by Susan Meier
“Eventually.”
“Eventually? That woman has got to be at least six months pregnant! What are you going to do? Call Mom from the hospital and say, It’s a boy?”
“I’d like a boy.” He really would. Someone to teach everything he knew. Someone to inherit everything he’d worked for. Now that he was adjusting to being a dad, the thought filled him with a pleasure that was almost indescribable. If he and Avery weren’t the worst possible match, he might think this was fate. Destiny. A sign they were meant to be together.
Of course, though it might not be romantic fate, it still could be fate. Not a way to bring him and Avery together, but a way for him to have an heir.
“Are you even listening to anything I said!”
Forcing himself back to reality, he sighed. “Yes. I heard you. You think I should tell Mom.”
“Soon.”
“All right. Soon.”
But the more he thought about fate and heirs, the more he realized that he’d have to see Pete Waters again—at the corporate headquarters. Not Pete’s office. Avery Novak wasn’t just smart. She was sexy and unpredictable. And he’d already slipped and almost kissed her. He had to get the facts about his parental rights before he tangled with her again.
But he didn’t get the chance to summon Pete to his office. The first thing the next morning, his phone blew up with calls from his lawyer. There were thirteen messages that started at five, while Jake was in the shower, and kept going until Jake finally walked into his room and saw his phone blinking hysterically, as if Pete had continually hit Redial.
When the phone rang again, he answered. Pete didn’t even bother with hello. “Are you crazy?”
“I think we both know I’m not.”
“Then why is there a picture of you with Avery Novak in the society pages?” Pete’s voice rose. “Are you the father of Avery’s baby?”
Jake squeezed his eyes shut. “Yes.”
“Hell. When she told me she was pregnant, she said she had no intention of marrying her baby’s father. And she’s returning to Pennsylvania after the baby’s born.”
“Her leaving New York doesn’t have to be a big deal.”
“It will be to your mother!”
He knew that. But right now, he was more concerned with the picture of himself and pregnant Avery in the newspaper. He didn’t want his mom to see it and have a meltdown, especially when this was an easy fix.
“Okay. I’ll fly to Paris today instead of tomorrow and tell her.” He paused for a second to consider, but only a second. Avery was responsible for most of this mess. He wasn’t flying to Paris alone. “And consider this Avery’s official call that she’s taking the rest of the week off.”
“She can take the next month off because there’s no way in hell I can let her touch anything that even remotely relates to any of your cases. You do realize at some point you’ll be on opposite ends of a custody battle? The conflict of interest is off the charts if she even touches a file that relates to you or your family or your company.”
“I know that. But you have to give me a minute to catch my breath, Pete. She only told me on Monday. I’m just starting to wrap my head around the ramifications of all this. What I need from you right now is a summary of my rights and choices.”
“This is something I’d usually hand off to Avery.” He sighed deeply. “This is a mess.”
“It doesn’t have to be. We all just have to keep our heads and handle it.”
Pete sighed again. “I’ll assign someone to write your summary.”
“Good.”
“It’ll be waiting when you get back.”
“Email it to me.”
Jake hung up and phoned his driver then dressed quickly, but not in a suit. He pulled on casual pants and a sports shirt and covered them with a navy blue blazer. When he reached the street, the limo awaited him. Twenty minutes later, he was knocking on Avery’s door.
Wearing black slacks and a pretty peach-colored blouse that highlighted her long red hair, she opened the door.
When she saw him, she groaned. “If whatever you want takes more than two minutes, I’m going to be late for work.”
As she stepped back, he walked into her condo. “You don’t have to go to work today. Remember how you worried someone would see us yesterday?”
She crossed her arms on her chest.
“You were right. A reporter for the Gazette took a picture. We made the society pages. Baby bump and all.”
“Oh, no.” She sank onto one of her club chairs.
“My mother’s in Paris and I had planned on flying there for the weekend, but I told Pete we’d go today and tell my mom before she sees it online.”
She gaped at him. “You told my boss my baby is yours?”
“No. My lawyer saw the picture in the paper. He figured it out and called me.”
“And he’s sending me to Paris with you?”
“No. Having you go was my idea.”
She bounced out of the chair and grabbed her briefcase. “Then I’m not going! I have a job.”
He winced. “Well, you do but you’re off anything that has to do with McCallan, Inc.”
Her face fell. The briefcase slid to the floor.
“Pete says it’s conflict of interest since we could be on opposing sides of a custody battle.”
“There are still plenty of other things for me to work on. The firm has defense cases that don’t even nip the edge of any of your corporate work. Those are the ones I want anyway.”
“That’s for you and Pete to settle when we get back. Right now, we have to tell my mother about the baby. And before you argue, I’m not doing this alone. You kept this from me for six months. I’m sure you had your reasons. But the bottom line is, we are both this baby’s parents. If we want to make fair, equitable decisions for our child, that starts with us presenting a unified front right from the beginning.”
* * *
Avery stared at him for a few seconds. Though she wanted to argue, she saw his point. They did need to start being parents to their child. And she suddenly saw what her mom was talking about when she said they needed a step to begin trusting each other. If she did this for him now, that could begin a trend of cooperation.
Or maybe this could be the first step of their negotiations?
“I want to strike a deal.”
His eyes narrowed. “A deal?”
“I’ll go to Paris with you, if you agree not to use something in my dad’s past against me when we start talking custody.”
“Something your father did?”
“Do we have a deal or not?”
“Was he a serial killer?”
“Actually, he didn’t do anything wrong.” She winced. “That’s kind of the point.”
“He didn’t do anything wrong, but people thought he did.”
“Yes.”
“So, he was unjustly accused of something.”
“He was actually tried and convicted. He spent six years in prison. Then one of his coworkers confessed that he’d framed my dad. He also produced sufficient evidence that my father was innocent and eventually he was released.”
“Oh.”
She pointed at her watch. “Time is ticking away. If you don’t want the deal I need to go to work. My father is as innocent as a newborn baby. One of the nicest guys you would ever meet. It wouldn’t be fair for you to dredge it all up again. Worse, if you did, it would reflect poorly on you.”
“Yes. It would.” His head tilted. An odd expression flitted across his face. “So, the deal is you’ll go to Paris with me if I don’t bring up what happened to your dad.”
“Yes.”
“Okay.”
Relief washed through her. It wasn’t exactly the culmination of any of her plans, but she’d won a significant victory.
> “Good. Let me pack a few things and we can be on our way.”
She tossed a dress and enough jeans and T-shirts, undies and toiletries for a day or two into her scuffed-up duffel bag. As she slid the wide strap to her shoulder, she caught a glimpse of her reflection and grimaced. The thing looked as if it had gone through a war. Just like most of her personal possessions. She might live in a beautiful home in a great part of the city, but only because her condo had been an investment. When she returned to Pennsylvania, she would live in a small house in a small town. Most of her money would go toward her practice.
She’d always have enough to take good care of her child but he or she certainly wouldn’t live in the lap of luxury. Her condo and nice work clothes might have fooled Jake into thinking she had more than she did, but she wouldn’t be able to hide the truth forever. She was squarely in the middle class.
Her relief at her deal with Jake faded into nothing. Getting him to agree not to use her dad was a victory, but there were so many other things he could use. So many other ways he could keep her in New York, destroying the goal she’d been working toward since she was a teenager. Especially since she’d planned on her child going to public school, taking a bag lunch and riding the bus. None of this would sit well with the clan McCallan.
Jake had tons of things he could use about her life, about what she wanted to do with her life, to give him leverage.
She and Jake took the elevator to the lobby and walked onto the street. At six thirty, the city was beginning to show signs of life. Car tires made soft swishing noises as they drove through puddles left behind by the storm the night before. Streetlights flickered as the sky shifted to whitish gray.
Jake directed her to a black limo. The driver opened the door and she slid inside onto white leather seats. Jake slid in behind her.
The driver closed the door and Avery heard another door open and shut. The engine started. The limo began to move.
Jake smiled ruefully. “I rushed you so much. I’m not even sure you’ve had coffee yet.”
“Can’t have coffee, remember?” She glanced around, her tension mounting. A family accustomed to limos would not let their first grandchild ride a big yellow school bus.
He winced. “Sorry. I’ve got some juice stocked if you’d like that.”
She nodded. “Yes. Apple if you have it.”
He opened the door of what looked like a console table exposing three bottles of juice. All of them orange.
“You sure you don’t want orange juice?”
“It gives me heartburn.”
“Sorry. We can stop somewhere.”
“No. I’m fine. Let’s just get to the airport.”
Pulling his phone from his pants pocket, he said, “We’re not going to the airport. We use a private airstrip.” He hit a speed dial number. “And everything you need will be on the plane.”
The person he’d called must have answered because he said, “Andre? I need you to make sure there’s apple juice on the plane. And...” He caught her gaze. “Eggs for breakfast? Oatmeal? Box cereal? Bacon?”
Bacon? Her stomach growled. There was no sense in pretending she wasn’t hungry. “Bacon and eggs and rye toast would be great.”
“With apple juice?”
“With apple juice.”
They reached the airstrip in just a bit over an hour, and climbed onto the McCallan family’s private jet. She’d expected something compact and simple. Instead, she entered luxury so intense it magnified all her fears. The setup of the front space was more like a den than an airplane cabin.
Jake pointed to a door in the back of that section. “The kitchen is behind the first door and behind that are two small bedrooms.” He pressed a button and the cabinet doors eased apart to reveal a large-screen TV. “And that’s the TV.”
She swallowed. They hadn’t dated long enough for her to meet his mother or fly in his jet. His apartment and assortment of limos and drivers had been enough to scare her. Seeing the rest of his lifestyle sent another shock wave of reality through her.
If she thought she could control this situation with Jake, get him to visit their child in Pennsylvania, never bring her to his own home, in his jet or to the family’s three-story penthouse across from Central Park, she’d only been kidding herself.
And she was in way over her head.
CHAPTER FOUR
FOG PREVENTED THEM from leaving until nine. The cook made good use of the time by preparing breakfast and some sandwiches for lunch before he headed back to the city.
Jake watched in amusement as Avery ate like a starving woman. But he didn’t say anything. He was getting smarter about dealing with her. Negotiating had worked to get her to go to Paris with him to tell his mother about the baby. Though there was no way he’d have used her dad’s conviction against her—particularly since her father had been exonerated—finally having her tell him something personal was a significant first step.
So maybe they could use the eight-hour flight to talk some more, open some doors, make some more deals?
He settled in on the comfortable sofa, close enough to Avery that they could talk but not so close that he’d spook her. He’d be light, congenial, maybe get her to chat a little more about her dad so he could tell her he didn’t want to ride roughshod over her, just see his child. And they could figure this out.
But as soon as the fasten seatbelts light went out, Avery opened her briefcase.
“What are you doing?”
She glanced over at him, her stunning green eyes cautious. “Taking a few days off means I’ll fall behind. I can’t afford to fall behind.”
“If what I’m guessing about conflict of interest is true, your caseload just got a lot smaller. A few days off won’t matter. Why don’t you relax?”
“Because I need this job for another three months. I want to be able to show Pete he can still count on me. I’ll rest after the baby’s born.”
“I think you’re crazy. You should take advantage of the unexpected free time.”
She set her file on her lap. “Are you telling me you aren’t going to work at all in this very long flight?”
“I’m not.” But he should. Except he hadn’t thought to bring his briefcase. Even panicked about his mother, he should have remembered this nearly eight-hour flight and been prepared. But adrenaline over seeing Avery and coaxing her to go to Paris with him had pushed his job out of his head.
He couldn’t recall ever forgetting something so important because of a woman and peeked over at her. She’d removed her black blazer. The peachy color of her blouse enhanced the red of her hair. Her complexion glowed. She was gorgeous. And soft. Her pale, pale skin was probably the softest he’d ever touched.
The memory of it stirred his blood, scrambled his pulse.
So maybe he wasn’t in the best frame of mind to negotiate visitation?
He cleared his throat. “What are you working on?”
She didn’t even look up. “Haven’t you ever heard of client confidentiality?”
He shrugged. “I am your client.”
“You’re not this client.”
She fixed her attention on the papers in the file. Bored and deciding that watching the news was better than staring at the top of Avery’s head, Jake turned on the TV.
She glared at him. “Seriously. I’m trying to focus here. I’m sure there’s a television in one of those bedrooms of yours back there.”
There was. But he didn’t really want to watch anything. He wanted to talk to her. Even if he was a bit confused by her right now, he needed to figure this out. He didn’t like things hanging in the air. He wanted this solved.
An antsy sensation snaked along his skin. A memory of something his dad used to say. Desperate people make mistakes. Never go into a negotiation desperate.
He sucked in a breath. If there was
anything he hated worse than fearing he was like his father, it was realizing something his father said was actually true. The pregnancy had rattled him. Becoming a dad was equal parts frightening and exciting. The mother of his child was too different to second-guess her motives or plans. She was also gorgeous. And thinking about all that wasn’t helping.
He glanced at her briefcase and saw her silent laptop. He pointed at it. “Can I use that?”
She peered up again. “My laptop?”
“Yes.”
“You didn’t bring anything to do, did you?”
He sighed. “No. Foolishly, I thought we’d talk, remember?”
“I’m working.”
“So you’ve said.”
She took the laptop from her briefcase, opened it and started typing.
“Don’t pretend you need it just because I want to use it.”
She didn’t even look up. “I’m not pretending I need it. I’m creating a screen name for you, so you don’t have to use mine and won’t be able to see any of my documents.”
“I’m not interested in your documents.”
“You already asked about the case I’m working on. I don’t want to take a chance that your curiosity will get the better of you.”
“I’m not curious.”
Her fingers click, click, clicked across the keyboard. “I think you are.”
He gaped at her. How did she do that? Twist what he said and did into a completely wrong meaning? He swore sometimes she did it on purpose.
Or maybe she didn’t have any other frame of reference?
He knew very little about her background. She knew very little about his. Because they hadn’t really talked when they met up those ten times. They’d had better things to do.
She handed him the laptop.
“Thank you.”
“You’re welcome.” She turned her attention to her file again. “I’m guessing you have off-site storage and you can get into your files.”
“Yes.”
“Good.”
Her tone said she was already out of the conversation, but he still studied her. Realizing they fought because they didn’t understand each other wasn’t a great leap. The question was, did he want to do anything about it? He’d planned to negotiate with her, but if she refused to talk, the courts—and his superstar lawyers—would get him a good deal.