Carrying His Baby

Margaret got up quietly, murmuring something about checking on dinner, and left them to it.

“Part of you or not, I still have the right to take care of the two of you. And if you know what’s good for you, you will let me do that the easy way!”

“You can be concerned without overstepping your limits. I value my independence, Aldous. I will not give it up simply because I’m gestating. I’m a strong person. You’d better get used to it.”

Aldous took a deep breath and looked like a man trying valiantly to hold on to his temper. He didn’t think he’d been spoken to anyone like that in years. Two women who didn’t listen to him, he thought wryly, and he had to bring them together. He had a feeling he would go to regret that mightily.

“Hallie, be reasonable.”

He might have meant the tone to be placating, but it made Hallie see red.

“Look, Aldous,” she started, her eyes flashing. “I assure you that I have been taking care of myself for a long time, and I’ve done it extremely well. I do not need you to take care of me. I can do it myself. I am not an imbecile, and I am far stronger than you seem to think I am.”

Aldous glared at her for long minute. Then, to her astonishment, he turned around and stalked indoors.

Now what she supposed to do? Go in and have dinner, like nothing had happened? Try to sneak away and go home? She really just wanted to go home.

It had really felt like she was connecting with Aldous, she thought sourly. It had felt like he was almost becoming human. But of course, she had just been an idiot to even think that. Men like Aldous didn’t connect with people like her. She was a responsibility. That’s all she was to him.

But then he came back outside.

“Hallie, I can’t apologize for wanting to take care of you,” he said, his eyes intense on hers.

“But I will try to be more considerate of your boundaries. I do understand your point of view, Hallie. If anything, I admire your independence and your strength. But I want to do everything I can, and these are things that would make your life easy for you. I can do those things easily. I can arrange for a companion who will make life easier for you. There’s just no sense in making things more difficult when I can make them easier for you. Can’t you see that?”

Hallie took a deep breath to get her temper back under control. She didn’t want to cry. She wanted to be reasonable.

“I realize that, Aldous. But I’ve long been used to taking care of me and mine. I don’t want to end up depending on you. That… I don’t think that’s the kind of thing you can just turn off. Once the baby is adopted, I will have to go back to taking care of myself, and I don’t want to lose that independence and end up being unsure of myself then. Surely you can see that, too.”

Aldous was silent for a while. Hallie wondered if anything she’d said had gotten through to him through that thick head of his.

“Fine. We’ll find a compromise,” said Aldous, finally.

Hallie looked at him, interested.

“What kind of compromise?”

“Well, how about if you keep that credit card, and you let me find a companion who will be there if you need them? I can pay them enough to keep them ready in case they’re needed. You can interview them, find the right person. Unless you decide you need help, you don’t have to call them.”

Hallie’s mouth dropped open.

“You want to pay somebody to do nothing for months?”

“My other option was to move you into my penthouse.”

Hallie was surprised by how much she wanted that. That desire made her agree to what was frankly a ridiculous suggestion.

But he was acting like a worried, flustered and helpless expectant father. It was kind of cute and sweet, she thought. It made her heart soften towards him.

“Fine. I’ll interview people and keep the number on my speed dial. But I do have friends, you know. There are people I can depend on. People I trust and can rely on.”

Aldous moved closer to her, until his jacket nearly touched the front of her dress.

“I wish I could be one of those people for you, Hallie. I wish I could have that trust, too.”

The naked yearning in his eyes was masked immediately. But she had seen, it, and it had made her heart flutter again. There was something there, thought Hallie.

If only he weren’t a billionaire, so far removed from her rather ordinary world, she thought, wistfully. If he’d been just another man, they could’ve gotten to know each other, and maybe they could’ve found each other. Maybe they could’ve found happiness together.

Maybe they could even have been a family.

But he was a billionaire, she reminded herself, whose life was so alien to hers that she’d had to read tabloids to try to research him. She couldn’t let herself forget that.

They had made an accidental baby between the two of them. There was nothing more between them. Once that baby was given to a lovely and loving family that, even now, was trying hard to have a child, they would go their own ways.

His way would be drastically different from hers. Their destinations were far too different. She couldn’t help that. There was no hoping for anything to change when there was no chance of it at all.

Despite that look she had seen in his eyes, she knew that. Hallie would face facts. She would be practical. She was good at that.

But for once, she wished she could live her fairy tale and have a happy ending.

*****

Hallie was five months pregnant, to the day. She was beginning to feel flutters of nerves about the big day. But her morning sickness had abated, and now she felt better than she had ever felt before.

Well, except for her ankles and her backache, of course. And the fact that she could only wear her wrap dresses now. Nothing else fit her.

She didn’t really mind that. It was pretty incredible, knowing that new life was growing inside her. A part of her, she reminded herself. And a part of Aldous.

She had grown to cherish every moment he’d spent with her. He had gone out of his way to find that time, too. She knew that.

But she wanted more. She couldn’t help that, either. She was beginning to respect just how much work he put into his company. She was also beginning to see that most of what she had read in the tabloids was probably wrong.

Why, three nights ago, they’d had dinner together at a little Italian restaurant. There had definitely not been a single reporter around. The next day, she had seen reports that billionaire Aldous Banks had been spotted with an Olympics gymnast at one of the hottest clubs in the city.

She knew that unless he had a clone or something, that was definitely not true. Now they were going to meet for dinner, again, and she wondered what she could possibly wear.

Something classy, she thought, except that she had four wrap dresses and he had seen her in all of them.

Ah well, thought Hallie and reached for a red one that was the newest. Red always lifted her spirit. So did meeting Aldous, to be frank.

She was definitely showing now, but he didn’t seem to mind that. She had found herself wondering if he still found her attractive. She thought there were moments, when he held her hand, or just talked to her, when they really connected. She felt like she was getting to know the man behind the many millions.

She knew that he loved and respected his mama, and was a bit scared of her, too. That was healthy, in her opinion. Being too confident with your mother meant you were cocky. You were supposed to believe that your mother always knows best.

Or perhaps she was biased now because she was going to be a mother.