Chapter 1
Henley
You Know There’s a Baby in There, Right?
“So, if I call your references, they’ll tell me the same information?”
Hector nods from his seat across from my desk.
“Okay, then you’ll get a call from me by the end of the week.”
“Thanks for the opportunity.” He stands and reaches out to shake my hand before heading toward the front door of the lodge, giving me a moment to rub my temples as the headache I’ve been fighting off all morning throbs with each hum of the ceiling fan above.
Finding good help these days feels damn near impossible. Most people don’t have experience working at a ski lodge to begin with, and if I had a dollar for every fake or embellished reference I’ve checked, I would be a millionaire.
The truth is, I never planned on owning Sky’s the Limit Ski Lodge & Adventure Park in Blossom Peak.
Yet here I am, still in North Carolina, and I actually love it.
After high school, I had no idea what I was going to do with my life.
Academics weren’t my strong suit, and the only things I cared about were football and girls.
If it weren’t for my near-death experience and my sister’s pleas for me to stop chasing the adrenaline that made me feel something for once, I wouldn’t be standing here today with something to show for myself.
I honestly don’t want to know where I might have ended up otherwise.
My phone vibrates in my pocket for the tenth time today. When I glance at the screen and see the same number that’s been calling non-stop for the past two months, something in me snaps.
“What do you want, Meghan?” I shout as I bring the phone to my ear.
“Henley?” She sounds shocked. “So you do know how to answer the phone…” Her tone is clipped now, laced with the same irritation I’m feeling.
“What about one-night-only did you not understand?” My response has a bite to it I’m not proud of, but honestly, the only reason I even have her number is because she saved it in my phone herself.
I never planned on calling her back, but having her number means I can dodge her calls.
She was a tourist anyway, and we met outside of town.
There’s not much information she has about me other than my number, so I didn’t feel threatened by her relentless calls.
But after months of this, I’ve finally had enough.
I thought I clarified the type of relationship we would have before our night even began—sex, one time only, no repeats.
It’s how I’ve lived my life up until this point, and I have no intention of changing that anytime soon.
I’ve never been interested in relationships.
The house, kids, and white picket fence most people dream about? No fucking thank you.
My childhood was a far cry from that picture-perfect fantasy, so a so-called normal life of checking boxes, playing house, and pretending life is sunshine and rainbows never appealed to me. Still doesn’t.
“What do you not understand about answering your phone when someone calls multiple times?” she fires back.
“I was hoping you’d get the hint and I wouldn’t have to tell you out loud that…”
“I had a baby,” she says, cutting me off.
“Good for you.”
“She’s yours, Henley.”
And yet again, three little words flip my entire world upside down.
***
Standing in the parking lot of Hart Winery with a baby carrier in one hand and a diaper bag in the other is a situation I never thought I’d find myself in. But here I am, still trying to process what just happened.
“Fuck,” I mutter to myself before spinning on my heels and heading back inside to the party for one of my best friends, Fletcher Adams. He’s the wide receiver for North Carolina’s NFL team, the Carolina Thunder, and their preseason games start this coming week, so tonight’s the last hurrah before he disappears for the next four to six months.
As soon as I walk through the arched entrance of the main tasting room, my sister’s eyes meet mine, bugging out when she sees my new accessories.
“Is—is that a baby?” Dilynne asks, but I don’t bother answering her as I make my way over to my friends gathered around one of the tall, cocktail-style tables made from old oak wine barrels.
“Why do you have a baby, Henley? You’re aware that a baby is in that thing, right? ” She points to the carrier in my hand.
I set the carrier on the table as I let out a heavy sigh.
The baby girl dressed in pink is sleeping soundly inside, her jet-black hair combed to the side, but everyone’s eyes are locked on me.
“Yes, I’m aware there’s a baby in here, Dil.
Let’s just say, I finally found out why that girl Meghan has been calling me so much. ”
“Who’s Meghan?” Laney, my sister’s best friend, asks.
“Shit,” Fletcher mutters beside me. “Meghan is a woman Henley slept with last year, and she’s been calling him for months.” Even though I could have answered for myself, I’m grateful to my friend for explaining the circumstances with words I probably couldn’t form easily right now.
“Oooookay…” Dilynne drags out, not putting two and two together yet.
“Your brother thought she just wanted a repeat with him, but looks like that wasn’t the reason she was calling.” Fletcher jerks his chin in the direction of the baby.
Dilynne gasps as everything clicks. “You have a daughter?”
My brain starts to catch up with the conversation happening around me, even as I come to the conclusion that condoms really aren’t one hundred percent effective because I’ve used one every time I’ve had sex in my life.
Now I know how Ross felt when Rachel told him she was pregnant on Friends.
“I—I guess I do.”
Dilynne leans in to assess the baby. “How old is she?”
Clearing my throat, I reply, “She’s three months old.”
“And where’s Meghan?” Fletcher asks, his arm slung around Laney’s shoulders. They finally admitted their feelings for one another about a month ago, much to everyone’s surprise. Now they’re inseparable. I’m still trying to get used to it, among other things.
I take a deep breath. “She’s gone. She said she never wanted kids but thought she might feel differently once the baby was born.
Clearly that didn’t happen and I had been blowing her off, so it’s not like she had help.
It took her awhile to make a final decision and for me to pick up the phone, but once I did, she felt confident in her decision, and just left the baby with me. ”
My friends glance around at each other, completely shocked and clearly at a loss for words—because the reality is, I’m the last person any of them expected to have a kid.
Laney’s older brother, Rhonan, comes over to the table now, followed by my other friend, Elliot.
Rhonan is our town’s sheriff, a single dad, and the one who had the hardest time accepting that Fletcher was in love with his sister.
He seems to be warming up to the idea now, though. Either that, or he puts on a good show.
“Um, is that a baby?” he asks, his brows drawn tightly together.
Elliot snorts around the rim of his beer glass. “I love how everyone is asking that question like you all don’t have eyes. Yes, we’ve established that it’s a fucking baby.”
Elliot Thorne is the last of my three best friends and a lawyer at his father’s firm in town. Normally, I’d comment on his piss-poor mood and sarcastic reply, but it’s only been a little over a month since his fiancée left him at the altar and ran off with her boss. So, he gets a pass for a while.
Dilynne glares at Elliot across the table. “Look, Grumpzilla. There’s no need for you to speak if you’re going to act like even more of an asshole than usual.”
Those two can’t be in the same room without biting each other’s heads off. Before Elliot can spit something nasty back, Laney asks, “How do you even know she’s yours, Henley?”
I push the canopy of the carrier back. “Those are Clark ears. Come on, Dil, back me up.”
My sister peers into the carrier and sighs. “Shit.”
“I still think you should get a paternity test,” Elliot grumbles as he lifts his drink again.
Rhonan clears his throat. “He’s right because then you’re not legally responsible for—”
“And what if she’s not mine?” I say, cutting him off.
I know my friends don’t want me to be taken advantage of, but the only thing I’m feeling right now is guilt.
“She ends up in the system?” I turn and look at my sister because she and I both know what that life is like, and hell if I’m going to put another human being in that same situation. “Not on my fucking watch.”
I should have answered the damn phone the first time she called.
Maybe then, Meghan wouldn’t have been so desperate to leave the baby behind.
Maybe we could have co-parented or figured something else out that would be best for this little girl.
Because I’m the last thing she needs—a single parent with no knowledge of how to care for a baby.
But I’ll be damned if I’m going to let this innocent baby end up in foster care like me.
“I can’t abandon her,” I continue, staring down at the little bundle of pink, sleeping peacefully and blissfully unaware that her entire life just changed. “Even if she’s not mine, she’s—”
“A child, Henley,” Dilynne cuts in. “A baby. And the last I checked, you don’t have any experience with that. Hell, none of us do.”
Rhonan clears his throat and raises his hand. “Uh, pretty sure I have a daughter.”
Dilynne smacks her forehead. “Shit, that’s right.”
Elliot chuckles. “Forgetting about Ellis? I didn’t think you were that self-centered, Dilynne.”
My sister begins to round the table toward him, cocking her fist back, but I intercept her before she gets within arm’s reach. “Dil…”
“You’re lucky I feel sorry for you.” Her teeth are clenched as her gaze penetrates Elliot.
“I don’t need your fucking pity,” he slurs.
“Maybe you’ve had enough,” Rhonan says, reaching over to take Elliot’s glass from his hands.