The CEO's Baby Surprise. Helen Lacey
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need a break. So go home and get whatever’s bugging you out of your system and spend some time with Solana. You know you’ve always been her favorite.”
Daniel looked at his brother. Had he done that? Had he become an overzealous, critical jerk looking for fault in everything and everyone? And bored? Was that what he was? He did miss Solana. He hadn’t seen his grandmother since her birthday weekend. And it was excuse enough to see Mary-Jayne again—and get her out of his system once and for all.
He half smiled. “Okay.”
“Everything all right?”
Mary-Jayne nodded and looked up from the plate of food she’d been pretending to give way too much attention. “Fine.”
“Are you still feeling unwell?” Solana asked. “You never did tell me what the doctor said.”
“Just a twenty-four-hour bug,” she replied vaguely. “And I feel fine now.”
Solana didn’t look convinced. “You’re still pale. Is that ex-boyfriend of yours giving you grief?”
The ex-boyfriend. The one she’d made up to avoid any nosy questions about what was becoming her rapidly expanding middle. The ex-boyfriend she’d say was the father of her baby until she summoned the nerve to tell Solana she was carrying her grandson’s child. Raised to have a solid moral compass, she was torn between believing the father of her baby had a right to know, and the fear that telling him would change everything. She was carrying Solana’s great-grandchild. An Anderson heir. Nothing would be the same.
Of course, she had no illusions. Daniel Anderson was not a man looking for commitment or a family. Solana had told her enough about him, from his closed-off heart to his rumored no-strings relationships. He’d lost the love of his life and unborn child and had no interest in replacing, either.
Not that she was interested in him in that way. She didn’t like him at all. He was arrogant and opinionated and as cold as a Popsicle. Oh, she’d certainly been swept away that one night. But one night of hot and heavy sex didn’t make them anything.
Still...they’d made a baby together, and as prepared as she was to raise her child alone, common courtesy made it very clear to her that she had to tell him. And soon. Before Solana or anyone else worked out that she was pregnant.
She had another two weeks at the store before Audrey returned, and once that was done, Mary-Jayne intended returning to Crystal Point to regroup and figure out how to tell Daniel he was about to become a father.
“I’m going to miss you when you leave,” Solana said and smiled. “I’ve grown very fond of our talks.”
So had Mary-Jayne. She’d become increasingly attached to the other woman over the past few months, and they lunched together at least twice a week. And Solana had been incredibly supportive of her jewelry designing and had even offered to finance her work and help expand the range into several well-known stores around the country. Of course Mary-Jayne had declined the offer. Solana was a generous woman, but she’d never take advantage of their friendship in such a way...good business or not.
“We’ll keep in touch,” Mary-Jayne assured her and ignored the nausea scratching at her throat. Her appetite had been out of whack for weeks and the sick feeling still hadn’t abated even though she was into her second trimester. Her doctor told her not to worry about it and assured her that her appetite would return, and had put her on a series of vitamins. But most days the idea of food before three in the afternoon was unimaginable.
“Yes, we must,” Solana said warmly. “Knowing you has made me not miss Renee quite so much,” she said of her granddaughter, who resided in London. “Of course, I get to see Caleb while I’m here and Blake when I’m in San Francisco. And Daniel when he’s done looking after things and flying in between resorts. But sometimes I wish for those days when they were kids and not spread all over the world.” The older woman put down her cutlery and sighed. “Listen to me, babbling on, when you must miss your own family very much.”
“I do,” she admitted. “I’m really close to my sisters and brother and I miss my parents a lot.”
“Naturally.” Solana’s eyed sparkled. “Family is everything.”
Mary-Jayne swallowed the lump of emotion in her throat, like she’d done countless times over the past few months. Her hormones were running riot, and with her body behaving erratically, it was getting harder to keep her feelings under wraps. One thing she did know—she wanted her baby. As unplanned as it was, as challenging as it might be being a single mother, she had developed a strong and soul-reaching love for the child in her womb.
Family is everything...
It was. She knew that. She’d been raised by wonderful parents and loved her siblings dearly. Her baby would be enveloped in that love. She could go home, and Daniel need never know about her pregnancy. She’d considered it. Dreamed of it.
Except...
It would be wrong. Dishonest. And wholly unfair.
“I should very much like to visit your little town one day,” Solana said cheerfully.
Crystal Point. It was a tiny seaside community of eight hundred people. From the pristine beaches to the rich soil of the surrounding farmlands, it would always be home, no matter where life took her.
“I’d like that, too,” she said, and pushed her plate aside.
“Not hungry?” Solana asked, her keen light gray eyes watching everything she did.
Mary-Jayne shrugged. “Not really. But it is delicious,” she said of the warm mango salad on her plate. “I’m not much use in the kitchen, so our lunches are always a nice change from the grilled-cheese sandwich I’d usually have.”
Solana grinned. “Didn’t your mother teach you to cook?”
“She tried, but I was something of a tomboy when I was young and more interested in helping my dad in his workshop,” she explained.
“Well, those skills can come in handy, too.”
Mary-Jayne nodded. “For sure. I can fix a leaking tap and build a bookcase...but a cheese toastie is about my limit in the kitchen.”
“Well, you’ll just have to find yourself a husband who can cook,” Solana suggested, smiling broadly.
“I’m not really in the market for a husband.” Not since I got knocked up by your grandson...
Solana smiled. “Nonsense. Everyone is looking for a soul mate...even a girl as independent and free-spirited as you.”
Mary-Jayne nodded vaguely. Independent and free-spirited? It was exactly how she appeared to the world. And exactly how she liked it. But for the most part, it was a charade. A facade to fool everyone into thinking she had it all together—that she was strong and self-sufficient and happy-go-lucky. She’d left home at seventeen determined to prove she could make it on her own, and had spent ten years treading water in the hope no one noticed she was just getting by—both financially and emotionally. Her family loved her, no doubt about it. As the youngest child she was indulged and allowed to do whatever she liked, mostly without consequence. Her role as the lovable but unreliable flake in the Preston family had been set from a young age. While her older brother, Noah, took over the family business, perennial earth-mother Evie married young and pursued her art, and übersmart Grace headed for a career in New York before she returned to Australia to marry the man she loved.
But for Mary-Jayne there were no such expectations, and no traditional career. She’d gotten her first piercing at fourteen and had a tattoo by the time she was fifteen. When school was over she’d found a job as a cashier in a supermarket and a month later moved out of her parents’ home and into a partly furnished cottage three streets away. She’d packed whatever