Boss Daddy: A Secret Baby Romance by Black, L. (good books for high schoolers .TXT) 📕

I dialed the number and waited, but the line never answered. I called again, and suddenly my phone died and I realized I had forgotten my charger. It was still plugged in behind the lamp at the hotel room. I had been on the phone all damn day with my brothers, vendors, and eventually security people that I had run the battery all the way down. Just making sure everything arrived on time was exhausting and required so much more coordination than I figured it would beforehand. Especially with Matt being more preoccupied with making the right food and making sure the big-picture things were being taken care of.

Sitting my phone down on the desk, I propped my elbows and dropped my head into my hands. What was I supposed to do? First off, I was extremely frustrated with myself for forgetting the charger. Also, I was upset that I had left Hannah so quickly without getting an explanation. I should have made Matt go deal with it, burning food be damned. But instead, I left and now I had this question ringing through my head.

Was I about to be a father?

It was a real possibility, and until I heard back from Hannah, I had to operate under the idea that it might be true. At thirty-six, I almost thought that chance had passed me by years ago. Being a father was what my brothers did, not me. I was the military brat who might get itchy feet and run away again, not one who suddenly settled down and became a dad.

And yet…

There was an appeal. There was an appeal to being a father, and to being that close to Hannah. I was falling for her, deeper every single day, and having a kid, while not the greatest timing, wasn’t something I opposed. If it was with her, then it would be worth it. She made everything seem worth it.

I slammed my hands on the desk. How could I be so stupid as to leave the charger at the hotel? Now I was stuck in the bar, with hours left on the clock, with no ability to communicate to the outside. To communicate with Hannah.

What if she was calling me back? Leaving me because I reacted that way to the news? I had to figure this all out. And I had to figure it out at the expense of anything going on around me. My brothers would just have to understand.

32 Hannah

I could hear my phone ringing in the other room, but there was no getting out of the bathroom. The floor and I were having a serious love-hate relationship as of late. I loved that it was the perfect amount of space for me to throw down a pillow and blanket when I had to camp out for a couple of hours at a time. And that was where the hate came in. Maybe I would get accustomed to these bouts of sickness, but I was really not having a good time with them at that point.

My stomach had given me a dire warning that there would be no moving around for a while when the phone started ringing. I had a feeling it was Jordan calling me back, and I wanted to talk to him, but there was no way I was going to be able to get to the other room and answer.

Finally, the sick feeling dissipated, and I was able to climb shakily to my feet. Like I always did, I paused for a couple of seconds to feel out how I was doing. When I confirmed it was over, I rinsed my mouth, brushed my teeth, and headed into the bedroom for my phone.

Checking the missed calls confirmed it was Jordan who had called, and I called him back. It didn’t even ring. I hung up and tried again, thinking there was a chance he was calling me at the same time, and we were managing to block each other. It went straight to voicemail again, telling me the phone was off.

I sat on the edge of the bed, looking at the phone for a few long seconds. I didn’t know what to make of him turning his phone off after I missed one call from him. Was he angry at me?

He was obviously joking when he asked if I was pregnant. Which made two people who’d made that joke within the last couple of days and had it turn around and bite them in the ass.

And then there was that pause. I knew he caught it. He noticed my hesitation. Which probably meant he had put it all together and knew I was pregnant. He said he would call me back, so he wanted to talk about it. And he did call me back. But then he turned his phone off immediately. That had to mean something.

I hated the way my thoughts were starting to spiral, so I swallowed them down and got dressed. Even though the rest of Samantha’s recommendations hadn’t done any good for me, I tried one more of them by chewing on some candied ginger as I got into my pajamas and curled up in bed.

It was earlier than I usually went to bed on my nights off. Staying up late helped to make it less of a shock to my system when I had to work until the wee hours. But Sam had already warned me the next few weeks would bring on a whole new kind of tired, so I figured I might as well start stockpiling sleep now.

Besides, if I was asleep, I wouldn’t have to worry about Jordan and what he was thinking. At least for a little while.

The next day, I headed back to the library to keep working on the mural. I wanted to get it finished sooner rather than later, and now that I was making progress on it, I could really see it coming together. That motivated me even