took a seat in the private waiting room until it was their turn, which wasn’t very long. As they went into the ultrasound room, Bronson helped Mia step up onto the table.
“Good afternoon,” the tech said, coming in right behind them. “Feeling okay, Mia?”
Mia nodded. “Morning sickness has been gone for about a month, and I’ve never felt better.”
The tech smiled as she laid Mia back and pulled her shirt up to her bra. “You’re into your second trimester. Most women have a huge burst of energy during this time. No cramping or anything?”
“Not anymore.”
Bronson stood beside the table, and when the tech put the scope on Mia’s stomach and pointed to the screen, his heart literally constricted. He grabbed Mia’s hand as he looked at the small, beating heart.
“I’ll take some measurements to be sure of the due date, but it looks like your baby has a nice, strong heartbeat.”
Bronson looked down to Mia, who was staring at the screen with watery eyes. “That’s so amazing,” she whispered.
The tech tapped a few buttons, moved the scope and tapped some more. “You’re exactly fifteen weeks and one day. Looks like your due date is Valentine’s Day.”
Good Lord, that seemed so far away. This was just the start of September.
“A Valentine’s baby?” Mia asked. “How appropriate, since I love her so much already.”
The tech laughed. “We can schedule your next appointment for one month out and at that time we’ll see if we can determine the sex of the baby. Assuming you want to know.”
Mia looked to Bronson. “I’d like to. Would you?”
The sex? That would make this child all the more real to him, but as he glanced up at that little beating heart, he knew he was already sucked in. This baby was real and, he hoped, his.
“I’d like that,” he said.
Mia’s smile spread across her face. Between seeing this child and spending so much time with Mia lately, he was starting to fall into a role he wasn’t sure he was ready for. And he was beginning to see Mia as the honest woman his mother had always claimed she was.
The tech wiped off the gel she’d put on Mia’s slightly rounded belly. “The receptionist will make that appointment on your way out.”
Once they made the appointment and left, Bronson settled Mia in the car.
“Would you like to go out for a late lunch?” he asked.
“I’d love to, but I’ve got so much I need to do. Can you just drop me off at the main house?” she asked.
Disappointment speared through him, not something he expected. “Sure.”
Mia stared down at the glossy black-and-white pictures the tech had given them. “I don’t know that I’ll get much done today. I may just have to look at our baby.”
Our baby. He was getting used to those words.
“If you show those to my mother, I guarantee nobody will be working.”
“I wasn’t sure you’d want me to show them.”
Bronson spared her a glance, hating how he always saw uncertainty in her eyes. “She knows we went.”
He didn’t want to admit that his mother had no doubts about this child’s paternity. How could the woman be so sure? Granted Mia never gave him reason to doubt her. But in his mind the black mark against her was her relationship—whatever it may be—with Anthony Price.
“It’s okay, Bronson. I don’t mind keeping these to myself. I understand that you don’t want her to get attached yet.”
Mia’s words sent an ache through him. He knew she wanted to share her excitement. After all, she really had no one else in her life.
And that right there was all the more reason for her to try to trap him into a family.
Dammit, he wished he weren’t so cynical, but he had to be careful. He hated the thought of more scandal coming to his family.
Déjà vu?
Bronson slammed the paper down onto the dark wood tabletop. He’d come to Saturday brunch at his mother’s and had been greeted with today’s “news”—a picture of him and Mia coming out the back door of the doctor’s office. As if the image of Mia, a hand protectively on her belly, with him at her side weren’t telling enough, the damning article went on to talk about “Dane’s second chance at a family” and Mia “bed hopping from one Hollywood hotshot to another.”
This was the only drawback to his career. He couldn’t even have a private life. Of course, after Mia’s rumored affair with Anthony, she was great fodder for the media, as well.
“I’m sorry, Bronson.”
Bronson turned from his cushioned chair to see Victoria standing next to him. As always, she appeared the picture of chic with her wraparound, sleeveless navy dress, gold jewelry and perfectly coiffed blond hair held back by her sunglasses.
Her eyes darted back down to the paper. “I just saw that earlier and tried to reach you, but my call went to your voice mail.”
“Don’t be sorry, Tori.” Bronson came to his feet, placing a peck on his sister’s cheek. “It’s not your fault the media sniffed out this story. It was bound to happen. I just hope they leave Mia alone.”
Victoria took a seat next to him and smiled. “I knew you cared for her.”
“Yes,” he said cautiously, because Victoria always had love on the brain. “I care. We’re not planning a wedding or even playing house together. But I do care.”
A little more than he was comfortable with.
Victoria waved a hand in the air. “I know you like to keep your feelings to yourself, so I won’t say I told you so when you propose.”
“Propose?”
Bronson groaned as he turned to see his mother only a few feet away. “No. There’s no engagement. Tori’s just fantasizing. Again.”
Olivia kissed both her children on the cheek before taking a seat at the patio table under the bright California sun, shielded by a vibrant orange umbrella.
“Well, I for one would be all for bringing Mia into the family,” Olivia declared. “She’s a wonderful woman.”
This was not what he was in the mood for today. He’d already lost sleep the past several nights over conflicting feelings for Mia. He needed to work this out on his own without his mother or sister influencing him. For pity’s sake, he was a grown man who produced multimillion-dollar blockbusters. Surely he could decide how to handle
