Page 47 of Keeping Happily Ever After

Nick had collapsed into a rocking chair in the corner of the room. His head fell to his chest and he looked as if he were asleep. She padded across the room and bent a little, the baby still in her arms. She had to swallow her laughter when she saw that Nickwasfast asleep.

“Why don’t we let Daddy sleep for a few minutes?” Steph said to the baby as they slipped from the room. It wasn’t until she’d closed the door behind her and gone out to the living room that Steph realized she didn’t even know whether Nickwasthe father of baby Amelia.

Steph let Nick sleep for over an hour. When he finally emerged from the nursery, stretching his arms over his head, he looked remarkably better, but there was still room for improvement. Steph sent him to shower and change while she handled things with the baby, who had fallen asleep in her swing. She spent a few minutes tidying up the living room and kitchen, and when Nick rejoined her, finally looking far more like himself, there was a semblance of order to the room.

“Thank you, Steph. Really.” Nick joined her on the couch. “I swear, some days I don’t even know which way is up. This is all…well, it’s a lot.”

“I can imagine it is.” Steph crossed her legs and examined her friend. “So why are you doing it alone?”

It was the one question she couldn’t figure out. Nick was ridiculously wealthy. He and Damon Banks had developed some sort of microchip that had earned them each multiple millions of dollars. He could afford an entire staff to take care of Amelia. Or at least clean up the place.

He shrugged and said simply, “I don’t think children should be raised by nannies.”

“I don’t disagree with that,” Steph said carefully. She didn’t want to overstep. “But a little bit of help wouldn’t be a bad thing, Nick. You know you don’t have to do this alone, right?”

He shook his head but didn’t meet her eyes. “I really do appreciate you coming by, Steph. I know our relationship didn’t really go the way maybe I would have liked…”

He changed the subject so smoothly, Steph caught a glimpse of the Nick she’d met that summer in Glacier Falls. The lighthearted, carefree Nick who had liked to flirt with her. There was more than one person in Glacier Falls who’d thought maybe something would develop between the two of them. And maybe something would have. But he’d taken off so suddenly when Amelia arrived, there hadn’t been time to see where it could go.

“Why don’t you come spend some time in Glacier Falls? There are lots of people there who’d love to see you and the baby.”

He shook his head again. “I don’t know. It’s all so…well, can I be honest?”

“Please.”

“It’s embarrassing, Steph. When Lacy showed up like that at the wedding, it was mortifying.”

“Lacy? That’s Amelia’s mother?”

“No.” Nick shook his head again. “Lacy is Amelia’s aunt. Her mother…well, no one really knows where Jessica is. She kind of dumped the baby on her sister and took off.”

“That’s terrible.”

“Right?” Nick’s gaze fell on the sleeping baby and his eyes filled with love. “She doesn’t deserve that. To be abandoned by her mother like that. It’s not fair.”

Steph’s heart clenched. Nick had obviously been in so much pain, and he’d been dealing with it alone.

“I hired some investigators to track her down at first. But I called them off.”

“What? Why would you do that? You need to find her.”

“Do I?” He shrugged. “Jessica didn’t want her. Do I really need to bring her back into Amelia’s life when she didn’t want to be there in the first place? Why? Just so she can leave again?” He shook his head and crossed his arms. “No,” he said with resolution. “I won’t do that to her.”

“So you’re punishing yourself because of the sins of her mother? You’re not at fault, Nick. You didn’t even know you were a father, right?”

Something flashed across his face.

“What?” Steph pressed. “What aren’t you telling me?”

He took a deep breath and exhaled slowly. “That’s the thing,” he said after a moment. “I don’t think I am the father.”

Amelia chose that moment to wake up. She stretched her little arms over her head and fussed. Still shocked by his revelation, Steph stared, open-mouthed, as Nick jumped up to tend to the baby. Her shock dissolved into impressed warmth as she watched him with the baby. The love he had for Amelia oozed from him.

He cooed and tickled her cheeks until the baby was laughing.

It didn’t matter what he’d just revealed to her. Biological father or not, Nick was Amelia’s daddy.

She waited another few minutes longer until he had the baby settled into his arm with a bottle.

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