Carrying His Baby

No, she was going to have a baby. She would be a mother for very little time. For the rest of her life, she would not be that baby’s mother. She would be the person who gave life, and gave her child up for a better life.

It was for the best, she told herself again, as she’d been telling herself so often lately. But every time she placed her hand on her belly, every time she felt that flutter that meant her baby – her son – was alive and well, growing, being nourished, she loved him more.

She loved him so much that she felt as if her heart would just burst from it.

Some of that love was spilling over onto the father of her child, too. That was natural, she supposed.

Lately, she had started daydreaming about being a regular couple, expecting a child, thrilled about it. She knew she was setting herself up for a huge fall, of course. But she pictured herself with Aldous, coming up with names for their baby, arguing over what crib to get, finding a home where they could raise him together.

She had been daydreaming about being a real family.

“Set it aside, Hallie,” she told herself sternly as she got ready.

There was a knock on the door. It would be Jack, of course, ready to take her to the restaurant, where Aldous would meet her. He had been very secretive about what kind of place they were going to.

She knew that Aldous was in the middle of a huge international deal, too. She knew that he’d been putting in ridiculously long hours on it. He could hire people to do all of that, she knew, but he preferred to have his own hand in all of it.

It meant that he worked as much as about five people put together. But he seemed to enjoy it.

She opened the door with a smile.

“You look lovely, Hallie,” said the gentle giant as he escorted her to the car. He insisted on escorting her to the car.

“Mr. Banks wanted to come and pick you up himself, but he got delayed,” said Jack.

Hallie was surprised.

“He knows he doesn’t have to come and pick me up or anything.”

Jack gave her a mildly annoyed look, as if he were disappointed in her.

“A lady should always be picked up by her date,” he told her, his tone decisive.

“We’re not dating,” said Hallie, flustered.

Jack rumbled a deep laugh.

“What do you call it then, Hallie?” he asked, making her wonder just that.

She had an additional problem nowadays. She had known that pregnancy would do odd things to her body. She had been prepared, sort of, for most of it. But the one thing she hadn’t been prepared for was the need for Aldous.

She needed him – physically. She relived the night they had spent together, over and over again. She felt herself get heated and flushed every time she did so.

She was a healthy woman with s*xual needs, of course, and she was perfectly comfortable with that. But all her fantasies over the last couple of months had centered on Aldous Banks, and that was a bit of a problem.

She could handle it, she assured herself. Of course she could handle it.

She noticed where they were going.

“Jack, where are we going?”

The words ended on a panicked yelp.

She couldn’t go back to his apartment. She couldn’t. She couldn’t go to the place where all that fantasy s*x in her head had been taking place, not when she felt like this.

“Mr. Banks will meet you at his apartment.”

“But… He didn’t say anything about that!”

“I assume he meant it to be a surprise,” said Jack with a grin.

He knew when a woman was flustered about all the right reasons. He thought that Hallie and Aldous were perfect together. They were, in his humble opinion, being idiots right now. They should be together.

Maybe now they would see what was obvious to everybody else, too.