Baby Business. Brenda Novak

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      “THAT WAS FUN,” Thad muttered when the elevator doors closed, sealing them off from the rest of the world.

      Macy smiled her toothiest smile. “I thought so.”

      “And you wanted to make me squirm because…”

      “Because misery loves company, of course. Why should I be the one to suffer all the indignities?”

      “Hmm, that would probably take a rocket scientist to figure out, but let me take a stab at it—because you’re the one who’s getting paid for it?”

      Macy’s eyebrows rose at the sarcasm in his voice. “So the implacable Thad Winters doesn’t like suffering indignities, huh? Well, I figured it out. You think you’re paying me so incredibly well, but actually I’m only making $15.43 an hour. And that includes nothing for the pain of childbirth.”

      “But I bet it does include nights when you’ll be doing nothing but sleeping. Am I right?”

      “Obviously you’ve never been pregnant. It’s not easy to sleep when you’re pregnant.”

      The elevator doors opened and they headed through the lobby and out into the mellow noon sun. Salt Lake had its share of snow in winter, but its gentler seasons couldn’t be more temperate or beautiful.

      When they reached her car, Thad leaned against the driver’s-side door to prevent Macy from opening it. “So what’s your point?” he asked.

      “My point is, you’re not doing me some big favor.”

      “I thought we both understood the favor was mutual. Where else are you going to get the money, Macy?”

      Macy ran a hand through her hair, disgruntled that she liked the way her name sounded on Thad’s lips; he said it in such a casual way, as though they knew each other well. For all his preoccupation with having a baby in this unconventional way, she found him attractive. And that made her more nervous and cross than anything else. “I have no other options. You know that.”

      “Then we’re in this together, right?”

      She nodded. “Yeah, we’re just two peas in a pod.”

      He grinned, transforming his face into a boyish version of himself, and Macy had the sudden impulse to duck into her car, peel away and not look back. She’d thought he was handsome with a scowl. Heaven help her if he smiled very often.

      “It won’t be as bad as you think,” he promised.

      “How do you know?”

      “Because we’re going to work together to make sure it isn’t.”

      “Giving the team a little pep talk, eh, Coach?” she asked, unconvinced.

      “I’ll give the team whatever it needs, just so long as I can depend on you. You’re not going to back out on me, right, Macy? If the lab results come back clean, you’ll see this through?”

      Macy stared into sky-blue eyes, alight with Thad’s peculiar brand of intensity, and nearly swayed toward him. She needed to feel a pair of masculine arms around her, wanted the embrace of a mature man with strength to spare. But now wasn’t the time or the place to succumb to primal urgings. Thad might have the strength and maturity she craved, but their initial interview had been enlightening enough to tell her one thing for certain: he was in love with a ghost.

      Standing straighter, she vowed to keep shouldering her load on her own, like the trouper everyone said she was. “I’m in it for the long haul,” she promised, partly because her love for Haley would allow nothing else, and partly because she was hoping he’d smile again.

      In that, he accommodated her. “That’s better,” he said, and stepped away so she could go. But Macy had the sneaking suspicion he’d just drawn her a little farther into his web, and he knew it.