Page 27 of This Baby Business
Irene was waiting. “You what?
I’m really interested in what you’re doing.
“We’re…together.” Oh, boy. I rubbed my ring. Open mouth, tell a lie. It had become like breathing. “So that’s why I post photos of her on the blog. I…obviously spend a lot of time with her.”
Irene stared at my ring and gave such a huge smile she looked happy enough to levitate. I sucked in a breath.Oh, god. No.I rubbed the ring harder, like maybe it could stop this from happening.
“You and Levi are engaged? Oh my goodness! This is incredible news. And I thought my little granddaughter was being raised by a playboy pilot. Sandy never talked about him to us, you know. I kind of think he was a—” she lowered her voice to a whisper “—one-night stand.”
I didn’t speak, since I’d done enough damage the last time I opened my mouth. But Irene seemed so pleased with the misunderstanding that suddenly I began to think maybe this wasn’tsucha horrible idea. I’d just take what I had and use it. To help Levi and Grace, too. And really, was there any harm in it? Irene would go back home and never be the wiser.
A little white lie that made them all look good.
But Levi, on the other hand… Most men would probably want to be given a heads-up on their impending marriage. Fake or otherwise. Just a guess.
Irene bounced a standing Grace on her lap. “I can’t tell you what a relief this is. I won’t worry anymore, knowing you’re going to be her stepmother. You’re Pearl Gilmore’s daughter. The baby whisperer. Oh, baby girl, it’s going to be all right. I couldn’t have picked anyone better myself. Wait until I tell my husband. He keeps saying we have to move here.”
“M-move here?” This could put a bit of a crimp in my plans. “Why?”
“He thinks if we’re closer, then we can better know whether Levi is raising her properly. Maybe even get some visitation rights. That’s what this visit is about. But we have other children and grandchildren, and I hate to be so far away.”
“Oh, well, you can just rest assured that I will take good care of Grace. No worries there. You can go back home and know all is well.”
Please. Please go back home. Now would be good.
“It’s far too expensive to live here.” Irene shook her head.
“Yes, yes. Last week someone sold a shack in Palo Alto for a million dollars.” Okay, another lie. But hey, it wasn’t far from the truth.
Irene’s lip curled in disgust.
Just then Levi’s green truck pulled into the parking lot. He climbed out and rushed toward them, a man on a mission. A man about to find out he’d become engaged in the past five minutes.
The questioned remained: Would he kill me now, or wait until we got home?
CHAPTER12
Levi
It had beena long time since Levi had been fifteen minutes late to anything, and he couldn’t even remember a time when it had mattered this much. Certainly not as much as it did today.
His morning began with two flight lessons, one with a sixty-something-year-old former AF man who’d never been a pilot but still thought he could tell Levi how he should fly a plane. Then he’d had three flight hops, two of them delayed because his passengers weren’t ready. Chartered flights didn’t run on a tight schedule because the customers with deep pockets paid for the delays. He wanted to talk to Stone about better scheduling—higher fees for this kind of stuff, or some way to discourage it from happening.
Now this, to top off his craptastic day.
He rushed to the two women seated at the picnic table.
“Hi, babe.” Carly sat across the table from Irene, who held Grace in her lap.
“Hey, guys, sorry I’m late.”
“No worries. I explained everything to Irene.” Carly smiled but didn’t meet his eyes.
“Congratulations! I just heard the big news,” Irene said.
“Big news?”
She winked at Carly. “Just like a man. Whatbig news, he says. Look, I’m sorry about this emergency custody hearing. I’ll tell Frank to back off. The whole thing was his idea, anyway.”
