The Sheikh's Secret Child_A Single Dad Romance by Holly Rayner

Author:Holly Rayner [Rayner, Holly]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2018-04-11T16:00:00+00:00

Chapter 17

Alex

“Eighteen,” was the first thing Kate said to Alex when she stepped out of the room the next morning.

“What?”

“That’s how many hours you slept,” Kate said. “I’ve hosted your couch-surfing butt between world travels before, and you have never stayed asleep for longer than eight hours.”

“I’m getting old,” Alex said drily.

“No, I’m getting old,” Kate said, pressing a hand to her back. “You…you’re something else. You ever gonna tell me what happened out there?”

“What’s to tell?” Alex shrugged. “He wanted a prison guard, and I’m a nanny.”

“Uh-huh,” Kate said, her voice dripping with disbelief. “If that was all it was, you would have been out of bed bright and early, bouncing all over the want ads from every corner of the globe, looking for your next adventure.”

“Maybe I’m tired of adventure,” Alex snapped.

“Okay, now I know there’s something wrong. Come on. Coffee. Kitchen. Now.”

Alex groaned but followed obediently, dodging kids and toys as she went. Kate deftly took a sharpie out of her four-year-old’s hand with her left, and scooped an errant marble out of a baby’s mouth with her right on the way to the kitchen.

“Do you want to talk while we handle them?” Alex asked. “I mean, you turn your back for one minute with these guys, and—”

“And nothing,” Kate interrupted. “Make your coffee; I’ll be right back.”

Alex watched curiously as Kate walked back into the living room. She scooped up each of her kids and plopped them inside a hexagonal fence, then switched the TV on. Any objections from the kids were immediately smothered by the bright sounds of cartoon intro music.

“There,” Kate sighed as she sat down heavily, dragging a coffee cup toward herself. “The poor woman’s nanny.”

Alex grinned and shook her head. She watched Kate wince and adjust herself in her chair, and suddenly realized.

“Oh my God.”

“What?” Kate asked defensively.

“You’re pregnant again!”

“Took you long enough to notice,” Kate said, sticking her tongue out. “You are preoccupied with this firing, jeez.”

Alex brushed off her judgment with a wave of her hand.

“So, when did this happen?”

“Oh, sometime around the two days you were in Abyamar,” Kate said with a wicked twinkle in her green eyes. She tossed her hair back and grinned.

“Oh! So my pep talk worked,” Alex teased.

“It sure did. I tell you, I don’t even notice that my entire life exists in three square miles when I’m brewing up a baby.”

“Ah, purpose. The cabin fever loophole.” Alex smiled sadly into her coffee as Kate chuckled.

“Hold on a second!” Kate suddenly glared at her. “You’re trying to derail this whole conversation!”

“To be fair, a new niece or nephew is much bigger news than me getting fired.”

“Not around here, it isn’t,” Kate said, gesturing at the brood in the living room. “Mine is an annual event, yours is…not. What were you, seventeen the last time?”

“Sixteen,” Alex said morosely.

“So every, what, twelve years? Yeah, we’re talking about your thing.”

Alex sighed, but there was no way around it and she knew it. Kate would just keep hounding her until she spilled the beans.

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