The Baby Surprise (4 page)

“Having the responsibility of a child changes everything,” Paige felt compelled to point out.

He nodded. “That's why I've decided to stay in Pinehurst until we've established Emma's paternity.”

He planned to stay in Pinehurst?

Oh, this is not good,
Paige thought.

At the same time, Megan said, “That's great.”

Paige frowned at her, but her cousin refused to meet her gaze.

“Because caring for Emma has been a big responsibility for Paige to tackle on her own,” Megan continued.

“I'll gladly help in any way that I can,” Zach said.

Paige didn't need or want his help and the steely-eyed glare she sent in his direction told him so. But he wasn't looking at her but at Megan, who rewarded his evident compliance with a smile.

“And it would probably help ease Emma's shyness if she got used to seeing you around,” she continued. “She's in the living room playing, if you wanted to hang out in there.”

“Do you mind?” he asked Paige, as if her opinion actually mattered.

She forced a smile through gritted teeth. “No. Go ahead.”

Paige waited until Zach had left the room to turn to her cousin. “I can't believe you just did that.”

“What I just did was ensure that Zach Crawford will see firsthand how good you are with Emma, how much she's bonded with you, and realize how difficult it would be for her if he tries to take her away,” Megan said.

“So I'm supposed to believe that you did this for me?”

“You know that Ashley and I love that baby, too. Maybe not the way you do, but none of us want to see you lose her.”

“Yet you just invited the enemy to essentially set up camp here.”

“It's not as if you could force him to leave town before he's ready, and this paves the way for a cooperative, rather than an adversarial, relationship,” Megan said reasonably.

“If he is Emma's father, he could take her away from me, so forgive me for not wanting to cooperate with him.”

Megan sighed. “You are one of the most rational people I know, but you're being completely irrational about this.”

Paige knew it was true, but she wasn't quite sure how to explain it.

“Something about him just sets off my radar,” she finally admitted.

Her cousin's eyebrows lifted. “Your I-don't-trust-this-guy radar? Or your I-don't-trust-myself-around-this-guy radar?”

Paige frowned.

“Because I may be happily married and eleven months pregnant—” she glanced down at her enormous belly “—but even I couldn't miss the fact that Zach Crawford is seriously hot.”

“He's a lieutenant colonel in the United States Air Force.”

“Which, for a lot of women, would only further enhance
his appeal. Yummy good looks, perfectly sculpted body, strong moral character and dedication to his country.”

“None of which qualifies him to assume the care of a fourteen-month-old baby, even if she is his daughter.”

Megan nodded slowly. “Now I get it.”

“What do you get?” Paige asked warily.

“That this isn't about Zach at all.”

“It's about Emma.”

“Maybe,” her cousin acknowledged. “And maybe it's about the fact that Colonel Phillip Wilder was a respected military leader but a complete screwup as a father.”

“It's about Emma,” Paige insisted.

And although there was no disputing that Paige was genuinely concerned about the child's well-being, it was obvious to both of them that there were more issues to be dealt with than the custody of one little girl.

 

Zach stayed through the morning, just hanging around while Emma played. Sometimes Emma approached Paige, wanting her help with some task or another, and although she cast frequent curious glances in Zach's direction, the little girl kept a careful distance between herself and the stranger.

To his credit, Zach didn't push to engage her in play or conversation and he didn't hover. He just stayed in the background, silently observing. Paige knew it was ridiculous, but she couldn't help feeling that her every word and her every action were being monitored by the man who claimed to be the little girl's father.

When it was time for Emma's lunch, she felt compelled to offer to feed him, too. And he responded with such genuine appreciation, she felt guilty for making the offer so begrudgingly.

They munched on sandwiches while Emma tackled cooked noodles and vegetables with her six teeth.

“She'll go down for a nap after lunch,” Paige told him, as she cleared their plates away. Hint, hint.

“I guess that's my cue to head out,” he said.

“I try to use the time when she's asleep to catch up on e-mail and other business matters.”

“I thought you were on vacation.”

She shook her head. “I'm actually on a leave of absence right now.”

“Why?”

“Because I didn't realize the firm frowned upon an attorney giving closing arguments in a trial with a baby strapped to her chest in a Snugli.” Not so long ago, she would have been horrified by the thought of putting a baby carrier on over one of her favorite Armani jackets, but almost six months with Emma had changed her perspective—and her priorities.

His lips curved. “Did you really?”

“I didn't have a choice,” she explained. “The day before, when I picked Emma up from Annabelle's—that's her sitter—she warned me that one of the other kids she looks after had been throwing up. So I kept an eye on Emma for any signs of lethargy or fever, but she was fine. Unfortunately, though, Annabelle caught the bug and she called at six o'clock the next morning to tell me that she wouldn't be able to take Emma that day.”

“This is six o'clock the same morning that you're due in court?”

Paige nodded. “And I didn't have a backup plan. Nothing like this had ever happened before. And because no one was available to watch Emma while I went to court, I took her with me.”

“What did the judge think of that?”

“Both the judge and opposing counsel were understanding, and Emma slept through the whole process. Which, by the way, ended with my client maintaining custody of her four
kids and her degenerate ex-husband's access being restricted and subject to supervision.”

“So what was the problem?” Zach wondered.

“The problem came when Emma let it be known that she wasn't quite so happy at the office,” Paige told him. “And it wasn't as if I intended to move her playpen beside my desk—I just went in to ask Rebecca to reschedule my appointments and to pick up some files so that I could work at home. But Carson Wainwright was meeting with the CEO of one of our biggest clients, who happens to be the doting grandfather of seven grandkids and who couldn't help but be drawn away from their meeting in the conference room by the sound of Emma's crying.”

“And that didn't go over well with Mr. Wainwright,” he guessed.

“Right again,” Paige agreed. “Of course, he didn't say anything at the time, but while the CEO was busy cooing over the baby, he was shooting daggers at me across the room. And when Emma was back at Annabelle's the next morning and I returned to my office, I was summoned into a meeting with all three of the senior partners, who suggested that I needed to rethink my priorities if I expected to have a future at Wainwright, Witmer & Wynne.”

“They threatened to fire you?” Zach sounded as stunned as she had been.

“I don't think it will come to that,” Paige admitted. “Owen Wynne immediately jumped up, urging everyone not to be too hasty, and suggested that I should take some time to think things through.

“So that's where I am—trying to figure out whether I can successfully juggle my professional obligations and personal responsibilities—or if I want to.”

“You mean you might leave Wainwright, Winter and…Whatever?”

Her lips curved, just a little. “Wainwright, Witmer and Wynne. And I haven't made any final decisions yet.”

She lifted a sleepy Emma out of her high chair. He stood up.

“Speaking of decisions, you never said when or where we should have the paternity testing done.”

Emma rubbed her face against Paige's shoulder.

“I've used PDA Labs before,” she told him.

At the lift of his brows, she felt her cheeks flush. “I'm an attorney,” she reminded him. “I've had to deal with this issue for several of my clients.”

“So how does it work?”

“We find a doctor to conduct the test, then contact the lab to have them courier a kit to the doctor. Then it's just a swab of the inside of Emma's cheek and yours and waiting for the results.”

“Do you know any doctors in town?”

“Cameron Turcotte, my cousin Ashley's husband, is a doctor.”

He nodded. “How soon can we get it done?”

“I'll call him and the lab this afternoon.”

He must have sensed her reluctance, because he said, “I would think you'd be as anxious as I am to have the matter of Emma's paternity settled once and for all.”

Anxious
didn't begin to describe what she was feeling. Her emotions were too intense and conflicted to be so simply categorized.

She felt helpless and scared, but she was also determined. Even if Zach was Emma's father, Paige didn't intend to quietly slip out of the little girl's life. No, she would make sure that any decisions made about the future were made not on the basis of DNA but considering what was best for Emma.

“Except that establishing paternity may only be the beginning,” she warned.

Z
ach thought about Paige's words as he drove back to his room at Hadfield House.

She was right, of course. Confirming Emma's paternity was only a first step, but neither one of them could really move forward with their plans until that first step had been taken.

Of course, at this point, he really didn't know what his plans would be, how he could fit a child into his life, but he knew that he would find a way. Because, while Paige insisted that a paternity test was needed to prove that he was Emma's father, he'd agreed solely to appease her. He didn't need a cheek swab to confirm what he already knew—Olivia's little girl was his daughter. And he had no intention of walking away from the child or the responsibilities that being a father entailed.

Maybe he and Olivia hadn't known everything about one another, but she had to have known that. Although they'd
only been dating for a few weeks, they'd spent a lot of time together during that period.

When he'd first read her letter, and her claim that he'd fathered a child, his first instinct had been to deny the possibility. He had never been careless about birth control and he certainly hadn't been with Olivia. But even as he'd recalled that fact to reassure himself, he'd heard the echo of his father's voice in the back of his mind:
the only birth control that is one-hundred-percent effective is abstinence. If you're going to play, be prepared to pay.

He'd heard that same warning too many times to count during his teenage years and, although he hadn't always abstained, he'd always been careful.

Obviously not careful enough.

Okay, so finding out about Emma had definitely been a surprise, but he would never say that she was an accident or a mistake. He believed that everything that happened in life happened for a reason, even if the reason wasn't readily apparent. He certainly couldn't fathom any noble purpose for the accident that had not only ended Olivia's life tragically and prematurely but had also left an innocent child without her mother.

But even after her death, Olivia had ensured that her daughter was taken care of, and although he might wonder why she'd chosen to name Paige Wilder as Emma's legal guardian, he couldn't fault her choice. Because what he'd seen in the young attorney's interactions with the child was a woman who was both attentive and affectionate, who anticipated and responded to the child's every need. And a woman who had no intention of accepting that he was Emma's father until he'd jumped through all kinds of hoops.

Well, he would show her that he was more than ready to jump through those hoops and take responsibility for his
child. And if he had to spend time in Paige's company in the process, well, he didn't think that was going to be much of a hardship.

 

Zach came back the next morning, and the morning after that. He wasn't obtrusive and he didn't get in her way, but Paige was all too aware of his presence, of his eyes following her every move, of her own response to him.

She was attracted to him. It was pointless to deny that fact when every nerve ending in her body fairly hummed whenever he was near. It was even more pointless to think that anything could ever come of that attraction when their goals were so diametrically opposed. He wanted to be Emma's father and she had no intention of letting him take the little girl away from her.

Megan had given her the name of a friend who worked at PDA Labs, and she'd contacted Walter Neville directly to inquire about the DNA testing. He'd promised to send a test kit to Dr. Turcotte's office right away and assured her that he would give the package priority when it was returned to the lab. He was so willing and helpful that Paige didn't know how to tell him that she didn't want the package to be given priority, that she would actually prefer if it disappeared into a crack somewhere in the lab.

She did tell Zach that Cameron would let her know when the package was received so that they could go in for the test. He seemed satisfied with that information, but she knew that he was eager to have the question of paternity settled.

On the fourth day after Zach's arrival in town, he called in the morning to tell her that he had some errands to run but would stop by after lunch to spend some time with Emma then. But when Paige opened the door after she'd settled the little girl down for her nap, she found Megan on the porch instead.

“This is a surprise,” she said, stepping away from the door so her cousin could enter.

“I hope you don't mind,” Megan said, waddling in. “I was up a few times in the night with a backache and Gage was threatening to cancel a meeting today to stay home with me, but I told him I would spend the afternoon with you so he didn't have to do that.”

“I don't mind at all,” Paige assured her. “In fact, I'm grateful for the company.” And for the buffer that her cousin's presence would provide when Zach showed up later.

“Is that coffee I smell?” Megan was already moving toward the kitchen.

“Yeah, but I thought you gave it up for your pregnancy.”

“I did, aside from half a cup in the morning,” her cousin agreed. “But that doesn't mean I can't drink in the luscious scent.”

Paige smiled. “I can make you a cup of tea.”

“That would be great.” Megan eased herself onto one of the stools at the breakfast counter while Paige filled the kettle and set it on the stove to boil. “Where's Em?”

“Sleeping.”

“Which means I'm intruding on the only quiet time you have during the day.”

“Sometimes it's too quiet,” Paige said.

“Has Zach been here already today?”

She shook her head. “He said he wanted to come this afternoon, to go with Emma and I on our daily trek to the park.”

“I know you're not thrilled with him hanging around,” Megan said, “but you have to applaud his effort. The man is definitely trying.”

“I know he is,” Paige admitted. “And Emma is starting to warm up to him. Yesterday she threw a block at his head.”

Megan's brows lifted. “That's warming up?”

“Before that, she completely ignored him.”

“Then I guess that's warming up,” her cousin agreed.

“But enough about Zach,” Paige said, wanting to talk about anything but the man who seemed to occupy far too many of her thoughts already. “Tell me about this backache that had you up in the night.”

Megan shrugged. “I've had twinges for a few days. Which probably isn't surprising, considering that I'm hauling around an extra twenty-four pounds and I'm three days past my due date.”

Paige smiled as she turned off the kettle and poured water into a mug. Her cousin's obvious disgruntlement confirmed that she'd expected her baby to pop out precisely on schedule and was none too pleased with the delay. She set a box of lemon cookies in front of the expectant mother along with the tea.

“Didn't I just say that I've put on twenty-four pounds?” Megan demanded, but she was already opening the box.

“You did,” Paige agreed. “But I happen to know that those are the baby's favorites.”

“Which probably explains twenty-two of those pounds,” her cousin mumbled around a mouthful of cookie.

They chatted and ate cookies while Megan drank her tea and looked longingly at Paige's cup of coffee. But before her tea was finished, Megan slid off the stool.

“Are you okay?” Paige asked.

Megan shrugged. “I can't sit for too long, or stand for too long, or do anything without feeling restless and…oh.”

Paige was immediately on her feet and beside her cousin. “Meg—what's wrong?”

The other woman's face was pale, her eyes wide. Paige wasn't sure how it was possible, but her cousin somehow looked both excited…and terrified.

“I think…my water…just broke.”

“Ohmygod.”

Megan just nodded.

Paige's brain scrambled. She'd been through this before, when Olivia had gone into labor with Emma, but at the moment she couldn't remember what to say or do. “Okay. Um. What are we supposed to do now?”

“I don't know about you,” Megan said, sounding fairly calm, “but I'm going to call Gage.”

“Oh. Right. Good idea.” Paige turned to reach for the phone on the counter but stopped when Megan grabbed her arm, hard. “Contraction?”

Her cousin nodded.

“Are you breathing?”

Megan nodded again.

And then, as if Paige wasn't already frazzled enough, the doorbell rang.

She handed the phone to Megan before she went to answer the door.

“Oh, Zach. I'm sorry, but this really isn't a good time.”

“But I called this morning and you said—”

“This morning my cousin wasn't standing in my kitchen in the beginning stages of labor,” she told him. “But now I have to get Emma up from her nap so we can take Megan to the hospital—”

“Or I could stay with her,” Zach offered.

“With Megan?”

He smiled, and even in the midst of all the chaos and confusion, her heart gave a giddy leap. “With Emma.”

“Oh, of course.” But she hesitated.

He was offering an obvious and easy solution. But her brain was still scrambling, and while her hormones were urging her to take whatever this man was offering, she wasn't quite ready to trust him alone with the little girl who had been entrusted to her care—even if he was Emma's father.

“Paige!”

She whirled away from the door, summoned by her cousin's impatient demand.

Zach stepped into the foyer behind her. Holding back a sigh of frustration, Paige chose to ignore him and focus on Megan.

“Gage said he'll meet us at the hospital, but he's going to be a while.”

Knowing how devoted her cousin's husband was to his wife and how excited they both were about the baby, Paige was more than a little surprised by this response.

“He's in Manhattan,” Megan explained.

“Manhattan?”

Megan nodded, her eyes filling with tears. “He's supposed to be here.”

“He will be here,” Paige promised, almost certain it was true. After all, it was only a three-and-a-half-hour drive from Manhattan, and Megan would undoubtedly be in labor a lot longer than that. “But in the meantime, we should get you to the hospital.”

“I need my bag.”

“I can get your bag after I get you to the hospital.”

“I need to take my bag to the hospital,” Megan insisted.

Paige knew her cousin's insistence wasn't as much about the bag as it was about the fact that Megan didn't want to go to the hospital without Gage, because she didn't want to have her baby without the baby's father by her side. So Paige took her hands and squeezed gently.

When Megan looked up, Paige simply said, “Breathe.”

Megan drew in a lungful of air, then exhaled it slowly.

“Better?”

The mother-to-be nodded. “But I still want my bag.”

“Honey, your house is in the opposite direction from the hospital.”

“I could take Megan to the hospital and you can go pick up her bag when Emma wakes up from her nap.”

Until he spoke, Paige had almost forgotten Zach was there. Or maybe she hadn't actually forgotten so much as she'd
wished she could forget. In any event, she was as protective of her cousin as she was of Emma, and she had no intention of letting him intrude on her life any more than he already had.

“That's not necessary—” she began, only to be interrupted by Megan's hopeful request, “Are you sure you wouldn't mind?”

“Of course not,” Zach assured her.

“I'm leaking,” the laboring mother-to-be warned.

To his credit, Zach paled only a little, and his response was a casual, “Leather seats.”

“Thank you.” Megan turned back to Paige. “My bag's beside the door in the nursery. You have a key and the code for the alarm?”

“Yes, but—”

“Great.”

“It's not great,” she felt compelled to protest, but her cousin was already hustling—as much as she could hustle in her current condition—down the driveway toward Zach's Jeep, leaving Paige to stare after their retreating forms.

Through the baby monitor, she heard Emma stirring in her crib, and she pushed aside her annoyance and frustration to focus on the baby. Once she'd dealt with the waking child's immediate needs, she'd go get Megan's damn bag.

 

When Paige arrived at the hospital about an hour later, Megan still hadn't been admitted. Instead, she was pacing the waiting room with Zach beside her. Paige's pulse jolted when she saw him. He wasn't the first man whose appearance had affected her in such a way, but it was more than his dark good looks and long, hard body that made her belly quiver this time. It was the realization that a man so big and strong could be so gentle, as he was being with Megan right now.

She couldn't hear what they were talking about, but she saw her cousin smile in response to something he said. The
smile slipped and she reached toward the wall to brace herself as another contraction hit. But Zach was right there, taking her hand, talking her through the pain.

Paige paused in the doorway—caught for a moment in the memory of doing the same things during her friend's labor, of keeping Olivia focused on her breathing while trying to distract her from the pain and silently cursing the man who had impregnated and then abandoned her friend.

Watching Zach with Megan, she was struck by the contradiction between what Olivia had told her about the baby's father and what—after only a few days—she knew about the man who was Zach Crawford. And she couldn't help but wonder how different things might have been for Olivia and Emma if he'd known about the pregnancy.

If
Zach was Emma's father.

She shifted the still-sleepy baby to her other shoulder and acknowledged that even she was getting weary of her incessant protests about something everyone else seemed willing to accept as fact. Maybe she was being difficult. Maybe she was stubborn. But she wasn't ready or willing to simply let Zach step into the role of Emma's father without any concrete proof. She wasn't ready to lose the little girl she loved with her whole heart.