Page 40 of The Billionaire's Accidental Daddy Duty
“I’ll make his bottle.” She headed for the door, then stopped mid-stride. “Feels like we fast-forwarded a few years there.”
I barked out a laugh. Very few women would’ve said yes to a single dad with a baby. But that was the thing I loved about Isla. She wasn’t afraid of anything. She said yes to us without a moment of hesitation.
“We kind of started on the opposite end, didn’t we?”
“When you ask the universe for something, be ready to receive what it sends you. It won’t always come in the way you’d expect.” She shrugged.
“In my defense, I never asked for a baby.”
“What did you ask for, Declan?” She stepped closer to me. When she did, Joey decided crying was the best way to get our attention. “Oh, bottle. Be right back.” She scurried out of the suite.
I crossed the threshold and picked up Joey from his crib. What did I ask for? Why would the law of synchronicity decide to send me a baby? Isla was off-base on this one. Sometimes shit happened. One broken condom and an ovulating woman didn’t mean anything.
When I returned to the bedroom, I found a bottle on the side table, but no Isla. I climbed in the bed with my son and sat him on my belly with his back resting on my thighs. Happy as can be, he wrapped his chubby fingers around the container and pretty much chugged the whole thing in under a minute. I remembered pulling off a similar stunt when I was in college—with beer instead of formula.
“It’s getting harder and harder to deny you’re mine.”
“You still want to do the paternity test.” Isla strolled in wearing fresh clothes and makeup.
She climbed into bed and curled up next to me. Damn if this didn’t feel like home. Joey curled onto my belly then rolled off toward Isla. I laughed. “Well, that’s one way to get off my lap.”
“He’s going to be walking soon.” She scooted over to make room for him. “If you wanted, we could do the test today. I can go with you.”
“God, I’m never this big of a baby. I want to know for sure, but also, I don’t want to know. It doesn’t make sense.”
“It’s okay to be scared.” She squeezed my shoulder. “Let’s do it right now. Joey needs his morning stroll anyway. Two birds, one stone. Do they take walk-ins?”
“Sort of. A mate of mine is doing the test. Well, he’s Nicolas’s mate.” I let out a breath. “I can’t let the tabloids get a hold of this juicy news until I know for sure.”
“That’s smart. I would hate to be blindsided like that if I were Harper.”
“The media can be brutal. Are you going to be okay with that?” I stroked her cheek.
“Right. I’m dating a celebrity.” She beamed at me.
“I’m not a celebrity. More like clickbait.”
“You’re not clickbait. The tabloids love you. Everyone loves a good mystery.”
“No mystery here. And you know that.” I shook my head, knowing it was only a matter of time before Joey became clickbait, too.
The UK tabloids liked to keep their followers guessing as to what I would do next, where I would travel, who I was fucking, or what was my next crazy purchase. There was nothing interesting in how I lived my life. They simply liked to make it look that way, so they could make a few quid on the side. Did Isla understand that?
“We should get going.” She reached for Joey, who had grown tired of the confined space we had him in.
Isla’s enthusiasm was exactly what I needed to get my bum into gear. Inside of an hour, I had showered, packed up a stroller and a diaper bag, and we’d managed to make our way to the fertility clinic. On a Saturday morning, I had to call Nicolas’s assistant to make sure the doctor could see me earlier then the appointment she had scheduled for me.
The test was so anti-climactic. The doctor had a nurse take Joey’s blood and mine. I filled out a single sheet with my personal information, and we were done. “Why did I think this would be more involved?”
“We do this test quite a bit. We have ourprocess down.” Doctor Condren patted me on the back. “I should have an answer for you early next week.”
“Thank you. Now that the worst is over, I’m dying to know either way.”
As soon as we stepped out of the building, I received a text from Tommy letting me know he had to drive around the block one more time. Parking in the city could be a nightmare sometimes, which was why I rarely drove my own car. I smiled thinking of what’d happened the last time I got behind the wheel.
“Where did he go?” Isla parked the stroller between us and kicked the brake on.
“He’ll be here in a minute.” I reached for her waist and drew her to me. “Would Joey be terribly cross if we cut his park stroll short?” I pressed my lips to hers. I meant for it to be a sweet gesture, but desire unfurled fast and furious at my navel. Before I knew it, I was kissing her hard and desperately. “Sorry.” I pulled away before I embarrassed myself. Public displays of affection wasn’t my thing. And for a reason.
