The Best Man's Baby: A BWWM Pregnancy Romance (6 page)

Daniel sighed and didn't argue with her. Brooke was a hard lady with sharp edges, but Daniel liked the fact that she was independent and didn't complain when he worked long hours. She worked near his offices and so it was easy to see her after business hours or during lunch and she it didn't hurt at all that she was stunning.

Unfortunately, Daniel's criteria for meeting women were rarely more specific than these, which was why he so often dated women who made him unhappy. Even as he listened to Brooke drone on about how all her colleagues were incompetent, his thoughts turned to Carla who had made everyone smile as she passed them e that day at the wedding. She was in such sharp contrast to these power-hungry corporate women he dated who had superficial beauty, but deep character flaws.

He didn't get much chance to speak himself on that date and afterwards, Brooke came back to his apartment for a mechanical encounter in the bedroom and a quick goodbye. Afterwards, Daniel felt unsatisfied and bored and could only think of how different things had been with Carla that night.

It was two months after the wedding and Carla hadn't gotten Daniel out of her mind either, but there were about to be far greater things on her mind. Missing one period could be explained away as stress or illness, but missing two was cause for concern.

Carla hadn't wanted to test herself for pregnancy because the thought of being left with a child after a one-night stand made her head spin in panic. However, after the test had been done more than once and a tearful doctor's visit had confirmed the suspicion, Carla could no longer escape from the fact that she was pregnant. Lily was the first to know.

"Oh God, Carla!" she exclaimed so loudly that Carla had to shush her before she drew attention. "What are you going to do?"

"I don't know!" Carla had whispered desperately, constantly looking over her shoulder as though expecting to see her customers huddled around the counter, trying to hear the juicy details. "What can I do?"

"Are you going to keep it?" Lily asked with wide eyes.

"Yes." Carla sighed. "Definitely."

"I dunno, Carla. I mean, well, you said it; what can you do? I can come with you to buy a crib or something. Would that help?"

Lily tried to be supportive and comforting.

Carla didn't have a great relationship with a loving partner to ease the worry and work brought on by a surprise baby, and her small apartment above the bakery was no place to raise a child. Where was the baby going to go while she was working? Carla put a hand to her head as a hot flash came over her and Lily ushered her into the walk-in refrigerator to cool down.

There, among the chilled towers of wedding cakes and the dozens of brides and grooms staring at her from the cake-topper shelf, the night of the wedding came rushing back to her.

"I'll have to track him down." she stated. "I'll have to tell him."

"Good, good!" Lily encouraged. "You should go now. Do you want me to come?"

Carla smiled weakly at her concern, but shook her head.

"No, honey. You stay here and watch the store," she told her. "Do you think you'd be able to make a few fresh batches? I wrote this week's recipes on the whiteboard above the equipment bank."

"I can handle it." Lily promised her. Suddenly, the young girl who had such a taste for drama and gossip became serious and laid a hand on Carla's arm to comfort her. "It's going to be OK. I'm going to be here with you through all of this."

The baker smiled again and sighed as she stood up to leave. She knew that Daniel worked at Banks &
Porter, which was uptown. She hailed a cab on the main street and headed there. Perhaps it wasn't the greatest idea to confront him with the news in his office, but Carla didn't have his number and she certainly didn't want to call Diane to ask for it. She arrived at the office late in the afternoon and stepped into the foyer of the elite law firm.

The building was all glass and chrome. It looked like something from the future in its design and everybody was wearing a pristine suit and rushing in all directions with purposeful strides and armfuls of paper. Carla felt so out of place with her simple dress and shy steps. She went to the reception and asked for Daniel Towler.

"Do you have an appointment?" the receptionist asked curtly.

"Well, no, but he knows me." Carla told her.

"I'm sorry, ma'am, but I can't let you in without an appointment."

Carla was in the middle of protesting when she felt an arm on her shoulder and turned to see Daniel standing behind her. She lost her breath all over again, seeing him as handsome as he'd been that night, and almost at once she was lost in his eyes.

"It's alright, Natalie." he told the receptionist. "She's with me."

He nodded towards the elevators to suggest that Carla should follow him there. Once they were in the elevator, alone together, Daniel looked her over with cool eyes that revealed a slight surprise, although Carla wasn't sure if he was pleased to see her. She thought for a moment of the last time they were in an elevator together and the heat of the memory made her heart beat faster.

"Not that I'm not glad to see you, but it's a surprise to find you here,” he told her with a kind smile.

The elevator arrived at the twelfth floor and the doors opened. Daniel gestured for her to go ahead and he followed her to the twelfth floor. He then guided her to a huge office with glass windows that overlooked the town. His office was filled with expensive corporate furniture and hundreds of books on the law. Daniel motioned for her to take a seat in one of the executive leather armchairs opposite his desk and then sat down beside her. "What can I do for you, Carla?" he asked, with kind and smiling eyes.

"I'm sorry to just come barging in uninvited, but I didn't have your number,” Carla apologized.  Daniel held up a hand to tell her there was no need to apologize and she continued. "I was single when we met." she stammered out, somehow. "Then we had our... night, and I haven't been with anyone since then."

Daniel looked confused and smiled uncertainly. "I'm not sure what you're trying to say, Carla, he confessed.

"I'm pregnant and it's yours." Carla blurted it out suddenly.

Carla saw a flicker of panic flash in Daniel's eyes. He stared at her in shock and didn't even blink for a long moment, and then he leaned forward and rubbed his hand over his forehead.

"You're sure?" he asked, looking at her with a last ditch glance of hope.

She nodded. "Positive,” she said quietly. She knew that both of their lives were about to change forever.

He sat there quietly for a few minutes, his mind spinning with the news that he was going to be a father. Then he looked at her and cleared his throat, laying a comforting hand on her knee.

"I don't want you to panic over this, Carla," he told her gently. "Whatever you decide to do, you have my support. I will give you anything you need financially or otherwise. I'm sorry that this was unplanned. I know you wanted to focus on your business."

"I'm sorry." Carla replied in turn. "It was meant to be a night of no-strings fun and now this..." she sighed and shrugged. “I just wanted you to know."

"I'm glad you told me." Daniel assured her. "Let me give you my number." He began to write down his cell on the back of a business card and looked her earnestly in the eye. "You can call me night or day," he promised her. "There is no need for you to worry about anything. I'll be here and I fully intend to see this through with you. You aren't going to do it alone; that I promise you."

Carla accepted the card from him and felt relief rush over her. She knew that providing for a child was probably not a big financial issue for him; who knew if this had happened before? All the same, she was glad that he was there.

"I don't expect you to drop everything over this," she told him softly, "but I am ready to let you be as involved as you like." She took another business card from his stand and scrawled down her own number. "You should have my cell, too."

Daniel cast his gaze over the digits and nodded slowly. He looked up at her again. "I want you to stay in touch," he told her firmly. "Sonograms, Lamaze classes, doctor's appointments, you name it. I want to do all of that with you."

"Thanks." Carla said, with a tired smile. The last couple of days had been overwhelming, but knowing that Daniel was going to step up for his part of the responsibility was at least some relief.

She had expected an argument from him, or blame, or a discussion about options, but he had offered her simple and unconditional support. She admired him for that. "I better go." she then said. "I left my apprentice alone at the bakery."

"Sure." Daniel said, standing to walk her back to the elevator. "Just know that I am here for anything you need."

After she was gone and Daniel was back in his office, he was able to let the facade slip a little and felt a tidal wave of panic wash over him. This was the first time that a night of fun had resulted in a pregnancy and Daniel had no idea what he was doing. He could offer every financial support to Carla, but they barely knew each other. He didn't want to leave her on her own to raise his child when he had been the one to seduce her that night, but he was also unprepared to be a family man.

His career was on fire, he was dating Brooke, and he liked his expensive apartment with clean walls and expensive gadgets. He just had no idea where a baby or former lover would fit into that picture.

He needed some moral support of his own. He texted Cliff and they arranged to meet  at their usual bar at once. His friend was triumphant when he told him the news.

"Ha!" he laughed. "Finally life's catching up with you; welcome to my world, Daniel. What are you going to do?"

"Well, I'm going to support her, obviously." Daniel said with a shrug. "What else can I do?"

"What if you took it a step further? Would you try for a relationship with her?" Cliff suggested. "I've always said that you needed a nice girl for a change. Carla is a nice girl."

"She might be a nice girl, but she's also a stranger." Daniel reminded him. "She's a baker, for crying out loud! What am I supposed to do? Drop everything and buy a three-bedroom place in the suburbs?"

"Don't be so dramatic, Dan,” Cliff said. "You're going to be fine. I'm just saying that you shouldn't be so quick to dismiss the idea of a more settled life."

"Hmph!" Daniel scoffed. "I'll support the girl, but I'm not going to be some boring old man with a beard, arguing over the arrangement of the lawn's flowerbed."

"You'd rather be an overworked hotshot hanging onto the purse strings of some selfish brat in a pencil skirt?" Cliff said disdainfully. "I think this is a good chance for you to take a look at what you want for life."

"You used to be a lot like me, Cliff,” Daniel reminded him. "Back when you were in corporate law and living the high life, too."

"I sure was." Cliff agreed. "So, I'm the perfect person to tell you that it wears you out. It shortens your life and there is no real quality in a life like that. I'll tell you something, Daniel, I don't ever think back on a single day of that part of my life with longing.

It was fun then, but wouldn't trade five minutes of my life now for a week of that time. You need to think about this. You used to be relaxed. We used to call you ‘daring Dan’. You were always having a laugh and acting as the clown. Now you just take life so seriously. You've created this aloof, larger-than-life rich lawyer persona and just don't know how to have fun anymore."

"I thought you were always complaining that I had too much fun,” Dan replied. "Now you want me to have more fun?" He frowned at his friend.

"Sleeping with tons of women is not the type of fun I'm talking about, Dan." Cliff told him. "I'm talking about cracking a smile when a joke is funny, instead of barely moving your lips. If an unplanned pregnancy gets you away from the office and back into the real world, then I'm all for it."

Daniel shook his head disbelievingly. He knew that he had changed since college, but he had more responsibilities now. As his reputation had grown, he had not been able to joke around and skip a late night, because that's not how one rises through the ranks of a competitive law firm. Of course, once he started regularly choosing working late over goofing around with friends and chasing corporate women, instead of mixing with all types of people, it did make him change.

Daniel had become much more serious than he used to be; almost untouchable. He decided not to take offense at Cliff's blunt manner, but instead, he chose to give some thought to his friend's earnest words. Perhaps he should offer more than his money and really get involved in the pregnancy and raising the child. Maybe a son or daughter would soften him and give him a reason to smile.

The next day, he told his secretary that he was going to be coming into his office late. He decided to stop by
Carla's Cakes
. It made him smile when he saw the cutout cupcake sign swinging from its frame, with Carla's name painted on it in swirly letters and inside there was a line of people. Behind the counter was a young redheaded girl and then, emerging from the kitchen, Daniel caught sight of Carla.

She was in her element here and that bright smile which made her stand out from the tight-lipped and stern women from the legal world was glowing on her face. She was laughing as she took time to speak with her customers as they ordered and nobody seemed to mind the wait.