“Not now, but I need a favor and you’re not going to like it.”
Stepping back, Austin furrows his brow in her direction. “What kind of favor?”
“Well... see, I’ve moved in with Logan and we left the apartment vacant. Nikki had been paid up, but they evicted her anyway. Mom and Dad offered to let her stay with them, but she doesn’t want to impose. To make matters worse, Logan’s practice had to replace her while she was away, so now she is out of a job.”
“How does this concern me?”
“She’s the mother of your child and my niece or nephew. I was hoping that you could use that big heart that I know you have and offer to let her work for you, and help her find a place to stay that she can afford. I’ve looked all over and all the reasonable places in town have no vacancies.”
“You want me to let her stay here,” Austin says as a statement, not a question.
“Only if that’s what you want. I’m really just hoping you can offer her a job. She’s been over to Angie’s Diner, but with all the health problems she’s been having I don’t think waitressing is a good idea. And she only has a GED so she isn’t qualified for a lot. Please, Austin,” Avery says, a loving gleam sparkling in her eye. Had she had the opportunity to use this look on their father, Austin feels sure she would have received anything she wanted.
“Dammit, Avery!” Austin explodes in exasperation, striking a hand through his thick mane of hair. “I will do my best to get her a job and help her find a place, but you have no idea how much you owe me. That woman destroyed me when she left.”
Frowning, Avery steps forward and wraps her arms around his waist.
“She left because she was scared. She loved you too much to risk ruining your life with a child. It took everything she had to come back here.”
Leaning his chin on her head, he whispers back, “She tell you that?”
She doesn’t acknowledge his question, but continues, “Don’t be too hard on her. There are a lot of things you don’t know, but she does want to be a part of your life and for her, that is a major step.”
“Ok, Avery. I’ll help her with a job, but I can’t promise I’ll do much more than that.”
“I understand. Thank you, Austin. I’ll see you next weekend for New Years. I’ll let myself out.”
“You know your fiancé would kill me if I didn’t walk you out.”
She chuckles as he walks her to her car, then watches her leave, a cloud of dust trailing behind her Audi SUV.
Duke sidles up next to Austin and sits back on hind legs, the two of them watching as Avery disappears onto the main road.
“I swear, Duke. That woman can talk me into anything. Let’s hope I don’t regret this.”
The beagle stares up at Austin with soulful brown eyes and barks in reply. Noticing a squirrel, he is suddenly off, racing to the backyard in hot pursuit.
“God, I hope I don’t regret his,” Austin whispers to the air before turning and walking back to the house. Before he has time to think, he is dialing a number on his cell phone that he had hoped he wouldn’t have to call again.
***
THE POUNDING IN her head wakes her from her restless sleep on the guest bed in Logan and Avery’s home. Nikki sits up slowly, making sure to keep her nausea in check. She has learned over the past few months that certain movements and smells irritate her stomach more than anything she actually eats. Slouching over while perched on the edge of the bed, Nikki gently places her hands on the sides of her slightly-distended belly. The flutters began a week ago, proof that a piece of her and Austin was growing inside her body. Talking softly to the baby deep within her womb, she moves her hands around until she feels the tiny kicks against the side of her abdomen. Of course, the baby liked it best when she talked about Austin – heck, she liked it best, too.
“Hey, sweet one. How are you doing in there?”
Small flutters respond to her question.
“Good. I saw your daddy last night. He looked as handsome as ever, not that I had any doubts. You’ll be gorgeous just like him and his family.” She sighs,
her lower back aching from the weight of the rapidly-growing infant. “Anyway, let’s get this day started. I need to find a job and a place for us to stay once you get here. Love you, sweet one.”
More flutters graciously respond to Nikki’s endearment and she revels in the feel of instantaneous love for her child.
The past four months had been difficult at best. Nikki remembers the panic she felt as she realized that she was two weeks late - the need to rush to the pharmacy in the next town over. She ashamedly took the pregnancy test in the store restroom, then sat in her car crying as she realized that she was going to destroy Austin’s world.
They had never talked about kids, marriage, or anything further than their nightly rendezvous, but she loved him fiercely. The pull she had so long ignored in favor of the logical choice of pursuing her boss, Logan, spread ten-fold when she finally gave into their chemistry. She had no idea sex could be so explosive: in the moments that their lips first met, the world had halted. It was just the two of them and everything else ceased to exist. They were together for two months before she recognized the early symptoms of her pregnancy.
And then she fled. She fled out of fear, out of duty to her child, and out of love for Austin. Nikki had loved him so much that she couldn’t imagine burdening him with a child. He had a career, after all. Owner of, and architect for, Connelly Construction, Austin had the world at his feet.