The Baby Inheritance (Billionaires and Babies)

by Maureen Child

  “Oh,” her mother said, turning her head to kiss her husband’s cheek. “You are the sweetest man. For that, we can go to the London Imperial War Museum again.”

  Stan winked at Lilah, then grinned again. “I’ll let you two talk, then. Just don’t give up on the guy, okay, honey?”

  Sighing a little, Lilah promised and then when it was just her mother and her again, she said, “I’m glad you’ve got Stan.”

  “Me, too,” her mom answered. “Even when the ship docks in London and I’m dragged through that war museum again. But that’s something for you to remember, too. Your father was an amazing man and I was lucky to love him for all those years.” Smiling, she leaned toward the screen and said, “But, he was scared spitless to get married. He even broke up with me when it looked like we were getting serious.”

  Surprised, Lilah said, “You never told me that.”

  “You never needed to hear it before now. Forever is a big word and can shake even the strongest man. Your dad came around—but not until he got the chance to miss me.”

  Lilah thought about that and wondered.

  “If you need me all you have to do is say so, honey. I’ll catch the first flight out of Heathrow and catch up with Stan and the ship later.”

  Because her mother absolutely would throw her own life to the winds to support her daughter, Lilah realized again just how lucky she was. In spite of the turmoil in her life right at the moment, she had stability and love. And that was more than Reed had ever had.

  “Thanks, Mom. But I’m fine.” She straightened in her chair and nodded. “I’ve got the shop and my friends and…it’ll get better.”

  “It will,” her mother promised. “You are the best daughter ever and you deserve to have the kind of love that fairy tales are made of.”

  Tears stung her eyes but Lilah blinked them back.

  “I know this will all work out just the way it’s supposed to,” her mother continued. “And like Stan said, I wouldn’t give up hope yet. After some time to think and to really miss you, I’m willing to bet that Reed Hudson is going to realize that life without Lilah just isn’t worth living.”

  * * *

  Reed had made it through the longest month of his life.

  He wasn’t sure how, since thoughts of Lilah had haunted him day and night. I love you. Those three words had echoed over and over again in his mind. He heard her voice, saw her eyes and felt again his own instinctive withdrawal.

  I love you.

  No one had ever said that to him before. Not once in his whole damn life had Reed ever heard those words. And the first time he did, he threw them back in her face.

  “What the hell…” Scraping one hand across his face, Reed pushed everything but work out of his mind. He didn’t have any right to be focusing on his own life when someone was paying him to focus on his.

  “You okay?” Carson Duke asked in a whisper.

  “Yeah,” Reed assured him, “fine. Look, we’ll just get through the mediation and we’ll be back on track. The judge will keep everything on track, you and Tia will decide how you want things done and it’s over.”

  Nodding, Carson inhaled sharply, then exhaled the same way. “Gotta say, best thing about this mediation is seeing Tia. It feels like forever since I’ve been close to her.”

  Reed knew just how the other man felt. He hadn’t seen Lilah in a month and it felt like a year. It hadn’t helped that the kids were complaining, missing her as much as he was. Well, Micah was complaining, demanding that they go to Utah and get her, while Rosie just cried, as if she were inconsolable. Then there was Connie, who took every opportunity to sneer at him and mention how lonely the house felt without Lilah’s laughter.

  He was being punished for doing the right thing.

  How did that make sense?

  But if letting her go was the right thing, then why did it feel so wrong?

  “Tia.” Carson shot out of his chair and turned to face the woman walking into the room beside her lawyer, Teresa Albright.

  Reed knew Teresa well. She was a hell of an attorney and had always been a good friend. But today, her sleek red hair only reminded him of Lilah’s red-gold waves and he found he resented Teresa for even being there.

  “Carson,” Tia said as she stepped up to the table. The legendary singer had long black hair and big brown eyes. Those eyes as she looked at her husband were warm and her smile was tentative. “How are you?”

  “I’m all right,” Carson answered. “You?”

  Reed watched the byplay and could feel the tension in the room. Hell, Carson looked as if he was ready to launch himself across the table, and the way Tia was wringing her hands together made it seem she was doing everything she could to keep from reaching for him. Reed was relieved when the judge showed up and they were forced to take their seats.

  “Everyone here?” the judge asked as he walked into the meeting room at the courthouse and settled into the chair at the head of the table. At the nods he received in answer, the man said, “All right, let’s get this show on the road. Why don’t we start with the houses and work from there?”

  The Hollywood Hills house went to Tia and the lodge in Montana to Carson. No arguments slowed things down and Reed wondered why in the hell they were even there. The two people appeared to be willing to work together, so why hadn’t Tia just signed off on everything in the first place?

  “Concerning the Malibu house and its contents,” Teresa was saying, “my client wants Mr. Duke to retain possession.”

  “No,” Carson blurted out, glancing first at Reed, then to Tia. “You should have that place,” he said.

  “No, I want you to have it,” Tia argued.

  Both Teresa and Reed tried to shush their clients—it was rarely productive for the parties involved to get into conversations. Best to leave it to the attorneys. But this time, no one was listening.

  “You love that house,” Carson said softly.

  Tia nodded and bit her bottom lip. “I do, but you do, too. Carson, you built the brick barbecue on the terrace by hand. And you laid the stone terrace.”

  “We laid the stone terrace,” Carson reminded her, a half smile on his face. “Remember, we started out in the afternoon and refused to stop until it was finished?”

  Tia smiled, too, but her eyes were teary and the sunlight spearing in through the windows made those tears shine like diamonds. “I remember. We wouldn’t quit. We just kept going, and we finally laid that last stone at three in the morning.”

  “We celebrated with champagne,” Carson said softly.

  “Then we lay on the patio and watched a meteor shower until nearly dawn,” she said sadly.

  “Damn it, Tia, why are we even here?” Carson stood up and planted both hands on the table, leaning toward his wife. “I don’t want this. I want you.”

  “Carson…” Reed warned.

  “No.” He glanced at Reed, shook his head and looked back at the woman he didn’t want to lose. “I love you, Tia.”

  “What?” She stood up, too, in spite of Teresa’s hand at her elbow trying to tug her back into her seat.

  “I love you,” Carson repeated, louder this time. “Always have. Always will. I don’t know how the hell we got to this ugly little room—”

  “Hey,” the judge complained, “we just had the place redecorated.”

  “But we don’t belong here,” Carson said earnestly, ignoring everyone but his wife. “I made a promise to you. To love you and cherish you till the end of my life, and I don’t want to break that promise, Tia. Just like when we built that damn terrace, I don’t want us to quit.”

  “Me, either, Carson,” she said, smiling through the tears already spilling down her cheeks. “I never wanted this divorce. I’m not sure how this even happened, but I’ve missed you so much. I love you, Carson. I always will.”

  “Stay married to me, Tia.” He was talking faster now, as if his life depended on getting his words right, and maybe it did.

  “Yes. Oh,
yes.” Her smile brightened, her eyes sparkled in the overhead light.

  “Hell, let’s take a couple years off,” he said. “We’ll go to the lodge in Montana and lose ourselves. Maybe make some babies.”

  She grinned at him. “That sounds wonderful. I don’t want to lose you, Carson.”

  “Babe, you’re never going to lose me.” He slid across the table, swept his wife into his arms and pulled her in for a kiss that would have sent their fans into a deep sigh of satisfaction.

  Hell, even Reed felt as if he was watching a movie unfold. When the happy couple left the office a few minutes later after abject apologies for wasting their attorneys’ time, Reed thought about everything that had happened. He’d never before lost a divorce to marriage and he found himself hoping that Carson and Tia really could make their life together work.

  Carson had taken a chance, fought for what he wanted—and he’d won. Hell, Tia and Carson had both won.

  A promise. That’s what Carson had called his marriage vows. Giving your word to someone, promising to be faithful. To be there.

  As if an actual lightbulb flashed on in his brain, Reed suddenly understood. Marriage wasn’t a risk if you trusted the person you were going into it with. Giving your word, keeping it? Well, hell, Reed Hudson had never gone back on his word in his life. And he knew Lilah was the same.

  Love wasn’t the misery. It was the heart of a promise that could change a life.

  Now all he had to do was hope that the woman he wanted would be willing to listen.

  * * *

  Lilah’s Bouquet was doing a booming business. Her new shop manager, Eileen Cooper, was working out great and though Lilah still missed Spring, life marched on. Being able to count on Eileen, letting her move into the apartment over the shop, had actually helped Lilah get through—not over—Spring’s loss.

  Plus, burying herself in work had helped Lilah survive a different kind of loss. Her dreams of a happy-ever-after with Reed and the kids were gone and their absence created a dark, empty space inside her that ached almost continuously. So keeping busy also left her little time to wallow.

  The past month hadn’t been easy, but she’d made it through and every day she got that much closer to maybe someday finding a way to get over Reed. She laughed to herself at the idea. Good luck getting over someone you couldn’t stop thinking about, or dreaming about.

  She was even thinking of buying a new bed. One that didn’t have memories of sex with Reed imprinted into the fabric. Probably wouldn’t help, though, because the man was etched into her mind and heart permanently.

  “This is wonderful,” Sue Carpenter said, shattering Lilah’s thoughts, for which she was grateful. The woman hustling up to the counter held a soap and lotion set in one of Lilah’s newest scents. “Summer Wind? Beautiful name and I absolutely love the scent. Makes me feel like I’m at the beach!”

  “Thanks, Sue,” Lilah said, taking the woman’s things and ringing them up. “I really like it, too. Makes me think of summer.” And Laguna, and a house on the cliffs where everything she loved lived without her.

  “Well, it’s wonderful.” Sue had no idea that Lilah’s thoughts had just spun her into a well of self-pity. “Will you be making candles in that scent, too?”

  Lilah forced a smile. Sue was one of her best customers and a great source of publicity for the shop since she told everyone she met all about Lilah’s Bouquet. “You bet. I’ll have some ready for sale by next week.”

  “Then I’ll be back, but for now, I need a few of the lemon sage candles and might as well get three of the cinnamon, as well.” She grinned. “I like to give them to my buyers with the sale of a house.”

  “That’s so nice, thank you.” More publicity, since the name of Lilah’s store and the address were on the bottom of every candle. Once she had Sue’s purchases bagged, she said goodbye and walked over to help another woman choose the right soaps for her.

  “I just can’t make up my mind,” the woman said, letting her gaze sweep around the crowded shop. When she spotted something in particular, though, she murmured softly, “Never mind. I’ve decided. I’ll take one of those. To go.”

  Smiling, Lilah turned to see what the woman was looking at and actually felt her jaw drop. Reed was walking into her store, looking through the crowd, searching for her. When he spotted her, he smiled and a ball of heat dropped into the pit of her stomach. Lilah’s mouth went dry and her heartbeat jumped into a fast gallop. What was he doing here? What did it mean?

  Oh, God, she told herself, don’t read too much into this. Don’t pump your hope balloon so high that when it pops you crash back to earth in a broken heap.

  But he was walking toward her, sliding in and out of the dozen or so female customers as if he didn’t even see them. Lilah’s gaze was locked with his and for the first time since she’d met him, she couldn’t tell what he was thinking. That poker face he was so proud of was in full effect. But for the smile, his features were giving nothing away. So by the time he reached her, nerves were alive and skittering through her system.

  “God, you look good,” he said and the warmth in his voice set off tiny fires in her bloodstream. “Damn it, I missed you.”

  “I missed you, too,” she said softly, not even noticing when the woman she’d been assisting slowly melted away. It was as if there was no one else in the shop. Just the two of them.

  August sunshine made the store bright and she told herself that’s why her eyes were watering. Because she wouldn’t be foolish enough to cry and let Reed know how much it meant to see him again.

  “What’re you doing here?” she asked, when he only continued to stare down at her and smile.

  “I came for you,” he said simply.

  Somewhere close by, a woman sighed heavily.

  “Came for me?” Lilah asked. Did he think she’d go back to California with him just because she’d missed him so much her heart ached every day and night? She couldn’t. Wouldn’t. Loving him didn’t mean that she was willing to set aside who she was for the sake of being with him.

  “Reed…” She shook her head and tried to tamp down the oh-so-familiar ache in the center of her chest. “Nothing’s changed. I still can’t—”

  “I love you,” he said, gaze locked with hers.

  She swayed unsteadily. He loved her?

  “That’s a huge change for me, Lilah. I’ve never said those words before. Never wanted to.” His gaze moved over her before coming back to her eyes. “Now I never want to stop.”

  Lilah gasped and held her breath, half afraid to move and break whatever spell this was that had given her the one thing she had wanted most.

  He moved in closer, into her space, looming over her so that she had to tilt her head back to meet his eyes. Laying both hands on her shoulders, he held on tightly as if worried she might make a break for it. Lilah could have told him that even if she wanted to, she didn’t think her legs would carry her. As it was, she locked her knees to keep from dissolving into a puddle at his feet.

  “I’ve done a lot of thinking in the last month,” he said, scraping his hands up and down her arms to create a kind of friction that seemed to set her soul on fire. “In fact, all I’ve really done is think about you. And us. And how much I need you. The truth is, the house is empty without you in it.”

  “Oh, Reed,” she said on a soft sigh.

  “Noisy as hell and still empty,” he said, giving her a half smile that tugged at her heart and made her want to reach up and cup his face in her palms. But she didn’t. She needed to hear it all.

  “The kids miss you—”

  “I miss them, too,” she said, the pain she felt staining her words.

  “And Connie’s so furious with me she keeps burning dinner. On purpose.”

  Lilah laughed, though it sounded a little watery through the tears clogging her throat. “So they made you come?”

  “No,” he said, shaking his head and smiling at her as his gaze moved over her face like a caress. “N
obody makes me do anything. I came because I don’t want to live without you anymore, Lilah. I don’t think I can stand it.” His eyes burned, his features were tight with banked emotion. “And I finally realized that I don’t have to live without the woman I want. The woman I love.”

  “What are you saying?” Lilah’s question sounded breathless, anxious.

  “That I figured it out,” he said, tightening his hold on her. “A couple of days ago, I watched one of my clients back out of a divorce because he was willing to fight for what he wanted. And I realized that the problem isn’t that divorce is easy—it’s that marriage takes work. It takes two people who want it badly enough to fight for it.”

  “Reed—”

  “Not finished yet,” he said, his eyes boring into hers. “No one in my family is a hard worker, which explains the marital failures in the Hudson clan. But I do work hard and I never quit when I want something. I’m willing to do whatever it takes to make sure we succeed. The only thing I’m not willing to do is live without you. Not one more day, Lilah.”

  Her heart was pounding so hard, it was a wonder he couldn’t hear it. He was saying everything she’d dreamed of hearing. And as she looked into his eyes, she realized that now the decision was hers. He’d come to her. Told her he loved her—which she was still hugging close to her heart—and he wanted her. But uprooting her life wouldn’t be easy. Her business. Her home.

  As if he could read her mind, and hey, maybe today he could, he said, “You can open a new shop in Laguna. Or you can just keep this one and we’ll all come to Utah every month so you can stay on top of things. We’ll add on to your tiny house of course. But we all loved being here in the mountains. And we all love you. I love you.”

  She’d never get tired of hearing that, Lilah thought.

  He held on to her and pulled her a bit closer. “I swear to you, Lilah, I will be the husband you deserve.” His voice dropped to a husky rasp. “I will give you my word to be with you always. And I never break my word.”