Having My Baby by Theresa Ragan Read Free Book Online Page B

ties, no one telling me how to raise my child. No one judging me. Women all over the world raise their children alone.” She crossed her arms over her chest. “I didn’t see anything wrong with what I was doing.”
    “I’m not judging you, Jill.”
    God, he was good at this, she thought. No yawn; no bored, wandering eyes. “You’re not?”
    He shook his head.
    “It was all supposed to be confidential,” she said. “And then you showed up out of the blue. What were the odds?”
    “One in a million.”
    She nodded. “One in a million.” She looked into his eyes again, deeper this time, searching. “I never should have left the hospital without talking to you first. But what about you?” she asked. “You never mentioned having a lawyer, or that you were going to court. You weren’t exactly upfront with me, were you?” She lifted her chin a notch.
    “You’re right. I should have told you my plans.” He shifted his weight from one foot to the other. “I’m hoping the two of us can work something out.”
    “Like what?”
    He pulled a piece of paper from his back pocket and handed it to her. “Here’s the date and time we’re scheduled to meet next month for mediation. The soonest date I could get is thirty days from now.” He cleared his throat. “I was hoping before that time, you would allow me to spend time with you and Ryan, you know, so we could get to know one another better.”
    She took the paper and looked it over.
    “He’s not coming in here,” Sandy said from inside the apartment.
    Jill sighed. “Do you want to see Ryan?”
    He looked surprised. “I would love to.”
    A loud moan sounded from inside the apartment. “Shouldn’t you be practicing your drops? I thought good mechanics were needed on the field?” Sandy asked from the other side of the door.
    He smiled—a flash of white teeth and a charming sparkle in his eyes. The man definitely had to have a string of beautiful women falling at his feet on a daily basis.
    “Training camp doesn’t start for another six weeks,” he told Sandy through the door.
    “Before we go inside,” Jill said, “I do have a question.”
    “Shoot.”
    “What happens if we go through with mediation but then fail to come to any mutual conclusion with regard to Ryan?”
    “I guess we’d have to take the matter to court.”
    She liked his honesty, but that didn’t mean she liked his answer.

 
     
    Chapter Five
     
     
    Derrick sat in the middle of Jill’s lime-green couch and watched her feed Ryan the last of his bottle. Four-year-old Lexi wriggled around on his left side while Jill sat on his right.
    Ryan was a tiny thing, much smaller than his niece, Bailey. “He looks awful small,” Derrick said.
    “Babies tend to be small,” Sandy muttered from the kitchen.
    Derrick ignored her. Satan was not happy to have him inside the apartment. Even now he could feel her angry eyes boring a hole through the side of his head.
    “Are you sure you don’t want to feed him the rest of his bottle?” Jill asked.
    “No, thanks. I’m perfectly happy just watching you.”
    Satan snorted.
    “He’s afwade of rine,” Lexi announced.
    “No, I’m not,” Derrick answered too quickly.
    “Burp him then,” Lexi said.
    Lexi stood on the couch, her pink sock-covered feet sinking into the cushions as she held onto Derrick’s shoulder for support.
    “No, no, that’s okay. I’ll just watch. How do you know so much about babies?” he asked Lexi, hoping to get the little girl’s attention focused on something other than him.
    “I used to be one,” she said.
    Sandy laughed.
    “Here.” Lexi laid a dry cloth diaper on his shoulder and patted it with her hand. “Put Rine’s head right here,” she told Jill.
    The bottle was empty so Jill adjusted herself on the couch so she could do as Lexi said.
    “Oh, I don’t know,” he said nervously as Jill placed Ryan exactly as Lexi had instructed.
    The second the baby’s head touched his shoulder, Derrick