Quarterback Baby Daddy (A Secret Baby Sports Romance)

by Claire Adams

  “It’ll be fine,” Chloe said.

  “Okay, Okay.” I grabbed my car keys. “Just let me know if there’s any trouble.”

  “I will.” I knew I could trust Chloe, but I couldn’t get rid of the anxiety. I used to stay up at night wondering whether or not I should drive down there and make sure things were okay. I’d go over the books at two in the morning to be sure that everything was right. Then I’d go back to bed and have nightmares of gangs throwing bricks in the windows, or people battering down the back door to get to the safe. Everything in my life depended upon that one tiny shop. If it didn’t succeed, I’d be completely screwed.

  It was cold and wet outside, halfway between one rainstorm and another. Usually, I didn’t mind, but I forgot to bring a jacket that morning. I was shivering all the way back to my car. When I got in, I took a second and let my head fall back against the seat. If I kept this up, I was going to have to be institutionalized.

  The problem wasn’t the work. I could handle that, but having to worry every second of every day, it wasn’t healthy. But what other choice did I have? My worries kept me motivated. They woke me up in the morning and got me through the day. Without them, I’d have nothing.

  I started the car and checked my rearview mirror before backing out. Mr. Beetle was standing next to a light pole staring at me with a line of blueberry filling smeared across his cheek. What was he doing there? I’d wondered more than once whether or not the man was homeless. It was hard to see somebody like that without feeling a little bit of sympathy. He didn’t deserve the treatment that Chloe gave him. His life was hard enough. I decided to be nice and give him a quick wave before I pulled out. His eyes went wide, and he gave me a toothless grin. It was sweet.

  Chapter Three

  Archer

  When my twins were born, the world became a dangerous place, where something as simple as a staple or a penny could prove to be fatal. My protective instincts kicked in, and my neuroses went into overdrive. No matter what I did, I simply couldn’t rest easy unless I knew they were safe. It was illogical, and I knew it, but that was the reality of parenting. I always had that little voice in the back of my head telling me to rush in and make sure that they were okay.

  I couldn’t sleep in the room with them. I never would’ve gotten any sleep, so I bought the best security system I could find. Their nursery door and window had motion sensors and heat sensors that would set off an alarm if anyone came in there uninvited. Then, of course, I had several cameras put in so I could send the feed to the flat screen across from my bed. That way, I could wake up and see that they were okay.

  I had just gotten to sleep when I heard the scream pierce through the room. My eyes shot open. Somebody was hungry. I grabbed a bottle from the mini-fridge near the bed and took it to the nursery so I could see what was going on. Abel, the smaller of the two, was shrieking. He was red in the face, flailing around in his crib.

  “Come here.” I lifted Abel up and carried him into the hall. I couldn’t have him waking his brother, Andrew, up. He was staring up at me, his face scrunched up, like he was disappointed. “Hey.” I reached my hand out so he could take my finger. He slapped it away and threw his head back, wailing as loud as he could.

  I rocked him with one arm, back and forth slowly, then slipped the bottle between his lips. Abel grabbed onto it, thank God. He sucked on it for a moment, his eyes drooping. Then he let the bottle fall, and his eyes closed altogether.

  It should’ve been a relief, but it wasn’t. If I was careful and I didn’t make a single sound, there was a chance that I could get him back into his room without waking up his brother. I stayed as stiff as I could, careful not to move him too much, and took careful steps back to the nursery. When I crossed the threshold, Abel began to make soft noises of distress. He wiped his eyes.

  “No, no, no. It’s okay.”

  Abel erupted with a shrill scream. His brother, Andrew, joined in. I sighed and sat down on the rocking chair with Abel. I had tried to separate them once before. I figured it would allow them to have their own personal space, but they weren’t having it. They wanted to be together. So, they still continued to share a room.

  Andrew stopped crying after a few minutes. Then Abel closed his eyes and went back to sleep. I got up, as quietly as I could, to put him in his crib. Then my toe jammed against something, and it nearly pierced the skin. “Shit!”

  The boys both started screaming again. I brought Abel back out into the hall to put him to sleep. Once he settled down, I put him back in his crib, but then Andrew started crying, so I had to take him out. Once I got Andrew settled down and back in his crib, Abel started up again.

  It went back and forth like that for hours with no sign of improvement. Once I got one twin asleep, the other would wake his brother up.

  I finally set them both down with pacifiers and teddy bears and walked back into the hall to check my phone. It was five-thirty, which meant that I’d spent the entire night with the boys. I decided to call Mona.

  She answered. “I’ll be pulling up in a second.”

  “Thank God. I’m dying. The boys kept me up all night.”

  “Are they sleeping now?”

  I took a quick look inside. Abel was sitting up in the back of his crib holding onto his teddy bear, and Andrew was laying on his back reaching up toward his mobile. “No, they’re wide awake. But at least they’ve stopped crying.”

  “That’s all right. I’m pulling up now. I’ll get them to sleep.” She hung up.

  I went down to greet her. “I don’t know what I’d do without you; you know that?”

  “You’d find somebody else.” She took her jacket off and hung it on the coat rack.

  “No, you can’t be replaced. You’re part of the family.”

  I thought I caught her blushing. She started walking upstairs. The boys were both screaming when she came in. But as soon as she grabbed Abel, he stopped crying. His brother followed suit.

  “I don’t know how you do that.” I watched as she rocked him back and forth slowly in her arms, shushing him softly.

  “They need a woman’s touch.”

  A tinge of the old pain rose up inside me. I needed their mother there. I needed her so badly I couldn’t stand it. I tried not to think about Cara’s death. It just made things worse, but every time I saw Mona with the boys, it reminded me how much I missed her.

  Cara was so happy when she got pregnant. She’d always wanted a child, and she was going to have two. She made up the nursery and poured over baby books like they were scripture. She had dedicated her life to those boys. It made me feel guilty thinking about it. She died knowing that she would never get to hold the boys or sing to them the way a mother should. It was her biggest regret—and mine.

  Mona set Abel down. “You’re tired. I can tell. Can’t you take the day off?”

  “No, I should get going.” I checked my phone. I should’ve been out the door by now. Instead, I was standing around like an idiot staring at my nanny. If I didn’t get it together, I was going to have a terrible day, and nothing would get done.

  I shook myself out of my daze and finally tore myself away from the nursery. The boys would be fine with Mona. I just wished that I could do the things that she did with them. It bothered me all the way to work. Was there something about me that they didn’t like? Was it just the absence of a woman’s touch? Could they even sense something like that? They were infants. I should’ve been the one that they listened to, not Mona.

  When I got to the office, I decided to take the back entrance, hoping it would help me get past some of the staff members that were undoubtedly trying to hunt me down. I walked through the double doors and quickly ducked into the stairwell so I could call my receptionist without anyone seeing.

  “Hello?”

  “Hey, Ange, you think you could keep everyone away for a couple hours? I just need to relax and get things situated.”

  “Uh,” she said and laughed awkwardly.

 
“Come on. If you find a way, you can take an early lunch. The twins kept me up all night.”

  “Two lunches, and it’s a deal.”

  “Is it that bad?”

  “I got sixty-two messages for you in the past hour.”

  “Jesus,” I said and rested my head against the wall. “All right. You know my priorities. Move everything else out and clear me at least an hour.”

  “I think I can do that.”

  “And go get us something, coffee and donuts or whatever. Use your company card and get something for yourself.”

  “Thank you.” I could hear her smiling through the phone.

  “You’re very welcome, my dear.” I hung up and started walking up the stairs to the office. I wanted to have my own personal entrance and elevator so I could go up to my office without being seen, but the building was leased, and it came as is. There was nothing I could do about that.

  Fortunately, it looked like Angela had managed to clear out most of the reception area. That was progress. “Hello,” I said as I walked in and greeted her with a smile. She was on the phone with somebody.

  “I’d be more than willing to take a message for you.” She paused to listen and handed me a folder with my messages inside. “No, I’m sorry, but he’s not available right now.” She glared at me. “Well, you’re just gonna have to call back later, then. I’m sorry.”

  I walked into my office. There were matters that needed attending to, and I was already behind. I needed to have a clear head if I was going to manage a company, and that wasn’t going to happen if my phone was ringing every two seconds.

  I took some time at the computer to go over my messages slowly, glancing at the news every so often. Every one of the people that called me needed to be called back immediately, but some people were more important than others and quite a bit easier to talk to, so I went through the list in my own way, calling whoever I knew would give me the least amount of stress.

  There was a knock on the door when I was on the phone with the head of the maintenance department. “I’ll call you right back.” I hung up. “Come in.”

  It was Angela, carrying two bags of goodies and a coffee carrier with steam flowing off the top. “Here ya go.” She handed me one of the bags and a cup.

  “Thank you. I really needed this.”

  “Somebody from the testing department is here.” I looked over her shoulder to see Rick sitting in a chair smiling.

  “Send him in.”

  “You can come in now.” Angela walked back to her desk.

  “How are ya?” I asked when he walked in.

  “Good, good. Got a new optical display.” Rick took a seat.

  “The Hawkeye?”

  “Yep. Gonna go down and hook it up to Bessie this afternoon. You should come down and see it.”

  “God.” I leaned back in my chair. “I can barely think straight. I feel like I’m going to die.”

  “Is it the twins?”

  “Yes, and it’s the most infuriating thing. They keep waking each other up. Soon as I get one to sleep, the other starts going. They’re ganging up on me, and it’s pissing me off because they won’t listen to me. When I pick them up, they scream, but when the nanny picks them up, they go right to sleep.”

  “That’s because she’s a woman,” Rick said.

  “That’s what Mona said. I didn’t believe any of that crap at first, but now I’m starting to think there’s something to it.”

  “That’s why you need to get yourself a girl.”

  “It won’t work. As soon as they find out I have children, they run away.”

  “Okay, then forget about a woman for the kids. Get a woman for yourself. Have a little bit of fun. I’ll bet you haven’t gotten laid in months. Come to the club with me tomorrow night. You don’t have to go looking for wifey, but I’m sure you can get laid.”

  “It has been a long time.”

  “So?”

  “Yeah, I guess I’ll go.”

  “Nice.” Rick got up. “I’ll send you the feed from the optical display.”

  “Can you send me some of the specs, too?”

  “Course, man. I’ll catch you later.”

  When Rick left, I looked down at my phone list. There were fifteen more people I had to deal with, and that was just for this morning. I had no idea how I was going to get through the day, but at least I had a night at the club and the inevitable hookup to look forward to.

  Chapter Four

  Zoe

  I felt a warm band of sunshine across my cheek and smiled softly. Damn, that felt good. Then my eyes slammed open, and I shot out of bed. The sun was out, which meant I was late. Most of my business came from the morning coffee rush, which meant I had less than an hour to open up the shop if I wanted to make money today.

  After a quick shower, I walked into my bedroom to find my phone. It wasn’t in there, and it wasn’t in the bathroom, either, which meant that I’d have to go around searching the entire house for it.

  I needed to call Chloe. Since I was running late, she would be at the bakery before me. I’d given her an extra pair of keys for the shop, and I had to call her right away to make sure she had them with her this morning. That way, she could start prepping for the morning rush instead of waiting outside for me to show up.

  Everything would be fine if I could just find my damn phone. It wasn’t in the kitchen or the living room. I even looked through the couch cushions. If I didn’t hurry up and find that thing, I was going to be out fifteen hundred dollars, all because I slept in too long. That could not happen.

  “Ugh,” I groaned and walked back into the dining room. There was a lump sitting under a stack of sale papers in the middle of the table. I pushed the papers aside frantically. The phone was underneath them, and it had a full charge. I offered up a little prayer of gratitude. Finally, something was going right for me.

  I dialed Chloe’s number. There was no way she’d ignore my call, not now. It didn’t ring. Instead, a mechanical voice came on the line saying, “We’re sorry. The voicemail box you’ve reached hasn’t been setup yet. Goodbye.”

  “Where are you?” I texted Chloe and set my phone down to wait for a response while I finished getting ready. Then I walked back in to check my phone. Nothing. The screen was still blank. That meant that Chloe had slept in, too, and we were going to lose quite a bit of money this morning.

  I entertained the notion of taking the time out of Chloe’s pay. She deserved it. She’d been late twice in one week, but I couldn’t hurt her like that. We were both struggling together, and Chloe predated the bakery. We’d been friends since high school, so she deserved a lot more leeway than that. I decided to let it go. This was my fault, after all.

  I was the one who stayed up all night looking up recipes. I had the perfect apricot streusel recipe ready for that afternoon, but with all of the work I had to do, I probably wouldn’t get a chance to make it.

  I tried calling Chloe a couple more times while I was wading through traffic. There was no answer. She must’ve left her phone off of the charger all night. I was going to kill her and put her head on a stake in the kitchen with a sign that said, “Problem Employee.”

  This wasn’t just the morning coffee rush. Monday was our biggest day, when people finally climbed out of their hangovers and went back to work. They’d come in, stiff-faced and ravenous, and start barking orders. I was supposed to be helping them right now. Instead, I was six lights away, about ready to get out and walk.

  When I pulled in, I didn’t waste a single second. I hopped out of the car, opened the front gate, and walked to the back. Normally, I liked to get there early so I could take my time and make sure things looked nice. Food service was all about the ambiance. Nobody would eat here if it looked like a run-down cafeteria, so I took pride in the shop. I set out flowers and made sure cakes and pies were always on display. I wanted people to feel welcome here. I didn’t want them to just order their food and leave. I wanted them to stick around with their f
riends and talk over coffee and muffins, or sit in one of our booths with a newspaper all morning.

  I wanted Zoe’s to become a meeting spot, where couples would sit and eat together and where kids would go after school. Then people would remember it. It would become part of their daily routine, and they’d keep coming back for more.

  I needed that loyal customer base if I was going to maintain a steady stream of income for the bakery, but that kind of stability took time. Time I wasn’t sure I had. Most days, just keeping the lights on and the doors open seemed impossible. Everything with the shop hung by a thin, fragile thread, and every day was a struggle to keep it from breaking. There was no such thing as certainty in this business, no way of knowing what the next day would bring. I wasn’t comfortable with that.

  I kept hoping that something would happen. There would be a parade just outside the shop, or one of the chain stores would close. Then people would come rushing through the door all of a sudden, money in hand. But that was just a fantasy. Nobody was going to find out about my shop unless I found a way to tell them about it. That would take years of long, hard work. I could do the work. I just wasn’t sure I could keep the place open long enough.

  It wasn’t like my bakery was doing that badly. We were located downtown, right in the middle of the office district. This was prime real estate for a bakery like mine, and we did a decent amount of business. I just couldn’t stop worrying about everything. I tried to calm myself down and munch on a muffin while I waited for customers, but I just wound up staring at the door praying that somebody would come in.

  Every shadow that passed by was another potential customer, another reason to look around and make sure that everything was okay. I made sure there were no crumbs on the counter, and I wiped the tables down again, even though I knew they were already clean. Eventually, I was forced to admit that everything was perfect. I went back to the register and took a bite of my muffin. Some of the cream cheese icing came off and stuck to my top lip. I was searching for a napkin to wipe it away when a man wearing a business suit walked in.