CHAPTER THIRTY
The bedroom was still dark when Riley opened her eyes the next morning. She could hear Sam moving about somewhere else in the condo and the space on the bed next to her was already growing cold. In just a few nights she’d become so used to sleeping next to Sam that she missed his presence when he wasn’t lying beside her.
Knowing not to move too fast, she carefully sat up in bed and switched on the bedside lamp. Her stomach was churning but not as badly as it could have been. Quickly she slipped on the nausea wristbands that she’d placed on the nightstand and crossed her fingers that they would work fast so she could get out of bed.
“I know you’re not hungry, but Callie said that this would help in the mornings.”
Twisting toward the door, Sam stood there showered, dressed, and carrying a small plate of dry toast and a cup of tea. This was above and beyond the call of duty. He needed to be at the studio and instead he was toasting bread for her pissed off tummy.
“I can’t believe you did this for me.”
Chad would never have done it. But then he was a douchebag and Sam most decidedly was not.
“It only took a few minutes.” He set the plate and cup on the nightstand. “I need to get going but I’ll see you in a few hours, okay?”
Her mother had once told her that she needed to look for a partner that would care about her wants and needs as much as his own. Riley had but until this moment she hadn’t realized that a man didn’t have to make a grand gesture to show what kind of a person he was. He could simply make tea and toast. He could hold her hair when she was puking and put a cold cloth on her face. He could hand over his own assistant to show her around a new city. He could show up and talk about his career to a bunch of five and six-year-olds.
This was a man worth keeping in her life. Whether it was as her husband or as a friend that remained to be seen.
Completely unaware of the direction of her early morning thoughts, Sam leaned down to kiss her forehead again, all chaste and disappointing. She probably looked a sight this time in the morning, hair like a rat’s nest and breath like a coyote. Hardly a vision that would strike lust into the heart of a man who could have just about any woman he wanted. Her stomach wasn’t exactly on board for any sort of kissing or cuddling either, doing another somersault in her abdomen and reminding her to put that toast and tea to good use.
“Have a good day,” Riley said, lifting the cup from the saucer and blowing on the steaming liquid. “And thank you again. This was really thoughtful.”
Sam smiled that movie star smile that had graced a million screens and made women swoon everywhere. She wasn’t immune either, and her pulse kicked into a higher gear.
Sam glanced at his watch and sighed. “I hope you feel better. I’ll see you in a few hours. I have to go or I’ll be late.”
With a wave, he was gone leaving Riley to her tea and toast. She sipped the hot liquid slowly, interspersing bites of dry toast in between. By the time she finished, she was feeling almost human. A shower would take her the rest of the way.
Thank you, Sam.
This just might work out. Her and Sam. And eventually their baby. They could be a couple and raise a family. They could have a future together. Was it selfish to want love, too? Wasn’t it enough that he respected and cared for her?
She wasn’t sure of the answer but she’d have to figure it out. Soon.
* * *
Riley checked her reflection in the mirror one last time to make sure she didn’t have lipstick on her teeth. She and Callie were heading to her very first doctor’s appointment and the usual nausea in her belly had been replaced with hundreds of nervous butterflies. She already knew that she was pregnant but somehow it made it more real when a bona fide doctor confirmed it.
This is really happening. I’m having a baby.
Throwing her purse strap over her shoulder, she joined Callie in the living room. Sam had ordered a car service to take them to the appointment and it was waiting downstairs by the curb.
Callie turned from the front window and walked over to Riley, placing a hand on her shoulder. “We have company out there. Are you ready for this?”
Riley wasn’t sure what the assistant was referring to.
“Company?”
Frowning, Callie nodded. “Paps. Photogs. Whatever you want to call them. They’re lying in wait out there hoping to get a picture of you. Seems the word is out that Sam has a live-in girlfriend. Normally the tabloids leave him alone, especially in New York City, but he’s never lived with a woman before so this is big news.”
The paparazzi were camped outside hoping to get a photograph of her. It was kind of surreal. She was still just a kindergarten teacher and nobody special, but dating Sam had cast a spell. Now people wanted her picture and maybe a quote. She wasn’t completely naïve. She’d known this was a possibility, especially if they stayed together as a couple past this summer. It had simply happened a little more quickly than she’d thought.
I can do this.
“I’m ready. I assume I should just ignore them.”
Callie nodded in agreement. “Keep your head down so they can’t get a good shot. They’ll throw out questions, some of them deliberately nasty, to try and get you to respond. Whatever you do, don’t. That’s exactly what they want so they can get their money shot. They want to see you upset or crying or yelling so they can have a lovely front page with your picture and a headline about Sam Collins’s emotional girlfriend. Don’t give it to them.”
Riley did not want to be on the front page of some tabloid if she could help it.
“They sound like a pack of rabid wolves.”
Callie laughed and guided them toward the door. “Actually, some of the photographers are good people and Sam rewards them by stopping to pose when he can. Some, however, are assholes and they’re the ones you have to watch out for. They’ll invade your personal space, push you around, and generally be jerks. All they want is to get a picture and sell it. They don’t care that it might be the worst day of your life that they’re interrupting. Just stay close to me and I’ll get us to the car.”
Riley had thought she was prepared. Ha. How naïve. Nothing in her life up to now had prepared her for the shitstorm that awaited her on the sidewalk. It was only a few feet to the dark-windowed black SUV that Sam had ordered for her, but it might as well have been a mile.
The sidewalk was filled with shouting people, mostly men, but a few women as well. Flashbulbs blinded her as they went off in rapid succession, like fireworks on the Fourth of July, disorienting her as she tried to shade her eyes. Her pulse accelerated and adrenaline kicked in as her fight or flight response was triggered. Turning back, however, wasn’t an option. She could only move forward.
Callie’s arm was tight around Riley’s waist, keeping her close as the paparazzi jostled her, almost knocking her to the pavement at one point. She had to keep her right elbow pointed out and her hand in front of her to push away the crush of bodies that threatened to overtake them.
Breathless but determined, she put her head down and plowed through the crowd, ignoring the questions being pelted at her. Some innocuous, and others rather mean, just as Callie had predicted.
Are you and Sam engaged?
Are you and Sam married?
Are you pregnant?
Was Sam dating Lucinda when he was dating you?
Is Sam still dating Lucinda?
How did you meet Sam?
Are you and Sam in love?
Who in the hell was Lucinda? Apparently, that was one of Sam’s girlfriends that Riley had missed. Did these guys actually think that Riley would admit that Sam was dating her and this Lucinda at the same time?
Magically the back door of the black SUV opened and Riley dove in, followed closely by Callie. The door closed and the driver swung into the front seat, pulling away from the curb, parting the sea of paparazzi until they were safely away.
Riley didn’t have the vocabulary to describe the last few minutes.
“That was…”
“Intense?” Callie asked, her brows lifted. “Annoying? Crazy? Surreal?”
“I’ll go with all of that and a few other adjectives to be named later. I guess I didn’t think that anyone would truly care about me. Not really.”
“You’re the woman who stole Sam Collins’s heart. That’s a front page story. You’re lucky that no one knows your other little secret or it would have been five times worse. They’d be following us to your doctor’s appointment and bribing nurses for the ultrasound pictures.”
Stole Sam Collins’s heart.
Callie didn’t know how loaded that sentence was. With each passing hour with Sam, Riley was hoping that was indeed what she’d done but then she wasn’t completely sure of her own feelings.
Would I be hesitating if there weren’t photographers on the sidewalk? Is his fame an issue?
If Sam were her friendly neighborhood dentist or accountant the situation would be much simpler. They’d be left alone to figure out their relationship and their feelings, but now she had no such luck. They were going to have to do it within sight of the American public. Riley was by nature a private, quiet person so this wasn’t going to be easy but for the baby’s sake she was going to have to strengthen her spine and do it.
Don’t give those photographers any power over your life. Screw ’em.
The drive to the posh offices of the best obstetrician in New York City didn’t take long. Honestly, they could have walked it but then the paparazzi would have trailed behind them and that would have been a disaster.
The lovely brick building on the Upper East Side screamed money along with the plush waiting room that was nicer than any doctor’s office Riley had ever been in. In fact, it looked more like someone’s living room than it did a place of business. She signed in at the front desk and the smiling receptionist handed her a clipboard and a stack of papers to fill out. She hadn’t even finished when they were calling her name to see the doctor.
A moment of panic ran through Riley as her gaze darted for the dozenth time to the door.
“Sam isn’t here.”
Callie held up her phone. “He’s on his way and he’ll meet you back there. It’s okay to go on.”
She hadn’t thought she might have to do this alone. She hated going to the doctor in general and this was a new one she’d never met. Presumably Sam hadn’t either so at least they would have been in the same boat.
The nurses, however, appeared determined to make her as comfortable as possible. Riley had to do the usual things like pee in a cup, have her blood pressure taken, and oh joy, stand on the scale for her weight. She’d read in the pregnancy book that all of this would be done every time she came to the doctor.
“I have a feeling that in a few months I’m not going to enjoy stepping on the scale,” Riley observed as the friendly nurse named Diane wrote down the number displayed on the digital readout. It was about right, give or take a few pounds. Riley hadn’t worried much about her weight until now when it was out of her control.
“You don’t have to look if you don’t want to,” Diane replied with a smile. “You can close your eyes. Some women do and if the doctor doesn’t mention their weight then they know they’re fine.”
Riley wouldn’t be able to stand not knowing.
“I’m not that bothered by it.”
Not much anyway.
“That’s the spirit. Now let’s get you ready to see Dr. Kate.”
Getting ready to see Dr. Kate involved taking off all of her clothes and putting on a cotton gown that opened in the front. To be fair, it was one of the nicer hospital gowns that Riley had ever worn. Her own gynecologist used paper gowns that were disposable and quite drafty, so this was a step up.
Diane handed Riley a remote control and pointed to the large screen television on the wall.
“Dr. Kate shouldn’t be long but you’re welcome to watch while you wait.”
There was no way she was calmly watching daytime television while she waited. Her heart was practically beating out of her chest and so loudly she could barely hear anything around her. This was it. She was pregnant and the doctor was going to confirm that today. She might even get to hear the heartbeat.
Or was it too early?
Quickly shedding her clothes before the doctor came in, she shrugged into the gown, tying the lone tie at the neck, leaving her boobs and butt hanging out of the skimpy frock. Luckily the exam room wasn’t over air conditioned. She hopped up onto the table and waited, her thoughts scattered.
The baby. Sam. The paparazzi. A possible marriage. That would mean a wedding. And then there was the whole did she love him? She was definitely falling in that direction and it scared her. She hadn’t had the best of luck with men but then Sam wasn’t like anyone else she’d ever dated. Did he love her? Even a little? Was he feeling the same fear that was holding her back? She couldn’t blame him if he was. Caution had ruled most of her life except for that one night she’d thrown it to the wind and slept with Sam.
That hadn’t turned out too badly. She was happy about the baby, although the timing was less than ideal. But she wasn’t going to complain about a gift just because she didn’t care for the wrapping paper and bow.
A knock at the door jerked her back to the present and she tugged the gown more closely around her body before calling out, “Yes?”
“It’s me, Riley. Sam.”
Relief flooded her body and she blew out a slow breath. She wasn’t going to have to do this all alone. Sam would be there holding her hand the whole way.
This partnership stuff was pretty cool.
“Come in and join the party.”
Sam stepped into the room wearing an unhappy expression. “Sorry I’m late. I had to speak with Callie before I came back here. She told me what happened this morning. I’m going to have Bobby try and put out the message that you’re off-limits.”
“Will that work?”
“Doubtful but I’m going to try. That shouldn’t have happened this morning and I’m sorry you had to go through that.”
It wasn’t his fault. He was famous and this was a byproduct of that.
“It wasn’t that bad. No big deal.” Even as she was saying it she realized it was the truth. The whole thing had lasted about a minute and then it was over. “Who is Lucinda, by the way?”
His cheeks flushed and he rolled his eyes. “A woman I dated for about five minutes right before I met you. I haven’t seen her since then. God, I really am sorry. Did they ask about her?”
“They did,” Riley confirmed. “But Callie warned me they’d try to get a reaction out of me. Spoiler alert. They didn’t. Seriously, you don’t have to apologize. I admit it was a new experience for me but for the most part if was fine. I can handle it.”
“They’re going to go crazy when they find out about the baby.”
“And then they’ll move on to the next story when they find out that we’re boring as hell. Well, at least I am.”
A sharp knock sounded and then a dark-haired woman stuck her head in. “Hi, I’m Dr. Kate. Are you ready?”
As ready as I’ll ever be. I’m going to be a mommy. And maybe a wife.