Chapter Five
Laken picked up the stuffed animals all over her living room, holding one of the teddy bears close, as she tried to straighten up. Jen and Jason had come and gone, bearing handmade Christmas gifts. Laken felt no better. Jen had tried to console her, once Laken told her about her affair with her father’s business partner and best friend, by telling Laken that Trevor was too old for her.
Laken couldn’t care less about that. Trevor was a good, genuine, caring man and she wanted him in her life forever. Even more important, she wanted him in the baby’s life forever.
Here she was, alone on Christmas Eve, pregnant, single, and broke, and she didn’t know what to do with herself. She put the stuffed animals away but kept the teddy bear she was cuddling. Somehow, it made her feel just the smallest bit better. She loved Trevor—she knew that now. Now that he’d left her, she realized she shouldn’t have been so hard on him just because he got jealous.
She should have let him explain and reassured him. Of course he was a little insecure about their age difference. Anyone would be. But she only wanted him, and she hadn't made him see that.
She’d go to Trevor and try to talk some sense into him, except there was the baby to think about now. What if he thought she’d gotten pregnant to try to trap him into marrying her? It happened, sometimes, especially to men with money and a business, like Trevor. For that matter, what if he thought she just wanted a way into her father’s company and she was just using him to get her foot in the door? To fight Eleanor as an equal, finally.
She knew Eleanor wanted to sell the company her dad and Trevor had worked so hard to build, so she and her kids could live off the fruits of her father’s labor. What if he thought she just wanted revenge on Eleanor?
Damn it all, if a million what-ifs didn’t race through her mind. She cared about the company, but she wanted Trevor more.
She wanted a stable life for her baby, but it wasn’t just that. She adored Trevor, she loved him, and all she wanted was to spend the rest of their lives together.
Clutching the teddy bear tighter, Laken realized she couldn’t keep living in fear of the dreaded “what-if.” She had to tell Trevor the truth. She was pregnant with his child and she was in love with him. The worst he could say was that he didn’t want either of them.
Which would crush her, of course. But no, she wouldn’t even allow herself to think that way. She was going to take a shower and march over to Trevor’s house to tell him she was in love with him. And pregnant. She wished she didn’t have to tell him that right away because he really might believe she’d done it on purpose.
She supposed she’d just have to trust him to love her enough to believe that she hadn’t. And this wasn’t a hundred years ago. Nothing said he had to marry her if she got pregnant. She’d make sure he understood—she wanted his love or she wanted nothing from him.
***
Trevor had showered and shaved. He’d called the estate attorney and informed him of the will’s existence, and faxed a copy over.
They’d have to go file the original at the courthouse, but at least Laken was taken care of, as her father had wanted.
He might not have wanted her with Trevor, but Trevor was willing to live with that. He’d fallen for Laken, and he had to be with her.
He walked up the dirt path to her small bungalow and knocked on the door.
She answered in her purple robe, hair wet. “I was just getting ready to come find you.”
“May I come in?” he asked.
She nodded and he led her to the couch. “I found your dad’s will. He put it in my safe. You are financially secure and you own half the company. I’m telling you all this because I want to be transparent with you.”
A hand drifted to her mouth, but she just nodded. “Okay.”
“Listen, Laken. I’m in love with you. If we have to sell the company to prove that, then it’s what we’ll do. It’s completely in your hands, darling. Along with my heart and my life. Everything I am is yours.”
Tears streamed down Laken’s face. “I’m pregnant,” she blurted out. “Please don’t think I’m trying to trap you, because I’m not. I—”
“Stop.” Joy spurted through his veins, reaching every part of him and opening his heart to the tiny creature in her womb. Laken was carrying his child. “You’re pregnant?”
“Yes. But, you have to believe me, I love you. You can choose us both, or you can let me go—if that’s what you want—and I’ll understand. Either way, I won’t keep your child from you. And I don’t want your money. I don’t—”
He grabbed her, claiming her mouth and kissed her slowly, languidly, like they hadn’t almost lost each other. Because now, they had the rest of their lives ahead of them, together. “I love you. This seems an awfully easy dilemma to solve.”
He got down on one knee and pulled his grandmother’s ring from his coat pocket. “Make this the most wonderful Christmas I’ve ever had. Please, say you’ll be my wife.”
She looked down at the ring, tears sparkling in her eyes. “Oh, yes. It’s all I want.”
Together, they made their way to the bedroom and made love.
Afterward, Laken admired her ring as they lay cuddled in bed together. This was exactly the way their lives were meant to be. They would love each other, and that sweet baby until they drew their last breath.
*****
THE END