The Baby He Wants: A BWWM Pregnancy Romance (13 page)

Tristan
threw her a smile of commiseration.

It was a
Mexican stand off; everyone at their own corner. Cleo’s eyes
did not leave Ava and Tristan kept looking from one to the other.

Cleo
felt like she needed to analyze the situation and forget about the
context, because that’s what would save her son. For his sake,
this debacle had to end with Ava and her baby properly handled. She
sighed inwardly thinking that she had to leave it to Tristan to take
a potentially explosive situation and add some fuel and accelerant.
This situation had the potential to make them the laughing stock of
the country club as well as affect their actual stock prices.
Tristan’s decision making abilities would be called into
account.

What
could Cleo
use
to get them out of this and still ahead?

At first
glance, Ava was what Cleo’s expectations portray her to be:
your average social climber playing a damsel in distress on that
romantic comedy about the only girl ever to wear glasses in college.
On second (or fifth) look, however, the cocktail dress she was
wearing was pretty tight around Ava’s chest. Tight enough to
make Cleo suspect Ava may not be its original owner. So maybe it was
lent to her by a friend and this is just an ill-conceived look to
impress her mark’s parent. The straight backed nature of her
stance as she attempted to project a lady like demeanor that played
down her blackness was also telling. It’s a posture she adopted
pretty naturally, and must resort to often.

Both
things told Cleo that Ava was eager to please and playing the part.
The part of acceptable candidate for Tristan Carrington’s hand.
Clearly, she thought ‘acceptable candidate’ meant that
wearing sandals at cocktail hour was a choice she was allowed to make
in life, but there was no reason for Cleo to suspect anything was
going on here beyond your average girl wanting to impress a boy’s
rich parent.

"Everyone,
this is Ava," Tristan is saying, motioning to the little group
and then to Ava in a vague up-and-down gesture. "Ava, these are
some of the people who help around the house. I've known Dharshi
since I was five, she's our gardener. And Logan's been the butler
since before I was born, right?" The man in question nodded as
Tristan continued to point out a couple more people.

Ava
smiled at each of them in turn not really paying attention to the
names. She didn’t expect that she would need to know them.

"--looking
forward to meeting the rest of you guys, sorry for all the fuss--"
Tristan was still talking. Ava was busy trying to control her nerves
and not pay attention to the unwavering stare that Tristan’s
mother was fixing her with.

"Ava?"

"Right."

The
moment ended when Tristan nudged her to indulge his mother in a
couple more minutes of excruciatingly awkward small talk. The
downstairs maid was starting to shiver out on the steps in her thin
black shirt, and she was not the only one, but clearly that's not the
kind of thing the Carringtons cared about.

"He
sure knows how to pick 'em," Ava heard someone whisper while
they waited.

"She’s
kinda hot though, in a common kind of way," the one called
Stella answered faintly.

"All
right, calm down," Tamara muttered, because Ava figures she’d
seen that Ava was listening.

Finally,
Tristan pointed out that it was getting dark and the group was
allowed to disperse. Most of the staff filed inside to get their
things and leave for the night, but the maids and butler were
sticking around to serve dinner to the Carringtons and guest.

*****

Dinner
was as awkward as Ava expected it to be. Cleo mostly talked over her
as Tristan tried to include her in the conversation. It was grueling.
There were several courses and one of the dishes gave her heart burn
early on so she was uncomfortable in addition to being utterly
depressed. The dinner seemed interminable but finally it was over and
they retired to the ‘den’ for dessert and drinks. Ava got
that this was supposed to be a small cozy room for the family to
gather after the evening meal…but she couldn’t see the
ceiling and the chairs were so huge it felt like they swallowed her
up. The grand piano in the corner was intimidating; Ava was just
waiting for Cleo to ask her to play it. She’d never touched
anything so expensive before in her life but she could recognize a
Steinway when she saw one. Tamara served their drinks.

“
Just
cucumber water for me thanks,” Ava said.

“
I’ll
have my usual thank you Tamara,” Tristan said and Cleo was
served some fancy cocktail without saying a word.

“
Now
Ava, Tristan let’s talk. What are we to do about this
situation?”

Tristan
was staring daggers at his mother.

“
I
already told you what I plan to do mother,” he bit out.

Ava
leaned forward to catch his eye. “You did? And what was it you
told her?” she asked curiously.

“
I
said that we would be getting married,” Tristan said his tone
so matter of fact that Ava was confused for a minute. Had they agreed
to that at their last meeting? She had no memory of it if so. She
thought she'd remember if someone asked her to marry them; if only
for the sake of a baby.

“
I
beg your pardon?” she asked, brow wrinkling to indicate that
she did not understand
at all
.

Tristan
turned to face her, “We’re getting married Ava.”

“
Over
my dead body,” his mother replied.

Ava
opened her mouth and closed it again.

There
was a whole lot of shouting going on for such a genteel household.
Ava wanted to tell both Tristan and his mother to shut the hell up
but it seemed in this arena, her dreams weren’t valid.

“
People,
please,” she tried anyway trying to get them to stop talking
over each other and listen to her. Nothing changed though, the
crescendo of their conversation rose a little bit in fact.

“
Shut
up!” she found herself shouting, startling both herself as well
as Tristan and his mother. They did hear her that time, and clicked
their mouths closed as they stared at her.

“
This
is not helping,” she declared. “Now, we’re going to
have an orderly meeting and if anyone wants to speak, they should
raise their hand. You cannot interrupt someone else when they are
speaking and if anyone breaks the rules they will be asked to leave.
Are we clear?”

Tristan
and his mother just stared.

“
Good.
Sit,” Ava said matching words to actions and motioning for the
other two to do the same. They sat slowly on armchairs facing her
sofa. There was a table in between them where Ava put down her glass
of cucumber water.

“
Right.
So. Tristan, you were saying something about marriage. Kindly explain
yourself,” Ava said.

Tristan
opened his mouth, hesitated, closed it again and then raised his
hand. Ava almost smiled but just nodded for him to proceed.

“
Due
to mainly political reasons, it would be best if the only child I
might ever have is born legitimate. Also, I looked into your finances
and most of your cash is tied up in mutual funds. You’re
basically living from hand to mouth. I can help with that if we’re
married,” he held up his hand and hastened to continue as he
saw the protest forming on her face. “I’m just saying
until you’re able to stand on your own feet, I am offering to
shoulder some of that responsibility. It's my duty and you know it.
We can sign a contract, limit the duration of the marriage to three
years or something. Just until you’re stable. It’s a
win-win.”

“
May
I remind you that you’re engaged to another woman?” Cleo
cut in without raising her hand. Ava narrowed her eyes at her but let
it go. She looked at Tristan for his reply.

“
I
am not formerly engaged. It was just an understanding. I intend to
speak to Savannah tomorrow and inform her that plans have changed.
She’ll just have to deal with it.”

Cleo was
nodding throughout this explanation.

“
And
what about our business dealings? What about the embarrassment she
must suffer for having her engagement broken after
you
announced it in such a public way?” she asked, daggers in each
word.

Tristan
sighed sadly and shook his head. He regarded Ava wryly before saying,
“That was
your
fault you know?”

“
How
would that be my fault. I wasn’t even there.”

“
Yes.
You were,” he replied, an intent look in his eyes. Ava frowned
not understanding for a minute; then she did. It must have been the
night of the dinner she’d crashed.

“
Oh,”
she said.

“
Yeah,”
Tristan replied still kind of glaring.

Ava
shrugged, “I didn’t tell you to do
nothin.
”

“
No.
you just had me all discombobulated with your
appearance/disappearance and shouting ‘I’ll text you!’…it
was…confusing. I needed some certainty.”

Cleo cut
into their love fest, “Can we at least wait and see if the
child survives the first trimester before making any permanent
decisions?”

Tristan
shook his head. He wanted to shout ‘no’ but he knew his
mother was right. The prospect of maybe losing this baby wasn’t
one he wanted to contemplate.

“
Fine,
but Ava moves in with me,” he said or rather demanded.

“
I
have school!” Ava protested.

“
I
have a driver,” Tristan countered. “I remember how weak
you are in the morning,” he said before biting his lip as he
remembered that his mother was in the room. He cut her a glance and
then back at Ava, apologizing with his eyes but still not giving an
inch.

“
You
can’t live with this woman without Savannah getting wind of
it,” Cleo protested.

Tristan
shrugged his indifference and Cleo gave him a look of utter betrayal,
“You don’t care do you? You would throw it all away for
this…” she flung a contemptuous finger at Ava.

Tristan
stood up at that. “Don’t mother,” he warned. Ava
could see this escalating again.

“
I
could move in as a chef or something. Nobody needs to know-“
she tried to say but Tristan cut her off.

“
Let’s
go Ava. I believe we’ve said all we can for tonight.”

He
grabbed her hand and dragged her out of the room. Ava looked back at
his mother.

“
Thanks
for dinner,” she called as Tristan led her out of the door.

*****

He
didn’t take her home. His car glided silently into his garage
and Ava sat there, regarding him in some annoyance.

“
You
could ask before you kidnap me you know,” she said.

“
I
could, but I think they invented the term kidnapping for when you
don’t
ask permission first.”

“
I’m
not sleeping with you Tristan,” she said firmly. He looked over
at her, up and down her body and back to her face. She found that she
was quite hot and had to curb the impulse to fan herself frantically.

“
That’s
too bad,” he said. “However I have a guest room.”

He
alighted from the vehicle, came around to open her door and lifted
her out and into his arms.

“
Tristan!”
she cried.

“
Oh,
you want to walk?”

Ava
thought about it..did she? She decided to let him carry her; just to
see how far he could get before he was huffing like a cardiac
patient. She was no light weight. He got in the elevator and asked
her to press the button for the penthouse. Ava was surprised it
wasn’t biometric or something but she went ahead and obliged.
They rose silently upward and as they reached the zenith the doors
opened onto a short corridor ending in a front door. Tristan asked
her to dig in his pockets and extract the key card. He still wasn’t
huffing much to Ava’s chagrin.

“
So
you like…work out a lot, huh?” she said sulkily.

“
Pretty
much,” he replied smugly. He put her down gently on an armchair
in his living room and the crossed over to pour himself a drink.

“
Shall
I pour you some tonic without the gin?” he asked.

“
I’ll
have a lime and tonic if you have it,” she said.

He
nodded and poured, adding ice before bringing her the drink. He sat
on the arm of her chair, regarding her speculatively.

“
What
do you think about sealing the deal tonight?” he asked her.

“
Sealing
what deal?” she asked as her heart stopped. She knew very well
what deal.

“
I
can have a justice of the peace here in twenty minutes flat. Jensen’s
around somewhere to act as witness. What do you say? Marry me?”

“
What
about the pre-nup and agreement and all that shit?” Ava asked.
She could hardly hear for how hard her heart was beating.

“
I
have the papers here all ready for your signature,” he said.
Ava regarded him with suspicion.

“
You’ve
been planning this for a while haven’t you?” she said. He
shrugged.

“
I
like to be prepared,” he said.

Ava
thought about it for all of five minutes. What did she have to lose
after all? Right now she was at rock bottom. She and Tristan got on
like a house on fire…everything else would be handled.