Baby Mistake: An Accidental Pregnancy Romance Page 12

  I begin walking down the road as I wait for my ride. Eventually, it pulls up to the curb and I climb inside. Everything is flooding my brain more quickly than I can process. I don’t know what I’ll do about this baby, but I do know what I’ll do about myself.

  I won’t be going back to work. I won’t be going to grad school in Chicago. I’ll leave the city. I’ll start a new life and raise this baby on my own. There’s tons of help out there for a single mother in school. I can get into affordable housing, and get grants for school and childcare. I can do this.

  I can do this on my own.

  Chapter Eighteen

  Griffin

  It’s going on noon and I still haven’t heard from El. I’m starting to worry since Sam said she came home sick last night. I keep telling myself to just be patient and wait. When she feels better, she’ll call. I distract myself with business calls. I go by the office and wrap up a few last-minute things with the magazine, then head out for lunch. While I’m sitting back and enjoying my drink, I take my phone out of my pocket and call her. It rings several times before going to voicemail.

  I tell myself she must still be sleeping, and that I’ll try again later. I slide the phone back into my pocket when my late lunch is placed on the table in front of me. I eat alone, have another drink, and head back to the office. I’m sitting behind my desk, going over my schedule, when my phone rings. I jump to answer it, hoping it’s El, but I see Vincent’s name flashing on the screen.

  “Hey, man. What’s up?” I ask, happy that he called. There are things we need to discuss, but I’m also happy for the distraction.

  “You sound awfully chipper…considering.”

  “Considering what, exactly?” I ask, confusion washing over me.

  “What do you mean, considering what? Haven’t you talked to Janelle?”

  “El? No. Not since last night, anyway. Last time I heard, she was sick. I’ve been trying to call her all day, but I guess she’s been too sick to answer. I’ve been trying to talk myself out of going over there. I don’t want to bother her if she’s not feeling well.”

  “So, you don’t know?”

  “Know what, man?” Nervousness washes over me, making my heart rate pick up.

  “Griffin, she’s leaving,” he blurts out.

  “What? Leaving? What the fuck are you talking about?” I shoot up out of my chair, anxiousness taking over and making me pace the varnish off the floor.

  “Griffin,” he says calmly, “Janelle is packing up to leave the city. She called Alison just a bit ago, crying—and I mean, crying to the point where it was hard to understand her.”

  “Why? Is she okay?”

  “She’s pregnant, man.”

  Everything inside of me freezes: my actions, my thoughts, my breathing—all freeze as his words sink in.

  “Are you there?” he asks after a long pause.

  How? How did this happen? When did she find out? Why didn’t she come to me? And why is she crying? She must know how I feel about her by now. She has to know I’d do anything for her, and that I’d want this baby.

  “Griffin?”

  “Yeah?” I snap out of my daze.

  “You didn’t know?”

  “No, no, I didn’t know. I was with her just last night. She got dressed and left to go out with the interns. She was supposed to come back to my place, but when I called, her roommate answered her phone and said she was sick. She’s been avoiding me all day.”

  “That’s because when she went to tell you the news, she found Candice sneaking out of your house bright and early like she slept over. Tell me you didn’t, Griffin. Tell me you’re not getting mixed up with her again.”

  Fuck.

  I shake my head, needing to figure this out.

  “I’ll call you back,” I say before hanging up without a goodbye.

  I need to work this out—get everything straightened out on my end before I attempt to explain this to anyone else.

  Candice is my secret weapon, and the only way to keep her a secret is to keep her out of everything.

  My phone starts ringing again. Without thinking, I answer.

  “Hello?”

  “Griffin, you hurt my sister, and I’m going to rip your balls off!” Alison says.

  I let out a long breath. “It’s not what you think, Alison. Trust me.”

  “Trust you? How in the hell am I supposed to trust you right now?” Her voice is high-pitched and angry.

  I’m not sure, but I think it’s time to let this secret go. If it all blows up in my face, so be it. But it has to come out, because I refuse to lose the only person who means anything to me.

  “Put me on speaker,” I demand.

  I hear a click. “Okay, we’re both here,” Alison says.

  “I’m here, man. What’s going on?” Vince asks.

  “I need you to listen to me very carefully. No one else is around, right?”

  “No, it’s just Alison and me.”

  “All right…here goes. So back when Candice stole all of the hotel’s valuable information and turned it over to the Brookport Hotel, both hotels released a series of commercials and ads. Brookport stole Castille’s ideas, then sued for copyright infringement. With all of our files being compromised, there wasn’t any proof that Brookport stole from us, and not the other way around. The legal team has been able to buy time until we could find a solution, and finally, I found one.” I pause to take a breath. “Next month in court, Candice is going to confess to stealing our files and turning them over to Brookport,” I reveal. “The lawsuit will be gone, and we can countersue to recoup the funds the hotel put into fighting this off. The whole case rests on her.”

  “Oh, that’s brilliant,” Vince says. “How’d you get her to do it?”

  “A few months ago, I discovered that she’d been fired from Brookport. I reached out to her. She denied me on the spot, and I thought there wasn’t a chance in hell. But then she contacted me a few weeks ago. She came to my office and told me that Brookport was trying to gather information on her in an attempt to put her away. Apparently, she had a thing going on with the owner, and it didn’t work out very well. She’s not doing this for us; she’s doing it for herself. She’s trying to get herself out of the hole she dug.”

  I pour a drink and throw myself back into my chair. “With Brookport watching her every move in an attempt to get whatever dirt they can find, I’ve had to hide her so they don’t find out she’s going to testify against them. She’s been staying at the hotel, but I let her crash here last night because she said someone was following her—watching her. Last night, I made arrangements to get her someplace safe until the trial. She must have run into El this morning when she left.”

  “You have to tell her, Griffin,” Alison says.

  “I’ve been trying, but she won’t answer her phone.”

  “Go over there! Now!”

  “You think she’ll let me in?”

  “Make her. She’s upset. She thinks you’ve been cheating on her, and that you won’t want this baby. Make her see reason. You have to.”

  I nod like she can see me as I pull the phone away and hang it up. I pick up my glass, throw back the liquid, and take a deep breath. I have to get her to listen.

  I rush from my office, locking up as I leave, and stop by a flower shop. I buy a dozen white and pink roses, and drive directly to her apartment building. I park up front, unconcerned with the NO PARKING sign. I don’t give a shit if my car gets towed. All I care about is finding her and telling her the truth.

  But what if she won’t listen? Or worse, what if she listens but doesn’t believe me? I can’t survive losing her. Everything in my life has changed for the better. I’ve learned to let loose since meeting her. I’ve learned there’s more to life than work. I’ve learned to laugh. I’ve learned to trust and love again. El gave me all of these things, and I’ll never be the same if she takes it all away.

  I grab the flowers from the passenger seat and rush to the doo
r. I pull back on the handle, but it’s locked. You have to have a key to get into the building. I know if I buzz her apartment, she’ll never let me in. So instead, I plop down on the front stairs. If she won’t answer the phone and she won’t let me in, then I’ll wait and sneak in as soon as someone comes in or out. Then there will only be one more door in my way.

  As I sit on the front steps, I think over our time together. The first time I saw her, it was like she stole the air from my lungs. The time I saw Chase giving her flowers, it felt like I had been kicked in the gut. I think about how red her face got when she spilled the coffee in my lap and then proceeded to try drying it up with tissues—our first innocent touch that was anything but innocent. The first time my lips met hers. The first taste I had of her in that busy club restroom. Our first time. Our last time. All the times in-between.

  Just thinking of her causes me to smell the subtle scent of her perfume. I can feel her soft ivory skin like I’m caressing her cheek with the back of my hand the way I always did when she slept. I can smell her shampoo on my pillows. I can feel the warmth of her bare skin against mine. I can taste her sweet lips that cause shivers to run up my spine. Nothing will stop me from getting to her.

  Nothing.

  She’s mine, whether she knows it or not. Nothing will stop me from proving that to her time and time again. I want her. I want this baby. I want our future—the one she imagined—with us playing in the yard with our kids and dog. Already, I picture tucking in our kids for bed, helping her clean up the kitchen after a big family dinner, and making love to her on that white tiled island in the kitchen we share.

  Tears cause my vision to blur, and I wipe them away, unaware they had even formed. I haven’t cried in years. To be honest, I didn’t even know it was possible for me to cry anymore. My life hasn’t been an easy one. Every moment has been a struggle. I’ve always fought with myself, never being able to decide if I needed to give up or fight harder. For once in my life, I know the answer.

  I have to fight harder.

  Chapter Nineteen

  Janelle

  My phone has done nothing but ring off the hook today. Every time it rings, it only causes my head to pound harder. I shut it off long ago, hoping it would give me some kind of relief. Instead of lying in bed and crying all day, I decide to pamper myself. I need to relax so I can think clearly and decide whether or not I’m doing the right thing by leaving the city. But I know that if I stay, he’ll never leave me be, especially when he finds out I’m carrying his child.

  It’s not that I don’t want to be with Griffin, but how can I be with someone who cheats on me? And even if I’m blowing things way out of proportion, how can I be with someone who keeps something like this from me? Weeks ago, when I asked him about Candice, he told me I had nothing to worry about. I let it go, trusting him—but apparently, I shouldn’t have, because she stayed at his house last night.

  “You know, he can’t explain himself if you avoid him,” Sam says, sticking her head in my room to find me sitting on the floor as I flip through pictures of us—pictures I’d taken on our little vacation and uploaded to my computer.

  “I’m not sure I’m ready to listen to his explanation just yet,” I reply, refusing to look away from the screen.

  Sam walks deeper into my room and sits down beside me. “You’d rather sit here being sad? That doesn’t make sense, El.”

  A puff of air leaves my lips, almost in a laugh. “It doesn’t, does it?” I look up at her with my brows pulled together.

  She shakes her head. “Why don’t you tell me the real reason you’re avoiding him?”

  I tear my eyes from hers, directing all my attention back at the screen. “I’m afraid he’ll confirm my worst fears: that he’s been sleeping with her behind my back all this time. That he’s leaving me to be with her, and was just waiting for the right time to tell me. That he doesn’t want anything to do with me or this baby. That we’ll be alone.”

  She reaches over and rubs my arm. “So what if he does say those things?” My eyes jump up to hers. “Okay, I didn’t mean it like that,” she continues, “I’m just saying that if he does say that, you still won’t be alone. You’ll have me, and you’ll have your family. You can still get everything you want out of life. And then at least you’ll know. You won’t be stuck here in limbo, just waiting.”

  “I love him, Sam.” I shake my head as more tears fall. “I know I’m not supposed to. We were just messing around. But somewhere along the way, I fell for him. I don’t know if I can survive losing him, but I also don’t know if I can ever trust him again either. Even if he comes here and tells me everything I want to hear, won’t I always wonder what he’s hiding? Every time he leaves for work, won’t I wonder if he’s with her?”

  “If it’s meant to be, it will work out, El. I know you’re not the mushy kind who believes in fate or destiny or soulmates, but somewhere deep inside, I know you want to believe. Sometimes you just have to take a leap of faith.” Slowly, she stands and leaves me alone to think things over.

  I grab a stuffed animal I’ve had since I was a kid, and hug it to my chest. I cry and I think and I pray for an answer—a sign—just something that tells me what I need to do. Finally, my choice is taken away.

  “El?” Griffin says, stepping into my room.

  I gasp from hearing his voice as my head whips in his direction. “Wh…wha…what are you doing here?” I ask, too weak from being sick and crying to stand.

  He nods toward the door. “I snuck into the building, and Sam let me into the apartment. She said I’d better fix things, otherwise you’ll kill her for letting me in.” He grins, and it makes my heart quicken its pace. “May I sit with you?” he asks, his Adam’s apple bobbing in his throat.

  I bite my lower lip and nod once, though my body stiffens on its own the closer he gets to me.

  He walks deeper into my room, removes his black leather jacket, and sits on the floor in front of me, holding up a dozen roses between us.

  I smile as I reach out and take the flowers. I bring them to my nose and inhale their scent. My eyes flutter closed as I enjoy the smell of the fresh flowers in silence.

  “I know what you’re thinking,” he says, pulling me from my happy place.

  I open my eyes and place the flowers at my side.

  “Then explain it to me. I can’t promise that this will end the way you’re hoping, but I will listen.”

  “All of this starts years ago, back before we even met,” he starts. He tells me about his and Candice’s relationship. He tells me about how she stole everything from the hotel, and how she used his love and trust to rob him of everything. He tells me about the lawsuit that the lawyers have managed to hold off, and what’s happened over the last few weeks since I saw Candice in his office. Everything makes sense, but something inside me won’t let it go. It’s like it makes too much sense.

  “Did anything happen between the two of you since we’ve been together?”

  “No. Nothing,” he admits. “Months ago, before we even met, when I found out she’d been fired and I made contact with her, she kissed me. But I made it clear that I had no interest in revisiting the past. Since then, she hasn’t made a move. I’ve wanted nothing but you since the moment our eyes met. My world revolves around you, El. Can’t you see that? Even when we’re at work and supposed to just be colleagues, I can’t keep you out of my mind. My eyes seek you out. My body aches to touch you. My heart even skips a beat when you’re by my side. Hell, I’m shocked that no one figured out what we were doing sooner, because all someone has to do is look at me when you walk into a room to see how in love with you I am.”

  I don’t move or say a thing. I just sit back, studying him and thinking things over. Finally, after a long silence, I speak up.

  “I have to tell you something, Griffin.”

  “I already know, El.”

  My head pops up and my eyes lock on his. “You do?”

  He nods. “Vince and your sister called
me. Your sister threatened to rip my balls off,” he laughs, and it makes me smile.

  “How do you feel about it?”

  “About the baby? Or about my balls being ripped off?” he jokes.

  I smack him playfully. “About the baby.”

  He reaches out and pulls me into his lap. “Honestly?”

  I nod as I wrap my arms around his neck, looking deep into his eyes to watch for any sign that he may be lying or being less than truthful.

  “The moment you told me your deepest wish, the one where you saw yourself with the two-story house with the white picket fence, I saw myself as your husband. When you talked about tucking in the kids and having cookouts in the backyard, I saw myself doing that. And I sure as hell saw myself making love to you on that white tiled island.” He gives me a breathtaking smile that makes my heart pound wildly.

  I snort with laughter. “You mean you’re going to give up your big fancy house to move to the suburbs and live in a house that could fit into part of your current house?”

  “If that’s your dream, then it’s my dream too, El. I don’t care about a big house, expensive cars, chefs, or maids. All I care about is having you by my side for the rest of my life. I want to have this baby with you, and many more after it, if that’s what you want. All I want is you, and I’d give the very breath in my lungs if it meant I’d get to keep you forever.”

  Tears fill my eyes and fall down my overheated cheeks with his words. “I love you, Griffin,” I say, moving in for a kiss and realizing that it’s the first time I’ve ever said those words to him.

  “I love you too, El. More than I could ever explain. I just hope you give me the opportunity to help you feel that every single day.” He presses his mouth to mine, and his tongue dances with my own.

  I let out a squeal as he quickly stands, holding me against him as he walks across the floor and kicks the door shut before gently laying me down on the bed.