That Wild Night

It sounded shallow as he itemized it in his head, but it wasn’t.

He wanted the kind of good match that meant a lifetime of companionable, easy happiness. What his parents had up until the day five years ago when a heart attack took his father. The best man he’d ever know. The example Jeff had always hoped to live up to. Hell, he wished he was around to talk to about this.

Riding up to Olivia’s, he couldn’t help question what she would think when she looked at the woman he’d been with before her. The one who’d been his wake-up call about putting an end to the screwing around with women who weren’t right for him and thinking about getting serious with one who was. Settling down. Starting a family.

Olivia would see everything she wasn’t when she looked at Darcy.

And it would make her wonder.

Darcy had been a good time he hadn’t seen coming. And the only reason she’d gotten under his skin the way she had was because of the way she’d left.

So the chemistry between them had been hot enough that even months later, he could feel the lingering burn of it, so what? That was sex. Not exactly a foundation to build a solid forever on. But neither was it something he could, in good conscience, ignore when it came to a relationship with another woman.

“Hey, Mel. She in?” he asked, when he got to her office.

“She’s on a call. Should I interrupt?”

“No. I’ll wait.”

This was news he needed to tell her today and in person.

Sometime later, Jeff was searching stages of pregnancy on his phone, checking them against his calendar and travel commitments when Olivia’s office door swung open and she walked out to greet him with a welcoming smile.

“Jeffrey, what a wonderful surprise!”

“Got a few minutes for me?” he asked, unfolding from the deep sofa to lead her back into the office. And once there, he closed the door behind them. “Is it private in here?”

Olivia’s brow crumpled a bit at the question as she looked at the closed door behind him and then her neatly organized desk loaded with her current projects. “I was thinking you might be here to take me to lunch.” Her nose crinkled before reluctantly meeting his eyes again. “But are you here for something…else?”

A bark of laughter escaped him as he realized the direction of her thoughts. She’d thought he was here for some kind of afternoon desktop quickie. Yeah, now he got her confusion. It wasn’t exactly like that between them.

Shaking his head, he crossed to the cluster of club chairs across her office and held a hand out asking her to join him. “No, Olivia, I’m sorry. Something…unexpected has come up. We need to talk.”

A little furrow had cut between her delicate brows as she lowered herself into the chair across from him. “You’re worrying me, Jeffrey. What’s happened?”

Looking at her guileless face and earnest eyes, he wished there was some way to sugarcoat the bitter news he was about to give her. But it wouldn’t help either of them. “A couple of months before we met, I spent the night with a woman who came to my office today. She’s pregnant.”

Olivia sat stone still, her eyes gone wide. “Was there something between you?”

He opened his mouth to say no, but said instead, “It was one night.”

“Who is she? Would I know her? Is she the type to keep quiet? What does she want from you?”

“I doubt very much you know her, unless you’ve spent more time in Vegas than you let on.”

“She’s a stripper. Oh, God, Jeffrey, please tell me she isn’t a prostitute.”

“No!” He raked a hand back through his hair. “No, she was the waitress at a bar I was stuck at waiting for Connor the night he met Megan. I was killing time and one thing led to another.”

He didn’t like the sound of his explanation, but the deeper, expanded version of the truth wasn’t something Olivia needed to hear.

“You just found out? So, there hasn’t been any time for conclusive paternity testing, then. This baby might not even be yours. I mean, Jeffrey, one night with some Vegas cocktail girl three months ago. We don’t know anything yet.”

A part of him wanted to agree. Tell her she was probably right and to give him a few weeks to sort it out. Only she deserved the whole truth. “We’ll have the DNA testing done, but I already know this baby is mine.”

She didn’t ask for details but he could see the understanding in her eyes. The way the hope shifted toward disappointment.

She swallowed, withdrawing her hands from his to tuck them around her waist. “Are you going to marry her?”

Darcy’s emphatic pre-proposal rejection came to mind, pushing a wry smile to his mouth. “No.”

“Okay,” she said, nodding slowly before meeting his eyes with a steel he hadn’t encountered in hers before. “Then cut her a check.”

He stared hard at the woman seated across from him, the one he’d thought might be able to share his life. “To what, go away? Disappear?” He couldn’t even voice the next alternative he hoped to hell she wasn’t suggesting.

Something roared inside him, as a protective instinct churned hot in his gut. “It’s my child.”

“And we’ll raise it as ours,” she said quickly, taking his hands. “We’ll get married. Have a private adoption. We’ll craft an explanation to suit us both.”

Adoption. Of course, that’s where Olivia’s head would have gone first. Adoption and marriage. A neat package, except for the part where she’d completely discounted Darcy as a part of the equation beyond a dollar amount on a check.

“Jeffrey, we have something here. Something I’ve been waiting to find for a very long time. We could make this work.”

Offering Olivia’s hand a quick squeeze, he pushed up from his chair.

He needed to cut Olivia some slack. She’d jumped to the wrong conclusion, probably because the few details he’d parceled out pointed that way. She was trying to come up with a solution to a problem he’d dropped in front of them. It just wasn’t the right one.

Walking over to the bank of windows, he rubbed his hand over his jaw. Darcy was right. They all needed a little time to get their heads around this new development.

“Darcy doesn’t want to give the baby up. She was offering me an opportunity to be a part of its life. Not to…option it off. You don’t know her.”

Olivia sat back, watching him the way he watched guys from across the conference table. Reading their tells and all the things their faces and bodies said without their mouths having to. “And you do?”

“Only enough to say, she wasn’t here to give her child up.”

“Okay. Then we’ll take it from there.” She followed him across the office, laying her hand gently over his arm.

“Olivia, I don’t know what this next year is going to bring. I think it might be better for everyone if we—”

“No. I’m not going to give up on us because things aren’t exactly the way I thought they would be.” She met his eyes. “We’re so well suited. So right. All I’m asking is you give us a chance before making any decisions. Please.”

Jeff wrapped an arm around her shoulders. She felt stiff against him. Like an off fit in a way he’d never noticed before.

Which he supposed made sense, considering he’d just put something between them neither of them knew exactly how to deal with. Now the least he could do was grant her request and give them a chance.

CHAPTER SEVEN

“YOU GOT THE waitress pregnant?” Connor shook his head, rocking back on his bar stool as though the news had physically blown him over. “You’re sure? I mean, all the question marks…?”

Jeff nodded. “Had a DNA test pushed through, but even if I hadn’t—I’m sure.”

“A baby. How in the hell?”

At Jeff’s raised brow, the other man held up a staying hand.

“Don’t. I know how. Your dad did a bang-up job with the ‘talk’ back in high school. I just can’t believe—you—like this—now.” Then shooting him a concerned look, he asked, “Someone mentioned you were seeing Olivia Deveraux. That you two might be serious.”

“Before Darcy showed up at my office, I would have put money on a future with Olivia. But now.” Now, even two weeks later, he wasn’t any closer to knowing what their future held. Olivia hadn’t changed. “She wants it to work. Offered to marry me and adopt the baby.”

“Generous.”

“If Darcy were considering giving it up. But not for even a single second.”

He thought about her busting him looking at her narrow waist, and accusing him of trying to option her baby. Once again giving in to the reoccurring grin that stomped all over his face every time he thought about her outraged, accusing look, he held up his hands. “She’s going to be an amazing mother. You can see it.”

“Olivia?”

Jeff caught Connor’s stare and the subtle, unspoken question behind it. “Darcy. But, yeah, I’m sure Olivia would, too.”

Connor pushed his drink around in a neat square on the bar. “But you don’t see it with her?”

Worse, he wasn’t even sure he’d looked. Olivia had asked him to give them a chance and so far he hadn’t made the time to actually do it.

“I’ve been so focused on Darcy, there hasn’t been a lot of time for anyone or anything else. She’s living in San Francisco and I’ve been trying to talk her into moving down here. But she’s…stubborn. I think she intends to move, but not until the baby comes. She’s got a job and—” He shook his head. “And the job thing is a really big deal to her. But I’m not giving up. I want her here, like yesterday.”

“Am I missing something about the waiting tables thing? What the hell kind of job does she have that you can’t compete with it?”

Jeff rocked back in his chair and expelled a frustrated breath. “One she got for herself.”

Understanding lit Connor’s eyes. “She does know who you are, right?”

“She doesn’t care who I am.” He raked a hand through his hair. “She won’t take any money until the baby comes. And, damn it, she’s just very independent…and stubborn.”

Connor’s brows pulled together and his jaw cocked to one side.

Jeff scowled at him. “It’s not like that. Even if Olivia weren’t in the picture. We’ve already agreed, in no uncertain terms, neither of us is interested in picking things up from where we left them. What Darcy is to me is the most important person in the life of the most important person in mine. Our relationship is going to be about this kid and it’s got to work forever. Which means there’s too much at stake to risk any potential friction over some affair gone bad.”

And he knew from experience what the fallout from a failed relationship could cost.

Connor took a swallow of his drink. “Right. Definitely not worth the risk for an affair.”

Jeff stared at him. “I’m serious.”

A nod. “Okay.”

Oh, that burned. “Bite me.”

Connor grinned and flagged the bartender for the tab. “Sorry, my friend. Megan doesn’t share.”

* * *

The elevator doors opened at the eleventh floor and Jeff followed Olivia down the hall toward her apartment.

She cast a bright smile over her shoulder at him, her efficient steps eating up the distance to her door. “Thank you for dinner tonight. I know how busy you’ve been.”

That was Olivia. Not raking him over the coals. Sensitive to the situation he was in while letting him know she still enjoyed seeing him when the opportunity arose. He hadn’t meant for their relationship to fall by the wayside, but he’d been neglecting her for weeks. Working long hours and even through the couple of times he’d taken her out, he’d been distracted. There, but not really there. Because being with Olivia wasn’t enough to keep his mind from visiting all the places he didn’t want it to go. To Darcy.

To the space he was trying to give her, and how hard he was trying not to hate the space she already had. To wondering what she’d do if he pushed too hard.

It wasn’t fair. But Olivia had been so accommodating. Assuring him she understood. He shouldn’t put her off. He shouldn’t be able to.

And yet, as he walked behind her his mind kept drifting to another woman. How she was feeling? If anyone was making her laugh? If her belly was starting to show?

“You’re coming in?” Olivia asked at her door, putting the breaks on a train of thought threatening to go off the rails and pulling him back to the woman who ought to be holding his attention for the few hours they had together.

She was watching him expectantly. As if she knew, mentally he’d already dropped her at her door and was halfway back to the office. Where he’d have a fighting chance of losing himself in work.

“Olivia,” he started, catching her chin in the crook of his finger. “I’ve got a call scheduled with Hong Kong in three hours.”

She leaned a shoulder against the frame of the door and looked him over assessingly.

“Then you’ve got two and a half to spend with me.” Her fingers wrapped around his tie to tug him closer. “I know you’ve been waiting, not pushing the physical element of our relationship out of respect for me, but it’s time. You need a distraction, Jeff. Let me help you forget for a while.”

Respect. Maybe that was part of what had been holding him back. But to really respect her meant acknowledging that not taking the next physical step in their relationship had been far too easy. She deserved better than to be used as a distraction. And far, far better than a distraction he already knew wouldn’t work.

He’d tried to tell himself this was the woman for him. The perfect fit he’d imagined her to be when they first started seeing each other. Because she’d been so different from the one who’d walked away… But once Darcy stepped back into the picture he’d started making comparisons.

“Jeff, you said you’d give us a try. Can’t you please, come in and let me show you how it could be between us, if you let it?”

He hated the pleading in her eyes, hated knowing it was about to turn to hurt. But it was, because his hands had already moved to her shoulders, gently putting the space back between them. “I’m sorry, Olivia.”

* * *

Oh, no, not again.

Darcy sat at the folding table in the suddenly too warm back room of the party coordinating business where she’d been hired to inventory catering supplies, stuff envelopes, assemble favors, scoop birdseed satchels and anything else the overbooked business needed assistance with during their seasonal rush.

The pay wasn’t great, but she’d been lucky the manager of the restaurant where she’d been working had put in a good word with the owner to get her the temporary position. And at least she was maintaining an income, if somewhat reduced.

A few more weeks and the nausea would ease because it couldn’t get any worse. And once her stomach was back under control—

As if on cue, her belly lurched again.

“You okay?” her boss asked from the open doorway.

Darcy pushed to her feet, lifting a hand to let the older woman know she was fine. Except the shrinking edges of the room hazing into sepia tones warned she wasn’t.

She tried to get a hand back to the table, but too quickly everything went loose and dark and down until there was only one thought left in her head…and that was the silent plea that her baby be okay.

* * *

Darcy woke slowly, her senses coming back online one at a time as she registered the hard mattress of the hospital bed beneath her, the dimmed overhead light and the deep rumble of a voice she hadn’t been expecting. One which shouldn’t have been coming from anywhere near her.

Jeff.

“…Dehydration, fatigue, low blood pressure, weight loss… No, they say both she and the baby will be all right, but there’s no way in hell I’m leaving without—”

She shifted in the bed, remembering too late about the needle threaded into her vein and letting out a short gasp when she put weight on it.

Whatever Jeff had been about to say, she missed and now the conversation was over. Jeff was suddenly in her room, filling up the small space with his enormous presence. Dropping his phone into the inside pocket of his suit jacket, he crossed to her bed like he was going to slide into the open chair beside her. But instead, he reached for the call button and signaled the nurse before taking a step back. Fixing her with a serious look. “Do you need anything? How are you feeling?”

“Tired still, but, Jeff, you didn’t need to come. I told Charlie, they just wanted me to get some fluids and an antinaus—”

“You told me you were fine.” It wasn’t exactly accusation she was getting off him, but the intensity was like a palpable thing. “I spoke to your doctor already and hyperemesis gravidarum can be dangerous and severe. You are not fine, Darcy.”

Guilt washed over her in a wave. She’d thought it was just morning sickness in an all-day, extended package, which she’d heard was normal, too. Though she’d planned to speak to her doctor at her next checkup about the extremity of it, she’d had no idea her body had begun turning against her, threatening what she’d been struggling to protect.

“I didn’t know it had gotten so bad. I don’t own a scale so I didn’t know how much weight I’d lost. My clothes fit a little differently, loose, but I’d heard lots of people lose weight early on.” She felt a burning pressure at the backs of her eyes and blinked to defend against the emotions trying to slip free.

She was supposed to be the one who took her responsibilities seriously and made the right decisions. She was supposed to be able to count on herself. Her child’s life depended on it.

She swallowed and looked up at Jeff.

The man who was all laughter and easy good times hadn’t shown up at her bedside. This Jeff was serious. No-nonsense. And he was here because the woman responsible for protecting his child hadn’t even realized she was at risk of failing.

This Jeff had every reason for making an appearance. If the tables were turned, she’d be looking at him the same way.

“Jeff, I’m sorry.”

He nodded, but the look in his eyes was hard. “Here’s the deal, Darcy. I know you’re tough and I know you’re independent. But I’m uncomfortable with you alone like this. From what I understand, it was a fluke your boss happened to be walking by when you passed out. You work in isolation for hours at a stretch. Take public transportation home alone to the apartment you don’t share with anyone else. You don’t have anyone here looking out for you, so what I’m asking, is does it really make sense for you to still be up here?”

She looked down at her hands, at the plastic tube snaking its way up her arm, feeling more alone in that moment than she could ever remember feeling before.

“I’ve got a job here, Jeff.”

He stepped closer to the bed, and after a pause, dropped into the chair beside her. His hand moved to her belly and rested there for a beat. “You’ve got our baby in here. And he’s kicking your butt. Come back with me and I’ll take care of you. We’ll get through this together. You don’t have to be on your own.”

Darcy couldn’t take her eyes off the sight of his hand against her stomach, couldn’t think about anything but the heat radiating from his touch and how good it felt, when nothing had felt good, since the last time—the first time—he’d put his hands on her.

Which she couldn’t think about. Not like this. Not with him touching her in a way that was so totally not about her at all, but about the child they shared together. About his concern.

Jeff cleared his throat. “We could get married.”

Darcy stiffened. “We don’t even know each other.”

“I don’t mean permanently. Just until the baby is born, so he’d be legitimate.”

The breath leaked from her lungs, as she shook her head, trying to ignore that pinch of disappointment there was no justification for. “Legitimacy isn’t any reason to get married, Jeff.”

“I know. Forget it.” Jeff let out an impatient growl, pulled his hand away and then ran it through the mess of his hair going on as if he hadn’t dropped that bomb. “You’re determined to work?”

He couldn’t understand, but he needed to accept it. “Yes.”

“Fine.” He stood, stared down at the spot where his hand had been and nodded.

Then heading for the door, he looked back with a frown. “I actually know of a position that might be the perfect fit.”

CHAPTER EIGHT

“YOU LOW-DOWN, DIRTY liar,” Darcy accused, her color looking better than Jeff had seen it since Vegas.

Catching the finger she was jabbing into his chest with a gentle hand, he eased her back into the deep leather seat of the limo and clarified. “I never lied.”

Omitted, evaded and manipulated? Yes.

Definitely.

But he’d taken one look at her lying in that hospital bed, and decided the moral hit was one he’d gladly take to ensure he got Darcy out of San Francisco and down to L.A. where he could make certain she was getting what she needed.

“False pretenses, Jeff,” she hissed, her head working like a spindle as she shot nervous looks out one window after another as they rolled through the immaculately manicured upscale neighborhood of Beverly Hills.

“I told you, it was a part-time position as a personal assistant—”

“Oh, you told me all right,” she snapped. “Flexible hours, excellent benefits including room and board, assisting an elderly widow with her social and charitable obligations—”

Her words cut off with a squeak as they turned into a private community where security waved them through.

“Hey, I never said elderly. I said older. Which is true.” That’s all he needed. The wrath of both his pregnant non-girlfriend combined with the wrath of his—

“Your mother, Jeff!”

The key here was to remain calm. Not to reach over and haul Darcy into his lap and yell into her face about all the things he didn’t like about their situation. About his lack of say. And her stubborn mule streak and the fact that she wasn’t going to need a damn job for the rest of her damned life and why the hell wouldn’t she just take one of the damn checks he kept trying to give her.

So instead, he blew out a controlled breath and met her enraged stare. Turned up his palms and shrugged. “She needed an assistant.”

Okay, so his mother hadn’t actually needed the assistant until Jeff called her and told her she did. But then, she’d rather desperately started needing one. Had been downright giddy about it, truth be told.

“Oh, does she? Your mother is so very busy, so lonely and desperate for help, she needs a woman she doesn’t know moving into her home with her. A high school dropout, Jeff, who grew up in a beat-down trailer on the wrong side of the park. A Vegas cocktail waitress who went home with a virtual stranger, got knocked up and then—surprise!—showed up three months later. You think that’s the woman your mother needs assisting her with her charitable endeavors?”

Jeff stared, wondering who was in this car with him. Because the woman he’d met in Vegas, the one who’d shown up at his office, and he’d been talking to every few nights for the past few weeks knew her own worth and would never in a million years let anyone undervalue her the way she’d just undervalued herself.

He understood pregnancy hadn’t been a part of her plan, and he expected the loss of control for a woman who’d been all about the ironclad of it, had been a tough pill to swallow. He was certain it had shaken her confidence. But the words that had just come out of her mouth angered him.

“I don’t know who to be offended for first, my mother, myself, my kid or you. Look, I don’t come from a family of snobs. Yeah, we’ve got money and have had for a long time. But it doesn’t mean we don’t know the value of hard work, or respect people who’ve had to overcome challenges different than the ones we’ve faced. And here’s something else. My mother respects me. That I took you home the night I met you will tell her something about you, too.”