Never Have A Baller's Baby: A Bad Boy Pregnancy Romance (16 page)

Thank you for taking the job, by the way, and for not walking out of it when you thought that he and I were engaged. I’m so glad that I didn’t lose you in all of the confusion.” She laughed lightly.

Naomi agreed. “I’m glad that I kept you, too. Yours is the biggest account we’ve ever had here, and I’ll be honest; right now we really need it. We’re at a crucial juncture with the firm, and your redesign is going to make a huge difference for us all. I am grateful that we have it, and I promise you that we’re going to do an excellent job for you.”

“Well that’s great news! I’m glad that I could be a help to you and your business. I’ll be sure to recommend you to my friends too. I’d like to see you do well.” Jennifer gave her a friendly smile. “I do want to ask you when you’ll be over next.”

“We’ve gotten really busy, but your house is my top priority, so I can be over there today,” Naomi told her, feeling better about everything that had happened with her and Jennifer already. “Right now I can give you five days a week.”

“That’s perfect!” Jennifer clapped her hands together. She leaned forward then. “I also wanted to tell you that Scott let me know about your little one… and I wanted to tell you congratulations. I’m really happy for you both, no matter how it all turns out. You two are going to be great parents, and that is going to be one lucky baby.”

“Thank you.” Naomi grinned at her. It felt like the friendship that had sparked the first day that they had met, had somehow fanned into flames, and it felt to them both as if there was a solid foundation being built beneath them as they spoke to one another.

Jennifer stayed and talked to Naomi for a while, and by the time she left, they hugged one another and were both sincere when they said they were looking forward to starting their work the next morning. Jennifer left a check for half of the amount of the full redesign, and it was almost everything that Naomi needed to meet her financial goal to save the building and buy it.

***

Scott’s doorbell rang and he frowned when he looked through the peephole and saw who it was standing there. He opened the door and looked at Cora with a wary eye.

“What can I do for you?” he asked, trying not to sound as irritated as he felt with her.

She smiled smugly and reached into her bag, pulling out a large envelope. “I have the paternity test results here with me, and you said that you wanted to open them together, so I’m here. Let’s open this together.” Her smile turned sultry, and he felt his skin grow cold as he realized that she was extremely confident that he was the father.

He ushered her into the living room and stood before her with his hands on his hips. “Okay. We’re here. Open it and let’s see what the doctor had to say.”

Cora stepped toward him and reached her hand out, running it down the bulky muscular curve of his arm. “Are you sure you want to open that first? You know, we could do so much more with the time that we have than just looking at boring old paperwork. What do you say?” she asked in a coy and sensual voice.

He shook his head. “No. Open the envelope.”

She pushed her fat lower lip out into a full pout and slid one long red fingernail underneath the fold of the envelope, and slowly ripped it open. Taking her time, she gradually pulled the papers out of their sleeve and smirked as she handed them to Scott with all the confidence in the world.

“Here you go, daddy,” she purred softly.

Scott felt ill as he took the papers from her and read through the cover letter. A smile began to spread over his face, and a deep laugh echoed in his chest.

She looked at him in surprise. “What is it? What’s funny?”

Scott handed the papers to her and felt a world of relief flood through him. “That baby was fathered by your husband, not by me. That’s not my kid.”

Cora ripped the pages out of his hand and stared at them wide eyed as her eyes moved over the same few places on the page several times. “No…” she whispered. “No… this can’t be right! This can’t be right!” she insisted.

He shrugged. “It is right, and you’re not right. You should have had that test done as soon as you could, because now you look like a big fool. You went and gave that exclusive interview to the
Times
, and now you’ll have to admit to everyone that you aren’t carrying my child, that you just cheated on your husband and your own husband got you pregnant. Tough break, Cora.”

“No!” she snapped furiously at him. “This is your baby! It can’t be his!” She raised her voice.

“Well, that’s not what your paperwork says.” Scott laughed lightly. “Now, take your test results, and your baby, and go home to your husband and try to work things out, okay? That’s the best possible thing that you could do right now.”

She shook her head and he began to gently guide her to the front door. “No! Scott! I don’t want to go home to him! He’s an old man! I don’t want him! He just used me, and I didn’t know it until after we were married! I need you! Don’t desert me, especially not now with this baby! Please don’t desert me!” She began to sob and moan and Scott reached the door with her.

“You can work out your own problems with your husband. I’d suggest that you start by staying faithful to him and stop having affairs behind his back, then focus on being a good mother to his child.” Scott moved her to the front deck of the house and then closed the door behind her with a last goodbye and wave. “Don’t ever come back here again, Cora, there’s nothing here for you.”

He waited and watched her from the window as she made her way to her car, weeping miserably and screaming at alternating intervals. Before she got into her car, she picked up a rock from the front garden and threw it with all of her might at the window where he was standing. She swore loudly, and the rock missed the house and landed on the front deck nowhere near the window. She screamed in frustration, cussing again, and then got into her vehicle and left, and Scott knew that he was never going to see her again.

He grinned to himself as he headed to his office to call Harold. One more problem gone, and one more solution done.

The Final Chapter

Naomi was sitting at her desk when Reggie walked into the office. She looked up at him and her heart caught in her chest. She was not ready for him. She had most of the money she needed, thanks to Jennifer and all of the extra jobs that she had gotten as a result of the publicity from Scott’s house and Jennifer’s house, but it wasn’t as much as she needed to give to him, and her time was up.

He stopped at her desk and sat down across from her. “Good afternoon,” he greeted her with a kind smile.

“Hello Reggie,” she said, feeling her stomach drop out of the bottom of her and through the floor. It was over. She had done all that she could, and all that she could do had just not been enough. There was nothing for it. She only hoped that he could give her enough time to pack up the business and try to find somewhere to move it; or perhaps the new owners could let her have a week to move out.

The thought of anyone else owning her beautiful building made her want to cry, but she had been given a chance, an opportunity to make it work, and it hadn’t happened. She couldn’t do it. She knew that she had to face her responsibilities.

“Today is the last day of the month, Naomi. It’s time for us to talk about what we’re going to do with this building.” He leaned back in his chair and looked at her seriously. “Do you have the money you need to buy this from me today?”

She drew in a shaky breath and somehow tried to find her voice. “No, Reggie. I am sorry, but I don’t. We’re close; we have most of it, but we didn’t quite reach the goal. I thought we could get to it, or I would have told you earlier in the month that we wouldn’t be able to reach it, but it just didn’t happen. We have about ninety percent of it, and we won’t have the other ten percent for about two more weeks. Thank you for the chance and the time that you gave to us.”

He looked at her shrewdly for a long silent moment, and in that eternal moment, she felt like she died a thousand deaths. She was losing her business. She was losing everything that she had worked so hard for all of her adult life.
Sometimes the race does not go to the good,
she thought to herself.

He took a long deep breath and leaned forward in his chair, resting his elbows on his knees. “You know, Naomi, normally I would not mix business with anything outside of business. Normally I would handle this differently. I would tell you that it is admirable that you tried to reach the goal in so short a time, and it is admirable, and I would then tell you that you would need to find another place to move your business, and I would sell this building to the highest of the two bidders that I currently have on it.” He cleared his throat.

“However… things are not normal in this case.” He smiled sheepishly as he looked at her and continued to speak. “I’m not sure if you are aware of it, but I have been seeing Malaika.”

Naomi stared at him and nodded, only barely finding a voice to reply to him with. “I am aware of it,” she answered him.

“Well, Malaika and I have grown quite close in a short time, and my feelings for her have gotten to be very strong. Very strong indeed. To that end, I do not wish to cause her any grief; any trouble or sorrow, and I know that selling this building to the highest bidder and sending all three of you to find another place for your business would do just that. She loves this job, and she loves this building. She has not asked me for any favors or benefits for you as an extension of our relationship.

She’s kept her work here and our new bonds completely separate, and I deeply respect that. As a consequence of that, I feel like I should handle this matter differently than I normally would. I also feel that I owe it to my late father, who thought so much of all of you, to be a little more lenient with this situation. So, I am going to give you the extension of time that you need to collect all of the money.

You said that you could have it all in the next two weeks. I will give you another month. You will have the time that you need to collect that money that you need, and at the end of next month, I will make a final sale, no matter who buys this place. I hope that it’s you, and I will not make another offer like this one I am giving you right now, but I will give you one more month to reach your goal.” He leaned back and smiled broadly at her, and in that moment, she felt like the whole world had somehow righted itself.

She breathed in deeply for the first time in what felt to her like ages, and the stress and strain of all the weeks leading up to that moment washed away from her. “Thank you…” she gasped as she held her hand to her heart. “You’ve changed everything for us. Thank you so much.”

He nodded and looked at her kindly. “I think this is worth holding on to, just a little bit longer,” he told her with a wink.

“You reminded me so much of your father just now… in making the offer to give us another month… in what you just said, and in the way you look now. I think that he would be so proud of you, and of what you’ve done. You certainly didn’t have to do it, but you did, and it’s going to make such a difference in all of our lives. Thank you from the bottom of my heart.”

She rose up from her seat and walked around the desk to him. He stood up and reached for her hand, but Naomi was too overwhelmed with emotion to shake his hand. She reached her arms around him and hugged him tight, doing her best not to cry in his arms.

He hugged her back for a long moment and then let her go. “I’m glad to do it,” he told her with a grin. “I feel like there’s a good chance that we’ll be seeing quite a bit of each other in the future, and for a long time to come,” he looked over toward Malaika’s desk meaningfully, “and I protect my assets, always.”

Naomi realized that he meant that things were much more serious between him and Malaika than she had realized, and she thought to herself that if it made Malaika happy, then it made her happy, too. “I wish you all the best luck in the world, Reggie. You and Malaika.”

“I wish the same for you,” he replied, and then he walked out of the building, and Naomi nearly collapsed in her chair as tears of joy spilled over her thick eyelashes and down her dark cheeks.

Keisha hung up the phone and looked at her in surprise. “What did I miss? What just happened? Are you okay? Do we have to leave? We have to leave, don’t we…” she trailed off sadly.

Naomi shook her head. “No honey, we never have to leave. He gave us another month. We’re going to be able to buy this place, and it’s going to be ours forever. We will always be here.” She looked around her at her office, and it suddenly felt different to her; it felt like home.

She didn’t know what her future with Scott held, but it didn’t matter. Whether he was in her life or not, she was going to have financial stability, and she was going to be able to take care of herself and her baby, no matter what. She placed her hand on her belly and smiled to herself.

“We’re going to be okay, little one. We are going to be just fine. Mama has you well cared for.” And she sat back down and tried to focus on the work in front of her.

When Keisha was getting ready to leave that evening, she had shut her computer down and told Naomi goodbye, pausing by the door. “Do you want me to lock this?” she asked sweetly.

Naomi shook her head. “No, I’m just finishing up here, and then I’ll be heading out for home right behind you. Thank you, though.”

Keisha nodded and waved, and disappeared out the door. Naomi went back to work, and it was quiet in the office for about fifteen minutes, but then the door opened, startling Naomi, and she jumped as she looked over toward it.

She saw Scott standing there, in his button down shirt and his snug fitting jeans, and her heart leapt in her chest.

“What are you doing here?” she asked as a mix of happiness, unease, and sadness twisted inside of her.

He gave her a smile and let the door close, walking toward her. “I came to see you. We need to talk.”

She sighed and set her pen down on her desk. “I guess maybe we do,” she replied. She knew that he was right. He might not be engaged to Jennifer, but there were still problems that they had to work out, and they had a baby on the way. One who would need its mother and father.

He sat down opposite her and looked at her with more happiness than she had seen in him in a long time. “It’s been a busy day for me. How about you? How are you doing?” he asked, wanting to check on her before he told her all of his news.

Taking a deep breath, she told him. “Well, Jennifer came by today and we talked. She told me that the two of you are not engaged, which was a huge relief to me. I was um… I was destroyed when I read that in the newspaper and thought that it was real.”

He frowned and sadness shadowed his blue eyes for a moment. “I’m sorry about that. I didn’t know it was in the paper for a while. In fact, I didn’t know it was there until Jennifer came over and showed it to me, and we talked about it. I’m really sorry that you had to go through that. I wish it hadn’t been printed at all, but I’m relieved that she came here and told you that we aren’t engaged. Not even close.” He looked at her adamantly.

Naomi nodded, and then continued. “Well, she and I had a good long talk, and we’re okay. We’ve got our own business all worked out. Then, later this afternoon, the man who owns this building came by and we made an arrangement for me to buy it from him in a month. That’s the best news I’ve had in a long time. It means I’ll be able to keep my business here and I’ll have all the financial security that I need. It’s incredible. I still can’t believe he made the offer to me that he did, but he did it, and now things for my business couldn’t be better.” She grinned as the happiness in her overtook her.

Scott grinned back at her. “I’m so happy to hear that! You have worked really hard to get this business where it is, and I know how hard you worked at my place. I’m sure you work at all of your jobs with that same kind of integrity and dedication, and now you’ll have a great payoff from it.”

She rode the wave of happiness that was coursing through her. He leaned forward in his chair and continued to speak to her, though his tone grew soft.

“I had a good day, too. First, I had a visit from Jennifer, and she and I worked out that the engagement shouldn’t happen, so she said she was going to come talk to you and tell you about that, and I’m really pleased to hear that she did. So that was a huge load off of my mind. Then, I called the newspaper, and I talked to the editor in chief about that jerk of a reporter who has been printing all of those articles about us.

I found out that you had a restraining order put on him.” He looked at her with some small surprise. “Why did you need to do that?” he asked, still wondering about the details of it.

Naomi leveled her eyes at him as she thought of it. “He was following me all over the place and taking secret photos, and eavesdropping on my conversations… it has been a mess. I saw him following my car, and I called the cops and had him pulled over. They told me I could get a restraining order, and if the guy broke it, then I could press charges against him. If he breaks it, I will press charges against him!” she stated adamantly.

Scott looked giddy. “I don’t think he’s going to be doing that, although I’m so sorry to hear that he was giving you such a hard time. This is why I was so careful about us being seen in public. It’s a totally different world for me than it is for you, and I wanted to protect you from all of it.

I tried to tell you about how it would be, but I guess I didn’t get it across to you, and you wound up being hurt by it anyway. It’s a rough world being a celebrity and having the press chase you all of the time. I wanted to keep you from it by keeping us a secret, but I couldn’t. Anyway, he’s not going to be following you anywhere anymore.”

She looked at him in confusion. “Why is that?”

He chuckled with a slightly wicked gleam in his eyes. “Because the editor-in-chief at the paper really heard it from me this morning. I told him that his reporter had it all wrong, and that Jennifer and I weren’t engaged and that I was considering suing him for all the articles they had been printing, and he apologized left and right and told me he would personally put a retraction in the newspaper tomorrow, clearing it all up. He also told me that he was going to fire the reporter. He said anyone who works like that isn’t a journalist, and I had to agree with him. The man was let go today. We shouldn’t be seeing him again.”

Naomi stared at him in disbelief. “You’re kidding! He was fired?” she asked in amazement. “I mean… I don’t really like to see anyone lose their job, but I have to tell you, I’m pretty glad to hear about that!”

Scott agreed. “Me too. Anyway… then I had another visitor this afternoon. Cora Evans, the other woman who said she was pregnant with my baby, came by the house again. She was by the other day and I told her that I didn’t want anything to do with her unless she could prove to me that she was actually pregnant with my child. I made her get a paternity test. She brought it back to me today and we opened it together.”

Naomi’s heart began to pound again. “Well? What were the results of the test?”

“The test came back negative. She isn’t pregnant with my child. She’s pregnant with her husband’s child. She just cheated on him, and then got pregnant with his baby. I didn’t know that she was married when… when we were together that night. I had no idea, or I never would have done anything with her. Now I know. I told her that I never wanted to see her again and I told her to go home to her husband and try to fix her marriage.” He scoffed and shook his head.