The Baby Arrangement (The Daycare Chronicles 3)

“You nervous?” Braden asked as he set the cruise control and settled back.

“A little.” Not as much as she’d have thought. She was creating her future, one step at a time. Just one step. That’s all she was facing that day. That’s all she’d ever have to face. One step. Before she’d have to deal with the next.

Or get to celebrate the next.

One thing she’d learned from losing Tucker, from the grief counseling, was to live in the moment. To enjoy every single moment as best she could. The moment was all anyone ever had at any given time. And then, God willing, they’d have another one moment.

They’d been on the road half an hour and said two words a piece.

“This isn’t a bad drive,” she offered. She’d made it a few times in recent months.

“No, it’s not.”

He’d obviously been making the trip, too, adding on the extra forty-five minutes further north to L.A. At least, enough to pick the property he was considering for his new venture.

Odd how their attempts to get on with their lives apart from each other had led them both to the L.A. area.

Difference being, of course, that she only visited. He was moving.

“Maybe we could drive by your new property,” she offered, hoping he never knew how difficult it was for her to support him. She was being selfish and wasn’t proud of that. “You know, when we’re finished at the clinic. We’d be almost there and I’d like to see it.”

More like she needed to know where he was going to be. Just so she could relax and let go.

He glanced at her. She could tell but didn’t look over at him.

“I’d like that, actually, if you’re up for it,” he told her. “I’d like your input.”

Warmth flooded her.

All of these changes were a good thing.

Maybe everything really would be okay.

* * *

Braden didn’t need the magazine. He’d been apprised of its availability. Knew exactly where and how to access it, but didn’t. All he had to do was picture Mallory their last night together, naked and wild in that hotel room, as hot for him as he had been for her.

The whole thing was over in less than a minute.

Which was a good thing, considering the night that did it for him was also the night their son had died.

She couldn’t have sex again after that.

The memory of their time together that night turned him on. If that made him a sick bastard, then, he supposed it did.

For Mallory, the two were indelibly tied into one.

For him, they were two completely different things. For her, losing one meant losing both. In his mind, their togetherness as a couple could have been something that saw them through the loss.

But then, his tendency to live in his mind had been a big part of their problem.

He made business calls and answered email from his phone while he waited out in his vehicle for Mallory. He’d been told it could take six or more tries for her procedure to take. This was the only time he’d need to be present. He hoped it worked out for her quickly.

If this was what she really wanted.

Maybe after trying, she’d have second thoughts. This attempt wouldn’t take, and she’d forgo another.

Maybe.