Chapter Six
J ust when Jared thought his life couldn’t get more complicated. He was going to be a father . He stared at nothing, trying to sort out his feelings. Was he startled? Yes. Worried about how his life was going to change? No doubt about it. Concerned about making time when work was so all-consuming? That, too.
But at his core he was a pragmatist. How else could he be living and breathing business, other than the basic reason? His family needed him to step up and he’d had no choice. But he was going to have to look deeper now because he wasn’t letting Charlotte go through this alone. He might be stunned but he knew the kind of man he was. He’d step up.
But why were they going through this to begin with? She’d said she had an IUD and she didn’t strike him as the type to lie. “So… I have to ask. How?”
She twisted her hands in front of her, not meeting his gaze. “Apparently my IUD failed because it was due to be changed. I thought I was covered. I honestly did. I mean, who does this… twice?” She gestured to her still flat stomach.
“Hey. Come sit.” He patted the cushion beside him.
She lowered herself onto the sofa, holding herself stiff and apart.
“Relax. I’m not angry. Surprised and in shock? Yeah. But you can breathe.” Reaching out, he rubbed her back in comforting circles and she expelled a long stream of air.
She finally met his gaze and in her eyes he saw warmth and gratitude. “How did I get this lucky… twice? Noah was a gentleman about it, and now you?” She shook her head in disbelief.
“What did happen with Noah?” He’d never thought to ask, and now that he had? He realized he was actually jealous of his brother-in-law because he’d been with Charlotte first.
“Well, we were both in Toronto, me at a conference, and we met in the airport while waiting for our flight home. A massive snowstorm came through and the airline put us up at a hotel. One thing led to another… We used a condom but… I won’t say we were unlucky because I love my girls.”
He really disliked hearing about her night with Noah, but he’d asked, so he set his jaw and continued to listen.
“It was just one of those things that happened. Once in a lifetime, at least that’s what I assumed at the time.” Her lips twisted in a wry smile. “But here we are.”
“Here we are. I hope you don’t mind me asking but were you and Noah ever… involved?”
Her light laughter filled the room. “No. We were tipsy, there was a brief attraction but we agreed from the beginning all either of us wanted to do was co-parent.”
He couldn’t deny being relieved. Then again, considering his sister and Noah’s relationship, and how much Fallon liked Charlotte, he’d never considered her an issue for either of them. He put those thoughts out of his head and focused on the present.
“Have you known you were pregnant for a while?” Because he’d known for five minutes and he was reeling.
She shook her head. “Not really. I took a test before I left the dig site and I planned on telling you when we were alone. I just had to find the right way to do it.”
He recalled being about to kiss her when she’d blurted out the news. “You definitely did that.”
Her cheeks flushed pink. “Sorry. I wasn’t really thinking, but I didn’t want things to get more complicated between us before you knew about the baby.” She rested her hands on her stomach and a weird sensation settled in his chest.
“Are we complicated?” he asked, rubbing where it felt like heartburn and not an overwhelming rush of emotion. It had to be too soon for that. Right?
“We shouldn’t be. We should be smart about this. Figure out how we want to handle things.”
He narrowed his gaze. “Handle things? As in whether or not to keep the baby?” he asked, unable to keep the accusation from his tone.
He’d only known about the pregnancy for a short time but he was already coming to accept his life was about to go in a whole new direction. And the moment he thought she might take that away, he realized he was okay with the big change that was coming his way. He didn’t want her to make a choice that would rid him of the option of being a parent.
“No, I’m not debating whether or not to keep the baby, although that decision is mine to make. My body, my choice,” she said firmly.
He nodded, relieved. “For the record, I agree. It just wasn’t a direction I wanted you to take.”
“I’m glad you feel that way. And I’m relieved you know. At least I can put that worry to rest.”
“You can,” he said, as he rose to his feet. “Now, can I order lunch and feed you? You’re eating for two.” He grinned and her easy smile lifted the weight that had settled in his stomach during their conversation.
She shook her head. “Thanks, but I’m tired. This whole reveal wore me out. I’m going to go back to my hotel and take a nap.”
He really didn’t want her staying at a hotel when he had an apartment right downstairs just waiting for her to say yes. She’d already figured out he’d knocked down the rent, but she didn’t know he and Noah had talked and agreed on a number they thought she might eventually accept. He knew her independence was important to her and now wasn’t the time to push. On anything.
She stood and walked toward him. He held out his arms and she stepped into his embrace. He pulled her against him, resting his chin on her head. She fit right, he thought, aware he was getting ahead of himself. She needed time to adjust to their new reality and the truth was, so did he.
“We’re in this together,” he reassured her, drawing a deep breath and inhaling her arousing, sweet yet sexy, floral scent.
Noah might have been fine being her co-parent, but Jared was going to have a much harder time keeping things uncomplicated between them.
***
Jared walked Charlotte to the elevator in his apartment and accompanied her downstairs. He waited until she was safely in an Uber before heading upstairs and texting his brother, Aiden. If there was anyone who could help him process his current situation, it was the sibling he was closest to. Luckily, Aiden was still in town.
His brother suggested they meet up at Remy’s bar, but Jared didn’t want anyone else in the family intruding. He proposed Club Ten29, an upscale nightclub owned by Jason Dare, a cousin of Remy’s partner at The Back Door, Zach Dare. They agreed on the place and time, four p.m.
Jared spent the rest of the afternoon at the office, finding it difficult to concentrate and glad Brooke had taken over this morning’s issue with the stock. His father had dealt with the business news calmly, at least for Alex when he was worked up, and Jared managed to get him to take a step back. He’d be dealing with some low maintenance clients this afternoon. Meanwhile, Jared stared at his computer screen, unable to get any work done, and was grateful when it was time to leave to meet Aiden.
It took him thirty minutes to get downtown by the company car service. He walked inside and took in the décor. He liked the vibe of the club, the glass wall behind the bar lined with liquor bottles and the dim lighting.
His brother sat at a table, a glass of what was probably scotch in his hand.
Jared joined him, finding a glass of liquor waiting for him. “Thanks,” he said, sitting down and taking a much-needed sip.
Aiden, wearing a pair of jeans and a Henley, looked relaxed, unlike how Jared was feeling. “What’s got you so frazzled you wanted to meet in the middle of the workday? Is it the business? Dad?”
“Dad’s fine,” he reassured his brother. “Not so sure about me. I’m going to be a father.”
Aiden burst out laughing. “Good one. Now what’s the real reason we’re here?”
Jared kept his serious face on, pulling his mouth tight before speaking. “I,” he said, gesturing to himself, “am going to be a father.”
“Shit. You’re serious. I didn’t think you had time for sex.”
He shook his head because his brother had a point. “I don’t. It was the night of Fallon’s wedding. Not at the wedding. After the wedding. Except we might have gone upstairs early.”
“You fucked a bridesmaid?” Aiden asked.
“That’s so cliché. It was Charlotte. Charlie.” Charlotte seemed to be his name for her and his alone.
“You fucked—”
“Hey, watch it. Don’t talk about her like that.”
Aiden’s eyes opened wide. “So you still have feelings for her and you knocked her up.” He held up his hands. “I mean, you got her pregnant.”
“Better. And yeah.” He raised his glass and Aiden did the same. They took a drink and set them on the table.
“Can I ask you something? Did you kids ever hear of condoms? Or, I don’t know, abstinence?” He waved a hand. “Sorry, I shouldn’t joke. But seriously. Charlie? She accidentally got pregnant… twice in one lifetime?”
Jared ran a hand across his face. “Apparently, she and Noah used a condom. No idea what happened there. And with me, she was at the end life of her IUD and didn’t know.”
Aiden slowly nodded. “Okay, all kidding aside. How are you doing?”
“I’d say I reacted well, so one point for me. I’m not as freaked out as I should be and I don’t understand why.”
His brother swirled his drink and studied him. “I think I do.”
Jared cocked an eyebrow, waiting for the answer.
“Like I said earlier, you have feelings for her. I could tell when we spoke at Dad’s. You were protective of her just now and you call her Charlotte. Nobody calls her Charlotte. So because you’re invested, the idea of a baby isn’t freaking you out.”
Instead of making a wisecrack, he let his brother’s words settle. They were nothing he hadn’t considered himself. In fact, he’d had the random thought that if he had to go through this with anyone, he was glad it was Charlotte.
He couldn’t say this is the direction he saw his life going and it was going to take a lot of adjustment. But he was managing the news with some semblance of calm. The biggest thing on his mind at the moment was making the time he both needed and wanted for the changes coming in his life.
He looked at the brother who traveled the world but had recently hinted that he might want to give up the danger.
“Aiden… I’m going to need help at work.”
“Good, because I want to come home.”
Jared let out a relieved breath, the tightening in his chest loosening at his brother’s intent. “Thank God. I’m tired of worrying about you. You’ll come work at Sterling?”
“Yeah. You’ve been bearing the brunt of Dad’s illness alone and for too long. I need time to wrap up some things abroad but I’ll be back. This time for good.”
With a nod, Jared said, “I have one more favor.”
“Name it.”
“Don’t tell the family about Charlotte until I’m ready to do it myself.” He didn’t know if she was going to tell the twins and he wanted to talk to her before he blurted it out to everyone. Especially Fallon and Noah. She might want to handle that herself, since it involved telling her girls.
“You got it,” Aiden promised. “Same for me coming home. I need to do it in my own time and my own way.”
Jared grinned. “Whatever you need. I’m just glad to have you back.” And not just because he wanted help at work. He’d really missed his brother.
***
After leaving Jared’s, Charlie went to her hotel and took a nap, something she’d needed more frequently lately. She remembered the exhaustion from her pregnancy with the twins and when she could, she gave in to the need and slept.
As soon as she woke up, feeling more refreshed, the morning’s events came back to her and her dilemma with the apartment swirled in her head.
Not wanting to think about it and torture herself with what to do, she called her BFF, Leo Watson. They’d met when sharing a table at a coffee shop, both working on their laptops. She’d been on a break from the museum, pre-dig, and Leo, a financial analyst, had also been taking a breather from the office. They’d gotten to talking and had been friends ever since.
Their relationship had always been purely platonic and he was like the brother she wished her sibling, Dan, could have been. Leo had been her first call once she’d returned to the States. After the twins, that was. Though she had girl friends from her old job at the museum where she’d worked before going to Egypt, she felt closest to Leo. She’d even told him she was pregnant when her own brother didn’t know.
She’d tried calling Dan and left a message, but she still hadn’t heard back. It was just like her sibling not to call. He was too self-absorbed and always making wrong choices to be there for her or to give her the chance to help him. He worked when he could as a salesman or delivery guy, but usually got fired because he didn’t show up on time or at all.
Tonight, she needed a shoulder and a wise opinion, so she’d called Leo and said she needed a friends’ night, sweetening the deal by promising to bring ice cream for her and a six-pack of beer for him. He could drink; she couldn’t. So vanilla fudge it was.
She took a taxi to his building, walked up one flight, and knocked on his door. He greeted her, immediately pulling her into a hug.
“How’d it go with the baby daddy?” he asked, concern in his tone.
“Jared was so nice,” she said and burst into tears.
Leo wrapped an arm around her, patting her back, then bringing her into him. She absorbed the much-needed hug before stepping away. “I’m okay. Just overly emotional.”
He nodded in understanding, taking the bag with the six-pack and the ice cream. “Come in and we’ll talk.”
She followed him into the apartment and to the kitchen, where he grabbed a bowl and spoon. He scooped out the ice cream, handed it to her, took a beer, and they settled in the family room on the sofa across from the massive TV.
“Tell me about what happened this morning,” Leo said.
Skipping the part about how she’d blurted out the pregnancy news before Jared could kiss her, she explained what a gentleman Jared had been and how she’d lucked out twice.
“Then why the tears?” Leo asked.
She dug out a spoonful of ice cream and savored the flavor before answering. “I’m overwhelmed. The apartment issue is hanging over my head. Either I’m on a corner bordering a not-so-great area or I’m in a luxury building in an apartment Jared knocked the rent way down on, doing me a favor.” She continued to eat as they spoke. “Don’t get me wrong, I’m so grateful and I’m aware of how fortunate I am. But I hate feeling like a burden.”
Leo shrugged. “Is a favor really so bad? It doesn’t seem like it’s an issue for him or he wouldn’t lower the price. And same with Noah, who you said offered to help out.”
“I have pride, you know. I want to feel like I can support the girls on my own.” Without relying on a man who might one day decide to opt out of her life.
She placed the empty bowl on the table, spoon inside.
Leo shifted so he was facing her. “Not every man is your father, Charlie. Noah’s been rock solid for more than ten years. What makes you think Jared won’t be?” he asked, ever the voice of reason.
But he didn’t know what being abandoned felt like. “I just want to feel like if something changes, I won’t be in a bind with nowhere to go.”
Leo rolled his eyes.
“Don’t do that. I’m serious.”
“So am I. You didn’t make any of these children alone. Their fathers are willing to step up. Swallow your pride and let them.”
She swallowed hard. “I’ll give it serious thought.” Though it hurt her need for independence, she had a hunch that ultimately she’d have to give in so her girls were in a good place.
Which would put her in close proximity with Jared, the man she couldn’t get out of her mind for reasons that had nothing to do with her having his baby.