It’s sweet he’s trying to distract me with happy thoughts. “I don’t know.”
“Okay,” he says, giving me a small grin.
“Everything is fine,” I say to reassure myself, giving my belly a little rub.
Ryder holds his hand up over my belly. “Can I?”
I slide my hands away, giving him access to my baby bump. He moves his hand closer, but doesn’t touch me. Ryder is not a small man. His hands could easily cover my belly, but he’s studying me like he’s searching for just the right way to touch me.
Placing my hands over his, I lower them to my skin. His hands are warm, and my toes curl, remembering what he can do with them. “I’m sorry,” he whispers. “I never thought you were lying.”
His words bring everything back. Way to ruin a moment! I pull my shirt down, forcing his hands away. “I guess I should be grateful you questioned paternity. Otherwise, I wouldn’t have known anything was wrong.”
“Kailey,” he says. “I’m trying to . . .” I move to get up, needing some space. He holds his arms out, stopping me. “Bed rest, remember?”
My eyes search the room, starting to panic. I’m trapped again—and this time, alone with him. I can’t even walk away and slam a door. “Where’s my phone?”
“That reminds me,” he says, reaching into his pocket and taking out his own phone. He pushes one button. It’s only about five seconds before he starts barking demands. “Maggie, I need you to get the ball rolling on that house.” There’s a bit of a pause before he continues. “I want to be in by the end of the week.”
“I told you I don’t want a house,” I say.
Without missing a beat, he tells Maggie, “Put the house in my name.”
“That’s not what I meant.”
He ignores my protest, and I can’t even stomp away. “I’ll fill you in when you get here, Maggie,” he says before hanging up.
“Where’s my phone?” I snap, looking around again. “I need my mom, my sister.”
He spots my phone on the dresser, getting up to retrieve it for me. “You have me,” he says, holding the phone out to me. “Remember that.”
“An hour ago, you weren’t sure this baby was yours,” I bark.
“Damn it,” he yells. “Try to understand. That kind of thing happens in my world. Maggie was being cautious when she brought it up to me. Protecting me. You have to understand that.”
“No, I don’t!” I scream.
The doctor opens the door back up. “Do I need to be more specific about what avoiding stress means?”
*
When you have money, things happen quickly. Ryder closed on the house within twenty-four hours—no inspection, no negotiations. He simply paid in cash, the full asking price—the bargain price of thirty million.
Yep, he paid thirty million dollars without flinching. That’s more money than I’ll make in my lifetime. Once that was done, he had a team of designers come in and help me pick out my bed, the linens. I haven’t even agreed to move there with him, but the four-post canopy bed says something different.
It’s been such a whirlwind of activity that I’ve hardly missed being upright. Currently, I’m lying on the sofa in the hotel. My whole family is headed this way. My parents want to meet Ryder, and I need to figure out who I’m going to burden with my pregnant butt. I know my family doesn’t think of it that way, but I’ve always been independent. This isn’t going to be easy.
I’ve also always been a private person, but it seems everyone knows my business, the state of my placenta. I think Maggie got the news first. I can’t quite figure her and Ryder out. They don’t seem like they’ve ever been involved sexually, but they’re definitely more than friends.
Maggie pulls out her phone, checking what’s left on her to-do list, I’m sure. It seems like she’s here all the time. “I’ve got interviews lined up to hire some staff for the house—a cook, maid,” she says, and Ryder groans. “I know you hate all that, but the house is big.”
“One person,” he says. “Maybe two. Not live in.”
“I know,” Maggie says.
I swear, it’s like I’m not even in the room with these two.
“But Kailey is going to need help when you’re gone with . . .” Maggie says.
“I’m going to take care of Kailey and our baby,” Ryder says firmly.
Maggie puts her phone down. “Ryder, you have commitments. It’s foolish to think you won’t need help.”
“Cancel everything,” he says, looking my way.
Great, he hasn’t forgotten I’m here.
“For how long?” Maggie asks.
“I don’t know,” he says. “The baby isn’t due until the end of January. The doctor said things could improve by then, but just to be careful, I’d say cancel everything until around three months after her due date.”
He looks at me for confirmation. I don’t give any.
“Ryder, that’s almost a year,” Maggie says. She doesn’t yell or raise her voice. She’s the coolest cucumber there is.
“So?”
Maggie looks down at me. “You have anything to offer here?” she questions.
“Oh,” I say. “I get to have an opinion? I mean, about something other than the thread count of my sheets?”
She cracks the faintest hint of a smile. “You just might be able to handle him.”
“No, thank you,” I say, smirking.
“You two done with the whole female bonding thing?” Ryder asks, rolling his eyes.
Maggie snaps back into work mode, debating the pros and cons of Ryder taking so much time off, how to handle it with the media, when to make the announcement that he will be a father, that I’m expecting.
I pick up my phone and Google his name again. I really don’t know much about him. His Wikipedia page tells me he’s from some small town in Colorado called Haven’s Point, both his parents are deceased, he never married, nor has he ever been engaged. In fact, the article doesn’t show him in any committed relationships. He’s won just about every award you can win in the music industry, but I don’t find much else.
Clicking off that page, I scroll further down. There are pictures of him doing charity work overseas, a few shots of him and his brother, but there are more pictures of him flipping the middle finger at reporters than anything else.
“Did you really punch a reporter?” I ask, interrupting him and Maggie.
“No,” he says.
“But this article says that you broke the guy’s nose,” I ask, startled.
“Ryder shoved him, the man fell, and broke his nose,” Maggie says like it’s a side note.
“Is that what really happened, or is that how you spun it?”
That gets their attention. “What are you looking at?” Ryder asks.
“I Googled you,” I say, refreshing the page.
“Well, stop,” he says, looking over at me, but I’m frozen. “Kailey?”
I can’t breathe.
“Kailey?” he says again, rushing to my side. “Are you in pain? The baby?”