The Baby Pact (Babies and Billions Book 5) Read online

  Rhea stared at him. “Excuse me? What’s that supposed to mean?”

  “What do you think?” he asked. “Do you think I’m some kind of charity case? A project for the Wilson family to take on so you can all feel better about yourselves?”

  “I feel perfectly fine about myself, thanks,” Rhea said icily. “I’m trying to help you because I care about you, Zach.”

  “And you think that’s the way to do it.”

  “Well, what the hell do you want me to do?”

  “I want you to accept that I have to go,” he said. “I want you to be a friend. Support me. Stop trying to make me fit into your life, and try to fit into mine instead. I’m not a person who can afford to go to school wherever he wants, and if you really do want this friendship to survive, you’re going to have to accept that.”

  “Do you think I have some kind of issue with how much money you have?” Rhea demanded.

  “It’s obvious that you do,” Zach said. “You keep trying to fix me.”

  “I am not trying to fix you! I’m trying to help you, Zach! Why can’t you see that?”

  “Because I didn’t ask you for your help!” Zach said. “I’m not looking for you to save me here. Believe it or not, the solution me and my dad came up with is just fine with us. We’re moving to Philadelphia—”

  “Wait, you’re both moving to Philadelphia?” she asked. “Your dad too? Why?”

  “Did you think he was going stick around here and clean up your dad’s distillery for the rest of his life?” Zach snapped.

  “So your dad doesn’t work for my dad anymore?”

  She looked as if something was falling into place in her head, and suddenly it occurred to Zach that Rhea’s family might have made some kind of comment to her about his father. She clearly didn’t know that he had been fired, but what if her father had told her something his father had done wrong?

  What if that’s why she’s so determined to fix me now? What if she can only see me as a flawed person?

  He turned away from her and pressed his hands to his cheeks, breathing deeply and doing his best to calm himself down.

  This is Rhea, he reminded himself. She’s your best friend. She means what she’s saying. She wants to help you.

  But he had told her, again and again, that he didn’t need her help. That he was fine without it. That he was willing to accept a new life in Philadelphia. And she could have helped him get excited for it or launched herself into planning visits. She could have expressed excitement about seeing the place where he’d be living. She could have made an effort to come and see him during these last few days—he knew he had been distant, but she hadn’t tried either.

  The only thing she seemed to think she needed to do was to solve the problem.

  And the problem, in this instance, was that Zach’s family didn’t have as much money as her family did. Plain and simple.

  All his life, Zach and his father had been poor. But they had been happy. They had lived paycheck to paycheck and they’d fought to make ends meet, but there was a quiet sort of pride in that life. It was something he was beginning to realize that Rhea would never understand.

  How can we be friends if she can’t understand this basic thing about me?

  She would never be able to correct the problem of his family finances. Not unless he became totally dependent on her. And he would never do that. Not in a million years.

  He turned back to her. “I think you should go,” he said quietly.

  She looked shocked. “Zach—”

  “I don’t want to do this anymore,” he said. “I’m leaving, Rhea. Maybe it’s best if we just make it a clean break.”

  “You don’t mean that,” she whispered.

  “I think I do,” he said. “I think it’s best if we don’t try to force this.”

  Her eyes filled with tears. “But we said we would try. We said we would always be friends.”

  He almost took it back. It killed him to see her like this.

  But this same fight was just going to keep happening, over and over. And he didn’t want to go through it again.

  “Forget it,” he said. “We’re too different. It’s not going to work out for us.”

  Something in her eyes hardened. “That’s what my father said,” she told him. “But I never thought you would agree.”

  “Your father?” Anger flared up inside him. “What did your father say about me?”

  “He said I should stay away from you,” Rhea said. “He said you weren’t the right kind of person for me to associate with.”

  “Why? Because I don’t belong to the country club? Surprise, surprise.”

  “Or maybe just because you’re obsessed with who has money and who doesn’t!” Rhea yelled. “Can’t you see that you’re the only one who cares?”

  “Yeah, I’m the only one who cares because I’m the one who doesn’t have money!” Zach shouted back. “It’s easy not to care about something you’ve never lacked!”

  Rhea shook her head, backing toward the door. “You’re a jerk,” she said. “This isn’t the person I thought I knew at all.”

  “Yeah, likewise,” Zach snapped.

  “I hope you’re happy in Philly,” Rhea said. “I hope you make lots of friends who have an amount of money that makes you feel comfortable, since that’s so important to you.”

  She turned and ran down the hall, and Zach didn’t call after her.

  Chapter 5

  Rhea

  Fifteen Years Later

  Rhea checked her makeup in the mirror of the hotel bathroom. She’d had a few glasses of wine, and the dress she’d worn to tonight’s party was a little bit too warm. Though her makeup was high quality and couldn’t be sweated off, her cheeks had begun to go pink beneath her foundation, and the colors weren’t blending as well as they had in the cool setting of her home when she’d gotten ready for tonight.

  Fortunately, she’d come prepared. She pulled her makeup bag out of her purse, wiped her cheeks with makeup removal cloths, and selected a foundation color a little more appropriate to the rising color.

  The door banged open and two of Rhea’s coworkers came in—her college roommate, Kaylie, and their friend Laurel. Laurel looked rather green, and Kaylie steered her toward a stall and pulled the door shut behind her. A moment later, Rhea heard the unmistakable sounds of someone losing their lunch.

  She glanced back at Kaylie. “You’re kidding,” she whispered.

  Kaylie shrugged. “I’m going to call her a cab. I think I got her out of the party before anyone else saw how drunk she was.”

  “Good,” Rhea said. “She must still be really upset, huh?”

  “Well, her boyfriend of three years did leave her just a week ago,” Kaylie said. “Personally, I’m surprised she made it out tonight at all.”

  “I’m glad she came,” Rhea said. “Better than sitting around her apartment alone being sad.”

  Kaylie nodded. “But I hope none of the partners get wind of how drunk she is.”

  Rhea raised her eyebrows.

  “Except for you, obviously,” Kaylie amended. “I guess it’s fine if you know.”

  Rhea nodded. She had only been made partner at the Green Destiny Group—one of the city’s top architectural firms—about a year ago, and the title still felt new and exciting. As eager as she was to prove herself and impress the other partners, though, she would never sell out a friend.

  “I’ll cover for you,” she told Kaylie. “Get her in a cab.”

  She finished applying her new foundation, packed away her makeup, and headed back out the door and toward the party.

  The company had rented out a ballroom in one of the nicest hotels in Baltimore, and though Rhea had spent her whole life attending fancy parties, she had to admit that this one was one of the nicest. Waiters circulated throughout the room with bite-sized morsels on trays, and it was all Rhea could do not grab handfuls of the succulent foods.

  She accepted a glass of champagne from a pas
sing tray. Someone had had the idea to add a drop of green food coloring to make the drink match Green Destiny’s signature color, and Rhea thought it was a nice touch. Maybe it wouldn’t have gone over so well with another group of people, but the Green Destiny crew were very used to green drinks—the cafe in their building served green smoothies, and green fruit juices were available in every kitchen.

  She returned to her table, which she was sharing with the other two partners, Tomas Reyes and Gregory Stein. Though the prospect of being the only female partner at the firm had made her nervous, it was going better than she had anticipated. Both men seemed to respect her ideas and treated her as an equal.

  Tomas, who had brought his wife along to the party, looked up as she sat down.

  “There you are,” he said. “Cecilia was just asking whether there would be a dessert course.”

  Tomas’ wife glared at him and swatted his arm playfully. “You make me sound like Marie Antoinette,” she said. To Rhea, she added, “Tomas told me that you’d handled the menu, and I was interested in what that consisted of.”

  Rhea nodded, smiling. “It wasn’t difficult,” she said. “This is my first time helping to plan one of the quarterly parties, so Tomas and Gregory gave me the easiest job.”

  Gregory burst out laughing. “She thinks we gave her the easiest job!”

  “They gave you the jobs they didn’t want to do,” Gregory’s wife, Bernice, said. “They were being lazy.”

  Rhea laughed. “I suppose I should have guessed. Maybe next year I can teach them how it’s done, since they have so much trouble with it.”

  The wives laughed. “I like her,” Cecilia said.

  “Rhea, didn’t you want to bring a date tonight?” Bernice asked. “We would have loved to meet your spouse or partner.”

  “Oh, no, I’m not married,” Rhea said. “And I’m not seeing anyone either.”

  “Rhea’s married to the job,” Tomas said knowingly.

  “That,” Rhea informed him, “is a sexist thing to say.”

  “What? How is that sexist? I’m affirming your right to be dedicated to your job.”

  “You’re saying that if I’m not married to a man, I must be married to something else, because it’s inconceivable to you that a thirty-five-year-old woman could just be unmarried.”

  Tomas grinned. “Rhea’s been putting us in our place when it comes to sexism in the workplace,” he told his wife.

  “Good!” she said. “Someone ought to. Well done, Rhea.”

  Rhea smiled. “It’s a running joke, but the truth is that Tomas and Gregory have been great to work with,” she said. “I couldn’t have asked to join two better partners.”

  “So what’s next for Green Destiny?” Bernice asked.

  “We just signed a contract to design a bunch of locations for a coffee shop concept,” Rhea said. “They’re a really crunchy business, and they want to make sure all their builds are fully eco-friendly. They’ve already bought up a bunch of old warehouse spaces, and we’re going to convert those into the shops. It should be a really exciting project.”

  Bernice wrinkled her nose. “Warehouses?”

  “We’ve got some fun ideas for beautification,” Rhea assured her. “We’re going to knock out one of the walls on each of the buildings to let natural light in, and we’re going to utilize a lot of plants and greenery for decor.”

  “With a wall knocked out, how are you going to discourage thieves?” Cecilia asked.

  “We’re stealing an idea from the way open shops in Los Angeles do it,” Rhea said. “We’re just going to put a chain mesh grate in that the owners can pull down at the end of the day. They’ll be able to lock it to a point in the ground, so no one will be able to open it without the key. It should do as good a job of securing the place as a regular door or wall would do. But it’ll be much more beautiful in the daytime.”

  “But that will be so ugly at night,” Bernice said. “Have you considered using clear plexiglass instead? I think the acrylic look is lovely.”

  “It is pretty,” Rhea said. “But it’s on our list of no-go materials. We don’t use plexiglass in our buildings at all, because it’s not environmentally friendly. Steel is much better because it’s recyclable. It can be melted down and reformed over and over, so if one day these coffee shops go out of business, they’ll be able to donate their grates to a future project. Also, we can work with reclaimed steel as we build.”

  Bernice nodded. “I see what you mean,” she said to Gregory. “She really does know her stuff.”

  “We made a good choice of partner,” Gregory said. “We’re going to have a big party when your first year comes to an end, Rhea.”

  Rhea smiled and glanced over her shoulder. Kaylie was making her way back into the room without Laurel by her side. She must have gotten her into a cab, as they’d planned.

  Everything has been as successful as I could possibly have hoped for.

  As the night wound down, people slowly began to trickle out of the ballroom. Rhea stuck around as they left, knowing that it was her responsibility to make sure that everyone was getting home safely.

  Finally, though, Tomas came up to her by the coat check.

  “It’s fine if you want to head out,” he said. “There are only a few people left, and we’ll make sure they have safe transportation home. You got here early to set things up. You should be allowed to head out if you’re ready.”

  “Are you sure?” Rhea asked. “I don’t want to leave you holding the bag or anything.”

  “No, no, it’s fine,” Tomas said. “I have to stay until the very end anyway, because I have to pay the caterers and the DJ. You should go. Really.”

  “All right,” Rhea said. “If you’re sure, then… thank you.”

  She got her coat from the coat check and went out to the hotel lobby. A few of her coworkers were still there, in line for cabs to take them home, and Rhea joined the line.

  She had reached the front of it and was about to get into a cab when a man came running out the front door of the hotel.

  “Rhea Wilson?” he called.

  She started. “That’s me,” she said.

  The man nodded and held out a slip of paper. “A message was just left for you at the front desk,” he said.

  She frowned. “What?” she asked. “Who would leave a message for me? I’m not even staying at this hotel. Who even knows I’m here tonight?”

  “I don’t know,” the man said. “But whoever it was, he said your name. You are Rhea Wilson, aren’t you?”

  “Yes,” she said.

  “Then the message is for you.”

  She accepted it. The man went back inside to the reception desk, and Rhea unfolded the note.

  Dear Ms. Wilson,

  I would like to meet with you, if you’re amenable, this Wednesday night at seven o’clock. I don’t want to make you uncomfortable, but I can’t deny that I’ve harbored some feelings for you, and I would like to see if there’s any potential for something to develop between the two of us.

  Will you please consider joining me at the Lily Garden? Dinner will be my treat. I look forward to the opportunity to connect with you and to explore the possibility of a relationship.

  Yours sincerely,

  An admirer

  She stared at the paper. An admirer? What was all this about? She had never believed that people sent messages like this to one another outside of romance movies. Could there really be someone out there who had admired her from afar, who was interested in getting to know her better and possibly exploring a relationship?

  Who could it be?

  Almost immediately, though, reality set in. There was only one real possibility: the note had to have come from someone at Green Destiny. Her colleagues were the only ones who knew that she was here tonight.

  Rhea was opposed, in principle, to the idea of dating a coworker. She had experienced enough dates that had ended badly to know that taking that risk with someone she would have to go on work
ing with just wasn’t a good idea. And even if she hadn’t had an ideological objection to dating a coworker, there wasn’t anyone at Green Destiny she was attracted to.

  Well, great. This is going to be awkward.

  But what choice did she have? It wasn’t as if standing up one of her coworkers was a good alternative. No, she would just have to go on the date to be polite. That way, she would be able to find a way to let him down easy.

  At least, I hope I will.

  It occurred to her to wonder whether Tomas and Gregory had set this up. As often as she tried to reinforce to them that her unmarried state wasn’t a tragedy, she hadn’t been able to conceal the fact that she would have liked to be lucky in love for once in her life. Maybe they had taken it upon themselves to set her up with someone else at the company.

  If I find out they had a hand in this, I’m definitely going to have words with them.

  “Miss?” a voice asked.

  Rhea looked up. A taxi driver was staring at her.

  “Did you still need a cab?” he asked her.

  “Oh.” She felt silly for having allowed herself to become so distracted. “I do, yes. Forgive me.”

  “Not at all,” he said. “Just let me know if you need me to pull over or something.”

  “What?” Then she understood. “Oh, no, no—I’m not drunk.”

  “Okay.”

  He clearly didn’t believe her, and she supposed she couldn’t blame him. She had been standing there staring into space like a fool instead of getting into the cab she’d hailed. And she was leaving a big swanky party. Lots of the people leaving the party tonight had been drunk.

  I don’t understand getting so drunk at a work party, she thought. I would never want to lose control like that around my coworkers.

  But she knew that not everyone felt the same way she did about keeping their work life and their personal life separate. Some people did date coworkers. Kaylie had been seeing a guy in the Operations department for about six months, and the two of them seemed happy together.

  Rhea leaned her head against the window of the cab as it sped off toward her apartment, thinking through everything that had happened that night.