Having My Baby Read Online Free PDF Page B

through this. Besides, as your editorial assistant, it’s my job to keep you happy.” She paused and then added, “If things get too crazy, you could always call your mother for help.”
    “Are you kidding?”
    Sandy slowed the car before making a right on West Lake Boulevard. “Maybe now is a good time to bury the hatchet,” Sandy advised. “Your parents have more money than The Donald. They can afford to get you the best lawyer.”
    “I can’t do it.”
    “You mean, you won’t.”
    “I can’t and I won’t. Since the day I was born, my parents have used money to get me to do things their way. The moment I touch my trust fund, they will have won. Mom and Dad will hop on their private jet and fly over here so fast it’ll make your head spin. Then they’ll start ordering me around again,” she added wistfully. “Before you can count to ten they’ll have a man all lined up for me to marry. A clone of every other man they’ve set me up with: tall; thin, straight nose; impeccably dressed with one of those ultra-short haircuts with too much pomade. I’ll never let anybody buy my love again.”
    “Not even Thomas?”
    Something deep inside of Jill twisted. “Not even Thomas.”
    Sandy pulled the Jeep to a stop in front of the apartment building. “Do you miss him?”
    “Not anymore,” Jill said. She shifted in her seat so she could look Sandy straight in the eyes. “The man left me at the altar. I thought that was something that only happened in the movies. He didn’t even have the courtesy to give me a call. Instead, he left me standing at the church all alone to stare into the face of humiliation.”
    “He said he had his reasons. Do you know what they were?”
    Lexi huffed. “Can I get out, Mommy?”
    “In a minute, honey. Take off your seatbelt and gather your things.”
    Jill felt herself getting all stupid and misty-eyed…and that bothered her. She didn’t want to feel bad or sad or anything at all when it came to Thomas. She wanted to forget about him—the man she thought she had loved. The man she had planned to spend the rest of her life with. She wanted to move on with her life. Thomas had made his choice and now she’d made hers. It was over.
     
    ~~~
     
    “The court will appoint a mediator within the next thirty days. Until then, case dismissed.”
    Derrick and his lawyer, Maggie, were excused.
    “God I’m good,” Maggie said with the same wide smile Derrick remembered all too well.
    “You are good,” he agreed.
    She punched him in the arm. “Stop looking at me like that.”
    “Like what?”
    “Like we’re teenagers again.”
    He followed her out of the courtroom and down the hallway. He should have been happy, should have been celebrating the fact that the judge had just granted him a hearing with a court appointed mediator. But in that very moment, there was only Maggie.
    Her heels clicked against the floor as he followed her down the hallway. She wore a short-waisted jacket and a snug-fitting skirt that showed off her shapely calves. Her hair was rolled up in a practical sort of bun he wasn’t used to seeing on her. He quickened his pace and stepped in front of her before she arrived at the exit.
    She stopped and laughed because that’s what she did—that was the kind of person she was. She made the world a happier place by lighting it up with her wide smiles and quick-to-laugh nature.
    He wanted to kiss her. Aaron was not his biological brother. Hell, after what he did, he wasn’t even his friend any longer. They were merely living together. Maggie was still single. Two could play at this game.
    “Derrick,” she said in her lawyerly voice. “We’ll get together next week to discuss our plan of action. I’ve got to go.” When she lifted her chin and their eyes met, he swore she could see right into his soul. Without thinking about what he was doing, he stepped close, raised a hand to the back of her head and removed the pin from her hair. Thick blonde hair fell to