Page 6 of Surgeon's Surprise Baby
“What about you?Can I still be a part of your life?”
“You gave up that chance when you left Denver and never contacted me again.You can be a part of our lives but only in relation to Sophie.I did that once and you left me as easily as if I meant nothing to you.Maybe I didn’t mean anything.”
“Aria, that’s not true.It wasn’t easy.It was one of the hardest things I ever did.”But he’d had to do it.If he hadn’t, he’d have fallen even more in love with her, and he would have failed her.Better that he left before that.But now there was a baby.His child.That changed everything.
“Why did you do it, then?”
He couldn’t answer.What could he possibly say?That they’d agreed to a no-strings relationship?They had.But then he’d fallen in love with her.He still didn’t know what she’d felt for him.Clearly whatever she’d felt was in the past.She didn’t even like him now.
“That’s what I thought.You can’t even come up with a good reason.”
“It’s not that simple.”
“I’ll simplify it for you.This is how it’s going to be.You can be a part of the baby’s life.But don’t expect to make her love you and then abandon her.If you’re going to be her father, you’re in it for life.”
“That’s fair.I told you I wanted to pay child support.”
“I don’t need it.”
“Even so, I’m paying it.Also, what about custody?”
“What about it?”
“Are we going to share custody?”
“No.”
“That’s it, just no?”
“No for now.You can visit her here as much as you want as long as you clear it with me.We’ll see how that works before we decide about anything more.”
Unless he sued for joint custody, but he wasn’t going to do that.There was no reason at this point to get the courts involved.“I’ll look at my schedule and call you about seeing her again.”He paused and looked at Aria.“It’s good to see you again.”
She didn’t look convinced, and she didn’t respond.“I’ll call you later,” he said, and left.
Great.Ryan realized he was still in love with Aria.He’d never stopped loving her.And Aria didn’t even like him, much less love him.
*
Ryan called herlater that evening to set up a time to see Sophie.She wished she was indifferent to him, but she wasn’t.Not by a long shot.She’d missed him, damn it.And she still wanted him as much as she ever had.Not that she planned to do anything about that.It was sexual attraction that wasn’t going anywhere, even if he wanted her too.If he did it was simply because she was convenient.He’d proved he didn’t really care about her by his previous actions.
Maybe she wasn’t being fair.After all, they had agreed to a no-strings relationship.She’d known what she was getting into.She knew he’d leave from the first.Her eyes had been wide open.But the part of her that fell in love with him didn’t care about that.And she’d been foolish to believe he might feel the same as she did.
It didn’t matter now.They were over and he was Sophie’s father.Period.
Aria spent the next several days planning her nursery and what she had to do to make the house habitable.At the moment, it was barely there.She’d found a house outside of town on a couple of acres and bought it.Plenty of land for a start to her business.The house needed work, but she and the baby could live in it once she took care of a few necessities.She wanted to fix up the baby’s bathroom and paint her bedroom.And she needed new flooring.The old carpets were disgusting.The thought of putting Sophie down on any of those once she started crawling made her cringe.Luckily, at the moment she could lay down a blanket and protect her.
Aria was actually very handy.Her father had left them for good when she was seven.Her mom had worked two jobs to support them, and there’d never been much money.Aria had contributed from the time she could babysit and do odd chores for people in the neighborhood.She had put herself through school and business school and, after she began to work for the hospital, she’d been able to relieve her mom from working so hard.Unfortunately, her mom hadn’t had long to enjoy it.She’d died from cancer a few years before.
By necessity, Aria learned a lot of do-it-yourself stuff.It would be a challenge with the baby to take care of, but she had confidence she could do it.Some of it anyway.She had a nice nest egg since her job as a hospital administrator had paid well and she’d always been frugal.And while she could afford to pay someone else to remodel her house, she wanted to do as much as she could herself.There would be lots of costs she either hadn’t accounted for or she had and knew they’d be expensive.Like hiring someone to look after Sophie when she couldn’t.It simply wasn’t practical to think she’d be able to keep the baby with her all the time and start a nursery business.
She’d need someone to put in new carpet, but she decided on click-lock laminate flooring for the baby’s room.She could buy rugs for Sophie’s room that could be washed or cleaned when they got dirty.She’d put in flooring before, in her apartment in Denver.Admittedly, it was a much smaller area, but the basics remained the same.
Once she had the house more or less in order, she planned to put up a greenhouse.One that could be expanded so that she could start small and expand as her business grew.
But first, the house.The baby’s crib was in her room, which would make it easier to work on the floor in Sophie’s room.She put Sophie down for a nap and decided to pull up the carpet to see what she’d need to prepare the floor.When she pulled it up she got a shock.Beneath the dirty carpet was a beautiful wood floor.There were tack strips she’d need to remove and someone had spilled paint in a few places but, on the whole, she could refinish it and have beautiful flooring.Excited, she went through the rest of the house to see if there were any more pleasant surprises.
The dining and living rooms also had wood floors beneath the ancient carpet.Which was great except she knew she couldn’t do it all herself.One room she could probably manage, but three?No way.It seemed she was going to need to alter her plans.She began researching construction and contracting businesses in and around Marietta.
