Page 49 of This Baby Business
Like a bull about to charge, Levi made his way outside. But though he scanned the crowd three times, Mr. and Mrs. Lane were already gone.
“Too bad,” Matt said. “And I was ready to see some blood.”
“Shut up.” Levi found Grace with Emily and allowed himself to breathe again. At this point he shouldn’t put anything past Mr. Lane. “Everything okay here?”
“Perfect.” Emily sighed, eyes half-mast. She was in what Levi called her baby high. Seemed that babies were the drug of choice for some women. “I want one.”
“You can’t have this one.”
Emily blinked. “I’ll get my own, thanks. I’ve got Mr. Studly right over there and he loves to practice.”
Stone grinned at Emily from a distance, unaware that his bride-to-be was already plotting against his freedom. Poor sucker. Levi sure hoped he had a head start on a healthy savings account. At least he wouldn’t be blindsided.
“Where’s Carly?” He scanned the crowd again. Not a beautiful and self-conscious blonde in sight.
“She went home,” Emily said. “And by the way, when did you get engaged and why am I the last to know?”
CHAPTER20
Carly
After getting home, taking a shower and getting all the mud out of my hair, I forced myself to take care of some bookkeeping. But my mind kept going back to Levi in the office at Magnum Aviation.
I have plans for you. Not here.
Oh, I wanted to hear more about those plans. Considering I had arranged for his engagement without his knowledge, anything else that happened between us after that would have to be his idea. I’d already done enough. And worse, when my tongue had become disengaged from my brain and I’d told Irene we were engaged, I’d failed to consider any women Levi might be dating. What did that lapse in judgment say about me?
Maybe it said that the desperation I’d felt for so long about selling and getting my father some help had spilled over into all areas of my life. Little did Levi know when he’d brought Grace over here to ask for a favor that he’d be swept up into my plans and not the other way around.
But at last this baby business was thriving again after months of being dead in the water. So I didn’t need Levi and his hot kisses and orgasms right now, not even as a nice distraction. Even if, at the moment, a nice distraction and a little bit of fun wouldn’t kill me. But I didn’t need the kissing that made me feel awake for the first time since Mom’s death and Dad’s accident. The touches that made my legs weak enough to match my resolve. I didn’t know if I could stay away, but I had no business getting involved with a single dad.
For the first time in a while, New York was a little seed of an idea taking root. Maybe Dad was right and I hadn’t given it enough of a chance. Jenny was obviously still in the city, so I would know at least one person there. I’d checked, and Alec was no longer teaching at FIT—not that I should have let him stop me from enrolling again anyway.
But I did love Fortune. Loved the small-town mix of rural and suburban. The old working farms and vineyards that butted up against newer housing developments. The residents, nosy, but supportive of every worthy cause that came along. They were good people. I had history here. Good friends like Zoey and Jill. Life was simple here. Easy.
But maybe easy wasn’t what I needed.
Later that evening, I was in the middle of an episode in season two ofThe Fall, wondering if I should break out my sewing machine and work on a few more dresses for Grace instead of watching a show about a serial killer while alone, when I heard a rustling sound outside. I went to the door, going first by the kitchen to grab my sharpest butcher knife in one hand, cellphone in the other, thumb poised to dial nine-one-one. I peeked through the peephole.
Nothing.Paranoid much?
I went back to the kitchen to put the knife away, then grabbed a soda and stepped out into the autumn night. Even if the days had been unusually warm for October, nights were a wake-up call that we were smack-dab in the middle of fall. In another couple weeks, the weather pattern would shift and change. The clocks would be set back, and the days would shorten.
Taking a seat on the tiled porch step, I set my unopened soda can to the side. The night was dark and filled with stars, and the air carried with it a chill that gave me second thoughts about the long-sleeved cotton shirt I wore. I closed my eyes and pictured New York City. It would be much colder there now. No one walked outside without a sweater, least of all a native Californian. The sounds of sirens and traffic would fill the air, and neon lights would stay on all night long.
I jumped at the sound of a door closing and turned to see Levi. Hands shoved in the pockets of his jeans, he stared into the velvety black night. I turned in his direction, drawn to him with a pull I couldn’t ignore any more.
“Hey.” Levi crossed their shared lawn.
He sat next to me on the step, bumping into my thigh. Grinning, too, as if to make it clear it had been no accident. Not saying another word, he reached for my soda, opened the top, and handed it to me.
“Where’s Grace?”
“She’s with Cassie tonight.”
Oh, boy. That meant he had a free night. Wide-open. I wondered what he had planned for it and if there was any room for a fake fiancée in his short-term plans. We sat in silence of a few minutes, during which time I passed him the soda.
He took a swallow and handed it back to me. “Found out something. Mr. Lane lied to me. There’s no court date. I’m an idiot for letting them spook me the way they did. I know better.”
