Page 30 of Silver Fox's Intern Dilemma

SOPHIA

When I knocked on Jack's door Friday night, I'd come ready to tell him about the baby. I'd been wrestling with it all week long, ever since Mom showed up at my apartment. I realized I couldn't very well tell my parents about me and Jack and the potential for my job being totally screwed up if I didn't first tell Jack about the baby. If he had an adverse reaction to it, it might change everything, leaving me with no job and no partner.

Jack opened and seemed grouchy. He let me in, but it was late, and I felt like I had interrupted something. He'd sent me home from work ordering me to rest and hydrate. The nausea and fatigue I'd been suffering were entirely from my pregnancy, which I had stopped trying to hide. Jack blamed it on stress and being overworked and never for a second mentioned any suspicions about it being a pregnancy.

"I thought we agreed you'd stay home and rest," he grumbled, and I got the feeling I wasn’t wanted there until Leah burst into the room and cheered. She ran straight toward me and wrapped her arms around my waist.

I hugged her back, and my internal resolve to give Jack the news was waning. "Hey, Leah, I didn't know you were here thisweekend." I glanced up at Jack, who waved a dismissive hand and shut the door.

"Daddy said you were sick. Are you feeling better?" she asked, and then she let me go.

I winced and smiled at her. This was going to be harder than I thought. The lies were out there, and I had to fix it right away, but with Jack's mood and the fact that he had Leah over, I wasn't sure tonight was still a good night.

"Go finish your dinner," he grumbled at Leah, who blew me a kiss and ran off.

I turned to him and frowned. "Are you okay, bud?" I reached for him, but he just took my hand and led me to the kitchen where Leah sat at the table eating.

"Dana and I had it out earlier. We can talk later.” Jack bustled around the kitchen cleaning up, so I helped him. It was late for dinner, which meant he'd been stressed or something. Leah was normally in bed by now, and Jack was usually relaxing and ready to lie down soon. I had hoped to catch him before sleep, and while I did do just that, I felt bad for interrupting his time with Leah.

"Alright, Leah. Go brush your teeth and I'll be there to tuck you in." Jack picked up her empty plate and juice cup, and Leah waved at me.

"I'm going to brush my teeth. Sophia, you can tuck me in too if you want." What I didn't expect was when Jack walked past me, Leah raced over and wrapped her arms around both of us at once. "This is my family, and I want to live with this family." Her cheery smile made my emotions get all tangled up.

"Leah, go on," Jack growled, and I didn't know if it was something she'd said or if she'd just been naughty earlier in the evening and this was hangover from that.

Leah raced off as happy as can be, and I took the plate from Jack's hand and walked to the sink. "What's going on?" I askedagain. It really wasn't the best night to tell him I was going to have his baby, but now that I was here and I noticed how upset he was, I couldn't leave him like this.

"Just…” He raked a hand through his hair. "Just go wait in my room?" His eyes were full of pain, not anger. I'd always heard that anger was a secondary emotion, and this just proved it. His grumpiness was because he was worried about something. I wondered if he'd put two and two together and realized I was keeping a secret.

"Of course," I told him as he walked out.

I rinsed the plates and loaded them into the dishwasher, then threw out the takeout containers. When I was done wiping the table down, I went to his bed and sat down. I could hear him reading Leah a book, and I heard her asking for me too, but he didn't call me in. I felt a little sad about that, but I had no idea what had happened to upset him. For all I knew, it was a punishment for her poor behavior.

But while I sat there eavesdropping, I also started to wonder if maybe Jack was just realizing that I was a bad idea. Maybe his little girl was getting too attached to me and he wasn't fond of that. If maybe having a happy little family didn't play into his plans for his life, and if maybe my being reluctant to go to HR about us had been the final straw.

I sat there wringing my hands waiting for him, and when he came in and lay down on the bed with a sour expression, I was afraid to talk. He rubbed his face and when he rested his hands on his chest, his eyes were shut. I waited, and I was glad I did. I'd have asked a dumb question about my worth to him or something, when none of this was about me—well, sort of.

"Dana knows about you."

"What?" I asked. At first, I didn't remember that his ex-wife's name was Dana, but he quickly reminded me.

"Yeah, Leah's been telling her how amazing you are." His eyes popped open and he rolled to his side. "She's furious.”

I narrowed my eyes in confusion and shrugged a shoulder. "So let her be mad?" I didn't understand why this was a big deal.

"She and I have mutual friends. If she starts asking around, someone is going to start snooping too. These are people I still work with, Sophia." He sighed hard, and I felt how frustrated he was. "If she asks them, and they know your first name is Sophia, it's only a matter of time before someone reports us to HR, someone who is loyal to Dana and not me."

"That's horrible." I felt so sad and I didn't know how to say anything that would make a difference. "She's just out to hurt you."

"It's been that way since she decided she wanted out. The other men, the lies, keeping Leah from me.” Jack pulled his pillow under his head and laid it down.

I wanted to make him feel better, but telling him there was yet another complication to this messy situation wasn't going to help. Tonight wasn't the night after all, and in fact, I was probably going to have to tell my parents everything before I let Jack know this secret.

"What can I do?" I asked, and I knew there was really nothing, but he reached for me.

"Stay with me." The way he pulled me toward himself until I was lying down, struggling to get my feet out from under me, was all the explanation I needed. I kicked my shoes off and pushed them off the bed and let him capture my lips in a kiss.

"Jack," I whispered, but he was too eager, too intent on sating his body with mine. I didn't mind, and in fact, I wanted him too. I just wished this were a celebration of our love and the fact that we were having a baby.

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