Katherine Garbera - His Baby Agenda

“We’ll see,” he said.

Gabi walked away and Kingsley watched as she firmly closed the door between her room and Conner’s.

“I like her,” Conner said.

“Me, too,” Kingsley admitted to his son. He helped Conner change and then supervised him brushing his teeth and washing his face.

He was always struck by how quickly Conner was growing. It wasn’t that long ago that Kingsley would have had to do both chores for him. But now he was independent enough to do them himself.

“Daddy?”

“Yes?”

“Are you ready for breffest?”

“Yeah, Con, I am. Let’s go.” Kingsley reached out to his son and felt that tiny hand grip his so securely. Whatever went down in the next few months it was paramount to Kingsley that Conner—and by extension, Gabi—was protected. Obviously, some stray sparks had burned her when Stacia died. Finding Stacia’s real killer, clearing his name once and for all and making sure that justice was served...that was a tall order. But one that King and Hunter felt sure they were up to.

Hunter had heard that their old football coach had retired and was living in Carmel not too far from Kingsley’s new home. Hunter planned to visit the old man and see what he remembered. The party where Stacia was killed had been held at his home on campus.

“What time are you leaving today?” Gabi asked as he entered the kitchen. He noticed that she had a bowl of cereal and fresh fruit prepared for Conner.

Conner scampered up onto the bench seat and started eating.

“Not until this afternoon.”

“I need to run back to my office and sign some papers and I’d like to bring my assistant out here so she knows how to get here. It was a little complicated and Melissa isn’t the best with her GPS.”

Kingsley was irritated. He wanted Gabi here. That was what he’d paid for, but he was aware of how well saying something like that would go over. He needed her and he was willing to let her go for now. “Okay, but I want lunch, just you and me. Mrs. Tillman will watch Conner. We need to get a few details settled before I leave.”

“What details?”

“We can discuss it at lunch,” he said. He wanted to be alone with Gabi. He didn’t question it. He’d been operating by his gut for a long time and it hadn’t let him down—except for that one night with Stacia.

He was determined to put the past to rest and to make things up to Gabi. But he knew deep inside that it was her icy exterior that made him want to do it. He wanted to crack through it and find the young woman who’d been so in love with him that she’d come to visit him in jail.

* * *

Gabi had done her best to avoid Kingsley and she felt like a coward. But standing on the threshold of the terrace in the sun with the gorgeous view of the Pacific in the background, she was almost glad she was here. She’d come out here not just to be a nanny to Conner, but also to put the past to rest for once. Her mother was always keen to point out that she kept all men at arm’s length.

She dated.

She was a woman and had needs and got tired of her own company, so of course she’d been out on dates and even hooked up occasionally. But she had yet to be with a man for more than one night, and she had studied enough psychology to recognize that pattern for what it was. Kingsley had left a part of her scarred when he’d rejected her.

So she was here in part to heal. To somehow bring closure to that one-night stand they’d had and hopefully make it possible for her to have a real relationship and give her mom those grandkids she was desperate for.

“I wasn’t sure you’d come.”

“Why not? I like to eat just as much as the next person.”

“This isn’t just about the meal. You’ve been avoiding being alone with me since you moved into my house,” he said.

He wore a pair of perfectly tailored dress pants and a button-down shirt that had been cut to his size. Kingsley wore his wealth well. And she had to admit that she admired him for it. She was sick of seeing men in baggy jeans on the streets. Kingsley took pride in his appearance and she liked it.

She’d worn a sleeveless sheath dress in turquoise that her mother had told her brought out her eyes. Her mom spent a lot of her time making sure Gabi was presentable to the world.

Kingsley led the way to the table and held a chair out for her. She sort of regretted missing dinner last night. She’d feigned sleepiness and gone to bed early. But she’d needed time to shore up her barriers. To focus on what was important—the kids who’d get the playground that his fee was paying for. Conner, who needed a nanny focused on the job of caring for him and not his superhot dad. And rebuilding her shattered feminine self-worth. That was why she’d stayed away, but today, with the sun shining and Kingsley sitting next to her looking as though he’d stepped out of one of her dreams, it was hard to remember any of that.

“Why are you back in California?” she asked. Get to know him. Wasn’t that the first thing every Cosmo quiz told a woman to do? It was also what she had decided she needed to help herself get over him.

“I wanted Conner to grow up with the sea and the sun. Plus, my parents haven’t forgiven me for...”

“Stacia?” she asked. She wasn’t going to pretend he didn’t have that in his past. It was the incident that defined them as a couple. Three weeks of dating culminating in a one-night stand. And she suspected she needed some closure on that, as well. “What did happen that night?”

“I don’t... Are you sure you want to talk about it?” he asked.

“Yes. I thought... Well, that doesn’t matter. I remember that you took me home and stayed until my roommate came back and then you left. What happened next?”

He rubbed the back of his neck and took a long sip of his sparkling water before he put his elbows on the table and leaned forward. “I took a long walk around the campus. I didn’t want to go back to the frat house or the party. I needed to think.”

“What about?”

“You, Gabi. You were a freshman and I was a senior. My life was on track at that point. You know the draft was my next goal, but then you came along and things sort of changed.”

“How?”

“You were different and it made me think about something other than football for a while,” he said.

She wanted to believe him. There was no reason for him to lie to her at this moment, but if that was the truth, why had he been so cruel to her at the jailhouse?

“Yeah, right. Listen, we both know I was just some dewy-eyed coed that you saw as an easy score,” she said. “You don’t have to put a different spin on it. I was more than willing to go with you that night.”

“Believe what you will, but that night was special for me. You were different,” he said.

“Then why were you so mean when I came to visit you?” she asked. There had been no reason for that.

“I was protecting you. I had no clear memories of the night before. I only knew that I’d been found with Stacia and Hunter and that she had been killed. The cops were trying to implicate me in some sort of twisted sex game, and I wanted you as far from that as I could get you,” he said.

She swallowed hard. “Really?”

“Would I lie about that? I certainly didn’t leave you and go back to the party to kill Stacia.”

“What did happen? Do you know?”

“I don’t,” he said. “We’ve never found out anything other than they had no evidence to prosecute Hunter and me. Both of us can’t recall the night that clearly. What about you? Do you remember anything from that night?” he asked.

“Just being into you and around you,” she said. She tipped her head to the side to study him. Stacia’s death was still like a fresh wound to Kingsley. Gabi could tell by the way he was talking about it. Hear it in the anger in his voice.