Accidentally Expecting. Michelle Celmer
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back down. What did he think—he would kiss and she would melt?
Well, okay, maybe she had melted. That didn’t mean he could snap his fingers and tell her to jump and expect her to ask how high. Not in this lifetime. Not even if he asked politely. “It’s not going to happen, Zack. I don’t want to marry you, and I don’t think you want to marry me, either.”
“I want to be a part of my child’s life.”
“And you will be. We’ll work out a custody arrangement we can both live with.”
“Fatherhood doesn’t begin with the birth. I want the whole nine yards. I want to hear the heartbeat at doctor’s appointments. I want be there for the ultrasound. I want the baby to bond to the sound of my voice. It would be unfair to deny me that.”
He was right. This was as much his child as hers. But he was asking the impossible.
She took a seat at the kitchen table, suddenly feeling exhausted. She thought telling him would be a relief, that it would lift the weight that had been resting on her shoulders. Now she could see that it had only opened the door to more problems that would need solving before she got back to her life. “How can we do that? We live a thousand miles apart.”
“We have only one choice.” He pulled out the chair next to hers and spun it around, straddling the seat, his arms resting on the low back. It was tough to reconcile the memory of the relationship guru she’d sparred with on the radio, with the real man sitting there in jeans, a T-shirt and bare feet. He looked so normal.
“I’m all ears,” she said.
“One of us will have to relocate.”
Of course, that would be the logical solution. And she could just imagine which of them he expected to pull up roots and move halfway across the country.
But she was in the middle of writing a book. She had piles of research and reference books in her home office that she needed access to. She had an obstetrician she loved. There was simply no way she could uproot her entire life right now.
And she was sure that wasn’t what Mr. I-Want-To-Be-A-Part-Of-My-Child’s-Life wanted to hear.
“Since my lecture schedule will frequently be taking me on the road, anyway,” he continued, “it makes sense that I move to Texas.”
Huh?
She was too dumbfounded to speak. She must have heard him wrong.
“You would relocate to be close to me?” she said, to confirm exactly what he was saying.
“Temporarily, yes. At least until the baby is a few months old.”
No way it could be that simple. He had to have something up his sleeve. There had to be some sort of condition to go along with his seemingly generous offer. “What’s the catch?”
He shrugged. “No catch.”
She narrowed her eyes at him. “I’m supposed to believe that you’re willing to move across the country to be closer to me and you expect nothing in return?”
“Let me guess. Your ex-husband wasn’t so willing to compromise? Or was it an overbearing father?”
Both, actually, but that was none of his business.
She shot him a look. “Don’t shrink me.”
He reciprocated with one of those cocky, but not really cocky, looks. How did he do that? “I promise not to shrink you, if you promise not to make assumptions based on experiences you’ve had with men who aren’t me.”
Touché. She had to hand it to him, if nothing else he was direct. And fair.
“All I’m asking for, Miranda, is your time. I’d like us to get to know each other. You may be surprised to find that I’m not such a bad guy.”
Maybe that was what she was worried about. She didn’t want to know. She didn’t want to be tempted. Her husband had seemed like a nice guy, too, and look what a disaster that had turned out to be.
But it would be incredibly unfair to deny him the opportunity to be a part of her pregnancy due to her own feelings of insecurity and self-doubt.
Oh, great, now she was shrinking herself. And she was a lawyer for heaven’s sake!
“Where would you stay?” she asked.
“I’ll find a rental. Preferably one close to your place.”
Her practical side, the one that had lived for five years with a husband who kept her on a strict monthly allowance despite a lucrative law practice, cringed. “Won’t that be expensive?”
He shrugged, as if it didn’t matter either way. And why would it? The guy was an empire. He had produced a library of DVDs, written half a dozen books that had become instant bestsellers, and she could just imagine what he made on the lecture circuit filling countless auditoriums to capacity.
The area where she lived was comfortable, but not exactly upscale, which would probably be what he was looking for, but there were developments not far from her that would probably suit him. Complexes with penthouse apartments and luxury condos. And she was only a twenty-minute drive from downtown Dallas. He would definitely find something cushy enough there.
“I’m sure you could find something close by,” she said.
He reached behind him for the pad of paper and pen sitting next to the phone and handed them to her. “Write down your address and I’ll have my assistant look into it. I guess you should probably include your phone number while you’re at it. So I can reach you.”
She was having his baby, and he didn’t even know her phone number. This was too weird. The kind of thing she read about in books or saw on television dramas. This kind of thing wasn’t supposed to happen in real life. Especially not to her.
As she jotted the information down she wondered what the heck she was getting herself into. Everything was moving so fast, and felt so…final. She had been hoping he would want to be involved with the baby. Weekend visitation at best. But he wanted to be involved.
She didn’t know if she was ready for this.
She had considered not telling him about the baby, but she didn’t doubt her pregnancy would eventually reach the media. Zack was a smart guy. It would take only a very simple equation for him to determine the baby was his.
And for all her talk of being modern and independent, she still knew right from wrong.
Sure, she could raise the baby alone. She had the financial means. But to deny the child a relationship with its father, and vice versa, wouldn’t be right.
It was a moot point now. She was here and it was a done deal.
She handed the paper back to him. “What are we going to do about the media? I’m assuming you would prefer this not get out.”
“How do you feel about that?” he asked, sounding an awful lot like a shrink.
“I understand. I don’t expect you to jeopardize your reputation for the sake of my feelings. And I’m not exactly looking forward to the media attention, either. I won’t say anything if you don’t.”
“Deal,” he agreed.
“So, when are we talking? I’m guessing soon.”
“As soon as I’m able. When is your next doctor appointment?”
“Three weeks.”
He cursed under his breath. “I’ll be in California for ten days.”
“This early, you won’t be missing much.”
“Then I guess I’ll take the next couple of weeks to tie up some loose ends, and be in Texas after my California trip. That would be, what? Fourth week in June?”
A month