Free The Gate to Everything (Once Upon a Dare Book 1) by Ava Miles Page B

wonderful now, the gesture both touched her and made her laugh. He sent a basket of prenatal vitamins and a body support pillow wrapped up in a bright green bow. Only one of the presents had made her close to tears—a little yellow baby jumpsuit decorated with cartoon-like butterflies and worms.
    As for the house, she didn’t go there again. She told him she wouldn’t move in until right before the baby was born. It was unconscionable to think of walking the halls all alone with nothing to take her mind off her lost dreams. Once the baby came, she’d be too busy to cry over spilled milk.
    When Jordan visited her at the restaurant to check up on her, he chatted about inconsequentials—like how she managed to make her Italian meringue so tall or whether it bothered her to roast “Bugs Bunny” in a balsamic prune sauce.
    Maybe it was his attentiveness, but she found herself wanting to take a bite out of him whenever he walked into a room. Grace had never been fully comfortable with the power of her attraction to him, especially as he had grown more famous, surrounded by women who made a living on their looks. Somehow it was even weirder now that she was pregnant.
    If Jordan noticed the covert glances or flushed cheeks, he never said a word. Besides, sometimes she caught him staring at her breasts. Truthfully, she couldn’t blame him. She’d grown two cup sizes. Even the guys at the restaurant had noticed. It was embarrassing. Her body was more foreign than it had ever been.
    He asked to be involved in the plans for the baby’s room, and she agreed that they’d go shopping together—on the stipulation that they each would pay for half. It felt like the victory it was when he agreed.
    Grace told herself it was no different than him meeting her at the restaurant, but somehow it was. After insisting on meeting him at the store—it had been too weird to have him pick her up—she realized why. There would be people at the showroom, and they would be together. She almost backed out.
    He was waiting for her in his car when she arrived in the parking lot. He immediately exited his Maserati and walked toward her with that powerful, sexy stride. It was difficult to ignore how flat-out gorgeous he looked in designer jeans and a navy button-down shirt. His Super Bowl ring winked on his hand as he waved at her.
    “Why did you suggest this when you knew we’d have to deal with fans?” she asked when he reached her. “I must have pregnancy brain because I didn’t even think about it until today.”
    The corners of his mouth turned up. “Pregnancy brain? I’ve read about that. I called the manager of the showroom and asked for a private showing. I took care of it, Grace.”
    Of course he had. She glanced at the showroom’s door and noticed the Closed sign hanging there. “It’s probably not good for your image to be seen shopping with your baby mama.” The media’s nickname for her was more salt on her wounds, especially since a few of them had said she still looked dumpy. With her growing tummy, it was sometimes how she felt.
    “You’re not my baby mama,” he said with a growl. “Dammit, don’t let them get to you like that. If I could stop them from talking about you altogether, I would. You know that.”
    “Jordan, please don’t swear,” she told him gently, getting that anxious feeling she always experienced when someone swore out of anger. All these years later, the scars from her old boss’s verbal abuse lingered.
    “Sorry,” he said, taking a breath. “It upsets me.”
    “Me too. Tony showed me the statement you gave about me and the baby a few weeks ago,” she said. “I never thanked you for it because…it was—”
    “Awkward,” he finished for her. “I know. But people needed to know the breakup was my fault.”
    “But it wasn’t,” she said. “It just…was.”
    “I wanted to deflect any negative comments from you, so I said it was. I also needed people to know that this was an