Izzi smiled at me, tears in her eyes. “I’m so relieved,” she admitted. “I’ve been so upset—I wanted you there with me for every step of the way. I want my baby to know their father.”
“And they will,” I promised. “Any time with you is a blessing. And hey, lightning probably won’t strike twice. I think I should go to therapy to talk about this, so that I don’t let my fear get the best of me. And we’ll be attentive.”
Izzi kissed me. She didn’t need to say it, the happiness shining all over her face. I knew I could never turn my back on this woman, not really.
We lay there for a few more minutes, just soaking up each other’s presence, but at last Izzi slid out of my arms. “I need to go,” she joked. “Seeing as I no longer work here.”
“Not so fast.” I sat up. “You wanted to work here with your father, and you’ve done amazing work at this company in a small amount of time, under a lot of pressure. I think that it would be stupid of us to let a valuable employee like you go.”
Izzi looked puzzled. “But how…”
“I’m going to rehire Andrew. It was—it was wrong of me to act like that with him. I’ll be honest, I think he’s a bit of a suck up. I think he wants to be nice to you partly to be in Garrett’s good graces. But he wasn’t trying to make any moves on you and even if he had been, I never should’ve lost my temper like that. I was—jealous, wildly jealous, and angry and scared, and I clearly didn’t fucking handle it well.”
“No,” Izzi said with a fond smile. “You didn’t.”
“And I’m sorry about that. I’m sorry for all the pain that I’ve put you through. But we’re going to fix this. There’s no reason we should have to give up an amazing employee or you should have to leave a company where you want to work. I’ll hire Andrew back again and you’ll work under him, and we’ll shift things so that Andrew reports to Garrett instead. I know, it’s your dad, but I think that’s better than your lover, right?”
Izzi laughed. “Lover sounds so clandestine.”
“We have been pretty clandestine.”
“Fair enough.” I kissed her. “Now there’s no problem. And we’ve already weathered plenty of accusations of nepotism with regards to your dad, so it’ll be fine. Nothing new. You’ve proven yourself with this new ad campaign launch. Once our product is successful and our sales are up, nobody will be able to say a word against you, or us.”
Izzi bit her lip. “If you’re sure. I do want to keep working here. I like the people I’ve hired for the marketing team, I like the work I’ve done here and the campaign I’m building up, and I would like to stay. But I don’t want to make things difficult for you or Dad.”
“You’ll be reporting to Andrew first, and he’s shown he has a fair mind when it comes to you. And if he’s ever too indulgent, your father can be stern. But I don’t think that you two have been at odds while he’s working with you. The two of us just need to keep our distance a bit and we’ll be fine. We’ll find our rhythm. In this and everything else.”
Izzi looked relieved and smiled at me. “Then I’m happy to stay working here.”
“Hey, I’d be crazy to let you quit. You do amazing work for us.”
I knew that she was right and she did have to leave, we had to continue with the work day, but I pulled her back into my lap briefly. I took her face in my hands. “Hey. I love you, and we’re going to make this work. We’ll handle whatever comes at us. I’m sorry for all the bumps in the road that I put there. I’m sorry I was stubborn and scared. But I’m ready to commit and make this work.”
“That’s all I want,” Izzi promised me. “I forgive you. I know that we’ll face all of this as long as we’re together.”
“And I’ll spend the rest of my life making it up to you,” I promised her.
“Well…” Izzi smirked. “You can start by kissing me again.”
How was I supposed to resist that? I leaned in and kissed her—the first of many more kisses to come.
Epilogue: Izzi
There was a special sort of irony in the universe deciding that I was going to go into labor the day that our product launched.
I was so proud of all the work that I’d done to help with this launch, but my part had been done for a while, and there would be other projects that I could take care of, other things I would be proud of when it came to my career.
This was a once in a lifetime moment.
I was a little nervous, but mostly, I was just in pain. This was definitely not fun and not a joyous wonderful moment like everyone had been telling me. I kind of wanted to strangle John for knocking me up, except John was infinitely more worried than I was.
Mom was there too, to help me breathe and stay calm and remind me that this was all going to be worth it once my baby was born.
“I still want to drop kick you,” I informed John as I was wheeled into my hospital room.
“You can drop kick me all you want,” John assured me. “Once you finish pushing the baby out.”
“All right, Isadora,” my doctor said. She was a kind and patient woman and I enjoyed having her as our doctor. “I’m going to need you to push, okay?”
“What have I been doing this entire time!?” I yelled.
“Contractions,” John said.
I glared at him.
John took my hand in his and kissed my knuckles. “You’ve got this.”
I grit my teeth and began to push. Fuck. This baby felt like they were trying to rip my stomach open. I was sure that I would tear something, or maybe multiple somethings, in the process of getting this baby out of me.
I pushed, and pushed, and pushed. I’d never been in this much pain before and I had no idea what to do with it. It felt like it was all too much, too big, for my body. Like I would come apart at the seams because I simply couldn’t hold it all in.
For the first time, fear truly started to enter me. I had been calm this entire time, sure that I could handle this as I handled everything else in my life. John had gone to therapy to work on his own sense of fear and his concerns about my help. We’d begun to plan our wedding, for crying out loud, although we’d decided to wait until after the baby was born so we weren’t rushing anything, and we could focus on just one big event at a time. I’d thought I could waltz in here and be a superwoman.
Now I wasn’t so sure. Panic began to fill me. I just felt—wrong. Like something was wrong. I couldn’t explain it, but the pain wasn’t just pain, it was wrong pain.
“Okay,” Dr. Lahiri said calmly. “So, it looks like we have a bit of a situation. The baby’s turned the wrong way. This is going to be a breech birth.”
A breech birth was when the baby was born feet first instead of head first. We had talked about this possibility during my pregnancy, just as we’d discussed other possible complications, but I hadn’t really thought about it. It was one of those things where it always happened to someone else.
Of course, we were all ‘someone else’ to someone else.
Our doctor kept talking to me, but it was all white noise. A fearful buzzing filled my ears, drowning out everything else. What if this went wrong and our baby died? What if I died? I was honestly, genuinely scared now.
John’s hand tightened around mine. “Izzi, listen to me. Just listen to my voice. This is going to be fine. You’re going to do this, and you’re going to be okay.”
I was surprised that John was so calm about this, while I was the one panicking. It was a reverse of how I thought it would go. But here I was, freaking out.
“Just listen to my voice, all right? And we’re going to push. Squeeze my hand as hard as you want. That’s it, really good. You’re doing so well.”
John coached me through it as Mom held my other hand and breathed with me. The baby’s body had already begun to poke out, so a cesarian section probably wouldn’t be the ideal option. The hope was to continue with the labor and get the baby out instead of wasting precious time switching methods.
As I listened to John’s voic
e, I began to calm down. He was right. I could do this. It would be okay. I was young and strong, and so far all of our checkups had shown that both the baby and I were healthy. I hadn’t ever failed to get what I wanted or succeed in an endeavor. I wasn’t going to let this be the one place, the one time, where I failed. I was going to be a mother, damn it, and I was going to live the rest of my life with my children and the love of my life and I was going to be happy!
Newfound determination surged through me and I pushed with all I had, straining and shoving, working hard to get this baby out of me. John kept encouraging me the entire time, soothing me and praising me. You wouldn’t have thought he was at all nervous from the way he spoke to me.
It felt like years before I finally heard the cry of my child, and John told me I could relax now.
“You did so well,” he promised me.
Mom smoothed her hand over my forehead, pushing my sweaty hair out of the way, and helped me drink some water.
“Congratulations,” Dr. Lahiri said. “You’ve given birth to a healthy baby boy.”
We had wanted the gender to be a surprise, and had designed our nursery for the baby in soft, pleasant whites and greens. Angelica was terribly excited to have a younger sibling, and especially excited to get to have a baby around the house. We’d tried to warn her that babies were also messy and exhausting, but she was stubborn and well, we figured she’d learn soon enough once we brought her little sibling home.
I turned away from Mom, towards my baby, and found John holding him. John was openly crying, tears sliding down his cheeks as he stared adoringly down at the little bundle in his arms.
“You want to see your mama?” he asked, his voice unbearably soft. “Yeah? Of course, you do. Here she is!”
He gently deposited our baby onto my chest, where I could hold him. I felt incredibly weak. All of my energy drained out of me. Even breathing was tough. I’d passed right through pain and on to numbness. But I managed to get my arms up to hold my child.
“He’s so small,” I noted. Of course, he was, all babies were, and he wasn’t tiny in a scary way. He was nice and healthy. It just hit me all at once, this fragile and precious life, how small and dear it was.
I gently stroked our son’s hair. He seemed content to sleep for now, which was definitely a relief. I needed a break myself.
John stroked my hair. Mom gave me a kiss on the cheek and then went to go break the news to Dad and everyone else we knew, leaving us alone as our little family unit.
“I’m so lucky to have you,” John whispered. He was still crying a little, his eyes crinkled up at the corners with joy. “I can’t believe that it’s actually happening. That I get to be this happy.”
“You’d better believe it,” I whispered. “Because I don’t have any intention of going anywhere.”
“You made me see that a future is possible,” John told me. He kissed the top of my head. “Thank you for that. I can’t wait to get this little guy home.”
My heart felt so full, like it was going to overflow. I knew we were about to embark on the greatest adventure of our lives, and there was no one else I’d ever want by my side while I did this.
If you enjoyed Daddy’s Best Friend, make sure you check out My Best Friend’s Daddy here
I feel so guilty drooling over the doctor next door!
How could I not?
The man is everything he shouldn’t be.
He’s my daddy’s best friend… and if that wasn’t enough, he’s also my best friend’s dad.
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My Best Friend’s Daddy: Sample
Description
I feel so guilty drooling over the doctor next door!
How could I not?
The man is everything he shouldn’t be.
He’s my daddy’s best friend… and if that wasn’t enough, he’s also my best friend’s dad.
Which means that two people closest to me will hate me if I act on my desires.
I need to tell Keith that I’ve been madly in love with him for as long as I can remember.
Today, I want him more than I ever did before.
He adores my curves.
His voice sends a shiver down my spine.
His touch gives me all the right kind of goosebumps.
But Keith will never admit to falling in love.
It’s forbidden.
It’s wrong.
It’s the only thing we both want.
Will our families let us be together?
And more importantly, will he still want me after I reveal that he got me pregnant after taking my innocence?
Prologue: Holly
My hips swayed to the music as the band started up. Simon, the band’s lead singer and bass guitarist, winked at me and I shot him finger guns back in response.
It was dorky, sure, but it was the best thing I could think of to respond that was both friendly and supportive without being too flirty. If anyone knew that I didn’t want to sleep with Simon Carter, they’d think I was crazy. He wasn’t exactly a celebrity yet, but his band was starting to get popular and everyone who knew him was aware of how handsome and charming he was. I’d be crazy not to go for him, especially when he’d literally told me that he wanted me—but I had been crazy for years.
Crazy for just one person.
I had chosen my outfit with care, knowing he would be here. Of course, I also had to look professional. I was the band’s manager, after all, the one who’d gotten them this gig. I’d been in this club for hours already setting everything up.
All romantic plans aside, I was really proud of my work today. I had been running around until my feet ached, but so far everything was going really well. I felt successful, and like I might actually be able to do the job, have the career, that I hoped for.
Those romantic plans, however, were just as important to me as my career plans.
Dr. Keith Fletcher had been in my sights for years now, although he didn’t know that. He couldn’t, after all, seeing as it would’ve been terribly inappropriate until recently. It was still inappropriate, but just in an ‘our families are going to kill us’ way, not in an ‘he’d go to jail kind of way’. I’d wanted Dr. Fletcher to claim me and take me since I even realized what that meant, and now that I was an adult, there was nothing standing in our way.
Well. There was a lot standing in our way. Dawn, for one thing. My best friend. She was Dr. Fletcher’s daughter. And my father for the other—Dr. Fletcher was Dad’s best friend. I had little doubt that if either of them knew the naughty, filthy things I wanted Dr. Fletcher to do to my body, they’d flip a shit.
There was also the whole… divorce thing. Dr. Fletcher had gotten divorced and since then he’d gone out with a lot of women, all of them far more sophisticated and experienced than I was. I was only twenty-one, and a virgin. Why waste my time with other men when I knew who I wanted, and I could wait for him to give me an amazing orgasm? And I knew he was amazing at sex. I’d been keeping my ears and eyes open and I’d heard the rumors about his prowess, about how those surgeon’s hands weren’t just good on the operating table.
I was a girl who liked to have the best of everything, and I was a girl who knew what I wanted. So why settle? There wasn’t anything someone like Simon could offer that Dr. Fletcher couldn’t give me. He had experience, he was kind and caring, dedicating his life to helping others, and he was sex on a goddamn stick. I was sure I wasn’t the only one of Dawn’s friends who’d gotten a crush on her gorgeous father over the years, but I knew I’d be the only one to win his heart. I might not have been like the other women he’d dated, but I also knew that he’d been casual about all of them.
Not one of those women had gotten to meet his daughter. He’d had a brief fling with each of them, passionate, I was sure, and I shivered at the thought of what he did with them, how he made them whimper and scream, wringing pleasure from their bodies the way I was sure he’d wring pleasure from mine…
But they were all jus
t that: a fling. And I intended to be so much more.
I continued to dance to the music, looking around for him. I knew he was here. I’d asked him to come and watch, to support my first gig, and he’d agreed. I couldn’t have been imagining the heat in his eyes earlier, could I?
This was so forbidden, between our relationship with each other’s family and the age difference, but that fact only made it all the hotter. It turned me on to be so naughty, and I could only hope that he agreed with me.
If nothing else, I knew that he could be jealous. We’d been dancing around each other for a month now and I’d seen the look on his face when Simon would flirt with me. I might have played it up, just a little, just to get Dr. Fletcher to be ready to make a move. I wanted him to possess me, to make me his, so that I couldn’t even consider being with another man.
Heat filled me. I could practically feel his hands on my…
What the hell, there was a hand on me.
Some random drunk guy tried to grind up on me and I shoved him away. Fuck’s sake. I wasn’t here for some random frottage on the dance floor and even if I was, the least the guy could do was ask permission first.
I moved away, but the guy followed me. Shit. I looked around to see what I could do to get rid of him, and felt a pair of large hands slide around my hips.
I grit my teeth. This guy was about to get the slap of his life. I turned around, ready to cock my arm back—and found that it wasn’t the random guy at all.
“Dr. Fletcher,” I blurted out, my voice breathier than I’d intended.
God, he was so handsome. Tall and muscled, broad in the chest and shoulders, with biceps to die for. He had dark hair that was just long enough to imagine running my fingers through, and blue eyes that were so intense I always felt like I was a butterfly trapped by a pin when I looked into his gaze.
Daddy's Best Friend (Forbidden Temptations) Page 21