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He’d already done that. Already lived through betrayal and having his heart smashed under the boot of a woman who decided some loser wannabe country singer was a better bet than a Texas inventor/cowboy. When Sasha walked out, she’d burned him badly enough that Toby hadn’t wanted anything to do with women. But Naomi had been there with him, through all of it.
He didn’t give a damn about Sasha anymore and figured he’d made a lucky escape in spite of the pain and fury he’d survived. And Naomi had helped him get clear of all that. So marrying her was not just a perfect solution to the current problem—it was also a way to stand by Naomi. To thank her for being there for him when he needed it most. This marriage meant he got his best friend living with him. He got a child to raise and love, and he didn’t have to worry about whether or not he could trust his wife.
“Yeah, well,” Clay said wryly, “she’s your best friend now. That’ll stop when she’s your wife.”
A flicker of doubt sputtered into life inside him, but Toby squashed it flat. “Not Naomi. I trust her.”
“Your funeral,” Clay said with a shrug.
“You talk a hard game,” Toby retorted with a half laugh. “But then there’s Sophie.”
Sophie Prescott. Clay’s secretary.
The other man shrugged, stuffed his hands into his pockets and said, “What about her?”
“Oh, man, don’t try to look innocent. You can’t pull it off.” Toby laughed. “I’ve seen the way you look at her.”
“Looking’s one thing. Marrying’s another,” Clay allowed with a grin. “The rest of you may get picked off one by one, but you can bank on me being the last single man standing.”
“Yeah,” Toby said, heading for the house, waiting for Clay to follow, “that’s what we all say. But you know what? You’re going back to a cold, empty ranch, while I’ll be here with Naomi.”
He smiled to himself as he realized he was looking forward to having her here. To her being a part of his everyday life. Of watching that baby inside her grow. With Naomi, he could have the life he wanted with none of the dangers or risks. What man wouldn’t want that?
Five
“So,” Simone asked as she set an empty box down on Naomi’s bed, “how excited is Toby to be a father?”
Simone had her nearly blue-black hair pulled back into a thick tail that hung down between her shoulder blades. The woman’s amazing ice-blue eyes shone with a kind of happiness Naomi was glad to see there. Simone had the kind of face that made most people think she was gorgeous but empty-headed. It didn’t take her long to prove just how brilliant she really was.
“He says he’s really happy about it.” Which was true, but not the whole truth. A flicker of unease rippled through her as Naomi realized that to keep her bargain with Toby, keep her baby safe, she’d have to lie to her closest friends.
It wasn’t that she didn’t trust Simone and Cecelia both. They’d been friends forever, and heaven knew the three of them had shared so many secrets, there really wasn’t much they didn’t know about each other. But she had to think about her baby, too. The baby who would grow up knowing Toby as its father. Was it fair to her child to let other people in on the fact that Gio Fabiani had been her sperm donor? And that was really all he had been, she assured herself.
He wasn’t a father in any sense of the word, so did he really deserve to even be mentioned? Now that she’d actually spoken to him and knew without a doubt that he’d never have anything to do with the baby, wasn’t it better for everyone to just forget about his involvement completely?
“I can’t believe you managed to keep your pregnancy a secret. From us,” Simone added. “I mean, you’re nearly five months, right?”
“It’s because she never eats,” Cecelia put in, playfully sticking her tongue out at Naomi. She was any man’s dream woman, Naomi thought. Gray-green eyes, long wavy platinum hair, a curvy figure and long legs. She was also driven, ambitious and funny. “She’s pregnant and still skinnier than I am.”
Skinny. That had been Naomi’s goal for most of her life. Now her body would be doing as much changing as her life, and she found she wasn’t too concerned about it. Maybe it was having Toby standing with her. Maybe it was finally accepting and being proud of the fact that she was going to be a mother. Whatever the reason, though, Naomi thought it was about time she stopped worrying so much about the scale. She had more to think of than herself now, right? Hadn’t Toby said just the other day that the baby needed more than a lettuce leaf to grow on?
“Naomi?” Cecelia asked. “You okay?”
“What? Yeah. Sorry. I’m fine. I’m just—” She paused, looked around at the chaos strewn around the bedroom of her condo and realized it was the perfect metaphor for her life. “Overwhelmed.”
“Easy to understand,” Simone said, folding another sweater and laying it in a box. “It’s not every day you get slammed in a viral video, get engaged and announce a pregnancy.”
“God,” Naomi whispered. “It sounds even crazier when you say it out loud.”
“Yes, but you’re handling it,” Cecelia said, pushing her hair back and kicking back onto the bed to get comfy. She crossed her feet at the ankle, grabbed a pillow and held it against her belly. “Simone and I have had our share of crazy lately, too, remember?”
“Absolutely,” Simone muttered and pushed Cecelia’s feet out of the way to reach for a stack of folded T-shirts. “Honestly, I didn’t know what was going to happen with Deacon, but now look at us.”
Cecelia tossed Simone more shirts while Naomi zipped her cosmetics case closed.
“Heck, look at all of us,” Cecelia said with a wide smile. “The mean girls are done, and we’re all in love.”
Naomi sighed a little.
