The Baby Proposal

by Andrea Laurence

  He almost couldn’t breathe from the intensity of their kiss, but he refused to back away from it. When her tongue glided along his lips and demanded entry, he gave in with a groan of need he couldn’t suppress. He drank her in, meeting her toe-to-toe with every move.

  Kal couldn’t remember the last time he’d been kissed with so much passion. Perhaps he never had. He’d suspected that his best friend was a bit of a firecracker in her relationships, but it wasn’t something he’d allowed much thought. Now, as her long, shaped nails dragged across his bare shoulders and her breasts pressed urgently against his chest, that was all he could think about.

  Every nerve lit up in his body like a neon sign. This was no slow-burning fire; it was an inferno that swept him up. He was hard and throbbing with need after only a kiss. Kal could feel his self-control slipping away with each flick of her tongue across his.

  If he didn’t take a step back, right now, they would consummate this marriage. Lana had been very clear that it was not her intention going into their wedding. It was supposed to be on paper only. They were on the verge of breaking that arrangement after only a few hours together.

  He finally ripped his mouth away and moved back out of her reach. They both lay still and panting for a few moments as they tried to process what had just happened between them.

  “I’m sorry,” Lana said after a few minutes. She sat up and covered her flushed face with her hands. “I don’t know what got into me just now.”

  “Don’t be sorry,” he said. “I wasn’t exactly fighting you off.” Even as he pulled away, he felt his desire for Lana drawing him back in. They needed some space apart. “I think that maybe tonight, I should sleep in the guest room.” Kal backed off the bed and picked his book up from the floor.

  “Kal, no. You don’t have to do that. This was all my fault just now. I shouldn’t have...” Her voice trailed off and she shook her head. “I’ll sleep in the guest room,” she offered. “I’m not going to drive you out of your own bed. That’s silly.”

  He held out his arm to stop her and took another step toward the door. “It’s your bed now too, Lana. Stay. I insist. I think I’m going to be up for a while anyway. I’m going to read for a few hours.”

  Lana’s face was lined with conflicting emotions. She didn’t want him to go, but they both knew it was probably for the best. There were too many emotions flying around after the day they’d had and what just happened between them was evidence of it all combusting at once. Tomorrow they needed to focus on meeting with the judge and getting guardianship of Akela. That required a good night’s sleep. At least for Lana. Kal doubted he would get that no matter where he slept tonight, but being apart would be better for now.

  She didn’t argue with him. He turned off the lamp by his bedside and backed away toward the bedroom door.

  “Good night, Mrs. Bishop.”

  Five

  Judge Kona eyed Lana and Kal as they stood together in front of the bench. She clutched Kal’s hand with all her might to keep from shaking. Her nerves were getting the best of her, even with Kal’s reassuring touch to steady her. It didn’t help that the judge was a very large and intimidating man with a bald head and heavy, dark eyebrows. His eyes were nearly black and seemed to look right through her.

  “Mr. Lyon, your attorney, has filed your motion for temporary guardianship of Akela Hale. It looks as though he has everything in order.” The judge’s sharp gaze dropped to the paperwork as he flipped through everything Dexter had submitted for them.

  “I do have a few questions for you. It says here that you are the owner of the Mau Loa Maui Hotel, Mr. Bishop. Is that correct?”

  “Yes, sir.”

  “You and Mrs. Bishop live on the premises?”

  “Yes, sir. I recently completed the construction of our home, which is on the property, but on the far side away from the hotel. It’s over three thousand square feet with a decorated nursery ready to bring Akela home.”

  Judge Kona nodded and looked at the paperwork again. “Mrs. Bishop, you are employed at the hotel as a choreographer. Will you be continuing to work?”

  Lana took a deep breath and hoped her answer was the right one. “Yes, sir, I will. However, it is a flexible position. We are interviewing caregivers to watch Akela in the home while we are both working instead of putting her in day care.”

  The judge made a note. “Very good. Now, my understanding is that you two are newlyweds. Bringing a child into the situation will seriously cramp your honeymoon phase. Have you taken that into consideration before making this decision?”

  “We have, Your Honor,” Kal answered. “We welcome the opportunity to make Akela part of our lives for as long as may be required.”

  “Mrs. Bishop,” Judge Kona said, the name still sounding foreign to her ears, “your sister agreed to a plea bargain yesterday. In exchange for her testimony against Mr. Keawe and his distributor, she is receiving a reduced sentence of two years’ probation and mandatory in-house drug and alcohol dependency treatment. If she completes the twenty-eight-day program successfully, she will be released and I will grant her custody of her daughter again. That means you will be her guardian for a minimum of that time.

  “If, however, she leaves the program, fails a mandatory drug test or otherwise breaks her probation requirements, she will go to jail for no less than a year. Are you and Mr. Bishop willing to take on your niece in the event that this arrangement is longer than planned?”

  “Absolutely, Your Honor.” Lana meant it. Kal might not be thrilled with his whole life being uprooted for a year or more, but she was willing to do whatever was necessary for Akela.

  Judge Kona’s dark gaze raked over the two of them one last time before he sorted through the paperwork and signed off on one of the pages. “Very well. Mr. and Mrs. Bishop, you hereby receive the temporary guardianship of your niece, Akela Hale. Social services will be making several unannounced visits to the home to ensure the child’s welfare and safety, in addition to making calls to your provided references. You may meet with the clerk to pick up Akela.”

  The sound of the gavel smacking the wooden desk echoed through the courtroom and Lana took her first deep breath in half an hour. In relief, she turned and wrapped her arms around Kal’s neck. “Thank you for this.”

  “You’re welcome. I knew everything would work out. Now let’s go get her.”

  Dexter escorted them out of the courtroom and they followed him down the hallway to the clerk’s office. She thought they might have to go pick Akela up wherever her foster family was living, but she found an older dark-haired woman sitting on a bench in the hallway holding her infant niece.

  “Akela!” she shouted, pulling away from Kal to run down the tile corridor to her niece.

  The baby was oblivious of what was happening around her, but the woman holding her looked up as Lana came closer and smiled. She stood, shifting the baby on her hip and swinging a diaper bag on her shoulder. “You must be her aunt,” she said.

  Lana nodded. “Yes.” She ached to hold her niece but didn’t want to tear her out of the woman’s arms. From the looks of Akela, the foster mother had taken excellent care of her. Her blue-and-white dress was clean and well fitting, her dark baby curls were combed and she wore a little white headband with a bow. The baby smiled when she saw Lana, her slobbery grin exposing her first bottom tooth.

  “I’m Jenny. I’ve been watching this little ray of sunshine the past few days. She’s very lucky to have family willing to jump through the hoops to take her in.”

  Dexter and Kal finally came up behind them. “Everything went as planned,” her lawyer said. “We’ve just got to sign some paperwork in the clerk’s office and you’ll be able to take Akela home.”

  The woman handed Lana the baby. “Your attorney has my number if you need to get in contact with me. I’ve only had Akela a few days, but I’ve cared for dozens of foster children over the years. If you have any questions about babies, feel free to call me. She’s been napp
ing about two in the afternoon. This one is teething, and it makes her a bit crabby, so good luck with that.”

  Lana cuddled her niece into her arms. She’d been worried about who had Akela, but the kind, soft-spoken woman put her fears to rest. “I may take you up on that,” she admitted. “I honestly know very little about babies, but that’s how most moms start out, right?”

  Jenny smiled brightly and patted her arm. “Absolutely. You’ll do just fine.” She placed the diaper bag over Lana’s shoulder. “Everything she had with her when social services picked her up is in that bag. There’s a bottle made up for her in the side pocket if she gets hungry before you get home.”

  “Thank you, Mrs. Paynter,” Dexter said before opening the clerk’s door and ushering Lana, Akela and Kal inside. There were discussions and forms and paperwork, but Lana couldn’t really focus on what was going on. Let her lawyer and her husband handle things. All she could think about was the baby in her arms. It hadn’t been the simplest process to get to this point, but it was worth it all.

  “How are you, baby girl?” she cooed in the voice she reserved for babies and animals.

  Akela got excited by the question, grinning and reaching up with her chubby baby fingers to grab a fistful of Lana’s hair.

  “Oh, ow,” Lana said, extracting her hair and brushing the rest of it over her other shoulder. Lesson one—keep the hair away if you want it to remain in your scalp.

  The men’s voices got louder and Lana knew they were wrapping things up. Lana gave a gummy kiss to Akela’s cheek until she squealed in delight and everyone’s attention in the room turned to them.

  “Well, okay, then,” Kal said with a smile. “I think that means it’s time to go home. What do you say, Miss Akela?”

  They all headed out to the parking lot together. They’d ridden over that morning in the new Lexus SUV he’d rented while they had the baby. Kal opened the door to the backseat, where they’d mounted the car seat.

  “Here you go,” Lana said, handing the baby over to him.

  There was a momentary flash of panic in his eyes as he held Akela and eyed the car seat with suspicion. “O-kay,” he said, quickly recovering. “Baby goes here,” he muttered aloud. “Snap this thing. Arm through there. Snap that thing. And then...” He looked around. “Done!”

  Lana let her gaze flicker over it for just a moment to ensure that he did it right, but it looked good to her. She didn’t exactly know how everything was supposed to be, either. She was the youngest child. Kal was the oldest, but just by a couple years. She doubted he did much to take care of Mano when he was an infant.

  They climbed into the front seat and started the car. “Well, we did it,” Kal said. “In just a few days, we managed to get married, move in together and gain guardianship of a baby.” He ran his fingers though his hair and sighed. “Now what?”

  That was a good question. To be honest, Lana hadn’t entirely thought the plan through to the conclusion. All she knew was that she needed her niece to be with her. Now that that was accomplished... “Now I guess we just start living like every other family in America.”

  Kal shook his head and pulled the SUV out of the parking lot. “I hope you know what that means, because I sure don’t. Do we need to stop at the store? What do six-month-olds eat? I ordered some formula at the baby store. Does she eat baby food yet?”

  Lana bit at her lip. “I don’t know.” She picked up the diaper bag and started sorting through the contents. She found a box of something called rice cereal, but it didn’t look like any kind of cereal she’d ever seen before. There were also a couple of small jars with pureed fruits and vegetables. “There’s some baby food in here. Enough to last us today and tomorrow until we figure out what she likes.”

  Now that the worry of getting guardianship was out of the way, Lana found herself blindsided by the fear that she had no clue what she was doing. “You didn’t happen to buy a baby book at the store, did you?”

  “No.” Kal turned to her with a wry smile. “You mean they don’t come with instruction manuals?”

  “I sincerely doubt that. Thank goodness for the internet.” She was Googling everything she could think of the moment they got in the car.

  “Well, I don’t know much about babies, but I do know one thing,” Kal said with a laugh. “We need to interview a nanny as soon as possible.”

  * * *

  Day one went better than Kal had expected. Lana hovered nervously over the baby between feedings and frantic readings on the internet. Kal, regrettably, had to leave her to put in a few hours at the hotel, but when he came home, the house wasn’t on fire, the baby was alive and Lana wasn’t drinking hard liquor, so it was a success in his book.

  He played on the floor with Akela for about an hour while Lana passed out on the couch, and then he and the baby did a test-run bath with the fancy baby bathtub he’d bought. He’d never seen anything like it before—it weighed the baby, reported the temperature of the water and had a nice place to lay the baby down where she couldn’t slip and slide around. Akela had a great time splashing around in the water. He wasn’t sure how clean she actually got, but it had to be worth something to at least sit in soapy water for a while.

  When he was done, he wrapped her in a towel, put on a clean diaper, then slipped her into some footie pajamas they’d bought at the store with little sheep on them. He put her into the baby swing in the kitchen with one of the bottles made up in the fridge and ordered dinner from room service to be couriered over for him and Lana. He might not be in the hotel, but he owned it and got what he wanted.

  When Akela finally fell asleep that night, Lana was right behind her. Kal grabbed his phone and took it into his office. He knew he needed to call his brother, Mano, and it couldn’t be put off any longer. Some of the hotel staff in Maui worked with the Oahu staff, and if word got back to Mano that Kal had married and had a baby girl, things would get blown way out of proportion.

  He was content to keep things quiet for now. He’d only listed his brother as a reference, so Mano was the only one who needed to know about the marriage. They’d successfully gotten custody, and if all went well, in a month Akela could return home and he and Lana could quietly divorce. If things stretched on...well, eventually he’d have to tell the rest of his family. Kal would cross that bridge when he got there, however.

  Closing his office door, he dialed up his brother and settled into the leather executive chair he’d chosen for the new house. He leaned back and propped his feet up on the corner of the desk. From there, he had a clear view out onto the lanai. The sun had long set on the golf course, but he could see the lights of the resort in the distance and a sailboat on the water with lights up the mast.

  “Hello?” his brother answered with a husky, sleepy voice.

  “Aloha, Mano. Did I wake you? It’s just past eight.”

  Mano chuckled and cleared his throat. “You know me, living the wild life. Paige and I fell asleep on the couch watching a movie.”

  “Watching a movie?” Mano was completely blind and had been for a decade.

  “Yes, well, she was watching it. I was just listening. Apparently it was boring even if you can see, and we nodded off. To what do we owe a phone call on this random Wednesday evening? I’ve barely heard from you since Tūtū Ani’s birthday party.”

  Kal snorted into the phone. “You’re turning into an old woman, Mano. Complaining I don’t call enough. Next you’ll be telling me I’m too thin and I need to eat, like Aunt Kini always does.”

  “That’s what domesticity does to you,” Mano said. “Paige and I spent all weekend house-hunting. We have an ultrasound next week where we find out if we’re having a boy or a girl. All that focus on home and family makes you look at things differently.”

  Kal certainly understood, although his brother didn’t know that yet. “How is Paige doing?” His brother’s fiancée was almost halfway through her pregnancy. She’d just moved from her home in San Diego to Oahu. Kal had yet to go to Oahu and
meet her, and he felt bad about that. Work had just gotten in the way, like it did with everything else. Now that he had a wife and child to worry about, he imagined it would get even harder to fit in time for things like that.

  What a strange thought to cross his mind so easily...a wife and child. The idea didn’t bother him as much as he thought it would. Of course, it was a fake marriage and someone else’s baby, but still, the words slipped into his vocabulary easier than he expected after years of resisting the idea of it.

  “She’s good. I think the move and all the excitement has worn her out. Her ankles swell up at night, so I’ve been rubbing them for her and ordering milk shakes from room service. She’s adequately spoiled.”

  “What are you going to do when you get a house and there is no room service?”

  “Takeout and delivery,” Mano answered without hesitation. “I do think we’ve found a house she likes, though. We’re going to put an offer in on it in the morning. It had amazing views.”

  “How would you know?” Kal and Mano had always tried to make light of his brother’s disability. He never wanted him to wallow in it, so their humor was dark where that was concerned.

  “It was in the listing, so it has to be true. Besides, Paige made a squealy, girlie sound when we walked out onto the deck. I figure it’s nice. The price tag definitely falls in the category of nice view, beach accessible.”

  “Well, let me know what happens. I’ll fly over to see it.”

  “Sounds good.” Mano hesitated on the line for a minute. “So what’s the call about? You rarely dial me up just to chat, big brother.”

  Mano was right. They didn’t spend a lot of time catching up on the minutiae of each other’s lives. “I’m calling because I have some pretty big news.”