An Unexpected Christmas Baby (The Daycare Chronicles 2)

Had thrown him at Mallory.

Her pain at the thought of them together was no one’s fault but her own.

“I figured Braden would be here,” she said, bringing up Mallory’s ex only because she’d promised herself that she wouldn’t talk about Flint behind his back. But lying to herself was really no better than lying to Flint, although the truth was that she couldn’t bear to hear Mallory talk about him.

Mallory passed the lights back to her.

She didn’t know what she’d do if Flint and Mallory became a couple.

Move back to Boston probably.

Keep in touch with Mallory for a while by phone, wish her well from the bottom of her heart, then slowly fade away from them completely.

It was the right thing to do.

“Braden’s always helped you in the past,” she continued just because she’d already started the conversation. Taking off the section she’d just wrapped when the lights all fell onto the same branch, she tried to rearrange them.

“He’s out on a date tonight.”

Oh. She passed the lights back to her friend. “Is she someone new?”

“I have no idea. I didn’t ask.” Mallory’s tone said she didn’t care. Tamara wasn’t sure she believed that. She’d never completely understood the relationship between Mallory and Braden.

“How about that guy you were seeing at Thanksgiving? What was his name? Colton something? Is that going anywhere?”

“No. My call. Not interested.” Mallory returned the lights to her.

So it was Flint, then. Leaning down as they reached their way along the tree, Tamara covered a wider section of branches.

She should be glad to know that Flint and Mallory might find each other. She loved both of them and neither deserved to be alone. And yet...what kind of woman did it make her that she couldn’t bear the thought of the two of them together?

“Flint’s in a real bind, Tamara.”

With the string of lights hung, Mallory plugged it in, making the room glow with the overabundance of multicolored twinkling lights. Tamara barely saw them.

“What’s wrong?” she asked. Was it Stella? His court date wasn’t until the following week. But the woman could have showed up somewhere he’d been and then called the police to report that he’d been near her.

“Please don’t tell him I told you, but if there’s anything you or your family can do to help...” Mallory bent to the box of decorations, hauling out plastic wall hangings. Tamara recognized the long faux mantel she was unfolding, on which Mallory would hang stockings for each of the kids, with their names on them.

“What’s wrong?” she asked again, more tension in her voice than she’d ever used with Mallory before.

“He just doesn’t strike me as a man who’d ever ask anyone for help, at least not that he couldn’t pay for and...” Mallory was bent over the box again.

“Mallory!”

Her friend stood, a garland of bells in hand, facing her.

“It goes against everything in me to talk about a client but...he might lose Diamond Rose, and if he at least had a job...”

Heart pounding, Tamara could hardly breathe. Lose Diamond Rose?

She hadn’t told Mallory he’d quit Owens Investments. Apparently he’d done that himself.

“My father’s been calling him every day for a week, trying to get him to come back,” she said. “He doesn’t pick up and won’t return his calls. What’s going on?”

Flint could lose his baby?

Because of Stella’s order?