by Holly Rayner
The Baby Pact
Holly Rayner
Contents
The Baby Pact
1. Rhea
2. Zach
3. Rhea
4. Zach
5. Rhea
6. Rhea
7. Zach
8. Rhea
9. Rhea
10. Zach
11. Rhea
12. Zach
13. Rhea
14. Zach
15. Zach
16. Rhea
17. Rhea
18. Zach
19. Zach
20. Zach
21. Rhea
Epilogue
The Billionaire's Illicit Twins
1. Bella
Want More?
Also by Holly Rayner
The Baby Pact
Copyright 2020 by Holly Rayner
All rights reserved. Except for use in any review, the reproduction or utilization of this work in whole or in part by any means, now known or hereafter invented, including xerography, photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, is forbidden without the explicit written permission of the author.
All characters depicted in this fictional work are consenting adults, of at least eighteen years of age. Any resemblance to persons living or deceased, particular businesses, events, or exact locations are entirely coincidental.
Chapter 1
Rhea
Rhea Wilson crunched through the snow that coated the path leading up to Harris Hall. At the doorway, she stomped her feet a few times, ridding them of as much snow as possible before going inside.
She needn’t have bothered. The entryway of the dorm was soaking wet, puddles of water everywhere. Rhea sidestepped the biggest ones as she made her way to the stairs, then jogged up to the third floor. She pulled out the lanyard that hung around her neck from inside her coat, unlocked the door to her room, and let herself in.
Her roommate, Kaylie, was out, thank goodness—probably out with her boyfriend. She and Kaylie were friends, but tonight Rhea definitely didn’t want the company of someone who was so happily in love. Not after the date she’d just been on.
I’m cursed.
She toed off her shoes, tossed her coat over the back of her desk chair, and flopped down on her bed, gazing up at the ceiling. This had not been the way she was hoping to end this night. She had done her best to keep her expectations low—it wasn’t the first bad date she’d been burned by this term—but somehow, they never failed to surprise her.
With a sigh, she sat up and gathered her strawberry blond hair behind her head. She had spent such a long time styling it for tonight, first straightening her natural frizzy curls, then putting them back in one by one with a curling iron so that they would be soft and defined. Now, she wound her hair up into a messy bun on top of her head.
She should never have wasted her time. She should have expected that things would go the way they had.
I just need to stop letting people set me up! I don’t know why I keep falling into that trap!
Today’s setup had been courtesy of her project partner in Latin class, who had gathered from their few casual conversations that Rhea was single. She supposed she had gotten a bit swept up in all the excitement as her partner had described the guy she knew and how perfect he would be for Rhea.
It was so tempting to let herself believe that there was someone perfect for her out there!
She grabbed her makeup remover and went to work on her face. Rhea didn’t usually favor heavy makeup, but a night out on a date had felt like the right occasion to get a bit experimental. She’d wanted to play with her look a little bit, to try something different, and she had been happy with the results. But now she was eager to get back to being herself.
I wonder how Zach’s date went? she thought.
She smiled wryly, shaking her head. He was probably still on his date. She was home early, after all. They had agreed to touch base in the morning and share the details with one another, but now that Rhea’s evening had been cut short, she was eager to get down to the debrief.
I’ll text him, she decided. Maybe he won’t be home too late and we can get together and talk tonight.
It was worth a shot.
She reached for the purse she had carried all night. Ordinarily, she would have just stuffed the things she needed into the pockets of her jeans, but the pants she had chosen tonight were much more fitted than her usual pair—again, in an effort to impress her date.
She pulled out her phone and wrote a quick text to Zach.
“How was your evening?”
Before she could hit send, however, her phone flashed with an incoming text.
“I sure hope your date was better than mine!”
Rhea couldn’t help laughing aloud. I was just about to text you!
“You read my mind, I guess. Home already?”
“Yup.”
She set the phone down and stripped off the blouse she had been wearing, exchanging it for a cotton tank top and a hoodie. When she picked the phone up again, Zach had replied.
“Want to meet up and debrief? I could use someone to talk to.”
Rhea grinned. This was exactly what she wanted—a way to end the night on a high note, as opposed to sitting around and stewing about everything that hadn’t lived up to her expectations.
“Definitely,” she texted back. “Hill’s?”
“Meet you there in 20.”
She sprang up from the bed, totally reinvigorated, and checked herself briefly in the mirror. Her hair was a bit messy, but nothing that would make her embarrassed to be seen in public, and no streaks of makeup remained on her face. She debated for a moment changing her fitted, flattering pants for her more comfortable pair, but decided that the nice ones might as well see a little bit more action tonight. They made her feel bold. Confident.
She pulled her shoes back on, shrugged into her coat, and grabbed her purse. Locking the dorm room door behind her, she made her way down the steps and back out into the night.
It was amazing, she reflected, how the prospect of seeing Zach had the ability to turn her whole night around. But then, she supposed everyone felt that way about their best friend. It was just that a best friend wasn’t something Rhea had ever really had before.
She had been so isolated growing up. She knew she was lucky to have wealthy parents—she had never wanted for anything, and it was thanks to them that she had been able to attend the college of her choice. But their money had also driven a wedge between Rhea and her peers. She had never been able to relate to the things her classmates were going through, the struggles of normal, middle-class teenagers.
Now that she was away from home, in college, things were a bit different. It was possible to go through days and weeks at a time without being reminded of her parents’ money, and she was sure that her classmates had no idea how wealthy her family was. She deliberately dressed to match the styles that other students on campus were wearing. No one needed to know that the hoodie she’d thrown on this evening was a designer garment. It looked just like everyone else’s.
And not having that barrier between herself and her peers had allowed Rhea to find real friendships for the first time in her life. She wouldn’t have traded that for anything.
Zach had been her first friend at college. The two of them had met at a party the first semester of freshman year, and they’d spent the whole evening in the corner laughing together as the party went on around them. Now, two years later, Zach was probably the person Rhea trusted most in the world. He was the only one she wanted to talk to tonight.
Hill’s Pub was only a few bl
ocks from the heart of campus, and even though Rhea arrived quickly, Zach had beaten her there. She spotted him at a booth in the corner with two bottles of beer in front of him, and he waved her over.
She started to sit opposite him, but he rolled his eyes.
“Don’t be stupid,” he said. “It’s cold in here. That window in the back is still busted. Sit by me.”
She nodded and took the seat by his side. “Are they ever going to fix that?”
“God only knows.” He handed her one of the drinks. “Here. To bad dates.”
She clinked her bottle against his and took a long pull.
“Want to talk about it?” he asked.
She shrugged, pulling off her coat and tossing it onto the seat across from them.
“He was just annoying,” she said. “All he wanted was to talk about himself and how great he was.”
“Was he great?”
“He was a philosophy major.”
“Ohhh.”
“A philosophy of feminism major.”
“I don’t understand,” Zach said. “Is that worse?”
“Not automatically,” she said. “But he definitely just picked it so he could meet girls.”
“How do you know?”
“He told me.” She took another long drink of her beer. “He told me he considered education and women’s studies, because those would also be female-heavy specialties, but decided against them because he thought the women in the philosophy department would be more air-headed.”
“Whoa. He actually said that?”
“I think he thought I might take it as a compliment somehow,” Rhea said. “Like, because I’m not a philosophy major, he’s saying I’m not as much of an airhead. Like I’m better than the girls he usually dates or something.”
“Wow.” Zach drained his bottle and signaled a server for more. “What a jerk.”
“Yeah.” She nodded. “Anyway, no more dates for me for a while, I think.”
“You can’t let one bad apple spoil your whole college experience,” he said.
“It’s not just one bad apple. This is my third crappy date this month.”
“I guess you are on kind of a bad streak,” he said.
“What happened with you?”
“Oh, she was only after me for my body,” he said, rolling his eyes.
“I’d think you’d be used to that by now,” Rhea said. Zach did have a very nice body.
“Most girls at least want to have a conversation,” Zach said. “As soon as I picked her up, she asked me if I wanted to skip dinner and just stay at her dorm.”
Rhea burst out laughing. “That’s subtle. What did you say?”
“Well, I tried to give her the benefit of the doubt,” he said. “I went inside and asked if she wanted to watch a movie or something. We got about five minutes into the film, and then she was climbing into my lap.”
“Wow.”
“Yeah. I told her I wanted to take things slow, and she got all offended and told me I might as well just go home if I wasn’t interested in a good time, and that she had other guys she could call. So I left.”
“That’s wild,” Rhea said as their new beers arrived. “I guess it just wasn’t a good night for either one of us.”
Zach wrapped his arm around her shoulder. “At least I always have you to finish the night with,” he said. “Who needs a hot date when you have a good friend?”
She leaned on his shoulder. “I don’t know why the other guys at this school can’t be more like you,” she said. “Every guy I meet is so high on himself. I just want to go on a date with a sweet, humble guy who actually cares about getting to know me better and showing me a good time.”
“Yeah,” Zach agreed. “And I just want to meet a girl who’s interested in a relationship with a little bit of substance, and who sees me as more than a piece of meat.”
Rhea looked up at him. “You can’t really blame them for finding you attractive,” she teased.
Zach grinned. “I know,” he said. “You think I’m sexy.”
“And you don’t think I’m sexy?”
“Are you kidding? You’re the hottest girl at this school.”
A flash of heat shot through her. Did he really feel that way? She’d always assumed that Zach saw her like a sister.
“You think so?”
“These guys are crazy if they don’t appreciate you, Rhea,” he murmured. “Every time you tell me about one of your crappy dates, it blows my mind. It’s like watching people throw diamonds into the ocean.”
“I’m the diamond?”
“You know you are,” he said, and bent to kiss her.
The kiss was electric, and nothing she had ever shared with Zach before. She tasted her own strawberry lip gloss as his lips moved against hers, picking it up and returning it to her. His arms wrapped around her, pulling her closer into the solid warmth of his body, and for just a moment, Rhea allowed herself to forget the world and lose herself in Zach.
Then he let out a soft groan, and the sound of his voice jerked her back to reality.
She pulled away.
He let her go easily, as if he had been expecting it. She looked up at him and saw the utter confusion in his eyes.
“I wasn’t planning that,” he said quietly. “I’m sorry.”
“It’s okay,” she said. “I’m not… it’s okay.”
He nodded.
“But we shouldn’t have done it,” she added quickly.
“Right,” he agreed. His eyes cleared slightly. “I’m sorry. You’re right.”
“It’s just that you’re my best friend,” she hurried to explain. “And my romantic life is such a mess. I couldn’t stand to see you get mixed up in that. I don’t want to lose our friendship, Zach.”
“No,” he said, shaking his head. “You’re right. I don’t want to lose our friendship either. This is more important than anything.”
She sighed, relieved. “I’m glad you feel that way.”
“But you should know,” he said, “that you’re not ever going to lose my friendship. No matter what happens. Nothing is bigger than that, okay? There’s nothing that could happen between us that would cause me to turn my back on you.”
She smiled. “I feel the same way,” she said. “I’ve never had a friend like you before, Zach. I’m not going to give you up. Not for anything.”
Not even for the possibility of more.
Because now that she had kissed him, she couldn’t deny that she felt something. She couldn’t deny that she wanted him much more than she had ever fully realized. She had always known that Zach was attractive, of course—but she had never fully understood how attracted she was to him.
Don’t focus on it. He’s your best friend. You can’t gamble with that.
“We should really make one of those pacts,” Zach mused, spinning his bottle cap on the table.
“Pacts?” she asked. “What pacts?”
“You know those pacts some people have where they agree that if they’re still single by the time they’re thirty-five, or something, that they’ll bite the bullet and get together?”
Rhea laughed. “Real people don’t have those agreements. That’s just in the movies.”
“Sure real people have them,” Zach said. “My buddy Brad has one.”
“I’ve met Brad,” Rhea said. “He’s definitely going to be single when he’s thirty-five.”
“Well, we could be too,” Zach said. “It’s not like we’ve been especially lucky in love. And… you’ve got to admit, we have chemistry.”
“I don’t have to admit anything,” Rhea said, blushing.
But he isn’t wrong.
“Come on,” Zach said. “What do you say? If we’re still single when we’re thirty-five, you and I will get together and give it a try. We both want to get married. We both want a family. And even if it’s just as friends, I could definitely see myself having those things with you.”
Rhea laughed. “Okay,” she said. “Sure.
You’re on. If we’re single when we’re thirty-five, you and I will get married and start a family.”
It’s not like anything will ever come of it.
Chapter 2
Zach
It had become customary, over the past few years, for Zach and Rhea to spend their birthdays together. The celebrations usually consisted of something low-key like going out to the movies or to dinner at one of their favorite local restaurants.
This year, Zach had been thinking that perhaps he’d take Rhea to the ice-skating rink at the mall. It would be a good way to feel youthful again and to forget about the run of bad dates they’d both suffered lately.
Then Rhea called to let him know that her family planned to be in town on the weekend of her birthday.
“But we can still hang out,” she said anxiously. “It wouldn’t feel right to spend my birthday without you. Will you come to dinner with us?”
“Are you sure?” Zach asked. He’d never met her family before. “Won’t I be kind of a fifth wheel?”
“No, you wouldn’t have to be,” Rhea assured him. “Why don’t you invite your dad too? The more the merrier, right?”
Zach hesitated. “That’s not going to be weird to your parents? You inviting a guy they’ve never met and his father to your family dinner?”
“It’s my birthday,” Rhea said. “I want you there. Please come.”
He grinned. “I guess I can’t say no, when you put it that way.”
“No, you can’t,” she said smugly.
“So where are we going?” he asked. “Mugsy’s Pub?”
Rhea laughed. “I can’t imagine my mother eating at Mugsy’s Pub! With the sticky floors and the upside-down barrels as barstools!”