Billionaire's Secret Baby Read online

  “Once is all it takes,” Rachel said.

  I dropped my hands and groaned. “I don’t need your logic right now. What am I going to do? I can’t be pregnant. I don’t have space in my life for a baby. And I don’t even have contact with him. I don’t even know where he’s from.”

  “You don’t even know where he’s from?” Rachel asked.

  I shook my head. “I was living in the moment. That’s what you’re always telling me to do.”

  Rachel chuckled. I wasn’t amused. Nothing about this was funny.

  “God! The one time you do what I tell you to.”

  “I know. Ironic, isn’t it?”

  I was irritated. Irritation borne of panic. If I was pregnant now, everything I’d planned for my future would be up in the air. My whole life revolved around me being a single person with no obligations other than my career. A baby would change everything.

  “What am I going to do?” I asked again.

  I’d never thought I would be the one going through this. It was so much more likely that it be the other way around. That if someone was sitting here talking about possibly being pregnant, it would be Rachel. She was the one that acted without thinking. She was the one that didn’t plan for her future. She was the one that lived life for today. None of this was supposed to happen to me, but here I was, crying on Rachel’s shoulder about the possibility.

  “The first thing we’re going to do is get a pregnancy test,” Rachel said. “It could be something else and you’re freaking out for nothing.”

  I nodded, although I was pretty sure there wasn’t anything else it could be. I had never missed a period before. I had regular cycles, and since I wasn’t sleeping around, I wasn’t on the pill. Maybe I should have thought about all of this before sleeping with Greyson. But we had used a condom. We were being safe. I thought we were in the clear. Everything about that day had been surreal, so magical, I thought nothing could go wrong.

  But look what had come of it.

  “I’ll come around after work and we’ll go get everything together, okay?” Rachel offered. “It’s going to be fine.”

  I shook my head. “I don’t think I can get through a full day of work in this state. It’s driving me crazy. I’d rather just do it now and get it over with.”

  Rachel nodded. “Okay, let’s do it, then. If you’re already late with your period it should show up right away, so you’ll know if you are or not.”

  I didn’t even want to think about it. I was pretty sure I knew what the results would be.

  We paid for our bill without ordering food and walked to the convenience store. I bought two pregnancy tests. I wasn’t going to go completely mad and take five tests to get the same results, but I wanted to get more than one, just to be sure. I drove home with Rachel in the car next to me. In the bathroom, I peed on the pregnancy test and put the cap back on before putting it on the counter.

  Two minutes had never felt this long.

  “It’s going to be fine,” Rachel said, when I sat next to her on my bed, waiting. I glanced at the pregnancy test I could see through the door to my bathroom. It lay on the counter like an omen, ready to fuck up my life.

  While I waited I drank water. I needed to pee again for the second test.

  When it was time, I picked up the first test. My stomach felt hollow and my fingers trembled. How was I going to do this? I turned the test around and looked at the little window.

  Positive. Shit.

  “And?” Rachel asked.

  “It’s positive,” I said. My stomach sank and I suddenly felt like I was going to cry.

  “Take the other test,” Rachel said.

  I shook my head. “I don’t think it will change anything.”

  I did it, anyway, but I knew what the result was going to be before saw it. When the second test came up positive as well, I collapsed on my bed.

  “What am I going to do?” I asked again.

  This time, Rachel didn’t have an answer for me. She sat next to me, rubbing my back, trying to make me feel better, when there was nothing in the world that was going to make this right. I was pregnant. Everything in my world was going to change.

  I couldn’t go back to work feeling the way I did. I wanted to crawl back in bed and hide under the covers. But no matter what I did, this wasn’t going to go away. I was pregnant and I didn’t even know where the father was. I didn’t know what I was going to do or how I was going to cope with it.

  I called in sick. James understood, seeing that he had been there right after I had thrown up. He assumed it was a stomach bug, even though he had been the one to joke about me being pregnant in the first place. I was fine them thinking I was sick for now. I needed a chance to wrap my mind around all this and time to decide what I was going to do.

  Chapter 13

  Greyson

  I loved my life as a free man, living every day to the fullest without having to worry about bringing in money. It doesn’t hurt that I took the money that Caden and Harper gave me and made some sound investments. In fact, thanks to my investments and using my part ownership in the Spiced Cow to franchise, I’m now worth one point five billion dollars. Even though I have more money than I know what to do with, I’m really careful with how I spend it.

  I went camping and hiking as often as I could. I had barely been home for the past month and it had been amazing. The weather was getting better and better, which made camping that much more enjoyable.

  Even though I loved being untethered, I missed The Spiced Cow and the people that worked there. Caden, Harper, and I had shared a really fun working relationship. I loved being on my own, but there were days when I missed the banter and wished I was back in the kitchen, talking shit with Caden, seeing Harper flirt with her new husband and joking back and forth with her. The year and a half I had been with them had been amazing.

  On Tuesday morning, I called the restaurant, and Harper answered the phone.

  “It’s good to hear your voice,” I said.

  “Greyson!” Harper cried out and then she laughed. “I would have thought you would be sick of the sound of my voice.”

  “Oh, even your constant whining was endearing,” I teased.

  Harper laughed and I chatted with her for a little while, catching up on how things were going at the restaurant.

  “How’s your new cook?” I asked. They had found someone to replace me after they had given me all that cash so I could take off and live my life. “Better than me?”

  “He does make a mean Chili Con Carne,” Harper said.

  “Now you’re making me jealous,” I said. “I thought you had a soft spot for my Chili.”

  Harper laughed. “I’m just messing with you. I mean, he does make good chili. But no chili will ever be like yours.”

  “Okay, I’m satisfied,” I said.

  “Listen, I have to go,” Harper said. “Here’s Caden. He’s been pouting like a little girl without you.”

  I laughed and Harper passed the phone to him.

  “You know she’s talking shit,” Caden said. “I couldn’t wait to get you out of my hair.”

  “Only for the restaurant to go down, right?”

  Caden laughed. “Not on my watch. But we do miss you, man. It’s been quiet without you.”

  We caught up. I asked him about the restaurant, about how things had been while I’d been away. I wanted to know everything. Caden had sent me photos of the new children’s area that had been installed. It had still needed work when I left, but it was stunning, now.

  “What about you? You living the good life?” Caden asked.

  “Oh, yeah,” I said. “In fact, I’m on top of a mountain right now. It’s why I have such great cell reception. No interference.”

  “Where are you?”

  “I’m back in Idaho. It’s stunning here, Perry introduced me to the place.”

  “Is he with you?”

  I explained how Perry was away on business. “The man has to work for a living,” I
said.

  “Poor guy,” Caden laughed.

  “What about your love life?” Caden asked.

  I groaned inwardly. I had expected this question. Since Caden had fallen in love with Harper, he kept asking me about finding a woman. I wasn’t in the same space as he was, although, the moment he’d asked, my mind jumped to Cara. But she was not a woman in my life. She had been a fleeting moment of perfection and that was it.

  “I don’t have any intentions of settling down,” I said. “I’m only starting to live my life the way I want it, now.”

  Caden laughed. “Yeah, that’s what I thought, too. But then my grandmother died, Harper offered to be my fake fiancé, and suddenly everything changed.”

  “And I’m so happy for you two,” I said. “But not everyone has a perfect fairytale romance like you did. And I don’t want one. At least, not now.”

  I thought about Cara again. She had been like a dream. The thought of her was still surreal, laced with the sting of her leaving without saying goodbye. It wasn’t that I was so hung up on her that I couldn’t let go of the thought of her. It was just that I’d thought our time together was more magical than it seemed to have been for her.

  But how many people did that happen to? Undoubtedly, there were a lot of misunderstandings and feelings that weren’t mutual in the world. Hell, I might have broken a few hearts the same way by just walking out the next day not realizing the women might have thought the one-night stand with me had been spectacular.

  That would be stroking my own ego.

  “Mark my words, your day is going to come,” Caden said.

  I shook my head and changed the topic. I wasn’t in the mood to debate my love life. I was happy for Caden, but I was also happy with my life the way it was now. I didn’t need to complicate things by looking for a woman. Everything I did right now was for me and no one else, and that was how it should be. I deserved this and I had the means to make it happen, thanks to Caden.

  “Let me know when you’re back in city,” Caden said, when we ended our call. “We miss you.”

  “You’ll be the first people I look up when I get back home,” I said.

  I ended the call and tucked my phone back into my pocket, then started my hike back down the mountain. I was touring southern Idaho on my bike. Since I had been here with Perry, I had fallen in love with the place. My next stop was Twin Falls where I wanted to hike the trails around the Snake River again.

  This time, I wanted to jump off Perrine Bridge. I only had one life and I wanted to live it to the fullest. Base jumping sounded like a thrill, and I was all about adrenaline rushes and priceless memories.

  When I drove into Twin Falls on my bike, Cara popped into my mind again. I had no idea where she was from. She could be anywhere in the world by now. But I still associated Twin Falls with her and I always would.

  The city was beautiful. When I had been here last we had gone straight to the campground and I hadn’t had time to explore. This time, I would explore the city as well.

  I booked into a hotel, dropped off my luggage and changed into hiking gear. Tomorrow I would do the base jumping, but today I wanted to try out more of the trails. I was excited to see the view of Snake River again. It was one of my favorites.

  The trails were beautiful now that we were closer to summer. The region had seen more rain and the plant life was lush and green. The river glittered like a gem in the sun. I looked around as I walked.

  My phone buzzed in my pocket and I reached for it, using both hands to get underneath the straps of my backpack. My foot struck a rock protruding from the trail and like a rookie, I tripped and fell. I wasn’t able to pull my hands free of the straps over my chest and I hit the ground face first.

  I tasted dirt when I sat up and a dull pain throbbed in my jaw and my nose. When I ran my fingers over my tooth, I realized I had broken it. It was bad, too.

  I cussed and pulled out my phone, switching on the front camera. My tooth looked like shit. It was chipped straight down the middle with almost half of it missing. I looked terrible. There was no way I was going to leave this. I was all about leaving wounds to create scars. It created a story, a roadmap of where I had been. But this was a bit excessive. I would have to find a dentist.

  I finished my hike since I’d already covered more than half. When I was done, I made my way back to the hotel and asked at the lobby for the best dentist in city. I received two names. The first was Twin Falls Dental.

  I drove my motorbike to the dentist and parked. When I walked in, the receptionist smiled at me.

  “I need to get a tooth fixed, it’s kind of urgent,” I said. I showed her my chipped tooth, as if she wasn’t already staring at it.

  “Oh my,” she said, and opened her book. After a moment, she looked up at me and I knew she was trying not to stare. “Doctor Cordon happens to have a space open for you in about fifteen minutes. I’ll put you down. You can sit in the waiting area and he’ll call for you when he’s ready.”

  I nodded and gave her my medical details before walking to the waiting room. I sat down and looked around. There was a children’s corner with coloring books and soft toys, a water cooler in the corner and walls covered with staff photos.

  A blonde drew my attention and I frowned. I stood and walked to the wall to take a closer look. This couldn’t be. I looked closer. The blonde looked a hell of a lot like Cara. The photo was small and not very clear, so I could be wrong, but I was almost completely sure.

  I took a step back and looked at the other photos, searching for the same familiar face, the dark eyes, and the magnetic smile. The dentists all had a headshot on the wall and none of them were Cara. I was starting to think I was wrong when I found another photo with all the assistants. This time, there was no question about it. I was sure it was Cara. In this photo, she looked like herself, the smile I knew, the dark eyes that pierced my soul even though in this photo she had only been staring at the camera.

  The photo was spontaneous, which was why her personality shone through the way it did. And she was as beautiful as ever.

  I rocked back on my heels. What were the odds? This was crazy. Of all the places Cara could be, she was right here in Twin Falls. I had thought she might be from somewhere else, from the other side of the country. Instead, she had been hiking in her own backyard.

  To be sure, I studied the photo one last time but there was no mistake. Maybe I could find out her contact details once they managed to fix my tooth. I wanted to see her again. I didn’t know how she felt about me because she had all but run away that morning, but if she wanted to avoid me she could tell me to my face.

  Maybe it was a bad idea, I thought. Maybe she really didn’t want to see me. But she had been on my mind more than a few times since I’d seen her last. I wasn’t the type of guy to back off unless I was told in so many words. I wanted to see her again and I was going to make it happen. Aside from her leaving the way she did, everything with her had been amazing.

  If I could have the chance to experience that again, I wasn’t going to pass it up.

  Chapter 14

  Cara

  I couldn’t hide in my bed forever. I needed to head back to work. There was a career I couldn’t just give up on, plus I still had to earn my salary. So, after a day of moping and feeling sorry for myself, I arrived at the office again, ready to take care of the things I could control.

  It turned out that work was a good distraction, most of the time. I wasn’t very far along according to my calculations, and it would be a while before I started showing. If I hadn’t had morning sickness, I could have almost pretended I wasn’t pregnant.

  Of course, morning sickness arrived right on schedule as I woke up, and I threw up twice before work. At least, by the time I reached the office, the nausea was mostly gone and I could concentrate on being the assistant James needed.

  Now, I was in the break room, sipping coffee. I had brought my laptop along so I could do a bit of research. I was pregnant with the c
hild of a man I had no idea where to find. I had hoped Google would help me, but so far, I hadn’t had any luck. I didn’t even have a last name to go by and it turned out there were a lot of Greyson’s in America.

  It had been a restless night for me. It had taken me a while to get used to the idea of being pregnant. After I had decided to accept the fact, I had run through the options of what I could do about it. Adoption, abortion and of course, keeping the baby. Whatever I decided to do, I wanted the father to be in on it. Getting pregnant and deciding the fate of an innocent child was bad enough. Doing it without the knowledge of the other person responsible was downright wrong. I had to speak to him.

  I had to try anyway, to make my best effort to find him. If he wasn’t interested, or if I couldn’t find him, I could make the decision by myself. He deserved to know, at the very least.

  Which had led me to look for him. Finding a man I’d had sex with in a tent once, on a rainy day that had seemed completely surreal was even harder than it sounded. Everything about that weekend was like a dream, but this pregnancy was very real. Which meant I had to take action and do something about it.

  I had searched the internet for a while at home but needed to get to work. So, I had decided to bring the laptop with me to work. I couldn’t distract myself from the pregnancy all day, so when I couldn’t, I searched for the father. It seemed like the next best thing.

  Except, there were no results. Without a surname, I was in the dark. I couldn’t very well hack into anything that would make a difference, I was just a dental assistant. I even tried to look up Perry but there were even more Perry’s than there were Greyson’s in the world. Even if I did find Perry, what was I going to do? Phone him up and tell him I needed to find his friend because I was pregnant? It all sounded like a terrible idea.

  Sarah walked in and I glanced up at her. She looked like she was on a mission.

  “Greyson Maxwell,” she said.

  I looked up at her, startled. “Excuse me?” How did she know what I was doing? Was this a joke?