are your vitamins,” the woman in scrubs said.
Ivy had a nervous expression as she glanced down at the box on the checkout counter. Paxton’s gaze followed. He swallowed hard. The words prenatal vitamins seemed to jump out at him.
The woman continued, oblivious to the audience behind her. “And this is a prescription for nausea medicine. Take it when you need it, which will hopefully only be for another month or so. You and the baby need good nutrition right now, so we don’t want you too sick to eat. Got it?”
Ivy nodded, swallowing hard enough for Paxton to see her throat working. Nausea? Prenatal vitamins? Baby? The words floated through the fog clouding his brain. He blinked, trying to process. He knew what the words meant, but he couldn’t get the significance to register.
Just then, Ivy looked across the tiny room and spotted him. Her eyes went wide. Her lips parted, but no words came out. He didn’t need any. Panic spread across her features like a wave, putting the final piece in the puzzle.
A baby. They’d made a baby?
No sooner had he blinked than she was gone. He couldn’t see which way she went through the receptionist’s window.
“Paxton, what is wrong with you today?” his sister complained.
He glanced down to realize the way he was leaning had her blocked in against the check-in counter. “Sorry,” he mumbled. “Here.”
He handed his niece over to her mother, then murmured, “I’ll be right back.”
Remembering the office layout from the few times he’d been there before, Paxton knew the exit let out on the other side of the clinic, but then patients had to come back up the front hallway to get to the parking lot. He rushed back out the way they’d come in, hoping to intercept Ivy. Not that he knew what he’d say. His only thought was to find her. Now.
The hallway was empty. He backtracked down the hall to the adjoining one, but still didn’t see her. Maybe she’d already gotten outside? But he couldn’t find her in the parking lot either. He cursed himself as he realized he wasn’t even sure what kind of car she drove. After a good five minutes—and one missed call and exasperated text from his sister—Paxton returned to the doctor’s waiting room.
But Ivy’s panicked features remained foremost in his mind.
* * *
“Paxton McLemore saw me at the obstetrician’s office.”
The heart-pounding panic as Ivy spoke the words to her sisters was almost overwhelming. She forced herself to breathe in and out slowly. This intense upset couldn’t be good for the child she carried. Even if it was justified. She’d spent a month second-guessing herself, only to have all her plans smashed with one doctor’s visit.
“What happened?” Jasmine asked, her voice hushed with expectation. Jasmine was the epitome of the older sister, fulfilling her role with wisdom and the same matter-of-fact tone she used on unruly clients in her event planning business.
“I looked up from the counter, and there he stood. Watching me.” Ivy swallowed. So tall. With a baby sleeping in his arms, he’d almost seemed like her fantasies come to life. Only it wasn’t their child. And the realization that she was truly seeing Paxton in that moment had been more like a nightmare.
One that mocked the dreams of happily-ever-after she’d been rudely woken from that fateful morning, two months ago.
“He recognized you, I hope?” Auntie asked, her frown deepening the wrinkles on her beloved face.
Oh, he had. “Yes. There was recognition in his eyes. Then shock.” Her finger traced the interlocking pattern of the tiger wood on the dining room table.
Ivy had watched Paxton’s gaze drop to the box on the counter with the paralyzing realization of what was to come...and knowing she could do nothing to stop it. Luckily the nurse had wrapped things up quickly.
She imagined her disappearing act would not go over well with Paxton once he got over the shock. “I panicked. I didn’t know what to do, what to say.” She looked around, shame burning her cheeks. “So I just grabbed my stuff and ran.”
A little giggle sounded to her left. Ivy cast a quick glance at Willow. “What’s so funny?” she demanded.
Willow pressed her lips together, but it didn’t help since her amusement was evident to everyone. Their middle sister had always marched to her own drum. “Well, all I can imagine is you running down the hall, pushing people out of the way, like one of those victims in a thriller movie. In heels, no less.” She giggled again. “Not your normal modus operandi.”
Auntie started to chuckle, then Jasmine. In less than sixty seconds, they were all giggling until the tears started. Even Ivy. She drew in a deep breath. Man, that felt good. No one could make her laugh when she needed it like her sisters.
“Maybe he won’t care?” Willow asked, sober once more. How could she sound skeptical and hopeful at the same time?
Ivy forced herself to wipe away the last of her tears. She’d been reliving that awful moment when she’d looked up to see Paxton staring at her from across the little office for hours now. She’d finally realized his sister had been with him. At least his being there made some sort of sense now.
Even though it was still disastrous.
Auntie cut into her thoughts, offering the same steady wisdom she’d handed out to the girls since she’d taken them in as orphaned teenagers. “Oh, he will care. The question is, what will he do about it? Men like him never quit.”
As Ivy felt her stomach tighten in protest, Jasmine admonished, “Auntie, that’s not helping.”
“Doesn’t make it less true,” Auntie insisted.
How could she have gotten herself into this mess? With Paxton McLemore, of all people? “Why did I wear that ring?” She moaned, letting her head drop into her hands. “Why did I think it would bring anything but bad luck?”
“Because it produced miracles for Jasmine and me?” Willow asked.
This was really not a good moment for both of her sisters to remind Ivy that they’d found their happily-ever-afters while wearing the ring. She hadn’t been so lucky.
Ivy glared at Willow. “Too bad I didn’t get the same treatment.”
But she couldn’t truly blame the ring. She’d let fantasies overtake her since the first day she’d started working for Paxton McLemore, at the expense of her true mission. Keep her head down, work hard and get ahead—all without him discovering who she really was. Playing with fire had gotten her burned. Now her family could be in as much trouble as she was...if Paxton pursued her too closely and discovered who they really were.
“He hasn’t called, even though he has your personal cell number,” Jasmine said, obviously trying to change the subject. “Even though it’s only been a few hours, that’s a good sign, right?”
“I don’t know,” Ivy said and then moaned.
“Will he realize the baby is his?” Auntie asked.
“There’s
