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When they arrived, Aiden knocked on the open door. Their boss glanced up, surprised to see both of them, since they rarely spoke to her together.
“Come on in,” Sabrina said from her seat behind her desk, where she’d been going through some paperwork. “Everything okay?”
“Yes, everything is fine,” Aiden replied, and Daisy knew he was reassuring Sabrina that work-wise, there was nothing for her to worry about. “The two of us would like a few minutes of your time to talk to you about something personal.”
“Of course.” She waved a hand toward the two chairs in front of her desk for them to sit as her gaze landed on Daisy. “I was hoping to find out what happened at your doctor’s appointment on Friday and how you’re doing. Can you and I do that after the two of you are done talking to me?”
Despite her best efforts to try and remain calm, Daisy’s nerves had her absently rubbing her palms along her thighs, something she was beginning to realize that she did when she was anxious, which had been a heck of a lot lately. “Actually, my doctor’s appointment is why we’re both here to talk to you.”
A confused frown marred Sabrina’s brows as she glanced from Daisy to Aiden, then back again. “Okay. What’s going on?”
When her hands kept moving restlessly, Aiden reached over and gently grabbed the hand closest to him, shocking her with that intimate touch in front of their boss. It didn’t escape Sabrina’s notice, either, and when his fingers lightly squeezed around Daisy’s to let her know he was right there supporting her, the unease swirling in her stomach suddenly increased.
“I’m almost three months pregnant, and Aiden is the father,” she said, putting it all out there in one quick sentence.
Sabrina’s eyes widened in shock. “Okay . . . I certainly didn’t see that coming.” Her mouth thinned as her gaze dropped to where Aiden was still holding Daisy’s hand, his thumb rubbing across her knuckles. “Is this relationship something the two of you are keeping quiet about?”
“No,” Aiden replied before Daisy could. “I plan to be an active part of the pregnancy and, of course, the baby’s life after it’s born, so I’m sure word will spread pretty quickly throughout the office about the two of us.”
“I’m sure it will,” Sabrina murmured, and she didn’t sound happy about that fact. “Of course you both know that there is no rule against dating a co-worker, and I’m going to trust that the two of you are going to handle this situation professionally when you’re at work, and keep any personal matters outside of the office.”
Daisy’s stomach pitched with renewed distress, and she automatically tugged her hand out of Aiden’s grasp, and he reluctantly let her go. On the heels of her mother’s condemning words the previous night on the phone, her boss’s obvious concern about the situation compounded Daisy’s anxiety. She hated that she was now under a certain amount of scrutiny as an employee, as was her relationship with Aiden. One false move, and she stood to lose everything she’d worked so hard to gain over the past three years—her career, making it on her own, and being successful—and that thought jolted her with a surge of panic.
“Keeping things professional at work won’t be a problem,” Aiden said, since Daisy seemed incapable of speaking at the moment around the tight knot in her throat.
“I’m going to hold you to that,” Sabrina said, giving them both a pointed look. “Obviously, this is a huge surprise, but as long as it doesn’t affect your working relationship in any way, we’re all good. But if there are any issues, we’ll have to revisit this conversation and find a way to make it work.”
Even if it means letting one of you go . . .
Sabrina hadn’t said those actual words, but Daisy was smart enough to know that they were implied. Their boss had always been fair and kind, but ultimately the firm and making sure their clients were satisfied were Sabrina’s main concern, and any drama between co-workers wouldn’t be tolerated.
Before they left Sabrina’s office and started work for the day, there was one more thing Daisy needed to say to her boss. She did her best to remain calm on the outside, even though her insides were twisting and turning and making her nauseous, and it had nothing to do with the baby in her belly.
“Sabrina . . . I promise you that this pregnancy won’t interfere with doing my job and meeting deadlines, or anything else that is required of my position. I’m as committed as ever to the company and our clients.”
“Okay,” her boss replied, seemingly satisfied . . . for the time being. “Then I think we’re good for now.”
“Thank you,” Daisy said as she and Aiden stood up at the same time to leave.
Once they were out of Sabrina’s office and had reached their own area, Aiden leaned a bit closer and said in a low voice that only she could hear, “I think that went fairly well.”
He sounded so confident, and she wished she could feel the same. Unfortunately, life had taught her to tread carefully, and that’s what Daisy intended to do.
* * *
After work, Aiden went to meet his brothers for dinner at one of their favorite casual burger joints, his thoughts on Daisy and that tangible shift he’d felt between them after their conversation with Sabrina that morning. After leaving her office and starting their day, it was obvious to him that Daisy was deliberately maintaining her distance at work and keeping interaction with him to a minimum.
He wasn’t surprised. Obviously, the discussion with Sabrina had hit Daisy where she was most vulnerable, in that deep, dark place that Aiden now knew Diane Parker was responsible for creating in her daughter at a young age. Hell, he’d heard with his own ears how her mother had blatantly told Daisy that she’d screwed up her future by getting pregnant, while insisting that she’d end up throwing away her career to take care of the baby alone.
It didn’t matter that Aiden would never let that happen, because Daisy only knew what she’d experienced in life so far . . . and that was a parent who’d reinforced that men made promises they didn’t keep, and trusting a man who’d deceived her in the worst way possible, both of which had happened to Daisy and had confirmed her mother’s ominous warning.
And this morning, Sabrina had unknowingly rekindled those fears in Daisy, because while their boss had accepted the situation on the surface, she’d also made it very clear that if there were any conflicts between them that affected their ability to work together, their positions within the company would be reevaluated.
So, while Aiden understood where Daisy’s panic stemmed from, he would never do anything to jeopardize either one of their jobs. But that was something she’d have to come to accept and believe on her own. Which meant in the meantime, he wasn’t going to put any pressure on her in terms of defining their relationship. He’d play it cool and let things between them—hopefully—develop naturally and in a way that showed Daisy that she could trust him and his promises.
Finally arriving at the restaurant, Aiden parked his car and headed into the establishment. Since it was a Monday night, the place was fairly quiet and the three of them were seated in a booth without any wait time. Aiden slid into one side of the leather seat, while Leo and Dylan settled across from him. They all perused the menu, though they always ended up ordering the same thing.
Of the three of them, Aiden was the oldest at thirty-two, with Leo in the middle at twenty-nine, and Dylan the youngest at twenty-seven, and each one of them had been affected differently by their father’s affair and parents’ divorce.
