Fortune's Christmas Baby (Fortunes of Texas)

That made no sense to her.

Panic flared as she considered the idea that he knew about Stella. That he was trying to worm his way in so that he and his big rich family could steal her baby away from her. Opening her eyes, she sat up.

The thought was ridiculous. If he knew about Stella, all he had to do was compel a warrant for her DNA. Hell, he didn’t have to do it; he’d have any number of people under him who’d do it for him. Probably a team of high-powered lawyers.

Or maybe he was just looking for another romp over the holiday? Some men got turned on by women who weren’t in their usual social circles. And she’d been a cheap date.

She’d just never felt cheap. Until she’d dialed the number Nolan Forte had left her and found out that he’d been unreachable. In every fashion.

If he thought—

No. She’d seen him twice the day before. He’d seemed sincere both times.

Hadn’t come on to her at all.

So did he know about Stella? Had he been spying on them?

No.

> She wasn’t going to lose her mind over this.

She was going to handle it.

She just had no idea how. No honest idea what was best for her daughter.

Because that was what it came down to. In conversations with Carmela. In the middle of the night. And midmorning, too. Her bottom line was Stella.

She’d do whatever was best for her daughter.

Even if that meant she lost the one thing that mattered more to her in the world. The one thing that had made her truly, completely happy. Being a family with her baby girl.

Nolan was that baby girl’s father. Good or bad.

The day before, he’d seemed to really care that Lizzie was all right. He’d come clean with her when he’d had no reason to have to do so.

Maybe some aspects of the man she’d fallen so hard for were real. Maybe some of Nolan Forte really did exist in Nolan Fortune. Maybe she had to find out.

For Stella’s sake, if nothing else.

Picking up her phone, she didn’t add the last number to her contacts. She tried not to look at it long enough to remember it.

She called it.

And when he picked up on the first ring, she forced words past the constriction in her chest, and hung up mere seconds later with an appointment to meet with Nolan for coffee that afternoon at a shop they’d frequented several times in the past.

Next she texted Carmela, making arrangements for her roommate to be home to tend to Stella while she was gone. Carmela, who was greatly relieved Lizzie had contacted Stella’s father, agreed immediately, of course.

Lizzie had known she would.

And wished she hadn’t.

Now she had no excuse to call back and cancel.

She had to sit across the table from the only man she’d ever loved and figure out if he was going to be the source of her greatest heartbreak.

For a second time.

Chapter Seven