And Daniel when he’s done looking after things and flying in between resorts. But sometimes I wish for those days when they were kids and not spread all over the world.” The older woman put down her cutlery and sighed. “Listen to me, babbling on, when you must miss your own family very much.”

      “I СКАЧАТЬ