CEO'S Secret Baby: A Standalone Surprise Pregnancy Romance - Iona Rose (which ebook reader .txt) 📗

I nodded. I had never seen him so disappointed, but in times like this, he chose to remember that I was his boss.

“We talked about New York, and London,” he said quietly.

“I’m willing to be a little bit more patient.”

“So it must be this agency… in Indiana.”

I nodded. “It must.”

He sighed. “This is about a woman isn’t it? That’s why you stayed behind an extra week in Alanya?”

I didn’t respond.

He knew not to push it any further. He rose to his feet. “I’ll get it done, sir.”

I knew he was in total disagreement with what I was doing. Before we had come together five years earlier to run this agency, he had been my boss for about eight years.

Since working together, we had remained sociable and respectful to each other, but whenever my instructions didn’t sit well with him, the clear hierarchy between us resurfaced. It always felt like a slap in the face every time.

On his way out of the office, he stopped, and turned to look back at me. “Carter, aren’t you worried that this is a big mistake?”

“I am,” I replied. “But like you said, if it’s one that I can still remember fondly enough in the years to come, no matter how things turn out, then I'll be grateful for it.”

He shook his head dejectedly. “It’s funny how you only ever pay attention to the worst things that come out of my mouth. Thanks for helping me to shoot myself in the foot once again.”

I couldn’t help my amusement as he exited the room, but it soon faded into the low hum of panic that was coursing through me.

I was the one who had just most probably shot myself in the foot, and it was more excruciating because I couldn’t even tell right now if I had made a good decision or not.

And by the time I would be able to, it definitely would be too late to turn back.

The wound was going to fester, and it may end up costing me more than I wanted to part with.

I couldn’t believe what I was doing, but the decision had nagged and tormented me for the last two weeks.

It was my norm now to be woken up in the middle of the night, my body drenched with sweat, and my mind haunted by the vivid memories of the girl I had told myself that I would so easily be able to forget.

In the month since I’d returned however, she had taken complete and total control of me, and it was driving me crazy.

I needed to be with her again… and the longing drowned out everything else in my life.

I understood exactly what Mark had meant by his warning, but still I couldn’t stop myself from jumping, my only wish that my story would have a better ending than his.

That when I arrived over there, I would be welcomed with open arms, and that she wouldn’t have already moved on to something or someone else that she was convinced served her better than I ever did, or ever would.

Yes, this was probably the biggest mistake I ever made in my life, but it was one… I hoped, would also be one of my very best.

Chapter 17

Leah

I had just arrived back home when the call came in from Tracy.

I hadn’t really seen either her or Anne more than a few of times since the return from our trip, so her call was a very welcome end to the day. I plopped down on my couch, Cheryl on my lap, as I settled in to speak with her.

“How was your day?” she asked.

“Tough,” I replied and asked about hers, handling toddlers all day as a kindergarten teacher. Then I thought about my new boss-the grandfather, as Jeremy had named him. I briefly filled her in on this.

“You think he’s interested?” she asked.

I shrugged my shoulders. “Who knows? His hand on my shoulder was quite unprofessional.”

“Maybe he was just being extra friendly,” she said.

I acceded to her conclusion.

Suddenly however, my stomach began to feel queasy, and it was soon followed by the threat of a vomiting episode. I tried my best to ignore it, to just continue on the phone with Tracy but then when it seemed as though my guts were about to spew out through my throat, I flung the phone aside and jumped up.

I ran to the bathroom, arriving just in time before the retching began.

I fell on my knees, and spewed the contents of my dinner into the bowl. By the time I was done, I sat back on the tile floor, completely drained of energy.

I was worried. Did this mean that I had also caught whatever was going around in the office?

I rose to my feet, and after rinsing out my mouth, stared at my reflection in the mirror. My eyes were sunken, and my complexion looked sickly pale. I most definitely could not get sick. We had a proposal request to prepare for in less than a week.

I heard my phone ringing again, and headed back to the living room. I put it to my ear and settled back down on the couch. “Tracy?” I asked but there was a pause on the other end for a moment.

“Oh, you’ve heard from her.”

Anne’s voice instantly registered. “Yeah, I just now spoke to her.”

“Can you believe it?” she asked. “She’s freaking engaged. I never thought that I’d actually see the day.”

For a moment, it felt like I’d been hit in the head with a rock. Anne continued to gush on, but I stopped her. “What? Tracy’s engaged?”

“Yeah, Jared proposed to her tonight. You just told me that you’ve spoken to her. “

“Well, I spoke to her but she didn’t mention it.”

Anne sighed heavily then. “I guess I wasn't meant to mention it either.”

I sat up. “What’s going on? Why would she hide it from me?”

“She wasn’t hiding it, Leah. Anyway, I gotta go now, so call her. Is there any chance of