Total pages in book: 144
Estimated words: 135382 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 677(@200wpm)___ 542(@250wpm)___ 451(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 135382 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 677(@200wpm)___ 542(@250wpm)___ 451(@300wpm)
Sadie settled in behind her desk. “I’ll call everyone in. Ian’s in a meeting but he’ll be thrilled we nearly got murdered because it means he can cut it short. For a man who makes his money off corporate clients, he really hates them.”
“And get Adam on pulling the CCTV footage.” He wanted a face. If he had a face, he would be one step closer to a name. “Steph, I’m not joking. Come on. This is serious.”
She merely kept walking, her right arm in the air and middle finger extended.
“That’s rude,” Tucker commented. “At least that’s what everyone tells us when we use that gesture. I thought it was comical in all the movies I’ve seen it used in.”
Steph turned and walked through a door, disappearing from sight. Here it was, the moment he’d been dreading. He was going to meet the competition, the younger, likely less scarred rival who liked to flirt with other women when his girlfriend wasn’t around.
There wasn’t anything else to do but get the damn introductions over and let the young man know what he thought about how he took care of his girl.
He stopped at the doorway, realizing where she’d gone.
Brody stopped because she wasn’t walking into one of the offices, or even the break room. She walked into the large conference room they’d turned into a nursery. He found himself standing on the threshold of a room covered in toys and cribs. Two girls who looked an awful lot like Charlotte Taggart were sitting at a tiny table coloring. A couple of toddler boys were giggling and pushing toy cars along the floor. There was a nursery worker with a tiny baby in her arms, rocking in a rocking chair while she patted the baby’s back.
And Steph was standing over a crib.
“He’s been such a sweetheart,” the second of the nursery workers was saying. “He woke up a couple of minutes ago and he doesn’t fuss at all. He’s probably ready for a bottle though. He’s been trying to eat his own foot. Are you okay? Something happened to your shirt.”
He felt like his feet were nailed to the floor. Like he couldn’t move at all. What was going on?
Why was she here? The answer played around in his head and made him the tiniest bit ill.
Or a lot queasy. Yeah, it was more like a lot.
“It’s nothing to worry about. I’m fine. I just need to see him,” she said as she leaned over and picked up whatever was in the crib.
A baby. A freaking baby was in the crib, his inner voice was screaming. A baby. She lifted the baby up. A big baby. A big boy baby. He was wearing one of those blue shirt things mums put their infants in. It snapped together under his nappy. He had white socks on his pudgy baby feet.
Brody had seen that child before. He’d seen him at home, in pictures his mum kept on the walls.
“Nate?” His voice sounded tiny to his ears.
She turned and rolled her eyes. “Yes, I believe I told you in the voice mails I left that I was naming him Nathan. That’s his name. Nathan Avery.”
Her voice mails. The ones he hadn’t listened to. The ones he’d callously deleted so he wouldn’t be tempted by her. The voice mails where she told him she was having their child.
“Uh, Brody, you just went super white,” Tucker pointed out. “It is not a good look on you. You okay?”
Nope. Not at all. He felt light-headed and he couldn’t quite make his feet move. What had he done?
“Did I miss the big reveal?” Adam Miles showed up, a can of soda in his hand. “Damn it. I wanted popcorn to go with the show. Yeah, that’s your son, you dumbass. Whoa. Uh, I take it back. Do you need some sugar or something?”
The world spun and Brody felt himself falling. Right on Adam Miles.
He heard Steph cursing, but he was the one passing out this time.
The world blinked out and he found momentary peace.
Chapter Five
“Your ribs are fine,” a feminine voice was saying as Brody started to come out of the haze. “Your arm is not broken. I think if you hold a cold pack to your wrist it should be fine by morning.”
“No, I can tell that something is broken. I had four hundreds pounds of Australia fall on top of me. I have to have nearly died,” Miles whined. “I’m sure he broke my spleen.”
He felt a hand on his wrist, soft fingers sliding over to check his pulse.
“Brody? Can you open your eyes?” Steph’s voice was strong and clear. The voice of a doctor taking over out in the field.
He opened his eyes, blinking at the lights. What had happened? “I’m fine. I must have fallen.”
She frowned down at him. “You fainted.”