Legend (Arizona Vengeance 3)

Laughing, I grab the list of items we need to buy in one hand and Pepper’s elbow in the other, and lead her to the front door while she babbles out name after name for me to consider.Chapter 6LegendI stand in the doorway to what has now become a baby nursery in my home and watch as Pepper puts linens on the crib mattress. It took me almost two hours to put that bitch together so I’m feeling an immense sense of accomplishment right now.

Also feeling an impending sense of doom and potentially blind panic.

I’m going to have a freaking baby in the house tomorrow.

Louise is coming at 10 A.M. and I’m going to become a real dad.

Luckily, team management has been understanding. I skipped today’s practice and will skip tomorrow’s as well, although I’m slated for the start in net the following evening for a home game. There’s no way I’ll have a nanny hired by then—what with reference checks and criminal background checks—but luckily Pepper volunteered to stay here with the baby while I’m at the game.

No, correction…not “the baby.”

Charlotte Elise Bay.

I intend to call her Charlie.

I have no clue if Lida gave her a name, nor do I care if she did. She lost that right when she abandoned Charlie on my doorstep. Louise put me in touch with a lawyer and our first step is seeing if we can locate Lida and get her to sign formal relinquishment papers of full parental rights. If we can’t find her, my attorney will petition the court to force the relinquishment. It’s a longer process but in the end, Charlie will be mine and Lida won’t have any rights at all.

That may be overly harsh but I’m really pissed at that woman right now. I have no clue what she could have been thinking or what drove her to do such a heinous thing. I’m also pissed she never told me she was pregnant, because this is not the type of surprise that’s particularly pleasant.

What the future holds, I’m not sure, but I know a few things right now.

I am a single father and I have a baby girl named Charlie.

I am as prepared as I can possibly be to receive her tomorrow morning.

I am terrified.

I am sad that life as I know it is over. This is a new journey I’m on and I’m even a little resentful of it because I didn’t aspire to it. The weight of responsibility is pressing down hard on me right now, but I can only imagine it will get better.

Pepper finishes tucking in the edges of the sheet and then unfolds a pink blanket with fluffy white sheep on them. She had insisted on washing all the linens while I put the crib together, and as I just discovered on a trip down to the kitchen for a bottle of water, she put away everything else that we had bought on today’s shopping trip.

“There,” she says in satisfaction as she steps back and looks at the setup. She talked me into a white crib with a matching dresser and I also let her pick out the linens. She started getting excited and suggested we paint the room pink, but I put a halt to that ridiculous notion. “It looks perfect.”

She turns to face me with a bright smile on her face, but there’s no mistaking the fatigue that’s there too. It’s almost midnight and we’ve been hard at work all day with hours of shopping and more hours of getting the house set up.

“I can’t thank you enough,” I tell her as I lean against the doorjamb, crossing one ankle over the other. “I would have never been able to do this on my own.”

“Sure you would have,” she says with a humble wave of her hand. “You just would still be going at it and probably not finished until morning.”

She punctuates that with a not so subtle yawn.

“Come on,” I say as I straighten and wave my hand. “Let’s get you to bed.”

The minute the words are out of my mouth, my body tightens and a hundred lewd thoughts run through my head of Pepper in my bed. The things we could do to each other and—

Pepper yawns again, and it snaps me out of it. She glances at her watch. “Yeah…I didn’t realize it was so late.”

She walks toward me and I turn slightly for her to precede me out the door. It brings our bodies dangerously close.

She stops and looks up at me, and fuck…I didn’t know eyelashes could be that long and thick.

“Thank you,” I say slowly and with what I hope comes across as utter gratitude. “Again, just…thank you.”

“You’re welcome.” Pepper smiles and moves to give me a hug.

Or so I think.

It’s one of those one-handed things, and my arm goes awkwardly around her waist. I bend to accept the half-embrace, and she goes to her tip-toes.