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

  “Yeah, and how would that look?” Kaylie asked. “One of the partners is my college roommate, I’m dating a guy in operations, and I come waltzing in at half past nine? It would definitely start to look like I thought I was special.”

  Rhea knew her friend was right to concern herself with the optics, but she still felt bad. Kaylie was special; not only was she one of the most knowledgeable conservationists on staff, she was also the best friend anybody could have asked for. It felt wrong to see her sacrificing her health for the sake of making a good impression at work.

  “Maybe we need to change our policies about tardiness in general,” Rhea mused. “If you’re having this problem, I’m sure other people are too.”

  “We can talk about that,” Kaylie said. “But right now we’re on break, and I want to talk about New Year’s Eve. I think I have the perfect solution to your problem.”

  “You do?”

  “Yes,” Kaylie said. “We should have a party.”

  Rhea burst out laughing. “You think parties are the answer to everything.”

  “They’re the answer to lots of things! And this is one of them,” Kaylie said. “Think about it. We’ll invite tons of people. Everyone we know. Lots of them won’t be in relationships, so you won’t be the only single person there. It’ll have a nice group vibe instead of feeling romantic. And even if some people kiss at midnight—”

  “Like you and Spencer, you mean?”

  Kaylie blushed but plowed on. “Most people won’t be kissing. So you won’t feel like you’re left out of anything.”

  “You promise it’s not some kind of setup?” Rhea asked. “I don’t want to get to this party only to discover that you’re planning to introduce me to one of your cute guy friends.”

  “I wouldn’t do that,” Kaylie said. “I haven’t done anything like that in years.”

  It was true that she hadn’t even attempted to fix Rhea up on a date since college. She seemed to have learned, genuinely, that Rhea didn’t like that.

  “All right,” Rhea said. “I trust you.”

  “Though it wouldn’t be the end of the world, would it, if you saw someone you liked?” Kaylie asked.

  “As long as you don’t have any expectations that that will happen.”

  Because I know it won’t.

  No matter how great a guy was, Rhea just wasn’t in a place emotionally where she would be able to appreciate him. She would compare every man to Zach, and every man would come up short.

  Which is pretty messed up, considering the fact that his family stole from mine.

  But she couldn’t help it. It was just going to take some time to get over this.

  Maybe she should never have let him back into her life at all.

  But she couldn’t bring herself to wish that they hadn’t found each other again. The few days they’d spent with one another had been some of the happiest of Rhea’s adult life. And even though they were, by necessity, at an end, she knew that she wouldn’t take them back. Not for anything in the world.

  She and Kaylie spent the rest of their lunch hour making plans for their New Year’s party—discussing where it would be held, what kind of food and drink they would serve, and what they would do to entertain their guests. Rhea was pleased with the ideas they came up with. It seemed like it was going to be a pretty low-key party, all things considered—nothing too stressful. It would make for a nice distraction from everything that had been on her mind lately.

  When they had finished their meals, they cleaned up the table. Rhea’s lunch had been packed in reusable plastic containers, of course, and as she rinsed them out and put them away in her bag, she couldn’t help noticing the look of guilt on Kaylie’s face as she threw away her chip bag.

  “At least you can recycle the pop can,” she said encouragingly.

  “I know,” Kaylie said. “I just hate having to throw anything away. You know how it is.”

  “I do,” Rhea said. “But if it helps, remember that you’re the one who got me into conservationism in the first place. If it weren’t for you, I would be generating a lot more waste than I do. And I bet a lot of other people can say the same thing, right?”

  Kaylie brightened slightly. “I guess that’s true,” she said. “I know my parents wouldn’t even recycle if I didn’t keep hounding them about it.”

  “Exactly,” Rhea said. “Give yourself a break. You’re having a positive impact overall.”

  Kaylie nodded. “Thanks, Rhea,” she said. “You’re a good friend.”

  “You too,” Rhea said with a smile. “This break was exactly what I needed.”

  Her relaxed mood lasted until she got back to her office. She looked at the desk drawer in which she had left her phone with trepidation, then opened the drawer and pulled the phone out.

  Two missed calls.

  He had called twice more in her absence.

  Talk about waste.

  She threw the phone back in the drawer, not sure whether she was angrier at Zach or at herself.

  Chapter 10

  Zach

  Zach stared at his phone, completely at a loss for what to think.

  He hated that this was happening. It was hard to believe that it could be. Things had been so perfect between Rhea and himself, hadn’t they? He had certainly thought so. All those idyllic evenings spent at her place, and at his, snuggled together under the covers, talking about plans for the future—

  Okay, so admittedly they had only discussed the short-term future, such as when they had made their plan to spend Thanksgiving together. But that had meant something to Zach, and he had allowed himself to believe that it had meant something to Rhea too.

  He had even started planning their Thanksgiving dinner. Food-based holidays were a big deal to Zach, and he had known that if he managed to put together the perfect set of eco-friendly recipes, he would definitely impress her. He had begun to pull a few favorites while she was staying with her family, thinking that he would find a way to ask her about her favorite foods without being too obvious once she got back.

  He’d waited for her call, not knowing exactly when she planned to get back from her weekend with her family. They’d agreed that it wasn’t a good idea to tell her family about their relationship yet, so Zach didn’t want to make things difficult by calling her while she was still with them. Better to wait and let her contact him.

  So he’d waited.

  And a week had gone by.

  He had known then, in his heart, that something wasn’t right.

  But he hadn’t wanted to believe it. They had been so close. They had said to each other, multiple times, what a miracle it was to be back in each other’s lives and what a mistake it had been to wait so long to reach out again. Zach had meant that, and he’d believed that Rhea had meant it too.

  Finally, at the end of the week, certain that she couldn’t possibly be with her parents anymore, he had sent her a text:

  “Hey, is everything okay?”

  The casual tone was an act. He’d been terrified, waiting to see what she would say. Would she tell him that they couldn’t be together anymore? Did she want to end things now, when everything seemed to be going so well? If that was the case, Zach thought his heart might break.

  He had never felt about any other woman the way he was beginning to feel about Rhea. And though it felt a bit soon to make the claim, Zach thought he was falling in love.

  So he’d waited on tenterhooks for her reply.

  But the reply had never come.

  And now a month had gone by, and Zach had no idea what could have happened.

  The only thing he could think of was that Rhea’s parents must have told her about the fact that they had fired Zach’s father all those years ago. Perhaps that knowledge had made Rhea feel awkward.

  But would she really just ghost me over something like that? Not even try to talk to me?

  He didn’t want to think so, but he had to acknowledge that he didn’t know Rhea all that well. He had kno
wn her fifteen years ago, and that Rhea wouldn’t have ended a relationship just because her father had fired his father. But perhaps time had changed her. Perhaps she wasn’t the girl he had known in college anymore.

  Wouldn’t I have noticed that over these past weeks?

  Maybe not. It was probably a quality that was difficult to pick up on if you didn’t know you were looking for it.

  Zach sighed and shoved his phone into his pocket. He really couldn’t afford to spend any more time thinking about this today. He was driving himself crazy. And he had a party that was starting in a couple of hours. He needed to keep his attention there.

  He went into the kitchen, where his team was putting the food together for the party. His head chef, Jeffrey, was working on a tray of zucchini bites.

  Zach swiped one off the pile and popped it in his mouth.

  “This is pretty good,” he said. “Better than the usual, I think.”

  “Yeah, I added smoked paprika,” Jeffrey said. “I think it gives it a little something extra.”

  “Are you experimenting on game day again? You know I’m not crazy about that, Jeff.”

  “Because you haven’t got my nerve.” Jeff flashed him a winning smile. “It worked out okay, don’t you think?”

  “I think you got lucky,” Zach said. “Don’t change up the recipes on the day of a party, okay? If you want to go off menu, I support that, but at least do a sample batch the day before to make sure it doesn’t taste horrible.”

  “Nothing I cook ever tastes horrible, and you know it,” Jeff said.

  Zach grinned. “I know,” he agreed.

  Jeff had been EcoKitchen’s head chef since the company’s inception. He had traveled from Philadelphia to Baltimore with Zach to help open the new company branch, and he was the only member of the original staff who was with Zach now.

  Which doesn’t exactly make us friends, Zach reminded himself.

  He had to tell himself constantly that although he liked Jeff, he was still the boss. It was his responsibility to keep things running smoothly around here, not to become buddies with his employees.

  But that was a hard resolution to keep. Since the death of his father, Zach had been largely alone. Working as hard as he did made it tough to find the time for making friends. If he hadn’t been in charge here, he could have had work friends, the way other people seemed to, but trying to be friends with the people whose salaries he paid seemed like too much of a conflict of interest. It seemed to Zach like it would be irresponsible.

  But if I could have a work friend, I think I would want it to be Jeff.

  Of course, Rhea had served as a welcome distraction from his lonely state for the short time she had been back in his life. But now she was gone, and Zach was on his own again, left wishing that he had someone to talk to.

  “Do you want to talk about it?”

  Zach started. Was Jeff reading his mind?

  “What?” he said.

  “I don’t know,” Jeff said. “You just seem like you’ve been kind of… moody lately.”

  “Shouldn’t you be focusing on the food?” Zach asked.

  “Food’s done, Zach.” Jeff punctuated this statement by sliding his tray of zucchini bites into the oven. “I don’t have anything to do until this timer goes off. You may as well talk to me, right?”

  Zach sighed. “I don’t know,” he said. “Maybe.”

  “What harm could it do?” Jeff pressed. “It’s not trouble with the business, is it?”

  “No, no,” Zach said. “Business is better than ever. Expanding to Baltimore was a great decision. Everything’s going perfectly.”

  “So then what’s the problem?” Jeff asked. “Family stuff? Girl trouble?”

  Something must have registered on Zach’s face, because Jeff’s eyes widened.

  “It is girl trouble. I didn’t even know you were seeing anyone.”

  “I’m not anymore,” Zach admitted.

  “Ah,” Jeff said knowingly. “Well, who was she?”

  “This girl I used to know in college,” Zach said. “Rhea. We sort of lost track of one another after we left school, but we reconnected recently and… I don’t know. Things were going really well.” He sighed. “Or so I thought.”

  “So what happened to her?”

  “She just stopped returning my calls one day.” Zach said. “I haven’t heard from her in almost a month now, and I don’t know what to think of it. I’m starting to feel like I should just take the hint and stop reaching out.”

  Jeff raised his eyebrows. “You mean it’s been a month of no contact and you’re still trying to get a hold of her? You must really like her.”

  “I do,” Zach admitted. “We haven’t been back in each other’s lives for very long, but I was really starting to think she might be… you know, the one. I liked her a lot back in college. We even had one of those silly pacts that people make when they’re afraid to admit they really like each other, where you say you’ll get married in fifteen years if you’re both single.”

  “That is silly,” Jeff agreed. “But it sounds like you really care about this woman.”

  “I do,” Zach said.

  “Then you can’t just let her go,” Jeff said.

  “But if she’s not returning my calls—”

  “Women can be temperamental,” Jeff said sagely. “You have to find out what she’s upset about and make it right. Then all will be forgiven.”

  “I don’t know if you’re right about that,” Zach said. “What if whatever she’s upset about is something she doesn’t want to forgive?”

  “Why?” Jeff asked. “What is it you did?”

  “I don’t know what I did.”

  “Well then, it can’t have been that bad, can it?” Jeff said. “If it was really something awful, you would have noticed it, right?”

  “I mean, I guess so,” Zach allowed.

  Jeff nodded, clearly believing that he had made his point.

  “So here’s what you have to do,” he said. “Get in contact with her. Go to her house, if that’s what it takes. Do whatever you have to do to get her attention and make her listen to you.”

  “And then what?” Zach asked. “What am I supposed to say once I have her attention? How do I go about atoning for something if I don’t even know what it is? It’s not like I can just ask her. It’s pretty clear to me that if she wanted to tell me why she was upset, she would have done it already.”

  “Yeah, you’ll have to win her over with something other than a straightforward apology,” Jeff agreed. “Here’s my idea—you have to plan a dream date for her.”

  “A dream date?” Zach blinked. “What does that mean?”

  “It means go all out,” Jeff explained. “Take her to the nicest restaurant in Baltimore. Hire a hot air balloon to fly her over the city.”

  “She’s afraid of heights,” Zach said.

  “A horse and carriage, then,” Jeff said. “Whatever. The point is, you throw money at the problem. Show her the kind of lifestyle she can expect if she forgives you and comes back to you.”

  Zach frowned. “I don’t want to try to buy her forgiveness.”

  “Don’t be so high-minded about it,” Jeff said. “It’s not like you’d actually be buying her. I’m just talking about letting her see the life you lead. I mean, it’s only fair that she should know what she’s giving up, right? She ought to have all the information.”

  “She comes from money,” Zach said. “She’s not going to fall at my feet because I have money.”

  “She might,” Jeff said. “You’d be surprised. Maybe she’s been hesitant about spoiling herself with her own money in the past, and she needs somebody to do it for her. Or maybe she’ll be happy to see that if you and she get married, her fortunes will double. You know as well as I do that rich women like rich men.”

  Zach couldn’t deny that. Still, he felt a little uncomfortable with what Jeff was suggesting.

  “I don’t know,” he said. “It seems shady
to me. She hasn’t spoken to me in a month, and you’re saying I should show up at her door with what basically amounts to a bribe to keep going out with me?”

  “You really can’t look at it that way,” Jeff said. “And you have to acknowledge that you’re the one who’s putting that face on it. It’s not like you’re handing her a thousand dollars in exchange for agreeing to come on a date. You’re just arranging a really nice date. But if you don’t want to take this woman on a really nice date—”

  “No, I do,” Zach said. “Of course I do.”

  “Well then, I don’t see the problem,” Jeff said. “It looks like a win-win situation from where I’m standing.”

  The timer went off and Jeff bent down and took the tray of zucchini bites out of the oven.

  “You want to try one now?” he asked Zach. “They’re a lot better when they’ve been cooked.”

  Zach laughed, realizing that the one he’d sampled before hadn’t been the finished product.

  “Sure.” He took a zucchini bite and ate it. “You were right,” he said. “The paprika really makes it.”

  “I’m always right,” Jeff said, smiling.

  “Okay, okay.”

  “Are you going to take her out?”

  “I guess I have to,” Zach said. “I can’t seem to let her go, and I’ll never forgive myself if I leave something untried. I have to win her back, and your idea is the best one I’ve got.”

  “That’s the spirit,” Jeff said. “Will you let me know how it goes?”

  Zach was glad he’d asked. Having someone to report back to about this strange mission would make it easier, in a way, to see it through. It would be hard to face Jeff and explain that he had backed out. Knowing that Jeff would want to hear the story would motivate Zach to go through with it.

  “You’ll hear all about it,” he promised. “You’ll be the first to know.”

  Jeff grinned. “Fantastic.”

  Zach glanced at his watch. They were getting down to the wire. They needed to make sure they were ready for the party.

  “You finish up here,” he said. “I’m going to go help the guys on soups and make sure everything is ready. We need to leave in twenty minutes so that we can start setting the place up to be ready in time for the party guests.”