Stay The Night

by Parker, Ali

  I couldn’t even imagine a world where Danny and I hadn’t grown up together in the hallways of the McAllen Group head offices.

  Aston lifted her shoulders, dropping them slowly as she shook her head. “No, not the lesser of two evils. Just the evil she thought would be easier for you to live with. Think about it, one morning you woke up and she was just gone, right?”

  “Right.”

  She turned in her seat to face me. “Your home, school, friends, and everything else stayed the same. Your Mom wasn’t around anymore, but nothing else changed for you.”

  It wasn’t quite that simple, but I saw where she was coming from. “You think she made the right choice?”

  “God no,” Aston said. “I can’t imagine how difficult it must’ve been for each of you. All I’m saying is that I don’t think her choice necessarily makes her a bad person. She did what she thought was best for you, and it was a huge sacrifice for her to have made.”

  “But she made it without giving us a choice.” I wasn’t arguing with Aston, I was just trying to understand her point of view.

  “Yeah, but she thought she was doing it to protect you. Now she’s back, she’s loyal, dedicated, loving and from the little I’ve seen of her, quite fierce about the ones she loves. Who does that remind you of?”

  I glanced at her in the rear view mirror. “I’m assuming you want me to say me?”

  Turning her hand over, so our palms were now pressed against each other, she leaned over to plant a kiss on my shoulder. “Protective, loyal, dedicated, loving and fierce? There’s definitely a lot of her in you, Blake.”

  “Minus the part where I leave my spouse to raise our children alone,” I told her. Our conversation in the jet was still fresh in my mind. I had no problem with having inherited qualities from my mother, as long as Aston understood the leaving gene wasn’t part of my inheritance.

  “Of course,” she agreed. “Speaking of which, are you going to tell them this weekend?”

  I had thought about it, but given what I was here to discuss with my father, I decided it was best to let him process one big thing at a time. “No. I don’t think so. It seems enough that Danny is threatening to take us to court. Let’s let him get through one thing at a time.”

  “Good call,” she agreed. “I’m going to hang back once we get to your dad’s house. You guys have a lot to talk about.”

  Dad and I sat down in his study when we got to his house. Mom and Aston decided to unpack and have lunch while we talked. I closed the door behind us, wanting to make sure we had privacy for this conversation. It wasn’t going to be an easy thing for Dad to hear.

  “So,” he turned to me after lowering himself into his wide leather chair. Rolling it forward, he leaned with his elbows on his captain’s desk. “What did you want to talk about that was so important it merited a visit in person?”

  “Danny.” There was no use beating around the bush about this. It was better to get it out and get it done with. “He’s threatening to take us to court.”

  “What?” Dad’s blue eyes widened. “What for?”

  “I told him he was relieved of his duties as acting CEO, and to get out of your office. He chose to take it as me telling him to get out of the company completely, because he is unhappy about your decision to appoint me in your place instead of him.”

  “I knew he was going to be disappointed, but I never imagined him threatening to take us to court over it. It’s my damn company, I can appoint anyone I please to be my successor. Strange he didn’t come to see me if he was so upset.”

  “Danny is saying I didn’t have the right to do anything because it’s not legal yet. Because there are no papers anywhere appointing me. I really think he’s under Dustin’s influence more than we thought.”

  My dad rubbed his eyes, then stared out the window behind me. “I never intended for Danny to leave the company. He’s my son. I’m not going to lose the love of my life—your mom—and my son to that company. There’s no way.”

  “You want him back?” Danny had caused us nothing but problems lately. I didn’t really want to see my brother go either, but he was a loose cannon nowadays. A liability.

  My dad wouldn’t see it that way, though. He was a good father to us, a good example of the kind of father I wanted to be. He wouldn’t let Danny go, wouldn’t give up on him. No matter what.

  “Of course I do. Let me think about how to deal with this. In the meantime, bring the lawyer with you when you come on Monday. Danny’s right about one thing, it’s time to make this official.”

  Chapter 52

  Aston

  Blake’s father’s house was not what I was expecting at all. As a property magnate, I would’ve expected him to have a home the size of a hotel. Perhaps a glass and concrete monstrosity.

  While Wayne’s house wasn’t small, it definitely wasn’t the size of a hotel. It was a comfortable five bedroom family home. I didn’t know if this was where Blake grew up, I hadn’t asked. But it looked like it would’ve been a pretty nice place to grow up in if it was.

  It was cozy despite its size, and boasted big trees and a large backyard with a patio and a sparkling pool. I wondered if any of the family sized dining tables either inside or outside ever saw any action. Neither Blake nor Danny struck me as the type to pop in for family meals on Sundays.

  I’d finally come to learn that Blake’s mother’s name was Linda. She seemed to know her way around the house well enough and excused herself shortly after we arrived to unpack. I was left chopping salad in the farm style kitchen.

  There were beautiful ingredients spread out on the counter tops around me. Bright and fresh, I had no idea where Linda had gotten it all, given that they’d just arrived home after more than a month in the hospital.

  I had actually been planning on volunteering to go to the store to stock up their groceries once we arrived. Linda had beat me to it, though. As Blake and his dad disappeared into the study, she chatted with me and led me to the kitchen.

  When we got there, she started rummaging through and asked cheerfully, “Can you chop, dear? The hospital food wasn’t as bad as one might imagine, but I’m dying for a nice, big salad with all the trimmings.

  I was about to offer to go buy all the necessary ingredients, but she stuck her head in the fridge and started pulling out produce like she was at a market. Lettuce, tomatoes, different kinds of olives and peppers, cheeses, cucumber, avocado. I lost track of it all, but it was clear she didn’t need me to go shopping.

  That left me with however long Blake and his father talked to get to know his mother. The idea was daunting, especially considering Blake didn’t really know the woman himself. I knew nothing about her suitable for starting conversations, or what pitfalls to avoid besides the obvious.

  So, I took the chopping board and knife she offered and nodded my answer to her question. “I’m not super talented in the kitchen, but I can manage to chop things up without losing a finger.”

  “Excellent.” She clapped her hands together, her eyes relaxed and happy. “You get to it, and I’ll just go unpack a few things and be back in a couple of minutes.”

  “No problem,” I told her, approximately thirty minutes ago. Before she left, she set down a huge salad bowl and told me she had some Italian bread she would cut when she came back downstairs.

  Finally, I heard her footsteps coming up behind me. “How is everything going down here? Can I give you a hand?”

  “I’m just about done.” Scooping the avocado I had just finished cutting onto the top of the salad, I smiled. “It looks delicious. Do you want me to cut that bread you mentioned while I’m at it?”

  She retrieved three brown paper bags and slid bread out of each. “You’ve done quite enough, thank you, dear. How about just keeping me company for now?”

  “Sounds good.” I couldn’t help liking Linda. She was sweet and kind, so easygoing and talkative. She was striking too, with her mop of pitch black hair and piercing blue eyes. Just like her s
ons.

  The clothes she wore made her seem free spirited. Unlike the uptight, corporate type I would’ve imagined Wayne McAllen going for, now that she’d ditched the black she wore in the hospital at first, she had an almost bohemian style. The furthest thing away from corporate garb, she wore a loose and flowing flowery skirt with a turquoise wrap around shirt.

  On one of our first dates, Blake took me to a hole-in-the-wall taco place. It was right by the hotel where I worked and I’d never even known it was there. He told me then that his mom had found it once while she was out on a walk around the hotel.

  At the time, I couldn’t quite picture a billionaire’s wife simply strolling the streets and stumbling across an unnamed taco place. But having met Linda, now I understood it completely.

  The sound of a knife slicing through a crunchy crust filled the kitchen, followed by the smell of fresh bread. I breathed in deeply.

  Linda noticed, her eyes warming with a friendly smile. “A girl who appreciates the smell of bread instead of shying away from it is a girl I can get to know.”

  “That’s good to know. A woman who discovers the most amazing hidden taco places is a woman I definitely want to get to know.”

  Her expression softened with fond recognition. “Ah, in Palo Alto. I remember it well. I still go there when I’m in the area. It’s not as often as I would’ve liked, unfortunately.”

  “Blake said it looks exactly the same as it did when you first took him there.”

  She blinked in surprise. “He remembered the place well enough to take you there? When you mentioned it now I thought he’d simply told you about it.”

  “No, he remembered it well,” I told her. “I think it has some significance to him.”

  Lowering her gaze, a flush came to her cheeks. Almost as if she was embarrassed. “It was one of the last places I took him before, well, you know.”

  Oh wow. I hadn’t been expecting her to go there. “He mentioned he was young when you went.”

  “You must think I’m a terrible mother for leaving them like that.” She said it so softly I could barely hear the words.

  How was I supposed to respond to that? I chewed over my reply, not wanting to sound callous. “I think it must have been very hard for you. That can’t have been an easy decision to make or to live with.”

  “It wasn’t.” She winced as though a sharp pain had shot through her, then started arranging the slices of bread around a plate. “It was the hardest decision I’ve ever had to make as a mother, and let me tell you, there are plenty of tough decisions moms have to make.”

  “I can only imagine.” Motherhood wasn’t easy. It was already taking a toll on my body and I wasn’t even in my second trimester of pregnancy yet. People said you became a mom the minute you found out you were pregnant, and I was starting to understand that.

  Slowly but surely, my perception of the world and the people who lived in it was already changing. When Blake first told me about his mom, I thought what she did was terrible. I never thought I would be able to see her side of things.

  Having met her and trying to imagine giving up my own baby, even if it wasn’t here yet, I realized how excruciating the decision must have been for her. Walking away already seemed impossible to me.

  “You’ll see one day when you have children of your own. You only want what’s best for them. It doesn’t matter what it costs you, not just in money but in everything, you want to be able to give it to them.”

  “Hmm,” I agreed vaguely. It felt like I was lying to her by not telling her I was pregnant, but it wasn’t my place to have that conversation with her.

  Cluing her in would also mean that Blake’s father would find out, or I would put her in the position to have to lie to her husband. Given how new their rekindled romance was, it wouldn’t be right to ask her to lie.

  Blake had made it clear he didn’t think it was the right time for his father to find out. I agreed with him. Having a son threatening to take you to court and finding out about it on the day you got discharged from the hospital was bad enough.

  Learning the son you were signing your company over to had knocked up his girlfriend would be a lot on any day, but finding out on the very same day as the rest of it would be too much and could threaten his health.

  What Blake and I had together was much more than just the baby. Our relationship, however, was still new and I doubted his father was prepared for this news. I knew he liked me and he respected my work, but that didn’t mean he was ready to find out I was carrying his grandchild.

  I didn’t want to be responsible for the man having a heart attack on the heels of a massive stroke.

  No.

  There was plenty of time to tell both of them about the baby. Blake and I had to figure out a few things by ourselves first. His father needed time to come to terms with the new reality that he had a lot of recovering left to do before he could go back to work, not to mention signing the company over to Blake officially and dealing with this mess with Danny.

  Timing was everything, my mother used to say. Telling them today wouldn’t be great timing. Despite the shock both Blake and I had experienced by finding out I was pregnant, I wanted the baby to come into a world where it was loved and accepted. It wouldn’t happen that way if we messed things up now.

  Perhaps this was one of those tough decision I was going to have to make and live with as a mother, choosing when to share the news with our families and friends. It wasn’t a drop in the bucket of difficult decisions in the greater scheme of things, but it was the first decision I would have to make in the interest of our little one.

  Linda caught my eye, motioning to the salad bowl. “You bring that to the table, I’ll bring the bread and some dressings. Tell me dear, speaking of difficult decisions mothers have to make, have you and Blake spoken about children?”

  I nearly dropped the salad bowl. Crap. I really didn’t want to have to tell an outright lie. “We’ve spoken about children a little recently.”

  Linda beamed at me. “That’s wonderful news. I know I haven’t been around to be there for him, but like I said, a mom always wants what’s best for her children. I used to lie awake at night wondering if they would end up with the right women. The kind of women who would make them the men they need to be.”

  I smiled. “Not knowing who they were dating when you were lying awake must have driven you crazy.”

  She rolled her eyes and winked. “That’s exactly why I was awake. I was always so afraid they were with girls who wouldn’t see them for who they really were. There are a lot of gold-digging women out there and men like them are perfect targets.”

  “That’s very true.” Blake and Danny were both good looking, stinking rich and Blake, at least, was also a great guy.

  Linda nodded as she put the bread down on the table. “You’re not like that though. I can tell. You’re good for him, you’re helping him become the man he needs to be.”

  I felt myself turning as red as the tomatoes in the salad I was carrying. “He makes me the woman I need to be.”

  Blake and his father chose that moment to come out of the study, cutting short the conversation I was having with Linda. Blake looked at the table, then took my hand. “We should probably go and let my parents get to their lunch.”

  “Nonsense,” Linda said. “Eat with us, then you can leave.”

  Blake agreed reluctantly. I took his hand in a quiet show of support. This was going to be difficult for him, but we would face it together. Just like I hoped we would be facing all our challenges from now on.

  Chapter 53

  Blake

  I woke up with Aston lying in my arms. I was on my side, lying with my arm draped over her stomach as she slept peacefully on her back. She was the best sight to wake up to.

  Her auburn air was spread out to the side of the pillow, dark strands contrasting sharply with the stark white bedding. Her long lashes curled up towards the roof as her chest rose and fell with deep breaths. Deciding
not to risk waking her from her sound sleep, I burrowed into the bed and just watched her as I finally let my mind drift to the realities we were facing.

  It was still early. The sun was only just beginning to rise. The room was lit with soft early morning sunlight, almost like an orange glow.

  In a few short months, these peaceful mornings with her would most likely be a remnant of the past. By all accounts, mornings with babies around were not peaceful.

  My hand ventured to her lower abdomen, the spot where my baby was growing. Though I knew it was still too early to feel anything, I let my hand rest there on top of the little bean. I wondered when I could expect to feel him or her move.

  It was still difficult to wrap my head around the fact that my baby was living in there for the time being, but it was good to know that it was protected inside her right now.

  Once the little one was born, it would become my job to do the protecting, and I would do it fiercely and with everything I had. The prospect was daunting, but I was up for the task.

  I tried to imagine my life, our lives, with a little person in it. But I couldn’t. How exactly it was going to work evaded me. My life was not child friendly and nine months was a short time to rearrange a lifetime spent setting things up this way.

  It wasn’t about me anymore, though. It was about us now, all three of us. While I understood that fact, it was still difficult to truly believe it. It was all still surreal.

  I had to do something to make it feel more real, then I had to start working on a solid plan for the future. A way for me to run the company while being there for Aston and my child.

  When I was growing up, I didn’t understand why my mother had left us. It seemed natural to assign all the blame to her. From the little time I’d spent with her recently, I was starting to realize that some of the blame didn’t belong at her feet, but at my father’s.