Last Minute Fiancé

Chapter 5

Luca

“Thank you so much, Dr. Cassidy. I don’t know what Rocco and I would’ve done without you.” Mrs. Braverman reached out and gripped my hand. I smiled at her and the tiny teacup poodle in her arms. Rocco, adorable with his pristine haircut and wide eyes, lifted a single lip at me.

I smiled at the seven-year-old dog, knowing that if I blinked, the dog would try to rip my face off. Not because it was rabid or mean, but because it felt like it.

Rocco was a jerk, but he was cute. And Mrs. Braverman kept the foul beast away from children and other small animals.

She did not keep Rocco away from large dogs who were just trying to protect their owner.

I loved the German shepherd out in the lobby, and Jones would soon be inside, shaking because he was afraid of needles, and I would take care of him too. But first, I needed to get Rocco out of the building so Jones was safe.

German shepherd, meet tiny teacup poodle from hell.

It was just my life.

“Now, let’s get you out through the side door, so you can easily access your car.”

“Oh, you’re right. That would be smart. There are just such big dogs out there. And cats.” She snarled the last word.

I made a non-committal noise, and we made our way out the side door. I had already handled the paperwork with her, as well as payment, so we didn’t have to deal with any other animals.

I got Mrs. Braverman and Rocco safe inside her car, with Rocco giving me the evil eye over her shoulder the entire time. I was still behind a bit and had a full schedule. It didn’t matter that I had gotten in early to get through paperwork and had worked through lunch—all I did these days was work.

“Dr. Cassidy? Jones is ready.”

“Room four?” I asked. My tech smiled and pointed that way.

I walked to the door as she went off to do all of the things she did during the day to keep the place running. Colt and I needed to hire another admin, as well as take on another vet soon. We were both overrun and no matter what we did we could never catch up. We did have a friend we thought could handle working with us and, when he could, he covered for us so we could have this thing called time off. I hardly knew what that meant, however.

I was grateful for my team and for my partner. Colt was great at the business side of things, and made sure that we kept things running smoothly, but wasn’t great at the whole people thing. Thankfully he was wonderful with animals, hence why he was here, but working with people? Let’s just say I was glad for our vet techs.

And if I continued thinking about work, the fact that rent was due on the building soon, that we had countless insurance claims to work on, and we were overworked and overcapacity, I wouldn’t worry about the fact that I was going to be a father.

I froze at the door, hand on the doorknob, and swallowed hard.

A father.

That didn’t even seem real.

I never thought I would be.

Not after losing Ashleigh. Ashleigh and I had been together all through high school and into college. We had been engaged to be engaged for most of the time we were together. Promise rings and all. It wasn’t until her sophomore year in college that we even slept together, something that my brothers teased me about.

It wasn’t that I hadn’t wanted to sleep with Ashleigh, it was that she wanted to wait until we were married. So we waited. And waited.

And I had gotten very good about masturbating—it was the only thing that kept me going.

The thought of being with anyone else when I was with Ashleigh never even crossed my mind. She was my everything. Of course, I finished college far too young and had been in vet school for four years right after. So my timeline of events might’ve been different than most college boys.

And then Ashleigh died from a brain aneurysm only a few months later. We hadn’t had the future we planned or thought we deserved. Instead, I lost the woman that I loved, the woman that I thought I would have forever with. We were going to get married, have children, and have the perfect life that we always craved.

We were going to be Portlanders, with our funky little house and overpriced property taxes. We were going to eat crunchy granola and have a Subaru—it was everything we ever wanted. We climbed mountains together, skied down Mount Hood, laughed and joked around. We had done the Oregon Coast drive countless times, always stopping off at Depoe Bay for the saltwater taffy. We loved Oregon and loved each other.

And then she died, and I was adrift.

I hadn’t realized until much later that Ashleigh had been my anchor, because I hadn’t had one myself.

When my parents divorced the second time, I realized that parents getting married, getting a divorce, then getting married again wasn’t something that happened to everyone.

My parents loved and hated each other, and they decided to pull a parent trap. My dad took August, Heath, and I, and my mom took Greer.

We had lost out on years of being with our sister and getting to know her. And when we became adults, and we found a way to finally get out from underneath the shadow of our childhoods and how we were raised, it hadn’t been in Portland. No, it had been in Denver.

I had lost my anchor, my future, and Portland wasn’t good for me anymore. I had nothing left there. I moved with my brothers to be near our sister, and it was the best choice for us.

I had been friends with Colt since vet school, and since he had moved back to Denver to be with his family, we started up a practice together. He was six years older than me, and had a lot more life experience, but I didn’t mind. He was the grumpy asshole who got things done, when I was the one who felt like I was just starting to live, or maybe floundering a bit.

It didn’t seem real. None of it did.

It was just supposed to be one night, one amazing night, one night we weren’t going to talk about.

And now here we were, with the complications and consequences of our own actions.

And we would deal.

“Dr. Cassidy?” My tech looked at me and I waved her off.

“Sorry. I’m going in. Knock knock,” I said as I walked inside, and Jones and his owner smiled at me. Seeing a German shepherd smile with all those teeth made me happy.

“Oh, Dr. Cassidy. I’m so glad that you’re here. Jones doesn’t whine as often for you.” She leaned forward and knocked on the desk next to her. “Knock on wood.”

“I totally understand. Hello, Jones, how are we doing today?”

Jones tilted his head and gave me a quizzical look before letting out a soft bark. Not the deep guttural tone I knew he could do that could rattle windows. But just a little quick hello.

I smiled wide and went to do my examination.

After shots and going over diet and exercise, because Jones was getting older but was still very active, we were done and it was time for my next patient, a three-year-old cat named Cupcake, and I was pretty sure she was part devil.

I loved her with every ounce of my being.

She was rowdy, hissed at me if I looked at her wrong, and absolutely hated if I wasn’t petting her while we talked.

Cupcake was a female orange cat, something incredibly rare, but so beautiful. She had that orange cat tenacity, with the I-don’t-give-a-fuck attitude that made me love cats.

It was hard for me to have pets at my house since I was never home, but I always had space for whoever needed to be there.

Right now my house was empty, because every foster I’d had found a new home and a loving family that could be there for them.

The senior animal that I’d been taking care of when I found out about the pregnancy was now with his new loving family, and I was making a family of my own.

I held back a groan at that, wondering when the hell that would actually start to feel real.

Addison was pregnant. Actually pregnant.

What the hell was I supposed to do?

How were we going to handle this?

We hadn’t even handled the fact that we slept together. No matter what, I knew we were going to remain friends, because that was the only option. But how much did she want me to be involved? I knew I wanted to be. Full stop. No matter what happened, I was going to be a father and I was going to be in that kid’s life. But I also wanted to be in Addison’s life without making things complicated. What would happen when she started dating other people? Oh my God. She was going to date other people and that person was going to be this kid’s father even though I was still around.

Thankfully I was in my office while having this slight meltdown and let out a long sigh.

“Stop spiraling, Luca,” I told myself, and went to my coffeemaker, grateful that I had splurged on a mini espresso machine.

It was the best thing in my life. It was the only thing that kept me sane.

“Luca?”

I whirled and sloshed hot coffee on my hand.

“Fuck,” I spat, and went to clean up the mess I just made, ignoring the burn on my hand.

“Oh my God, Luca, I’m so sorry.”

Addison closed the door behind her, looking frazzled as hell.

She was a little pale, with that grayish hue that she had since we had found out it was morning sickness. She wore linen pants and a silk top that went together into this professional sexy businesswoman vibe. Not that I would say that out loud because we were friends and I wasn’t allowed to tell her that she was hot.

I’d mentioned it before, but now it would be weird…right?

This is why sleeping with your friends was a bad idea. It left all these questions and no answers, and apparently left a baby in the middle of it.

An actual fucking baby.

I set down the coffee mug and wiped my hands on my pants.

“Did you just wipe your burned hands on your pants that I know has dog slobber on them?”

I shrugged. “Maybe? Are you okay? I have a ginger ale in the fridge if you want some.”

She smiled, and when it reached her eyes I relaxed marginally. She was absolutely gorgeous when she smiled and meant it. Again, that was something I wasn’t sure I was allowed to say anymore.

“That sounds wonderful. But we need to talk.”

I raised a brow as I reached down into my mini fridge to hand her a ginger ale. “The last time we talked, you said that you were dealing with a thousand things at work and going to see your doctor and that I shouldn’t go with you to this first one.” Something that bothered me but I knew it was because she needed to put the truth of this in her hands until reality settled in. And truthfully, reality didn’t seem real at all. “Is everything okay? Is the baby okay?”

She put her hand on her stomach, then looked around the office, as if afraid someone was listening in.

“The staff can’t hear you through the door. Unless you scream. Please don’t scream.”

She shook her head, then took a sip of her ginger ale and huffed out a breath.

“The baby’s fine, I guess? It doesn’t seem real yet.”

“Sit down,” I said, gesturing to the small couch in the corner.

“I’m pregnant, not feeble.”

My stomach twisted at that. “I still can’t believe that we actually say those words out loud.”

“I don’t know if there’s a we about it. I’m pregnant.”

“We’re going to say we for now because I did help get us into the situation.”

“We did,” she corrected, and we laughed at the ridiculousness of this conversation.

“So, funny thing.”

I sat on the rickety table in front of her and was grateful when it didn’t collapse beneath my weight.

“What exactly is so funny about what’s going on?”

“Well, I may have made things worse.”

I frowned. “Did you tell my brothers and now they’re going to come and kill me? Because I figured I would be the one to do that and then you would have to bury the body and it would be a whole thing.”

She grinned and reached out and patted my knee.

I adjusted myself, grateful that she had looked away because apparently just a touch on my knee could get me hard.

I really needed to stop thinking about her like this, because it was Addison.

My Addison.

Damn it. It was really hard to think when I knew what she tasted like.

“I didn’t do that, but we’re going to have to tell them eventually. First though, I need you to bear with me when you realize that I fucked up royally.”

“What did you do?” I asked cautiously.

“You know how I work with Travis and he’s an asshole?”

I scowled. “I know about your ex.”

She cringed. “Well, we’re both going up for the same promotion.”

“Damn, the promotion for junior partner? You’ve been working for that since you started. That’s fucking amazing.”

“I know, right? And if I get it, when I get it, it’ll open up my schedule, so maybe this whole baby thing won’t be totally insane.” She held up a hand. “We will get to the absurdity of that in a moment, but first, my fuck up.”

“Okay,” I said cautiously.

We both worked far too many hours at our jobs. We had to come up with a plan, and actually talk about it, eventually. Damn it.

“So, the problem is that my boss, the guy who’s going to decide this, is very set in his ways about what the perfect partner looks like.”

“So, he’s a misogynistic prick?”

“Yes, but that’s not it. Well not all of it. Travis is engaged.”

I frowned. “And that makes you sad? You’re not still hung up on him, are you?”

She waved that off. “Not in the slightest. I wish him well. Or I wish him out of my life. I don’t care, she can have him. It’s more the fact that because Travis will now be a family man, he has one up on me, according to the boss. So I did a thing, a really bad thing.”

I had an awful idea about where she was going with this, but I couldn’t say anything. I needed the train wreck to come to me.

“They don’t know about the baby,” she added, and I didn’t feel relieved about that like I think she thought I would.

“Okay,” I said, drawing out the word.

“But I did say that I was engaged. To you. And that you’re going to come with me to the work trip that I have in two days. You know, the one that’s going to make or break my career? The one where I totally said I was getting married and I actually said your name and now you’re going to have to come with me.”

I blinked at her, marveling at the absurdity of this. Because of course she would. Why wouldn’t we make this farce of our relationship even worse?

“Did you really just make up a fiancé for your job?”

She stood up and began to pace. I moved back to give her space. I didn’t say anything because I wasn’t firing on all cylinders right then.

“Of course I did. Because it’s so absurd and ridiculous. But I really need this job. I love this job. And this promotion’s going to do amazing things.”

“And what about the baby?”

“I don’t know about the baby. I don’t know how it’s all going to work. All I know is that if I get this promotion, it’ll mean things will be easier. I can make my own schedule, I can work from home, I can have the chance to come to the realization that I’m going to be a mom and you’re going to be a dad and we’re going to have to talk about that. And we will. But first, I actually have to get the promotion.”

“And you need me to be your fake fiancé for that to happen.”

“Yes. I know it’s last minute, but will you marry me? At least for pretend. At least for the weekend.”

I heard the words, and yet they didn’t seem real, because this had to be a dream, not quite a nightmare, but one of those anxiety dreams when you were stuck at school and you didn’t realize that you were enrolled in so many classes. I still had those to this day.

“That’s not exactly the proposal I was dreaming about.”

When she went pale, I cursed under my breath. “Okay, okay, so we don’t joke about the realities of our relationship, just the fake part. Got it. Do you need me? For real?”

“I really do. This will help. I promise. It’ll make things easier once we actually deal with the reality that we’re having a baby. Because if I don’t get this promotion, I don’t know what I’m going to do. And I just lied to my boss and everyone there. And now I can’t back out.”

I cursed under my breath again and did the math on how I could make this happen. I could, because I had a good team. And I would, because Addison was my best friend.

And she needed me.

And I was a sucker.

“Hell. Okay. What do you need me to do?”

She broke down in tears and threw herself in my arms. I just held her close and hoped we weren’t making yet another mistake.

Knowing we probably were.