Unexpected Baby Read online

  Unexpected Baby

  Brenda Ford

  Copyright © 2019 by Brenda Ford

  All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form, including electronic or mechanical, without written permission from the publisher, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles or reviews.

  This book is a piece of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events, locales, or persons, living or dead, is coincidental.

  This book is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This book may not be re-sold or given away to other people.

  If you are reading this book and book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then you should return it to the seller and purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the author’s work.

  Published: Brenda Ford 2019

  [email protected]

  Created with Vellum

  Contents

  Author’s Note

  Blurb

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Chapter 11

  Chapter 12

  Chapter 13

  Chapter 14

  Chapter 15

  Chapter 16

  Chapter 17

  Chapter 18

  Chapter 19

  Chapter 20

  Chapter 21

  Chapter 22

  Chapter 23

  Chapter 24

  Chapter 25

  Chapter 26

  Chapter 27

  Chapter 28

  Chapter 29

  Chapter 30

  Chapter 31

  Chapter 32

  Chapter 33

  Chapter 34

  Chapter 35

  Chapter 36

  Chapter 37

  Chapter 38

  Chapter 39

  Epilogue

  Excerpt

  Author’s Note

  Stay connected with Brenda Ford

  Also by Brenda Ford

  Author’s Note

  Unexpected Baby is a full-length standalone novel. At the end, I’ve included an excerpt from my other bestseller, Head Over Heels.

  Unexpected Baby concludes at around 90% on your device.

  Happy Reading!

  XO, Brenda Ford

  Blurb

  Zoe Portwood: A s$xy goddess who irritates the crap out of me.

  My one night stand, sworn enemy, and…the mother of my child!

  I hate her…I’ve always hated her,

  And it will never change.

  I think she’s been faking it all along…

  The baby, the dating, then falling for one another…guess it was all a part of her stupid big plan?

  Maybe…

  Maybe that’s why she walked away five years ago.

  Now, she’s back, but she’s not alone.

  She’s come back with a little girl,

  Who I think I have a connection with.

  God! It’s all so f@cked up!

  Looks like I am up against someone who’s pure evil,

  And yet, I am supposed to win.

  Hell…I don’t have a choice.

  I gotta do it for my daughter and for Zoe…the girl I fell for long time ago!

  Chapter One

  Wesley

  Her red hair spills across the pillow, the curve of her ass sits nicely between the sheets, I can see the tip of her button nose, and it’s a cute one… this woman is beautiful, from what I can see of her anyway, but I feel nothing. Absolutely nothing at all. To be perfectly honest, I can’t even remember her name. She’s just the faceless woman from last night. The woman who I talked to for long enough to get her in to bed but that was about it.

  But it was just a fuck. Just another fuck that doesn’t mean anything. Nothing at all. Just like the rest of them. It doesn’t matter how many women I have been with in the last month, none of them have cleansed her. None of them have made me feel any better about the woman that I screwed back then, the one who I definitely shouldn’t have. It makes me shudder to even think about the fact that I fell in to bed with Zoe fucking Portwood.

  I hated her the moment that she stepped in to the office, the moment that she took the job working with me at the technology company. I don’t know what it is but the moment I saw her I just knew that she was going to be trouble for me. I didn’t realize quite how much she was going to tear my life apart. How much she’d ruin me.

  I wasn’t worried on that first day. I didn’t have any reason to be. A chick strolls in wearing harem pants with feathers in her blonde curly hair and not a scrap of make up on her face. I immediately judged her as some one who wouldn’t be able to do the job, who was too much of a hippie to be great with technology but fuck me I was proven wrong. She’s a whiz, something of a genius, and she’s really damn hard to be around. She changed me from being the top dog, eons above other people, to being just normal and I don’t like that at all.

  I’m the one who dresses well, who makes an effort to be there in a suit every day, who gives a shit about the schmoozing of clients and the usual stuff that comes with business. She’s clueless, she cares about none of that, but she has a talent. A talent that I really fucking hate to admit is there. A talent which kills me every day.

  I’m competitive, the best of the best, and I don’t want anyone else to steal that from me. Especially not her. That stupid bitch. I really wish she hadn’t walked through that door and taken it from me, I wish she hadn’t brought out that deep hate within me, I wish I just didn’t know her at all. That she didn’t exist.

  Even more, I wish we didn’t fall in to bed a month ago. I wish I didn’t need to fuck everyone in sight to try and get over that night, to push her from my mind. I wish that I wasn’t on the edge of a stranger’s bed right now, wanting to be anywhere in the world but here, because here is very uncomfortable. And more than anything in the world. I wish that me and her having sex didn’t end in that God damn conversation at work.

  My head falls in to my hands as I think about that wild night. We were both drunk and horny, she had just been left at the alter by some guy who seemed to treat her like shit anyway – not that it was my right to say anything of course – and it just kinda happened. It was animalistic, filled with hate, and hot as hell. In that moment, her body was absolutely everything to me, I loved every inch of it. In that moment only though.

  But it was just a moment, it was nothing more than that. Just a stupid, blind drunk moment never to be repeated. However good it felt at the time; it was a one time thing to never happen again. Luckily, she seemed to feel the same way because there were three months afterwards when we simply avoided one another. She didn’t say anything to me, and I didn’t make any effort to speak to her as well. All was good. I didn’t even feel the need to get her out of my system, I wasn’t particularly screwing around then, everything was good.

  I assumed that it was going to stay good as well. That me and her would just forget that it ever happened, and nothing would change. Not talking to her was perfect actually. It made my life so much simpler. We were both doing well a work, sometimes me better than her, sometimes the other way around. It was peaceful. I didn’t even care about her when she was winning. It was all good… until she told me something to change it all.

  “Why? You don’t want to deal with the consequences of your actions? Well, tough shit. I have to and so do you. That’s right. I’m pregnant. Me and you are having a baby. That one stupi
d night will haunt us forever.”

  Her face was filled with ate as she yelled that at me, her eyes consumed with pain. She was a mess and so was I. I don’t really remember what happened next, it’s all a bit of a blur, but I think that I ran. I ran away and I haven’t spoken to her since. I don’t know what I would even say. What do you say to that? That I don’t want to be a father, that I’m not ready, that I don’t like her enough to even co parent with her. I can’t say that to a person, it’s horrible. Even if it’s the truth. I mean, me and her couldn’t be more different if we tried.

  I leap up off the bed, unable to take the pressure of this anymore, and I grab my clothing. I pull my trousers on in a hurry, not even bothering with my boxers. Instead, I stuff them in to my pocket while I search for my tee shirt. I don’t even know where this place is, never mind how far it is away from home. There isn’t a chance in hell that I’m doing the walk of shame with nothing on. No way.

  “Hey, handsome.” All of a sudden, the woman is awake and looking at me with a sultry smile on her face. “Where are you going in such a hurry? Don’t forget that you offered to buy me breakfast today?”

  “I did?” Oh God, I was so drunk last night. I need to rein myself in a bit. “Sorry, I have to work…”

  “No, stay,” she whines while flicking the covers off her to show me her naked form. Sure, she’s hot, but can’t she tell that this isn’t going to work now. I’m not in the mood. “I don’t want you to go.”

  “I have to go.” I shake my head hard. “I need to go to work. I’m already late.”

  “On a Sunday?” She cocks a curious eye in my direction. “Really? But you are a tech guy. Those people don’t work on a Sunday. Just stay here and let us have some more fun. There is still so much that we didn’t get to do last night, William. I will let you do whatever you want to me.”

  I don’t even bother to correct her when she gets my name wrong. It’s probably for the best. At least she has a clue what I’m called. I wouldn’t even know where to begin when it comes to hers. A letter or anything.

  “I have a… project,” I lie. “That I have been avoiding for far too long hoping that it will just go away. But it isn’t going anywhere. So, I need to just deal with it already.”

  God, that’s actually a little too close to the truth. Not that I have a work project that needs my attention because I would never let anything business related fall to the side. I don’t exactly work well under pressure; my best work comes when I tackle an issue right away and I tackle it from all angles… shame I can’t have the same attitude when it comes to my personal life because I could really do with snapping in to action right now.

  “And you have to do that right now? It can’t wait?” she barks, a little angrier now. “Because you swore that you would buy me breakfast and you haven’t. You are trying to run away. That makes you a liar. You know that, right? If you’re willing to lie to me this early on, then you aren’t going to be good news at all.”

  “You’re right.” I head for the front door in a hurry. “I am bad news. You want to keep away from me.”

  “You should have told me that last light, you fucking asshole,” she growls. “I wouldn’t have let you in my bed other wise. I don’t just sleep with anyone you know. How dare you use me like that…”

  “Sorry,” I try because I don’t want to be an asshole. I am, but I don’t want to be. “Sorry, I…”

  “Don’t you fucking day sorry to me, you piece of shit. How dare you? How absolutely dare you…?”

  As she screams after me, I make my escape. A wave of guilt washes over me, I feel absolutely dreadful about hurting that woman’s feelings just to try and make my own better, but I can’t change that now. All I can really do is make the future better. And I suppose that starts with finally braving up and speaking to Zoe.

  “Fuck,” I mutter as I practically run away from her apartment and towards my own home. “Fuck!”

  I don’t want to face Zoe; I never have done. I simply want to bury my head in the sand and act like this isn’t happening, but it is. If this was going to be some sort of joke, then she would have put a stop to it by now. She would have told me that it was all over. But she hasn’t, which means there must be a baby in that woman’s stomach and there is a chance that it could belong to me. I am usually very anal about protection, it’s one of the things that I pride myself on, but I guess in the heat of the moment I forgot about it. I just got carried away.

  Well, that isn’t something that I will ever do again. That’s a mistake I can’t ever make. I’m a commitment phobe, in too much of a mess to really be a father. This isn’t something that I can do… but I can’t keep hiding away from it either. I can’t pretend it isn’t happening because it is. It’s spiraling, snow balling, happening far too quickly. The longer that I avoid it, the bigger the problem will become. I am twenty years old now. Too old to let these things just happen without dealing with them. I need to tackle this head on.

  But home first. That’s what I need to do. I need to get home and shower, get my head in order before I can tackle anything properly. This isn’t just a silly little decision, such as which bar to go to so I can find the hottest chick to pull, this is a woman who I might not have anything in common with and I might not like, but who might have my baby growing inside of her. I need to find the right way to deal with this or my whole life might come crashing down around me, and I don’t think that I can walk away. I was forced to grow up with no parents – not through their own fault, they were killed in an accident when I was young – I wouldn’t want anyone else to go through the same. No way.

  Chapter Two

  Zoe

  “Come on, Grandma, you have to take these meds,” I whisper desperately to her. “I know that you don’t like them, but they are keeping you going. You know that I need you to keep going, right?”

  God, she has no idea how much I need her to keep going. Now more than ever before. She’s literally the only family that I have left now, and I can’t lose her just because she doesn’t like her tablets. I need to have someone on my side, anyone who can help me through this really difficult time. Not that she knows it’s a difficult time…

  My hand flutters to my stomach and I think about what’s going on in there. It’s such a strange sensation, a massive part of me yet detached from me as well. Another being inside of my own body. One that half belongs to me, but half belongs to him as well. It’s got to be the strangest thing in the world, and I can’t share it with anyone. Especially not my grandmother because she has enough going on with her right now.

  I can’t pile on and be a burden, I have never been able to do that, and I won’t now. I refuse.

  Oh God, I’m not ready for this. That concept feels like a punch in the face. I can’t do this alone. I can’t be a mother. I’m only twenty two years old, I can’t be a single mother. I won’t be able to cope.

  As much as everyone has doubted me in every area of my life, no one has ever doubted me as much as I have myself. I have always put myself down and feared that I can’t cope with whatever life has thrown my way. High school… I freaked myself out about that more than anyone else could have. I predicted that I wouldn’t fit in, so of course, I didn’t. College was going to be a struggle; I knew that I would find it hard before I did. Then my new job… well how was someone like me going to fit in at a place like that? It doesn’t matter how good I am at the work, how many times I prove myself, people like him will always look down on me.

  And that isn’t even to mention my personal relationships. Sure, not having a family unit to speak of hasn’t helped things, it can’t have done, but that isn’t an excuse for going for the wrong guys over and over again, ignoring all the red flags even when they are obvious. I should have guessed that me and my ex weren’t going to get married before he left me at the altar. He wasn’t as in to me as I was him, and towards the end I don’t even know if I was that in to him either. I was more clinging to what could be, not what was.
<
br />   But that doesn’t mean that I should have screwed around with fucking Wesley Smith. My God damn enemy. How did I even let that happen? Why was I so stupid? And why didn’t I insist on protection so that our one night of stupidity could be just forgotten, not the start of something that is going to last our whole lives?

  “Are you okay?” Grandma asks me while giving me one of her really intense looks. “You seem off.”

  “I want you to take these tablets, Grandma, that’s all.” I force a smile on my face. “Then everything will be okay again. So, please… will you please just take them already? I really don’t want to fight with you about this.”

  She grabs them from my hands, over coming all of the weakness inside of her body, and she takes them while managing to look at me defiantly at the same time. “It isn’t that. I know you, Zoe Portwood. It’s so much more.”

  I roll my eyes and turn away from her. The problem is she does know me. She knows exactly what I’m like. She has always been able to see when I am on auto pilot and battling with my own self doubt. This woman knows everything about me, and she will do what she can to help me, to get my issues out of me. She means well, but this is too heavy. This is something that I absolutely need to deal with alone.