Free The Baby Surprise by Brenda Harlen

don’t you go home, too?”
    â€œBecause I want to be here when Megan’s baby is born.”
    â€œWell, if you’re determined to stay, then stop chewing your nails. You’re making me nervous.”
    She flushed and pulled her hand away from her mouth again.
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    Baby steps, Zach reminded himself as he sat Emma on top of the toddler slide.
    He had to be patient, to give both Paige and Emma time to get to know him and feel comfortable with him. Unfortunately, that might take more time than he had.
    His heart had torn wide open the first time Emma looked at him and started to cry. As ridiculous as he knew it was, he felt as if she’d rejected him. Just the latest in a string of women who had done so.
    Heather was the first. Of course, he’d been a lot younger then and his emotions much more vulnerable. She’d been a model, stunningly beautiful, and he’d been blinded by lust. They’d dated for almost two years, and she’d seemed happy enough to be with him so long as he worked around her schedule. She’d even told him that she loved him. But when Zach got his first overseas assignment and their relationship was no longer convenient, she’d unceremoniously dumped him.
    The first heartbreak had been as bitter as first love had been sweet, and losing Heather had taught him a valuable if painful lesson. Since then, he’d guarded his heart.
    He’d had relationships with other women, of course, but because of his career, none were long-term or serious. His relationship with Olivia had been no different, despite the fact that a baby had been born of it. And yet it hurt to realize that Olivia had rejected him and any efforts he would have made to be a father to their baby by refusing to even tell him about her pregnancy.
    Yeah, she’d changed her mind—too many monthslater—but that knowledge failed to appease him. And although he knew it served no purpose, he couldn’t deny that he was angry with Olivia—furious at the way she’d first cut him out and then blindsided him with the information that he was a father.
    Emma slid down the gentle slope, her face split with a wide grin, her blue eyes sparkling. When she giggled it was the purest and happiest sound he’d ever heard. And in that moment, looking at the beautiful little girl Olivia had given birth to, all his residual anger was washed away by a tide of joy and love so huge it took his breath way.
    He caught her at the bottom of the slide and it was only when she wriggled that he let her go. He wanted to gather her in his arms and lavish her with all the love and attention he hadn’t been able to give her in the first fourteen months of her life. Of course, he had to get past not just Emma’s uncertainty but Paige’s wary protectiveness first. Definitely not an easy task.
    However, he’d never been one to shirk from a challenge.
    Except when that challenge was a phone call from his youngest sister, he amended as the phone in his pocket trilled again and Zach ignored it again.
    He’d never admit it to her face, but he missed her like crazy and, more than anything when he’d come home from Afghanistan, he’d been looking forward to going out to California and seeing not just Hayden but his whole family again. He hadn’t actually canceled those plans so much as he’d delayed them, and he didn’t want to delay for much longer.
    Emma had an extended family who wanted to meet her.
    Or they would, when he finally figured out how to tell them that he was a father.
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    It was past midnight before Paige finally left the hospital, and despite her pleasure at seeing both her cousin and the brand-new baby doing well, she felt tense and uncertain asshe drove toward home. She didn’t realize it was worry over Emma that had lingered with her until she got close enough to the house to confirm that her car was in the driveway. She didn’t have to go much