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Solidifying that she would absolutely not be in a relationship with the father of her child shouldn’t have made her happy.
But there Elaina was. Unexpectedly, gloriously pregnant. And safely single.
Maybe life really was going to be good again.
Chapter Nine
Greg had done some stupid things in his time. Like staying with Heather even after knowing that she hadn’t been pregnant at all. That she’d used a fake pregnancy to try to get her ex-boyfriend jealous. He’d thought, after said boyfriend hadn’t cared about her plight, that he’d somehow step in and save the day, take care of her and earn her lifelong love, loyalty and fidelity for having done so.
He hoped to hell he wasn’t repeating a different rendition of the same mistake.
On Tuesday, he found his thoughts wandering to Elaina’s house. Seeing himself staying there. Admonishing himself to wait until he’d checked out the place before mentally moving in. And then thinking about what of his things would need to go in storage if all he was going to have was a bedroom.
He’d need a unit he could get to regularly, with belongings stored in an easily accessible manner. He could be at Elaina’s for months.
What the hell was he doing? Rushing ahead, as usual.
On the other hand—he had to be out of his apartment in less than two weeks. And he had a baby coming.
This was a whole new world. The child was his. Proven scientifically. Biologically his. DNA the same.
He needed to see the space—then decide whether or not he was going to move into it. And he continued on that way for most of that day—one that was relatively slow in terms of emergencies. Not good for his peace of mind, as it left him far too much time for personal contemplation. But good for the population of Marie Cove, which mattered more.
An hour after he’d left the hospital that evening, he was showered, in jeans and a lighter blue short-sleeved pullover, pulling onto the far side of Elaina’s driveway. Facing the closed garage door, he made a mental note to ask about programming the automatic opener button in his car. Bluebird, the name he’d given the possession he prized so heavily, needed covered parking.
Even as he had the thought, the garage door opened and Elaina, in skinny black pants, a white, tapered button-down shirt with lace trim, and black flip-flops with silver embellishment along the straps, came walking out to meet him.
“You know you won’t be able to drive a child around in that thing, don’t you?” she asked, motioning toward his car.
Glancing at the vehicle, a purchase he took pride and pleasure in, he assessed the situation from her point of view.
Children had to be in car restraints in the back seat until they were eight, and in a rear-facing child restraint seat until they weighed forty pounds or were forty inches in height. He knew this California law because he sometimes had to release children from the ER. Nothing he’d ever given a second thought to when it came to his personal life. On the contrary, he’d purposely wiped all of that kind of thinking out of his mind once his divorce was final.
His back seat wasn’t full-size.
“I’ll get a new car.” Problem solved. But... “Will it be possible for me to program the garage code so that I can park inside?” No matter what vehicle he bought, he’d want covered parking. And judging by the huge and pristine garage that wasn’t even half filled with Elaina’s vehicle, he figured it should be possible.
She nodded. “As long as you know how to do it,” she said. “Wood programmed mine.” And then added, “No, wait. I’ll figure it out.”
He knew how to do it. But didn’t say so. Elaina was one of the smartest, most capable and independent people he’d ever met, but if she needed a boost to her personal power, he certainly wasn’t going to stand in her way.
“That’s my entrance,” she said, pointing toward one of two matching solid doors, as she led him through the other into the kitchen.
The galley kitchen was large enough for two people to work in without running into each other, and also pristinely clean. The cleanliness didn’t surprise him—Elaina was a doctor who worked with nuclear materials, so she’d be a stickler.
And so was he.
Not all medical professionals were. But he was glad that she was. Wendy had been more of a free-fall type of decorator. Where it fell, it was free to lie. Not a problem, though. She hadn’t minded when he picked up behind her. It used to drive his mother nuts.
His mother—he had to let his folks know that he was going to be a father...but only when he was ready to have his parents descend on him. Still in Nevada, in the small town where he’d grown up an only child, where they both had siblings with grown or nearly grown children, they usually preferred him to come to them, but for a grandchild...
Nevertheless, until he knew what exact role he was going to be playing in the child’s life—and where he was going to live on a permanent basis—best wait to make any announcements.
“I don’t use that area much,” Elaina was saying as they passed a dining table with seating for six and he could see a step-down living room off to his right. He noted the state-of-the-art entertainment center and a television with a massive screen before she pointed further to the right. “That door there leads into my suite,” she said. Off the living room. Around the corner from the kitchen.
She started down the hall off the other end of the dining area. “This is the office,” she said, indicating a half-empty room with a computer placed on an organized, oversize wood desk. “You’re welcome to move a desk in here if you’d like.” She waved toward the vacant portion of the room. “Wood built that partition so we could work without disturbing each other.”
He’d never seen someone go to so much trouble to live with someone—and yet stay out of their way.
