Page 43 of A Baby for the Billionaire Cowboy

“I’m more sorry than I can say.” He lifted a hand toward her but let it drop. “He didn’t actually ask to see you first. He wanted to see one of us.”

“Us? You mean your family?”

He nodded. “It seemed like he was hoping... Well, like maybe he was hoping we’d give him some money if he’d leave you alone.”

“Seemed like?” Daisy’s hands clenched in her lap. “What exactly did he say?”

Xander winced. “He asked for money. Said we could afford it. Which we can, but Carly said we shouldn’t set a precedent by paying too quickly. And, well, he accused us of taking you away from him.”

“That’s not true! I didn’t even meet you until a few months after I moved here.” Well, except for seeing Xander at the fundraiser, but that hardly counted.

“I know. You should’ve seen Carly. She went all lawyer on him and told him to get out. Then we were in the office talking about it. She has an idea for how to get him to go away, and we were going to tell you, I promise we were, but we were just discussing it first, and we had no idea that he must not have left. He took off down the road, so we assumed, but we should have watched to make sure he actually left the property, or called the guard. I didn’t think of it though. I never imagined. And he came back and scared you, and I’m so sorry.”

Daisy took a minute to process everything she’d learned. If it wasn’t humiliating enough to have William come back and try to drag her away, she had to also learn that he didn’t even want her. He simply saw her position with the Tomlinsons as a way to get some money. She might have been relieved, if it weren’t so enraging.

“I actually believed he wanted to see Avery,” she finally said. “I didn’t want him to come in, but I thought he had a right to meet his child.”

Xander shook his head. “If he wanted a relationship, he should have done better earlier.”

Daisy swiped tendrils of hair back from her face. She was still wearing the dirty shirt, and she could feel the hair tie slipping out of her messy bun. It wasn’t fair that she had to deal with all this without even a clean dress or tidy hair. Damn William, telling her she looked a fright! As if every new mother didn’t have bad moments.

“You’re right,” she said. “He’s not getting Avery. I’ll do whatever I have to do in order to keep my son away from that man. Go into hiding. Leave the country. He doesn’t deserve Avery.”

“No!” He jerked up straighter. “I mean, you don’t have to do that, any of it. You can stay here. We’ll make sure you’re safe, I promise. We’ll take care of everything.”

Her throat closed again. She was both grateful for their consideration and angry that they thought she couldn’t handle things on her own, and they were right. She was such a mess. She didn’t deserve this family.

“Give me a minute.” She hurried to the bathroom, where she washed her face and brushed her hair. Then she ducked into her bedroom to change her blouse. There. She might not be a great beauty, or even at her best, but she looked and felt human again.

She came out to find Xander in the kitchen, with the kettle on the stove. “I thought you might want a cup of tea.”

“More like a bottle of wine, but yeah, okay. Look, you shouldn’t give William any money. That’s not right.”

“Talk to Carly about it,” he said. “She’s our lawyer, and we follow her advice on this kind of thing. We want William to go away, so we’ll make him go away, one way or another.”

“He’s my problem.” She felt sick with worry, but she ought to fight her own battles—with Carly as her lawyer, because she wasn’t an idiot and Avery deserved the best.

Xander stepped closer and met her gaze. “You’re one of us, so he’sourproblem.”

She stared at him as her breath came faster and her vision blurred. She wanted to be strong, but she wanted help more—needed help—and Xander offered it without waiting to be asked and she adored him so much.

Then his arms were around her, and she was clinging to him.

“Shh, it’s okay,” he murmured, stroking her back. “We’ve got you. We won’t let anything happen to you or Avery. Come on, do you think I wouldn’t protect that precious child with everything I have? We won’t let anyone hurt you, either of you, I promise.”

Daisy tipped her head back. Their faces were so close, and he was so sweet, so handsome, so dear. She stretched up, nearly able to reach now that she didn’t have the huge belly in front of her, and her lips met his.

Heaven. Everything she’d wanted, and more than she’d dared to dream. He didn’t push at her and force his tongue past her lips. Instead he caressed, tender, cherishing, sinking into her mouth as she opened to him.

All too soon, he pulled back. His arms dropped away. “I’m sorry.” He took two steps backward. “I shouldn’t have done that. It wasn’t—you’re—I would never try to take advantage of an employee, and you’re upset, and—it won’t happen again. Please don’t leave.”

She stared at him for a few seconds, her mouth open. “Don’t apologize.” Her face flamed. “That was all me. You don’t have to pretend otherwise.”

He watched her, warily, as if afraid she might attack. He saw it as a mistake. Kissing her was a mistake.

She tried to force her mouth into a smile. “It’s probably the hormones, you know. Crazy pregnant woman! I mean, not pregnant anymore, but still, lots of hormones. We can forget it ever happened.”

“As long as you’re not—as long as you feel comfortable here.” He edged toward the door. “Safe. That’s all I want. I’ll go. I’m sorry—”

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