by Ella Brooke
It was Janis. The head of his HR department.
“Oh, my God.”
She turned to him and cocked an eyebrow. “Sleep well?”
“I cannot believe this.”
“Well, I had a pretty hard time believing I was in my boss’s home listening to him cry about his pregnant girlfriend,” Janis drawled. “But here I am, the morning after, fighting a personal espresso machine.”
“So we…” Grant gestured between them. “We didn’t?”
“God, no. I’m married, Grant. Now that I’ve seen you weep, I feel like we can be on a first name basis. Could you make me some coffee? I just got screamed at by your girlfriend, and I would really like some caffeine before I have to face this day.”
“Kit was here?” Grant came over and punched a few buttons on the machine. It whirred to life.
“She came by this morning to pick up a few things. I’m surprised it didn’t wake you up when she caught me sleeping in her bed. I thought Mama Bear was going to bite my head off and use it to feed your children.” Janis rubbed her temples. “Seriously, though, you two need to talk. Face to face, no yelling, no jumping to conclusions.”
“That was essentially the plan last night.” Grant reached in his pocket to find his phone nearly dead. He sent off a message quickly: “SO sorry for last night. Should have just let you explain everything. I’m horrible. Nothing happened with Janis. She just got me home. Pls forgive me. We need to talk.”
He stared at the screen hopelessly. Of course, she was ignoring it. She would either be on her way back to her apartment or on her way to work. Grant ran his hand over his mouth and shook his head slowly.
“What do I do?” he murmured.
“First,” Janis answered, “Let her set the rules for talking again. Give her whatever she needs. No woman wants to be talked to that way. You basically accused her of trapping you into marriage, or of what? Trying to pass some other guy’s baby off as yours?”
“I guess I thought it was possible that she was pregnant already when we got back together… It seemed more likely than her just sabotaging her birth control.”
“Maybe stop with the thinking and just try to be there for her. The concept of triplets is pretty huge. I was a nervous wreck when I found out I was pregnant with Molly, and that was just one in there.” Janis pulled her cup out and poured in a ton of creamer. “I cannot even imagine trying to process triplets. I don’t think I’d ever be over it…”
She dumped in some sugar and stirred three times before knocking back the scalding hot coffee. “God, I would reduce the pregnancy. No question.”
“What do you mean, reduce?” Grant got himself a cup and set the machine working again.
“Triplets can be risky. Doctors will often try to get the parents to consider ‘selective reduction,’ which basically means to go in and abort one or more of the fetuses based on which ones are most viable.”
Grant felt his insides turn watery. He hadn’t even been able to decide what he wanted, and Kit might make that decision before they could even talk.
“What if she decides to do that?” He hated his wobbling voice in that moment.
She just shook her head. “Then that’s what she decides. If she loves you as much as she seemed to, though I don’t know why she would, she’ll probably tell you before she does it. And if she does, try not to act like an asshole.”
Janis set her cup down in the sink. “I’m going to pretend last night didn’t happen once we get back to the office.”
“That would probably be best.” Grant took his coffee and stared into it.
Pregnant with triplets. That was going to be so hard for Kit. She absolutely loved coffee.
Never mind the fact that Grant had just realized that he absolutely loved her, and he would love her children whether they were his or not. He just needed her in his life, and he had to make this right.
Chapter Twelve
Kit
“Your options are more limited, unfortunately,” Dr. Ellis said, taking a seat near the examination table to talk to Kit. “I wish you had stayed to talk with me the other day before running off.”
“I wouldn’t have left right after my sonogram, but things are a little crazy at work right now. The verdict came in for one of my clients during the middle of it, and I couldn’t just wait around.” Kit folded her hands between her legs. “You just don’t do that. If the judge calls, you come.”
“That’s definitely something we’ll need to talk about sooner rather than later. Because multiple pregnancies are by default considered high risk, I would advise that you cut back on your hours at work right away. You may have to leave work altogether, unless you’re willing to talk about reducing down to two.”
Kit grimaced and rubbed her side. Over the past week, she realized that one of the reasons she hadn’t recognized her pregnancy for what it was lay with the fact she’d mistaken the feeling of her uterus expanding for menstrual cramps. With her mind assuming her period was on the way, she hadn’t gone looking for other explanations.
“I don’t want to do that. Not unless we’re looking at losing some of them.”
“That can happen with triplets,” Dr. Ellis warned. “You’ll definitely have to go on bedrest in a couple of months. The sooner you reduce your stress the better. And you can keep all of your children, but you just need to know that it will be risky. What does the father have to say?”
Kit paused, just for a moment. “He’s not an issue.”
It wasn’t entirely true. She’d seen his text messages and emails and had deleted every one. It was good that he was sorry. Better that he was suffering. But she couldn’t believe he’d jumped to such awful conclusions about her. Of all the reasons she’d hesitated to tell him, that he might think she was just some knocked-up gold-digger had not been one of them.
Grant’s over the top reaction answered a lot of questions for her, though. It told her whether or not they were going to last. It told her whether he was ready to be a father. She was just going to have to find a way to make this work on her own.
That evening, she drove out to visit her mother, who had kissed her forehead and then taken Kit’s face in her hands and looked on her as though she were goddess incarnate.
“I’m all right, Mom,” Kit protested when her mother took her arm to help her sit on the couch. “I’ll probably need help waddling around in about two months, but I’m fine now.”
“Indulge me. I’m about to be a grandmother.”
“Indulge me. I’m about to be a mother. Thrice.”
“God, I’m so sorry that people overheard me when I started talking to my friends at the hospital. It was an honest accident. I’m sure no one thought it would actually get back to you,” Catherine promised. She guided Kit forward so she could push a pillow behind her back.
“It’s not your fault. I don’t even fault whoever blabbed. It’s good to know that Grant can’t act like an adult,” Kit said bitterly.
“Men can be that way. I’m sure he was just shocked. And with that mother of his whispering in his ear…”
“He’s about to turn thirty, Mom. He’s too old to blame his mommy.” Kit leaned back into the pillows and rubbed her hand over her stomach. Nine weeks, and there was definitely something to feel already. She couldn’t imagine what nine months would look like. In fact, she deliberately pushed the thought out of her mind every time it tried to drift in.
“True enough. Would you like something to drink?” Catherine headed for the kitchen. “No coffee!”
“Tea, then. Do you have any St. John’s Wort?”
“Oh, God, no. That stuff interacts with everything.” Catherine reappeared and leaned in the doorframe. “You weren’t taking that, were you?”
“A supplement? No. I just drank the tea every night to help me sleep.”
“Sweetie, St. John’s Wort is known for interfering with a number of medications. It’s probably what rendered your birth control ineffective.”
Kit’
s lips parted slightly in shock. How had she not known that? “Is that true? Does it really do that?”
“I don’t think it’s an automatic cancellation of effects, but if you were drinking it every night…” Catherine shrugged. “It’ll be fine. You got those little sweet peas out of it. Consider it a happy accident.”
“For a happy accident, I’ve cried more in the past week than I have in most of my adult life.”
“That’s what happens when you deal with men, darling. I’ll make you some tea. But I would avoid the St. John’s Wort until the babies are born, hm?”
“I may never drink the damn stuff again,” Kit muttered.
***
After a lengthy vacation and several doctors’ appointments, Kit definitely felt the strain at work. Grant had apparently offered them a hefty fee for her services, which likely meant that the trip had largely worked out in their favor, even without Kit technically being available for billable hours.
Regardless, there was a general tension about her missed work. Buck had gotten two lunches from her, and yet continued to crack jokes about their special girl only being at work when she wanted to be.
Kit sat in the office meeting trying to discreetly stretch her legs. Meanwhile, Mr. Gable was in the middle of a speech about how their workers needed to be on the clock more and out for socializing less. She couldn’t help but feel like Buck had been in his uncle’s ear.
“I dunno about that,” Mr. Pines said jovially. “Sometimes just being a person with clients makes them a lot more interested in working with us. Most firms are just full of stuffed suits. It’s not like most people really like lawyers. They need to feel like they can trust us.”
“Regardless, as we discussed—” Gable eyed his partner. “—Make sure you are reporting all of your hours correctly. No one should be reporting social hours for work hours.”
“So to be clear, when we sent you to the fundraiser a few months ago—” Mr. Pines started, throwing a glance at Gable with a smile. “—You didn’t get paid for that, even though you were representing the firm. But if you take a client out to lunch… You still don’t get paid, but we’ll comp your meal.”
“Right. Billable hours mean time you can bill the client. Get those hours up.”
Kit squirmed in her seat. She needed to visit the ladies’ room, but there was no skirting out of a meeting just because her bladder was overly excited about this pregnancy thing. She glanced around the meeting table, and Buck gave her a broad wink.
“Now, we do have a couple of clients who need to be taken out to dinner,” Gable said. “I’ll need two associates to come along with me.”
Buck raised his hand. “Why don’t Kit and I help you with that? She’s excellent at schmoozing clients.”
Kit’s jaw clenched. She didn’t want to flat out say no, but how was she supposed to explain that she was too exhausted by the end of the day to go out and socialize with clients without explaining the pregnant with triplets thing?
“I don’t know if I’ll have the extra time for this,” Kit said cautiously. “Maybe we should consider whose specialty will work best. Make sure that they are getting to know associates who are likely to turn around and have billable hours with those clients.”
“Why wouldn’t you have time? Are you planning another trip?” Buck teased.
“Oh, can it. That trip did us a solid,” Pines said. “Wharton’s HR has been asking after Kit. We might continue to get some nice consultant fees out of this, even if we’re not ‘big’ enough to take over for the lawyers he has on retainer.”
“Consulting, sure. Also lying on the beach in a bikini,” Buck muttered.
Kit’s eyes widened, and she stared at Buck with her heart pounding wildly. “What?”
“Oh, everyone didn’t see that picture? Isn’t he more than a client?” Buck smirked.
Kit grew uncomfortably hot as everyone stared at her. What could she say?
“Enough, Buck,” Gable said. “She isn’t right for this assignment. Dave? Gayle? I think your specialties in corporate and real estate law will come in handy.”
Crisis averted. Or so she hoped. Kit still felt too warm, and by the end of the meeting, she skirted out to the ladies’ room not just to relieve herself, but to spend a few minutes catching her breath. It was like she was spending every day here stepping around land mines and trying not to think about Grant. Talking to her mother helped a lot, but every moment was a struggle.
She missed him. She missed his laugh, his boyish smile. She missed the smell of him, and the feel of his body next to hers.
God, great. Now she was horny. Pregnancy sucked.
When she emerged from the bathroom, she spotted Buck hovering by some of the cubicles. Swiftly, she ducked down the hallway and found herself at Mr. Pines’ door. She was about to turn around when the door opened, and the old man appeared with a laugh.
“Come on in, Kit. My office is always open for you.”
Kit’s heart began pounding faster again. She wished it would slow down. But she went inside and took a seat on his sofa when he indicated a seat.
“What’s on your mind, Kit?” Mr. Pines took a cup of coffee from the machine on his desk. “Would you like some coffee?”
More than I would like another lungful of air, Kit thought. Instead, she shook her head.
“Is Buck bothering you too much? He seems unnecessarily involved in your work here.”
“He’s always kept an eye on me.” She didn’t want to tattle on anyone to the senior partners.
Mr. Pines sat in the chair next to the sofa to give her space. “Yes. Especially pictures he found of you in Japan and forwarded to other people in the office.”
“Oh, God.” Kit covered her face. “Sir, I never meant to be inappropriate—”
“Aldous might be utterly blind to what happens with our associates, but I’m not so naïve. I could tell when Wharton came to plead for your presence that he wanted more than a consultant. If you got any work done on that trip, I would be impressed.”
Kit folded her hands in her lap. “We did more than I expected. Though I had a lot less to do with the work setting up the Japanese office and more to do with offering more benefit options to their contract workers.”
“Not bad. Plus, we got paid for your vacation.” Pines winked. “I don’t mind if you have a relationship with Wharton. It makes no difference to us since he’s not officially on our client lists, and I really doubt we’re big enough to curry his favor otherwise. Aldous might feel differently, but I don’t plan on talking to him about that.”
Kit let out a tense breath. “I’m glad to hear that.”
“I thought that might put you at ease. And I’ll advice the Gable boy to knock it the fuck off. He’s an HR nightmare right now. We’re lucky you haven’t made any sexual harassment complaints.”
“My dad always said that making complaints like that put a target on your back, so you’d better make them count.” Kit shrugged. “I thought I could handle it. He has been, um, needier than usual.”
“He feels threatened. He’s realized that he lost a woman he never had.” Pines smiled at her. “Don’t let him get to you. I know a good lawyer when I see one. I’ve got your back, kiddo.”
Kit remembered feeling the warmth she now felt in her chest a long time ago when she’d gone to her grandfather’s house to stay while her parents had worked. Like he’d take care of everything. Benjamin Pines wasn’t her grandfather, or even a friend. He was just a boss who cared.
It made her think about how much she wished she had that kind of support from Grant right now. She could survive without it, but…she didn’t want to have to.
Kit stood up then, planning to excuse herself before she burst into tears or spilled her secret in Mr. Pines’ lap. Then, just as quickly as she had stood, she fell to the floor and knocked the side of her head on Mr. Pines’ coffee table.
Chapter Thirteen
Grant
Although Grant knew he had to let Kit f
orgive him on her own terms, his patience started to wear thin after only a few days of separation from her. Yes, he’d screwed up. Yes, he should’ve listened. But cutting him off completely after one fight was going too far.
That was her prerogative, he supposed, to go too far, to overreact, to just stay angry and set their entire relationship on fire. He couldn’t apologize if she didn’t listen to him. And if they couldn’t make up, where did that leave her? Alone? A single mother? How could she possibly work under those circumstances? It would drive her crazy, not being able to put that cunning mind of hers to work.
She would be so unhappy. Grant couldn’t have that.
Still, he couldn’t get her to answer his calls or texts, and her office took the messages but she never replied. Since she probably wouldn’t react well if he just showed up, he’d even sent one of the SideHustlers, Dinesh, over with the mission of getting into the office and hand delivering a message to her, but the Hustler had returned unsuccessful. Dinesh had put the letter on her desk and looked around enough to tell Grant that she wasn’t in the office today, and she hadn’t been in the office for a couple of days at least.
That made Grant very worried. He left the building immediately and drove over to her apartment.
The doorman smiled at him, apparently recognizing Grant, although Grant didn’t recognize him. He had only come here a couple of times, honestly. He often picked her up from work, or a car did. Grant had come to her door for a couple of dates, but not spent much time in her apartment, although from his observation, it was a very smartly kept space. It had made sense at the time to let Kit have her own places to retreat to. He had never thought she would retreat permanently.
Once he reached her apartment, he knocked on the door. When there was no response, he tried a few more knocks before leaning back against the door and sighing heavily. A moment later, an older woman poked her head out of her apartment.