“We love you, Kayla,” Shane and Courtney chorused on their way out.
“Get well soon, girly.” Piper squeezed her hand. “Because I’m going to spoil this kid rotten!”
Ethan was on his way back into the room to see Kayla when he found Noelle crouching in the corner of the emergency room. She looked a wreck. She had raccoon eyes from her mascara running and her eyes looked puffy. “Is Kayla okay?”
“Yes, she is. No thanks to you. What were you thinking, Noelle?”
“I wasn’t,” she replied, touching her chest. “I just wanted to talk to you in private.”
“Upstairs in my bedroom?” Ethan asked. “What did you think was going to happen?”
“Well, I…I guess I thought things were over between you and Kayla. I’d heard she’d moved home to her parents and I just thought… It was stupid…” Noelle’s voice trailed off.
Ethan glared at her. “You thought wrong, Noelle. Kayla and I had a fight, but despite it all, we love each other.”
“You love her?”
“Yes, which is why the Hypnotic campaign with Adams Cosmetics will be your last,” Ethan responded. “I can’t have you coming between Kayla and me. As CEO of Graham International and seeing as Adams Cosmetics is one of our subsidiaries, consider yourself fired.”
“But Ethan, the campaign is already underway.”
“And we will continue to use you for this fragrance, but not for any future fragrances.”
“Ethan, I know I shouldn’t have interfered in your marriage and I promise I won’t again, but you’re making a mistake. I am Hypnotic!” Noelle huffed. “You need me!”
Ethan grabbed Noelle by the arm, brought her over to a curtained area and pulled her inside. “You’re making a spectacle of yourself, Noelle, and I won’t have it.”
“I’m irreplaceable. I’m Noelle Warner, Academy Award-winning actress!”
“I know you have a high opinion of yourself, Noelle, but you are replaceable.”
“You will regret this!” Noelle said, splicing open the curtain and storming out. “I promise you. I will make you pay.”
Ethan returned to Kayla’s bedside just as the ob-gyn doctor was wheeling in the sonogram machine. They’d moved Kayla up to a private room and planned on keeping her overnight for observation. “Is everything okay?” He looked at Kayla and then back to the doctor.
“Hi, I’m Dr. Jones,” the doctor said, extending her hand, which Ethan shook. “I did a preliminary exam a few moments ago and everything appears fine. We’re just checking to make sure the baby is okay and to see how far along Kayla truly is.”
“It won’t hurt her, will it?” Ethan asked.
“No.” Dr. Jones shook her head as she lifted Kayla’s gown. “You’ll just feel some warm gel,” she said to Kayla, “and then just some slight pressure as I move the wand around.”
“Okay.” Kayla turned and faced the machine. She didn’t really feel anything, but when she saw the image on the screen, it took her breath away and she fell back against the pillows as the enormity of what was about to happen hit her. She was going to be a mother.
“I would say you’re about eight or nine weeks along,” Dr. Jones said, as she moved the wand. She pointed to the screen. “You see that tiny little speck? “That’s your baby.”
“Ohmigod!” Kayla was completely overwhelmed and she covered her mouth with her hand. “That’s my baby.” She pointed to the screen.
“It is, and he or she looks just fine.”
“Is it a boy or girl?” Kayla asked hopefully.
Dr. Jones smiled. “No, it’s way too early to tell, but rest assured you’ll be a momma eight months from now. When you get back home and rested, set up an appointment with your ob-gyn. You’ll need prenatal vitamins and I might suggest the What to Expect When You’re Expecting book. It’s great for new moms.”
“Thank you, Dr. Jones, for the advice,” Ethan responded.
Once the doctor had gone, Ethan knew it was time he and Kayla had that long overdue heart-to-heart. “Can we talk now?”
“I’m pretty much a captive audience hooked up to these machines, so there’s no time like the present,” Kayla said. “Why don’t I start first?”
“No, let me,” Ethan said, sliding over on the doctor’s stool until he was by her side.
“Why do you always have to run things?” Kayla asked, exasperated. “Why can’t you follow sometimes?”
“Because what I have to say can’t wait,” Ethan returned unapologetically. “I love you, Kayla Adams!”
“You love me?” Kayla couldn’t help but start laughing. “You have to be kidding me.”
Ethan paused. Kayla’s reaction wasn’t exactly the one he’d expected when he said those words for the first time in his life. And he had to admit, he was hurt. “Do you think I’m joking, Kayla? Because I’m not—I love you. I know I railroaded you into marrying me and I didn’t give you any time to think, but I just had to have you.”
“You mean you had to have Adams Cosmetics,” Kayla replied. “And what was I? Icing on the cake?”
“No.” Ethan shook his head. “It was nothing like that. Look, I admit I went about this marriage all wrong. And yes, I did want AC, but not at your expense. I’ve always wanted you. I think I knew it when you were seventeen, but you were too young, so I backed away, filling my life with other women and empty relationships because none of them were you. It’s why I’ve never been able to truly commit to another woman. You stole a piece of my heart when you fell off that horse when you were nine and never returned it. My heart is yours, Kayla.”
“And you expect me to believe you now just because I’m pregnant? After everything we’ve been through? After Noelle?”
“I’m sorry about Noelle and that your fight with her is the reason you and our child are in this bed, but I can promise you she won’t be a problem for us ever again. I’ve fired her.”
“Is that right?” Her voice dripped with sarcasm.
“I don’t like your tone, Kayla. Why are you so angry with me?”
“Oh, so I finally get to speak?”
“Jump right in.” Ethan stood up and paced the floor. “You obviously have something you want to get off your chest.” He knew he shouldn’t be upsetting her after a concussion, but he couldn’t understand her negative reaction to his declaration of love.
“I sure do,” Kayla said, pushing the pillows back so she could sit up. When Ethan made a move to help her, Kayla stopped him. “Don’t. I can do it myself.” She would have to learn, since she would have to take care of her and her child by herself.
“Okay, so speak.”
“You were relentless in your pursuit of me,” Kayla replied. “You were determined to make me admit that I was not immune to you physically. You kept hounding me until I gave in and I did. I couldn’t resist you. Why? Because I love you. I always have. And now we have a child together. And since I’m carrying our child, I have to look out for it, which is why this marriage is over.”
Ethan was perplexed. “How can you say you love me in one breath and say you want to divorce me in the other?”
“Because I saw you with Noelle, Ethan!” Kayla yelled back.
“Saw us? When? Where?” Ethan’s mind raced to remember a moment that he was alone with Noelle that Kayla could have misinterpreted.
“At the launch party,” Kayla replied bitterly. “I saw her in your arms, and that’s when I knew I’d been living a childhood fantasy, wanting my Prince Charming to love me back. I realized then that the fantasy wasn’t real and that I had to let it go.”
Understanding dawned on Ethan. That’s when he’d felt Kayla begin to distance herself from him. He’d known something wasn’t right but hadn’t been able to pinpoint it. “You have it all wrong, baby. Nothing was going on between me and Noelle.”
“I know what I saw.”
“Did you see me kiss her?”
Kayla searched her memory and he was right. She hadn’t seen them kiss, but that di
dn’t mean anything. “Well, no,” she huffed. If she had seen it, she would have bum rushed them. “But you were cheek to cheek. It could have happened after.”
“Noelle and I are not carrying on some lurid affair behind your back.”
“Then why was she in our house?” Kayla yelled.
“I don’t know,” Ethan responded honestly. “But I can assure you that Noelle and I are not an item. Matter of fact, check with Daniel, I’ve been a wreck without you. Hell, check with your father—he’ll tell you I told him I loved you.”
“I don’t know.” Kayla shook her head. Her head was swimming. Her father had encouraged her to save her marriage. Could she believe Ethan? Could she trust that what he was telling her was real and true?
“Kayla.” Ethan bent to his knees and grasped her hand in his. “I meant what I said. I love you. I’m sorry that I hijacked you into this marriage, but I love you and I don’t want to live my life without you, without him or her.” Ethan ran his hands across Kayla’s now-slender stomach. “Please tell me that you believe me. That you believe we can have a life together.”
“Ethan, we got started on the wrong foot in this relationship and have had so many misunderstandings, I don’t know if we have what it takes to make a marriage work.”
“We can if we try,” Ethan said. “No one said marriage was going to be easy, but we have the building blocks, Kayla.” He touched her cheek. “We have love.”
Kayla looked away.
“Don’t do that.” Ethan turned her head back to look at him. He needed to look deep in her brown eyes because he needed her to believe him. “Don’t turn away from me, from us, from love. You love me and I sure as hell love you. We belong together.”
“Maybe we do now,” Kayla said, “but with Adams Cosmetics always hanging over my head, we will never be equal.”
“Then it’s yours,” Ethan announced, standing up. “I’ll sign all the shares back over to you and your family right now.”
“You would do that?” Kayla asked, stunned by the lengths he would go to convince her of his love and devotion.
“Of course,” Ethan said. “I would do anything for you.” He reached for his phone and started dialing Daniel. If that’s what it took to convince Kayla, the mother of his child, that he loved her beyond a shadow of doubt, then that’s what he would do.
Kayla’s heart rejoiced, because it was in that moment that she knew Ethan loved and respected her. The fact that he would give her Adams Cosmetics without a second thought showed her just how much he loved her and the lengths he would go to to keep her. She reached across and grabbed the cell phone out of his hands. “I don’t need the entire company back—I just want half a share, so that we have an equal share with equal say in how we run the company, because this is a partnership.”
“That’s right. We’re partners in love,” Ethan said as he bent down and kissed her.
ISBN: 978-1-4592-8211-7
NEED YOU NOW
Copyright © 2011 by Yahrah Yisrael
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