Never Have A Baller's Baby: A Bad Boy Pregnancy Romance (5 page)

Scott was still fuming about what had happened with Naomi when his agent, Harold, called him a short while later.

“Scotty!” he said through the phone with his gravelly voice and a smile that sounded pasted on.

“Hey Harold,” Scott answered quietly.

“You home this afternoon? I thought I’d swing by.” Harold wasn’t asking, and Scott knew it.

“Yeah, I’m home come on by if you want to,” he answered quietly. He was still thinking about Naomi.

“We’ll see you in just a while,” Harold answered, and then hung up. Scott thought nothing more of it until the doorbell rang a short while later and he opened it to find Harold there, but Harold wasn’t alone. There was a gorgeous blonde woman standing beside him with a million dollar grin on her face.

“Good afternoon Scotty,” Harold said as he walked right in past Scott, patting him on the arm as he passed by him.

Scott looked from Harold to the woman. “Jennifer… what a surprise. I didn’t expect to see you both here, together.” He ushered Jennifer in, and she came in when she was invited.

“I didn’t expect to be here either, but Harold said he wanted me to come with him over here to see you. How are you doing Scott?” She smiled at him and embraced him, kissing him gently on the cheek.

He hugged her back and let her go, closing the door behind her and following her into the living room where Harold had already gone. He was on the phone when Scott and Jennifer walked into the room, and Scott gave him an irritated glance that Harold didn’t see. Jennifer saw it and stifled a laugh, which made Scott laugh a little.

“Can I get you anything to drink?” he asked her.

“Sure, do you have any white wine?” She looked hopeful, her smile shining brightly.

“Yeah, I do. Come on. We’ll get some wine while Harold’s on his phone call.” They left the living room and walked through a few more rooms to get to the kitchen. As they entered it, Jennifer was looking all around her.

“I love what you’ve done with your place! I never would have expected it! It’s so beautiful!” She gazed around her and touched her finger to the countertop.

“Oh thanks. I’m having it redecorated,” he replied, his thoughts going back to Naomi for a moment. He turned his head to hide the dark look on his face and reached for a bottle of chilled white wine from the wine cooler.

“Who’s your decorator?” she asked interestedly as he poured her a glass of wine.

“Oh… it’s Summit Interior Design,” he answered offhandedly. He was trying with everything in him to keep his mind off Naomi, and Jennifer was hovering much too close to the topic for his comfort. “One white wine.” He smiled, handing the glass to her.

She winked at him and took it from his hand. “Thank you.” She smiled back at him. “Aren’t you going to have any with me?” Her wide blue eyes were steady on his, and he hesitated only a moment.

“Yeah, I guess I will. It looks good.” He winked back at her and then poured himself a glass. Just as they were going to toast, Harold walked into the room and stopped in the doorway, eyeing them both. A wide grin spread over his wrinkled face, pushing his sagging cheeks back toward his long ears.

“Drinking wine together. How romantic.” He chuckled, pushing his old hat back on his half bald head. “That’s good. All right you two kids, I’m going to take off. I just got a call, and I have some things I need to take care of. Scott, why don’t you make dinner for Jennifer and then take her home later tonight, or tomorrow morning. See you two kids later.”

With that, Harold left both Jennifer and Scott standing in surprise in the kitchen, as he turned and walked out of the door. All the breath in Scott’s lungs left him and he was speechless for a moment. Turning toward Jennifer, he gave her a smile and lifted an eyebrow.

“So, what would you like for dinner?” he asked her.

She grinned at him and held up her wine glass to finish their toast. “Let’s start with this…”

***

Naomi walked into the office the next morning, and Keisha smiled at her, handing the mail to Naomi as she stopped at Keisha’s desk.

“I made coffee, and here’s the mail from yesterday afternoon. Also…” she paused and looked a little anxiously at Naomi, “Reggie Davis is coming in around noon to talk about what he’s going to do with the building and our lease. That’s Mr. Davis’ son.”

Naomi stopped almost mid-step and turned to look at Keisha. “Reggie Davis is coming here? Today?” She made herself take a deep breath. “Okay. Well, we’ll get some answers, and that’s the best that we can hope for right now.”

She looked away from Keisha as her heart began to pound against her chest, and she headed to her desk. There was a lot going on in her mind, about all the things that were going on in her world, and all of it was overwhelming her.

She sat and made herself go through the mail, made herself focus as hard as she could on every word before her, and not on the thousand things that were going crazy in her mind.

Every time she looked at the clock that morning, it seemed to be rushing toward the noon hour, and she felt as if she was freefalling toward a definite end that could not be avoided. It made everything in her even tenser.

At two minutes to noon, she was tapping her fingernail against her desk and staring at a letter on her desk. She hadn’t read the letter, though she had been staring at it for almost ten minutes.

“Naomi,” Malaika said calmly. “Please stop tapping.”

Naomi blinked and looked over at her hand on the desk. She hadn’t even realized that she was doing it. “I’m sorry,” she said quietly.

Malaika rose up from her desk and gave Naomi a smile. “I know things are difficult right now, but look at this as an opportunity to build a new and good relationship with Reggie, just like you did with his father. This is just the first step, and the first step is usually the most difficult. You can do this.”

Naomi gave her a half-hearted smile and just then the front door opened, and a tall, well built, stocky looking man walked in. He was dressed in a polo shirt and tailored pants. The curls of his black hair were trimmed short on his head, and he was undeniably handsome at first glance.

His brown eyes scanned the room quickly, and they stopped on Malaika, who was watching him from where she stood at her desk.

“Miss Peters?” he asked, looking at her.

“I’m Naomi Peters,” Naomi said, standing up and making herself walk toward him with a good deal more confidence than she felt.

He tore his gaze away from Malaika and looked at Naomi. A polite smile came over his face and he held his hand out to take hers.

“I’m Reginald Davis. My friends call me Reggie. Thank you for meeting with me today.” He gave her a nod as they shook hands.

“I’m so sorry about your father. He was one of the best men I’ve ever known.” Naomi spoke gently.

“Thank you. His loss was tough to take. He was the best man I ever knew. I hope to live up to his standard.” Reggie smiled at her.

“Well, shall we have a seat? It seems there is business to discuss.” She invited him over to the sofa at the center of the room, and he followed her and sat down. Keisha and Malaika sat down in chairs beside them.

“This is Keisha; she’s my assistant and receptionist.” Naomi introduced Keisha, who smiled brightly at him and shook his hand. “And this is Malaika, who is a designer here at the firm.”

Malaika reached her hand to him to shake it, and he held her hand a bit longer, smiling genuinely at her. “It’s quite a pleasure to make your acquaintance,” he answered, holding her eyes with his. She smiled at him and withdrew her hand from his slowly.

He turned toward Naomi then. “You have a lovely place here.”

“Thank you, Reggie. We’ve worked hard on it. I’m glad you like it.” Naomi smiled at him and told herself to be certain to start off on the right foot with him.

“My father mentioned your business more than a few times when he was alive. He had nothing but good to say about you and the ladies here,” Reggie began, looking at her more seriously as he spoke

. “I understand that he wanted you to be able to stay here, and he kept you here all of this time. I’m glad that he did that, but because he’s gone, things may change. We’ll have to talk about it. I’d first like to know what your plans are, and then I will be glad to fill you in on what changes I have coming up in the future.”

Naomi felt her heart begin to pound, and she tried to keep as calm a face on as she could manage. “Well, we love being here, and as you said, we’ve been here a while. We’re established here. I’d like to keep the business here, if I could. We want to keep it exactly as we have it now.” She kept her tone friendly while making her intent very clear.

He nodded. “I thought that might be the case.” He pursed his lips a moment and his smile faded somewhat. “I’m sorry if this causes you any kind of trouble, but for myself, I can’t keep this building. It’s more work than I have time to handle, and I’ll be frank with you; it’s the smallest property that I own. It’s not worth my while to keep it; to be honest.”

Naomi’s heart pounded its way straight into her throat.

“There are two people who are interested in buying the property. They have each made a considerable offer, and I am probably going to choose the higher of their two bids. Because my father thought so highly of you, I want to honor that and make you an offer. If you can at least match the highest bid, I will sell the building to you. The sale date is the end of this month.” He stopped speaking then, and watched Naomi, waiting to hear what she would say.

Naomi could barely breathe, let alone answer for a moment. She forced herself to breathe. Malaika saw her struggling, and jumped in to her rescue.

“I’m curious, Reggie, would you need all of the money at once, or would you be able to take any kind of payments over a period of time if Naomi was to purchase the building from you? Is there any other kind of option?” She gave him a smile, and he returned one to her, his face softening quite a bit.

He looked truly sorry as he shook his head. “No, I’m sorry, that actually wouldn’t be possible. It would need to be a complete sale for the full price at the end of the month. Fortunately, it’s the beginning of the month, so you have a full thirty days to make your decision.”

Malaika nodded at him, and he looked away from her reluctantly to return his gaze to Naomi. “What do you think you’ll want to do?” he asked.

Naomi had taken the few moments that Malaika had given her, and she gathered herself. “I would like the opportunity to buy the building, but I’ll be honest with you, Reggie, we just don’t have that kind of money, and it’s unlikely that we would have it in so short a time.”

He pressed his lips together in a tight line and nodded. “I understand. Well, that’s the best that I can offer you right now. I do hope that something turns up for you, and that if you want the building, you are somehow able to secure it. I will promise you this; I won’t make the sale final until the end of the month, so you have until then, and I will check with you first before I accept an offer from anyone else.”

She tried to give him a smile, but it wasn’t in her. She nodded in understanding, and he rose up from the sofa and offered his hand to her as she stood up beside him.

“Thank you for seeing me,” he said politely.

“Thank you for coming by and talking to us, and for holding the sale for us. We’re certainly going to do everything that we can to keep this building.” Naomi shook his hand.

He looked at Keisha. “It was nice to meet you both.” He shifted his gaze to Malaika, “I’ll be in touch very soon. What an absolute pleasure.” He reached for Malaika’s hand, and shook it, holding it a long moment as his eyes locked on hers, before letting her go.

Reggie left them, and the moment the door of the office closed, Naomi nearly collapsed on the sofa, burying her face in her hands as sobs came up in her full force. “I can’t believe this! We’ve worked so hard to get this business going and keep it busy, and we’ve been here all of this time. There’s no way that we can buy this place in a month! It’s just not possible!”

Her shoulders shook and Malaika came to her and sat beside her, wrapping her arm around Naomi’s shoulders and squeezing her gently to comfort her. “We’re going to figure it out. I don’t know how, but we will. We have a month. We have to make it work.”

Naomi stayed there on the sofa with Malaika a little while, but then she wiped her hands over her wet cheeks and dried her eyes as much as she could. “We have to get to work. We have to find a way to make that money. I’ve worked far too hard making this design firm what it is to lose it like that. I’m not moving the business, either. Ladies, we have to put our heads together and see what we can come up with.”

She stood up and walked back to her desk, determined to find a way to make it work. She sat there for two hours, going over every possibility that she could think of. Both Malaika and Keisha were working on it as well, and later that afternoon, Keisha hung up the phone on her desk and rushed over to Naomi’s desk.

“Naomi!” she gushed excitedly, her eyes brighter than usual. “Maybe this will help!”

“What is it?” Naomi asked, looking at the paper that Keisha thrust into her hand.

“It’s a new design job. This lady saw your work up in someone else’s house and just loved it! She wants you to go over to her home right away and talk with her about redoing her entire house and her guest house!” Keisha was bubbling with delight.