Chapter 1
CHAPTER 1
M id July, three years later
Kincaid Holding’s headquarters, Adam Kincaid’s office
“Mr. Kincaid. You have a visitor.” Emily Simmons, Adam’s assistant, stood in the office doorway. She wasn’t very tall and the door to his office was massive. She looked like a child standing there. Only the laugh lines around her mouth and crinkles at the corners of her eyes gave her away.
His office, a large conference room, and the reception area where Emily worked were the only things on this floor. His office was the largest room. It boasted two leather Queen Anne chairs in front of his desk, which was piled high with reports on a company he was thinking of acquiring. The laptop on the right side of the desk was open to a spreadsheet.
Against the wall to his left was a sitting area with a leather couch and two matching over-stuffed leather chairs. The table in front of the sofa was gleaming chrome with a smoked glass top. On the table was a beautiful Ming vase he’d picked up on his last trip to Hong Kong.
The back wall was entirely glass. The vast windows were tinted dark, so the afternoon sun didn’t glare into and heat the room. The wall opposite the sitting area was floor to ceiling bookshelves. The cases were arranged so some were only half shelves. The bookcases held books and more treasures from the Orient. More vases, some very large and some no taller than a paperback book, were artfully arranged on the shelves, intermingling with the leather-bound books.
The carpeting was plush and light gray. It silenced Emily’s entrance into his office.
He looked up. “Who is it?”
“A woman named Sally Raines. She says it’s of a personal nature.”
“I don’t know anyone named Sally Raines.” Even as he said it, a memory niggled in the back of his mind. He shook his head to rid himself of the thought. “Very well, send her in.”
A statuesque blonde woman carrying a baby in a car seat with a diaper bag over the other shoulder entered the room. “Hello, Adam. Long time no see.”
He pushed back the leather chair, stood and came around the massive mahogany desk. “I remember you. It’s been about a year-and-a-half since we…uh…connected.” He shouldn’t be surprised that she found him, but he was.
“Fifteen months to be exact.” She set her burdens on the floor, then bent and extracted the baby from the carrier. “I’d like you to meet Lilly. Lilly Kincaid, your daughter.”
Adam’s eyebrows flew up his forehead, and his eyes popped wide. “My daughter? That’s impossible.” He looked at the blonde baby with the blue-gray eyes.
The baby looked back at him and graced him with a toothless grin.
He smiled back and then realized what he was doing and frowned.
“Oh, it’s very possible. I’ve got her birth certificate, declaring you as the father, and you can get a DNA test if you want, but she is your daughter. And she’s the reason I’m here.”
He narrowed his eyes. “I suppose you want money.” He remembered a wild weekend with Sally, but he’d had people try to shake him down for money before.
Sally smiled. “Nothing of the kind. I’m here to give her to you. I’m tired, and I have an opportunity that I can’t have a child for. You have the wherewithal to raise her quite easily. All you have to do is hire someone.”
“You can’t do this. I don’t know the first thing about babies.” He ran a hand through his hair as his pulse raced. He couldn’t do this. How was he supposed to raise a daughter? “I have some business deals coming up, and I can’t be a single father for them.” Danvers will never agree to my offer if I’m a single father.
She laughed. “Don’t be ridiculous. In this day and age, there isn’t a stigma to being a single parent.”
He rolled his eyes and paced, wrapping a hand around the back of his neck. “You don’t understand. This is a very old-fashioned couple, and they’re set in their ways. If you have children, you have to be married with two parents.”
Sally wasn’t moved. “Then I guess you better find a wife.”
Adam sighed. “How am I supposed to do that in time? I have a meeting with him in two weeks.”
Sally lifted a brow and then shrugged. “That’s your problem. Surely, you have a friend or friends with sisters, who wouldn’t mind marrying a billionaire.”
Adam narrowed his eyes and furrowed his brows. “And you don’t want money from me? I find that hard to believe.”
“Well, believe it. I’m headed to the Middle East for my dream job, and I mean to take it. Now there is a place where you can’t be a single parent.” She closed the distance to Adam and shifted Lilly into his arms. “I have to go. My plane leaves at noon, less than two hours from now, and you know how Denver International Airport is. Or maybe you don’t. You probably have a private plane and don’t have to go through TSA.”
He shrugged. “I don’t deal with DIA at all, so I have no idea about TSA other than what I see on the news. My plane is at Centennial Airport. Are you sure you don’t want money? I’ve never met a woman who didn’t want my money.”
“I don’t. I like to work for what I get. It was the way I was raised, and I hope you’ll instill those values in Lilly. Goodbye, Adam. Have a good life.” She turned and walked out the door, closing it behind her.
“Wait!” But she was gone. Adam turned his gaze to his daughter. His daughter.
She looked up at him with big blue-gray eyes, his eyes, and pounded her fist against his chest.
Adam was thirty-six years old and had younger siblings but hadn’t paid much attention to them when they were babies. “What am I going to do with you, little one?” Then a thought struck him. Bree. He could kill two birds with one stone if she agreed to his proposition.
“What will I do if Bree says no?” He didn’t know why he was asking Lilly, but it was almost as if she understood because she gave him another toothless grin. “Well, at least your mother left you with a car seat, so we can go see Bree together. I have a feeling that once she sees you, she won’t have any qualms about marrying us.”
Adam put Lilly into the car seat and then realized he didn’t have any idea how to strap her in. He strode to the door, opened it, and saw Emily at her desk. “Emily, can you come in here for a moment, please?”
“Sure.”
He held the door open, then closed it behind her.
“I need your help.” He pointed at Lilly, sitting in her car seat. “I don’t know how to strap her in. Do you? You have children, so I thought you could teach me.”
Emily stared at Lilly. She turned toward Adam. “That woman left her baby with you. Why?”
“Apparently, one of my indiscretions had an unintended result.”
“I would say so.” She moved toward the baby and then lowered herself to her knees. “Hello, sweetheart. Aren’t you just the most precious little thing.”
Adam watched as Emily secured Lilly into the car seat. He pulled out his phone and made notes of exactly which strap went where.
“What vehicle do you have today?”
“The Jag.”
Emily shook her head. “You can’t put her in that Jaguar. You’ll have to take my Mercedes.” She looked up at him. “It’s a good thing you pay me well, and I can afford a reliable, four-door vehicle. You always have to make sure you have a back seat in whatever car you drive when you have Lilly.” She rose from the floor. “Come on, I’ll show you how to buckle her in.” Emily turned and walked out of the office, leaving Adam to look after her. “Well, are you coming?” she called from the outer office.
“Yes, we’re right behind you.” He picked up Lilly and the diaper bag, then followed Emily.
In the summer warmth of the parking garage, Adam followed the woman to her car, a beautiful burgundy Mercedes E550 sedan.
Emily pressed the key fob, went directly to the passenger side back door, and opened it.
“You want to put her in the passenger side if you can, so you can see her in your rear-view mirror. It’s just a little more relief to see her as you drive. Let me have her.”
Adam passed the baby in the car seat to his assistant.
She deftly wove the seat belt through the car seat frame and tugged it for good measure. “Now, you can get her home. I’ll have Eric drop me by your place to pick up my car.”
“Oh, don’t bother him.” He reached into his pocket. “Take the Jag and just exchange cars.” He handed her the keys. “And thank you. You went above and beyond today.”
She beamed. “All in a day’s work at Kincaid Holdings.”
Adam laughed. “At least you’re not bored. You couldn’t have been with me for ten years and been too bored.”
“Definitely not.” She grinned. “Take care of her. She’s precious cargo.” She turned to leave and then turned back to him. “Adam what about the Danvers acquisition? How will you care for a baby with all that’s happening there?”
“If my plan works, I’ll kill two birds with one stone.”
“And if it doesn’t?”
“I honestly don’t know.”
He was surprised that he felt so possessive of Lilly in such a short amount of time. Yet, he realized she was already a part of his life, and he wouldn’t let anyone take her from him. “I will. Now that she’s mine, I plan on taking the best care of her.”
“Will you still have a DNA test?”
He shrugged. “That goes without saying, though at this point I don’t know what I’ll do if it comes back negative. Her mother’s gone to the Middle East for some dream job, and I won’t put the baby in foster care. So, she’s mine regardless. Besides, my name is on her birth certificate.”
She placed a hand on his arm and gazed up at him. “And she has your eyes. You don’t get that blue-gray color every day.”
He chuckled. “No, you definitely don’t. You need to reschedule my afternoon meetings.”
“To when do you want them rescheduled?”
“Day after tomorrow.”
“Consider it done. What are your plans for the rest of the day?”
“I don’t know yet.”
“Well, have fun, whatever your plans are.”
“Oh, we will. Thank you again.”
She waved as she walked back into the building.
“Now, Little Bit, we’re going to see someone I hope will want to take on the job of being your mother.”
“Baba baba baba.” Lilly chattered happily in the back seat.
With each little babble, Adam found his heart growing with what he could only surmise was love. Yet he’d loved no one like he did this newest addition to his family. What was it about babies that affected people this way?
He knew his mother would be thrilled. She’d been after all of her children to get married and give her some grandbabies. Now she would have someone to spoil incessantly.
The drive to Bree’s place was relatively stressless. Traffic was pretty good at this time of the morning. He realized he should call to make sure she was home before just stopping by.
He put his phone on the seat beside him and put on the speaker feature. “Call Bree.” He heard the phone ring. There was no answer, but that wouldn’t stop him. Maybe she was out shopping or perhaps working in the backyard or even listening to music while she wrote. He knew that was how she liked to write and that she didn’t answer her phone when she was writing.
He pulled into the driveway of her Cherry Hills Village home. It was the only major purchase she’d made with the money that Brad had left her. And he’d left her a wealthy woman, with hundreds of millions of dollars. She wasn’t as rich as Adam…yet, but she was well on her way to being there.
Adam removed Lilly from the backseat and headed to the front door, where he rang the doorbell. He heard the chimes. He was just about to press it again when the door opened.
Bree stood there in shorts, a t-shirt and sneakers. “Adam, it’s so good—what do you have there? A baby? You should come in and get him out of the heat.”
“Her. This is Lilly.”
“Well come in.” She stepped back and waited until he was inside before closing the door behind him.
He stepped into a two-story foyer, where they stood on white marble tile with streaks of gold running through it. He looked up at the chandelier, an antique with small crystal globes for lights. The fixture sparkled like it was covered in diamonds when it was on at night.
“Come into the kitchen and I’ll fix us some iced tea.” She sniffed the air. “And perhaps give Lilly a new diaper. Do you have diapers? I don’t see a diaper bag.”
Adam slapped his forehead. “It’s in the car. I hope there are diapers and bottles in it. I’ll be right back.” He set Lilly’s carrier on the kitchen table.
When he came back, Bree was holding Lilly. Adam couldn’t get over how natural she looked. With her blonde hair and sapphire blue eyes, she could be Lilly’s mother. He stood in the entryway and just watched as she talked to Lilly.
She held Lilly on her hip and swayed with her. “What is a sweet baby like you doing with Adam? Hmm?”
He moved forward into the kitchen. The marble tile was continued in this room, and she’d installed black granite countertops with gold streaks running through it, too. The kitchen had all black appliances including stove with double ovens, refrigerator, dishwasher, trash compactor and microwave.
Her cabinets were oak with glass in the doors on the upper ones and solid oak on the lower cabinets.
“You two appear to be getting along famously, although Lilly looks like she’s about to make a meal of your hair.”
Bree laughed and tugged the baby’s fist out of her long hair.
Her hair was one of the things Adam loved about Bree. She had golden-blonde hair that flowed in waves and curls to the middle of her back. She liked to wear it loose, though when she worked in the garden, she pulled it up into a messy bun on top of her head, like it was now.
“Shall we see what’s in the diaper bag and then while I change her, you can tell me her story.”
Bree had moved the car seat to the floor and put some towels on the table.
“If you spread these out, then we can get this done quickly. You don’t know how to change her diaper, do you?”
“No. I know nothing about babies.”
“Then you better watch and learn. Where is her mother?”
“Gone. Lilly’s my daughter.”
“It thought so. She has your eyes, you know.” Then she grinned and placed her hand on his arm. “I still can’t believe you’re a father. You’re thirty-six and I figured if you weren’t married again by now, you wouldn’t be. And I never thought you’d have children. This is monumental, Adam.”
Adam shrugged as he finished spreading the towels on the table. “I never thought this would happen. I’ve always been careful. I guess I had a faulty condom.”
“I guess so. It happens to the best.” Bree laid Lilly on the towels, removed her onesie and took off the soaked diaper. “I need the wipes.”
He found the tub of baby wipes and handed her one.
She washed Lilly and then put a dry diaper on her along with a clean onesie.
Adam watched closely, taking notes on his phone. It didn’t seem to be hard, but he knew that this was just a wet diaper, and she would have a messy one sometime soon.
Taking Lilly back into her arms, Bree handed her to Adam.
“So, tell me how you ended up with a daughter, and why now?”
He told her the entire story, leaving nothing out.
“Well, that’s quite a tale. Let me get us some iced tea, and you can tell me why you’re here. Not that I don’t love seeing you, but this is fairly strange you have to admit.”
Bree walked to the refrigerator.
The large kitchen had an eating area where Adam sat at the round oak table. He held Lilly in his lap.
She pounded on the table with her little fists and babbled happily.
“I’m here because I need your help and not just with Lilly. I need a wife and Lilly needs a mother.”
Bree’s hands stilled as she reached for the pitcher of tea. “Why did you come to me? Do you want me to help you find a wife?”
Adam shook his head. “No. I want you to be my wife.” He hurried on before she could speak. “Please hear me out before you say no.”
She continued with her task and came to the table with two large glasses of iced tea. She made it with just a little sugar, just enough to cut the bitterness tea sometimes had, but not make it sweet.
Her mother had always prepared it that way, and Bree continued with the tradition. He found he preferred it served this way.
“I need a wife for a deal I’m working on. The couple who own the company are rather old-fashioned and very rigid about it. They want whoever they choose to go with, to be a family man. Now, especially with Lilly, I need a wife.” He hurried on. “It wouldn’t have to be permanent. A marriage of convenience. Please say you’ll do it.” She has to say yes. I won’t get the Breckenridge account if I don’t have Danvers first.
Bree was quiet for a bit. She sipped her tea. “I’ll get attached to Lilly. I never wanted to marry. Not after Brad. You know that. And I thought you would never marry again after Valerie.”
His gut churned, and he stiffened at the mention of his ex-wife. “I know. I’m sorry. I never should have asked you. Don’t worry about it, I’ll figure out something else. I?—”
She placed her glass on the table and smiled at Lilly.
The baby started giggling as if she knew the funniest joke.
Bree turned her gaze back to Adam. “I’ll do it. I want to be a mother, Adam but I don’t want our friendship to become romantic. I want to be loved, as a woman, before I have sex with anyone, including you. You’re my best friend; so of course, I’ll help you. I’m twenty-eight and this will be my only chance to have a child. When would you want to get married?”
Adam let out the breath he hadn’t known he was holding. “As soon as possible. Unless you want a big church wedding, I thought we could just do it at the house with a justice of the peace.”
She waved a hand and smiled. “That’s fine. I don’t want a big wedding. That was my dream when I thought I was marrying Brad; I don’t need or want that anymore.”
“Today is Wednesday. Is Saturday too soon?”
She shook her head. “That will be fine. What will you do with Lilly until you get her some furniture?”
“She’ll just sleep with me. I thought I’d go furniture shopping after leaving here. Unless…do you want to go with me to pick out the furniture? You know more about what she’ll need than I do.”
She grinned. “I’d love to go with you. We’ll purchase a portable playpen you can take home tonight and let her sleep in that.”
Adam nodded. “That’s a great idea. What else will she need?” He pulled out his phone and started taking notes again. He was making a lot of notes, he realized. Having a child was a lot harder than he expected.
She put an index finger on her chin and pursed her lips. “Well, are you planning on doing a complete nursery?”
“Of course. I’ll turn the bedroom closest to mine into a nursery. You can have the bedroom on the other side so if she needs anything one of us will surely hear her. Although, we haven’t talked about it, I assume you’ll be moving into my house.”
“Of course. I want to be there at night if Lilly needs me. Besides, you’ll still have to travel. You can’t put your business on hold, and I’ll be there for when you can’t be.”
He nodded, and then his phone chirped. He pulled it out of a front pocket in his pants and looked at it. “I need to take this. Afterward we can talk about furniture.”
“I’ll make a list of what she’ll need while you take your call.”
Adam walked out of the kitchen to the hall to the living room. “Kincaid.”
He listened. “I don’t care what they want. I’m not selling the land. I have my own plans for that property. Tell them I’ll discuss those with them when I return to the office. I’m taking the rest of this week off. I plan on returning to the office next week.”
He listened again. “Thanks, Emily. If anyone calls, take a message. I’ll return their calls when I get back to the office.”
“Yes, thank you. Goodbye.” He shoved the phone back in his pocket and returned to Bree. He sat across from her, picked up his tea and took a calming sip.. “Now, the furniture. What does she need?”
Bree picked up the list she’d made and read from it. “You’ll want to buy a crib, the playpen, a chest of drawers, and two changing tables, one for the nursery and one for the main floor. You’ll need a nightstand and lamp with a night light. It would probably be a good idea to get a music box to play while she settles down and goes to sleep.”
Adam’s stomach turned at the thought of all the things a baby needed. “I’m thankful you agreed to help me because I can make copious notes about what she needs but I’ll never know what to get if there are choices. Besides, I don’t know where to get all this stuff.”
She chuckled. “That’s just the furniture. She’ll also need diapers and clothes.”
“What kind of diapers and clothes? What clothes does a baby wear?”
Bree appeared to take pity on him. “Come on. We’re going to my friend’s baby boutique. She’ll have everything you need.” Bree reached out and touched his arm. “Trust me.”
“I aways do,” he replied honestly. She was his best friend. He trusted her with his life and now, more importantly, with Lilly’s.