This Baby Business

by Heatherly Bell

  “What’s so nice about him?” Jill said.

  “He said hello and smiled.”

  It didn’t take much for Zoey.

  “I haven’t met the guy yet. Does he fall anywhere on the Chris Scale?” Jill asked.

  The Chris Scale was a complicated rating system based on all of the significant ones: Hemsworth, Pine, Evans, Pratt. Jill had created the scale and made frequent updates to it.

  “He is the high end,” Zoey said, holding her arms out about a foot apart.

  “Really?” Jill cocked her head at Carly. “He rates on the scale and you didn’t tell me?”

  “I would have, but I almost didn’t notice.” Carly shrugged and took another sip of her mocha.

  Both Jill and Zoey fixed her with dumbfounded stares. They were not buying it. Anyone who came close to the scale usually meant a phone call with all the details. The last significant Chris Scale sighting had been a guy Jill had spotted in San Francisco. Three years ago. Chris sightings didn’t come around every day. Hence the stares.

  “I’m sure once you explain everything, he’ll understand you weren’t thinking straight,” Zoey said with her positive attitude.

  Yeah, right.

  “And I bet he appreciates the fact that you were thinking outside the box,” Jill added helpfully.

  “That’s the thing. I didn’t think. I just went along with her mistake because it seemed easiest. Just like in New York, I always had the small ideas. Nothing wild and innovative. Just...derivative stuff.” The big fail in the Big Apple.

  Carly couldn’t take the stress. All the posturing and illusion. As soon as she sold RockYourBaby she would never exaggerate again.

  She still didn’t know what she’d do after selling her mother’s company, and held no small amount of envy that both Jill and Zoey knew exactly what they wanted out of their lives. What’s more, they were both firmly entrenched in pursuing their dreams. Reaching for it. But what did one do when plan A had been a bust? Where was plan B and how could she find it?

  “My break’s over.” Jill, her Rise and Shine and Have a Drip apron now tied on, walked toward the counter, hips swinging.

  “Obviously, I shouldn’t have been put in charge of RockYourBaby. But now that the blog post went viral, and the others are doing so well, we have our best chance to sell. What if I blow it before we can?”

  “You won’t blow it. Believe in yourself.”

  “You’re right. I’ve got this. It’s practically a done deal.”

  “That’s right. How’s your dad doing?”

  “Oh, you know. Not good.”

  “That’s okay. He’ll get better.” Zoey patted Carly’s hand.

  Yeah, and unicorns would fly.

  “What are you going to do after you sell the company?”

  Travel? Join the Peace Corps? Or go back to New York City the way her dad thought she should? Maybe it wasn’t too late to try again.

  “I don’t know. I’ll figure it out, just as soon as I sell RockYourBaby. It’s got me a little...stuck.”

  Even if she had a willing audience, she didn’t want to talk about all the humiliation she’d experienced, thanks to Alec. Reality had coldcocked her. Maybe she’d never fit into that world. A world in which a designer needed tough skin, because there were plenty of Alecs out there.

  But she wasn’t sure she belonged here in Fortune, either. Maybe it was copping out to stick close to home where everything seemed easier. Manageable.

  “You ever hear from that dude again?” Zoey asked, eyes narrowed.

  “You mean my teacher? Alec?”

  “Don’t know if you can still call him your teacher.” Zoey made air quotes.

  Probably not, since she’d made the colossal mistake of sleeping with him. Once. Because she’d been lonely, and he’d been kind. Encouraging. He’d loved her designs, really liked her. She thought she’d liked him, too. He was tall, dark-haired and incredibly charismatic, if not classically handsome. Full of the energy of the city. And for a while, he’d convinced her she had something special to offer the world. Her dyslexia had forced her to tap into her creative side. Surrounded by brothers who were academic overachievers for most of her life, it had finally been her time to shine. Be unique.

  Zoey grabbed both of Carly’s hands. “What happened wasn’t your fault.”

  “I know.”

  Carly couldn’t blame herself for being young and making a mistake. But she’d never completed the program, and that was her doing, not Alec’s. She shouldn’t have let him change her plans. Or allow his hurtful words to decide her future.

  “What do you want to do? Go back and finish your degree?” Zoey asked.

  “Maybe.”

  Finishing now would be one of the toughest things she’d ever had to do. Not doing so meant she’d let Alec have the final say. Sooner or later, maybe she’d be ready.

  But not today.

  CHAPTER ELEVEN

  LEVI WAS IN a hurry dropping off Grace the next morning, so he simply locked gazes with Carly. “We need to talk. Later.”

  She blushed, took Grace from him, nodded, then shut the door.

  His morning was spent with Jedd, helping him with diagnostics on a plane they’d recently sidelined. Later, Levi strolled inside the hangar to meet a client for a flying lesson. He topped off his morning by taking a couple daredevils skydiving over Napa Valley. To each their own. He’d never jump out of a perfectly good plane.

  Grabbing a quick lunch from the roach coach that dropped by every day, his thoughts turned to Carly again. Her cheeks had been flushed when they’d left the park after meeting Irene. She’d clearly been embarrassed and so he’d let it go, while reminding her frequently, via text, that they still had to talk about this situation. She wasn’t getting away from him. They were going to have to find a way out of this lie and save face with the Lanes. He didn’t want to pretend at anything, least of all a relationship. Besides, hadn’t she been the one to remind him that the two of them together was a stupid idea? Given the way she kissed him—like she wanted to inhale him—he didn’t necessarily agree, but he understood. He didn’t need to sign on to a serious relationship right now. He hated lies and wasn’t about to go along with this one.

  Levi caffeinated for the fourth time when he got back from lunch. He’d been awake at two in the morning again, but not because of a woman. There were good reasons to lose sleep, and then there was Grace. At the moment he was thinking about the very best reason to lose sleep—with Carly writhing under him or on top of him, crying out his name. She’d shift her hips to take him deeper, and his eyes would roll to the back of his head with the intense pleasure. Then she...

  “Look alive!”

  “Huh? Whaaa?” Levi turned to see Matt had sneaked up behind him.

  “That never would have worked pre-Grace. Still taking your power naps?”

  “Yeah.”

  Stone wouldn’t let him take any early-morning flights and forced him to take naps if he needed them. Even if he popped NoDoz and was hyped up on coffee, safety came first. For now, he was stuck with the later commuter-duty charter flights, and a flight lesson here or there.

  “Can you take my flight to Tahoe tomorrow afternoon? I want to leave early to take Sarah out to dinner in Santa Cruz. It’s a surprise.”

  “Sure.” It was like the freaking Love Boat around here, except with planes.

  “You could slow it down, old man.” Levi slapped Matt’s back. “I think you’ve landed her. She’s yours and all that. Hooked and reeled in.”

  “I’m gonna let that go, seeing as your grandfather used to own a bait and tackle.”

  “Seriously, though, you’re such an overachiever. You don’t have to wine and dine her every night.”

  “Says who?”

  “G
reat,” Levi said. “Just one more reason I can’t get married. Can’t afford it, for one thing.”

  “She isn’t my wife yet. Not going to lose her before she says ‘I do.’”

  “Not until you’ve got her tied up and shackled and thrown away the key, huh?” Levi winked.

  “Gonna let that one go, too. Know why?”

  “Why?”

  Matt gave an ear-to-ear grin. “I’m one happy-ass man.”

  Levi gave him a hard shove. “Get out of here, you freak.”

  Stone stuck his head out of his office. “If you ladies are ready, we’re having a meeting.”

  “Another meeting?” Levi moaned.

  “This one is about the fund-raiser Emily has been working on for months—Pilots and Paws.”

  It was an organization Stone and Emily loved and supported, so they all did what they could to help. Levi brought up the rear as all three filed into the office. Emily, Sarah, Jedd and Cassie were already seated. “What are we doing for this thing?”

  “We’re...washing dogs for a donation,” Stone said.

  “That’s easy enough,” Levi said.

  Stone winced. “We men have to do it with our shirts off.”

  Sarah clapped her hands. “Finally, a fund-raiser I can fully support.”

  “You’ll have to get in line,” Cassie said.

  “Don’t worry about shrinkage, either,” Emily said. “I checked the weather and we’re good.”

  “Screw the weather. I’m not taking my shirt off unless Emily and Sarah wear bathing suits,” Levi said.

  “Fair’s fair,” Jedd said.

  Levi sat through the meeting, led by Emily, who happened to be an event planner for her family’s ranch when she wasn’t flying for Magnum. Last-minute assignments were discussed and dispensed, since she’d already taken care of most everything. Levi wound up tasked with picking up pet product donations such as shampoo and the like, because he was single. Zoey, the owner of Pimp Your Pet in Fortune, was apparently also single and supercute according to Emily.

  Not that she was trying to fix him up or anything. Still, that reminded him that he had promised to call Lily to follow up. He wasn’t too excited about it, but he’d promised. One date. He could do one date. But this fake engagement Carly had roped him into might put a crimp in that. At some point, he figured, he’d have to settle down. Just like he had to go to the dentist every six months. Painful but necessary. Then when he got his itchy feet, as he expected he would any day now and want to move on, he’d have both Grace and a woman to remind him he was stuck. No reason to rush into anything. He and Grace had managed fine so far without a woman to direct their every move.

  He was insulted that Irene thought he had to be married to raise his child properly. To be trusted to do a good job. Anyone who believed that was stuck in the dark ages.

  Before his day was over, Levi donated some flying time to Pilots and Paws by transporting a rescue dog. The pup he flew home from the Fortune Valley Shelter to his forever family in Washington was a Chihuahua mix, so nervous he peed everywhere, even managing to squirt all over Levi’s hand.

  “Lucky for you, pup, I’m used to getting peed on.”

  He landed at the regional airport and unbuckled the nervous dog. “All right, c’mon...” He took a closer look at the collar around his neck. “Bentley? That’s your name? Man, I’m sorry. Maybe you’ll have better luck with these new people. People in California need to figure out how to name their dogs.”

  But when he got inside, an attendant told him that the people who were rescuing the dog hadn’t shown up. “Don’t know what to tell you.”

  Holding the shaking pup and praying he’d already unloaded all the water inside him, Levi dialed Magnum on his cell phone. Cassie picked up the phone, and after he explained what had happened, she handed the phone to Emily.

  Who was crying.

  “What the hell? What’s wrong?” Levi asked.

  “They changed their minds,” she sniffled. “Oh, poor little Bentley.”

  He glanced at the tiny face and swore the dog’s pupils were shaking. The whites of his eyes were showing. “You mean I flew all the fu—way here and now I have to bring him back?”

  “It happens sometimes. Just bring him home. We’ll figure something out.”

  He hung up. “Let’s go, Bent—You know what? Screw that prissy name. I’m going to call you Digger.”

  His grandfather had owned a dog named Digger. It wasn’t anything like this scrawny little thing Levi was afraid he might step on, but that dog had been a rescue, too. The only kind of dog his grandfather would ever own. Digger Sr. had been a retriever mix, a hunting dog that had never left his grandfather’s side. That was the kind of dog Levi would get once Grace was old enough. A dog he couldn’t risk stepping on in a million years.

  “The name’s a little badass for you, but I can’t call you Bentley.”

  Digger Jr. shook all the way back to Fortune. Peed all over the seat, too. Levi wiped it up like he did Grace’s spit-up. It was official now. He’d never cleaned up this many bodily fluids in his life, and he’d been through boot camp. The terrified pup was small enough to fit inside his jacket, so Levi stuck him in the front of his lightweight windbreaker and zipped it up. Maybe it was the additional warmth, but it cut back on the shaking a little.

  “Where’s the dog?” Emily met him at the entrance to the hangar. “Don’t tell me you left him there.”

  Levi zipped his jacket down enough to reveal Digger’s trembling head, eyes wide enough to pop out of his head.

  “Aw.” Emily smiled. “This is so great.”

  “What’s so great? The forever family didn’t show up to claim him. And you were crying.”

  “I know, but that was before.”

  Stone walked out of his inner office. “Would never believe this if I didn’t see it with my own eyes.”

  “What in the hell are you talking about? I thought you said this happens sometimes. The adoptions don’t always go through.”

  “He doesn’t get it.” Stone came up to Emily and pulled her in with one arm. “Explain it to the newbie.”

  “Well, Levi.” Emily stepped out of Stone’s arms and reached to pet Digger’s head. “You have just been adopted by Bentley.”

  “No way. And his name is Digger now. A Bentley is a car, not a dog. Am I the only one who understands this?”

  Emily turned to Stone. “I rest my case.”

  “Yeah.” Stone nodded. “You already named him, dude. Rookie mistake.”

  “No, no. Hold up.” He threw up his palms. “I can’t take him. I have a baby. Plus, this dog is nervous. And small. What if I accidentally step on him? Why do you think I put him in my jacket?”

  “I think it’s because you’re a big guy with a protective streak and you sense that Digger needs you,” Emily said.

  “Liar.” Levi ducked to find that Digger’s head had disappeared inside his jacket. “No. Can’t do it.”

  “Please, please.” Emily put her hands together, prayer-like. “Please, Levi. Please!”

  Shit. Levi glared at Stone, sending his brother in arms a telepathic message: save me before I kill you. Twice.

  “Don’t look at me.” Stone shrugged. “We have Winston. He’s a hairy fart machine. The way I look at it, you got lucky, Airman.”

  “Yeah, right.” Levi leveled Digger with an even, stern look. “This is just temporary.”

  CHAPTER TWELVE

  WHEN LEVI ARRIVED to pick Grace up in the afternoon, Carly watched from the front window as he pulled something furry and small out of his truck. Something that looked a lot like a dog. She swung the door open to let him in. Upon closer inspection, definitely a dog. The teacup Chihuahua shook, and its eyeballs took up half the tiny face. She’d have to guess the
pup was terrified by the looks of it, but to be honest, neither of them looked happy.

  “I’ll be right back. I need to get Digger situated before I come get Grace. Then we can talk.”

  Grace was still napping, as often seemed to be the case at pickup time, so Carly used the time to pace the kitchen and figure out what she would say to Levi. She needed the right words again, and as usual they were in short supply. He needed to understand that she’d done this for Grace. Not because she’d gotten carried away with all the kissing and the mind-blowing orgasm.

  I went along with it because I thought an engagement sounded better than simply hooking up. I couldn’t let her know I’m the nanny.

  I thought an engagement would signify commitment and a stable family life for Grace.

  You were the one who was late!

  Levi, I’ve been under a lot of stress. I might be having a nervous breakdown.

  No. She wasn’t going for the pity factor. She’d done this with the best of intentions. He would just have to understand.

  Levi returned within fifteen minutes and let himself in. Though she appreciated the white button-up Mcallister Charters shirt and black Dockers, she also enjoyed the way he filled out a plain cotton T-shirt. Hard not to notice the way his wide shoulders strained at the fabric. The well-worn jeans lying low on his hips were always a nice touch. And she didn’t hate the way he filled a room with his presence. With his alpha attitude and energy. He oozed male sexuality, and she wasn’t immune to that.

  Reality check. It was possible that she had a little crush on her next-door neighbor.

  “You owe me an explanation.”

  “Do you have a dog now?” He couldn’t think she’d ignore the creature she’d noticed in his arms.

  “It’s only temporary. The owners backed out of the adoption.” He dragged a hand through his hair.

  Another pet adoption fail. Zoey had rescued three of those and found them new homes in record time. Except for Boo, whom she couldn’t seem to find a home for yet, being that he was a one-hundred-plus-pound Great Dane.

  “I hope it works out,” Carly said.