Sixteen
Zach had adapted to his role as CEO of Ferguson Oil easily, sliding into the slot left for him by his father like he was meant to be there all along. Kind of made him wonder if he’d been avoiding his destiny when he left for Chicago.
Which kind of made him wonder if no matter what direction he ran, he would’ve still ended up right back here in this very position: father-to-be of a baby boy or girl.
The night he took Penelope home from the jazz club, he’d never considered that they might someday share a child. Shortsighted? A bit. Sex equaled babies for lots of couples. But he’d been in the habit of chasing his physical desires rather than worrying about outcomes.
He rubbed eyes that were crossing to center. When he reopened them, the spreadsheet on his computer screen blurred. He redirected his gaze to the wall clock to see it was past five; another day had gotten away from him.
His assistant patched through a call. “Mr. Ferguson, it’s the mayor on line three.”
“It’s Zach, and my brother’s name is Chase,” he reminded Sam, who insisted on the formality.
“Yes, sir,” Sam replied. “Will you be taking the mayor’s call?”
Zach shook his head at the futility and answered the line.
“Chase,” he said into the phone. “What’s up?”
“Were you planning on telling me about my niece or nephew?” came his brother’s terse question.
Zach’s eyes sank closed as he pressed his fingers into his eyelids. “Shit, Chase. I meant to tell you.”
What an oversight.
“You mean before my press conference where a reporter asked if I was expecting a baby because you and Penelope were spotted baby shopping over the weekend? Yeah. You should’ve told me.”
There was a twist neither Zach nor Pen had seen coming.
“The press assumed it was you who was having a baby?”
“Me and the woman on my arm at the charity event at our parents’ house. She’s a financial adviser and I offered to show her around.” Zach could tell by his brother’s grumbling that he was serious about the woman being an acquaintance. The mayor wasn’t into spur of the moment or temporary relationships. For Chase, every woman on his arm had a purpose, a reason for being there.
“That photo of us was supposed to pad our public announcement of the pregnancy, not start a rumor mill about you.”
He grunted at the irony. Chase was the star of the Ferguson show no matter what happened to any of them.
“Stefanie already knew.” Chase’s tone was clipped.
“Not on purpose. I let it slip and swore her to secrecy.”
“Mom and Dad. They know. She had to tell me.” Before Zach could make an excuse about how it’d been a busy week, his brother added, “What the hell are you doing?”
Zach straightened his back, on alert. “What’s that supposed to mean?”
“Your engagement with Penelope Brand is fake. Or was anyway. Has that changed?” His brother believed that relationships had beginnings and endings that were mapped out ahead of time. But Zach didn’t have to think that way. He wasn’t the one who’d put his balls in the public sling.
“Not that I have to explain anything to you,” Zach told his brother, “but Pen was pregnant the night of your birthday party. We just didn’t know it at the time.”
Chase uttered a curse under his breath. “Are you planning on making it a real engagement to go along with your real future child?”
“What if I do?”
“Then I suggest you consider how long you want to keep this up.”
Off his chair, Zach felt his blood pressure rise. “Come again?”
“You’re not the only one involved, Zach. You’ll have a child soon and you can’t marry Pen because it sounds fun. The stakes are sky-high.”
“I know that.” Zach’s words gritted from between his clenched teeth. “I can handle my own life. You’re just worried how my actions will affect your precious career.”
“Wrong. I’m reminding you because I’ve seen the two of you together. You’re behaving like a couple. A real one. Has that sunk in for you yet?”
He thought it had. Until Chase pointed out he’d noticed a difference. Zach dated casually, sure, but he felt like his brother was referring to a relationship in Zach’s past—way in his past. One in particular that hadn’t ended well.
“I’m handling it,” Zach repeated rather than broach the topic of Lonna.
“Let’s start over.” Chase blew out a heavy breath. “What I should’ve said, rather than dispense a big brother lecture, was that I’m excited for you. For our family. The first baby is a big deal.”
“You’re jealous you didn’t get there first.” Zach allowed a sideways smile when his brother chuckled.
“Yeah, you win.”
But Chase’s words settled in the center of Zach’s chest. A baby was a big deal. So was an engagement. And Penelope living in his house.
“I’m taking this seriously.” Zach felt the urge to clarify. After a pause, Chase spoke.
“How is she?”
“Healthy. Gorgeous. Stubborn.” Impossible, he mentally added. “Returned every bit of the baby clothes we purchased because they were too expensive.”
“You call that stubborn? I call it practical.”
“Stubborn,” Zach reiterated.
“Almost as stubborn as you.” Chase wasn’t wrong. “Way to pick ’em, brother. How about you?”
“How about me what?” He closed the spreadsheet and powered down the computer.
“How are you?”
“I’m good. I’m fine.”
Chase waited, not buying the blow-off.
Zach sat back down and rested his forehead on his hand. Then he confessed something to Chase he hadn’t told anyone. “I’m trying not to screw everything up for my child.”
“You’ll figure it out. You’re not a screw-up, Zach. You try everything once, and that’s not a bad thing. I’m the careful planner, and knowing what I know of Penelope, I’m guessing she’s a careful planner, too.”
“The carefulest.”
“You’ll find your way. You don’t know how to fail. You stay on the balls of your feet and roll with the punches better than anyone I’ve ever known.”
The vote of confidence from the man he admired most, second to Dad, meant the world to Zach. His throat thick with emotion, he couldn’t even manage a muttered “Thanks.” Zach wasn’t the get-choked-up kind, but damn.
“When do you find out if I’m having a niece or a nephew?”
He smiled at his brother’s use of the monikers again—if he wasn’t mistaken, Chase was looking forward to being an uncle.
“Next week.” Zach swept his eyes to his desk calendar to confirm.
“Tell me first this time.”
“We’ll see. Stefanie has already mentioned some gender reveal something-or-another.”
Chase’s reaction was a mumbled curse followed by, “Of course she did.”
Zach ended the call with his brother as a quick knock came from Sam who ushered in Mara, his bubbly and completely kick-ass CFO.
“Zach.” Her eyes sparkled with interest. Not in him personally—he’d never before met someone so happily married—but like she knew something he didn’t. “Here are the reports you asked for.”
She handed them over and then stood smiling at him. He studied her with a frown for a moment, then decided to give it up. She knew. It was evident in every jittering line of her body.
“We can’t officially announce it yet, so I appreciate your discretion.”
Mara clapped her hands and let out a discreet “Yay!” To his shock, she rounded the desk and gave him a quick side hug.
“I’m so thrilled for you both! When Vic and I had our baby it was exciting and scary and amazing. You’re going to do great. And Penelope is so gorgeous—you’ll have the prettiest baby in the world! Second to mine, of course.”
Okay, that made him smile.
Mara skipped away. As she pulled the door shut, she gave him a wink in the diminishing gap and said in a stage whisper, “I won’t breathe a word to anyone.”
“Thanks, Mara.”
She shut the door behind her and he glanced at his desk calendar where he’d jotted Pen’s ultrasound with the shorthand ult in case of wandering eyes.
Chase was right. Zach would slide seamlessly into the role of father as well as he’d slid into CEO at Ferguson Oil. And if he had a hiccup or two along the way, Pen would be there to bail him out—planner that she was.
Smile on his face, he relaxed in his chair.
They had this.
* * *
A blur of elegance from outside the wall of her glass office windows caught Penelope’s eye. She blinked once, then twice to make sure what she was seeing wasn’t a mirage.
Nope.
It was Zach’s mother, all right.
Pen beckoned her in and rounded her desk. “Elle. This is a surprise.”
Especially since she didn’t know how Elle knew where she worked. Pen’s mind went to their last interaction. Elle reacted poorly to the news of the pregnancy and then Pen and Zach had sex in the woman’s flower beds.
Real classy, Pen.
Elle clutched a large camel-colored handbag and gestured to the white leather couch. “May I sit?”
“Yes, please. I was just wrapping up.” Pen sat with her, pretty sure the fluttering in her stomach wasn’t her baby but nerves instead. Maybe a bit of both.
“How are you feeling?”
“Lately, much better than before.”
“I’m so glad for you! When I was pregnant with Stefanie, I remember the worst morning sickness and bloating.” Elle waved a hand dismissively. “If I had that with Chase and Zach, I’ve blocked it because all I remember is how painful the birth was.” Elle let out a soft laugh and then a look of chagrin colored her features. “I didn’t mean to alarm you. What a thing to say.”
“It’s fine, really.” Pen meant it. “Believe it or not, I’ve heard a thing or two about childbirth being painful.”
A gap in the conversation settled in the room like a third party. Pen filtered through her brain for a topic to fill the dead air. Luckily, Elle filled it for her.
“I came by to apologize for my poor reaction when you came to tell us about your bundle of joy.”
“Thank you. We sprung it on you, so it’s understandable.”
“No. It’s not. Rider’s mother wanted to throttle us when she found out I was pregnant with Chase before the wedding.” Elle rolled her eyes, and it wasn’t hard to imagine what she’d looked like as a much younger woman railing against her future in-laws. “I’ve made a few mistakes with my children when it comes to their relationships. Being a matriarch is a tough business.”
Pen’s eyebrows climbed her forehead.
“Oh, you think the men are in charge in our family?” Elle picked at an invisible piece of lint on her skirt and smoothed her hand over the material. “We let them think that. You’re a strong woman. You’re an amazing addition to this family.”
Guiltily, Pen looked at her lap. She felt like she was lying by letting Elle believe Pen and Zach were really together, but there was no way to unravel the lie without causing damage to everyone.
“I’m about to overstep my boundaries,” Elle said next.
Pen lifted her head to meet eyes with the older woman.
“Do you know about Lonna?”
The name didn’t bring forth the barest whisper of familiarity. “I don’t think so.”
“I don’t know that Zach knows I know how in-deep he was with her. But I’m his mother. I knew.”
Pen was dancing in dangerous territory. Part of her wanted to ask Elle about the woman from Zach’s past, and another part of her felt loyalty to her fake fiancé. In the end, her curiosity won.
“Who was she?”
“They dated when Zach was in his midtwenties. She was a few years older than him and there was always something I didn’t like about her. Her strength wasn’t so much strength as fierce independence. Independence she cherished over our son’s heart.
“Zach would sooner die than admit to us that she broke his heart, but I could tell. He was different after her. After they split, he withdrew. Then he moved to Chicago and we swore we’d never see him again.”
That was why he moved to Chicago? Away from a woman? Rather than chasing a dream? Did that make a difference?
Yes, Pen realized.
She’d run from Chicago because of a business endeavor—because she’d needed to reform her reputation. Not because she couldn’t bear to be in the same state as an ex.
“My point of telling you this isn’t to worry you, Penelope.” Elle placed her hand gently over Pen’s, making Pen wonder if the worry showed on her brow. “My point is to let you know that I’d started believing he’d never commit to another woman. Not seriously.” Elle sneered, but still managed to look elegant doing it. “We all know that Yvonne debacle was a blip of rash stupidity.”
“Let’s hope,” Pen blurted.
“I know my son. I’m right. But here you are, and Penelope, believe me when I tell you that Zach has finally given his heart to someone. To you. He wouldn’t get engaged again so soon unless he meant it.”
Pen’s smile was as brittle as burned paper. Or unless he wanted to get out of hot water with his raving lunatic of an ex-wife.
“You’re going to be an amazing mother, Penelope, and you’ll have a dedicated husband and father at your side. Trust me when I tell you that.”
Pen blinked her eyes against forming tears and when her vision cleared, Elle was reaching into her handbag and bringing out a blue-and-white crocheted blanket.
“This was Zach’s when he was a baby. His great-grandmother Edna made it for him.” She handed over the soft pile of yarn, a few frayed ends tied into knots. “He’ll kill me if I tell you this, but what the hell.” Elle cupped her mouth with one hand and stage-whispered, “He slept with it until he was eleven.”
Pen laughed and lost the battle with a few tears that streaked down her cheeks. She swiped at them quickly, and then held the blanket in both hands.
Her baby would someday be a grown man or woman and have a history—a history with two parents who pretended to be in love. A history that had to be history.
The more distance she put between this baby’s birth and her living with and pretending with Zach, the better. She wasn’t being fair to anyone. Not Zach’s siblings or parents, or her own parents, or especially her child.
Lying was going to have a ripple effect on her baby’s life and she couldn’t allow that. As kind as it was for Elle to stop by and apologize and declare her son’s love for Pen, there was one fact that remained unchallenged.
Zach and Pen, while they liked each other just fine, weren’t in love. They didn’t share their plans for a long future, or discuss grandmothers or past heartbreaks.
They shared plans and a schedule. They shared a bed.
And those things did not a love story make.