“Anna would love it.”
Sarah let Oliver down onto the floor. With the help of a cardboard box, he pulled himself to standing and began pounding on the top. “Yes. Please call your sister.”
Anna and Jacob were over to the apartment in less than an hour. Oliver was still taking his nap when they arrived. Sarah and Anna had gone up to Aiden’s room, so Anna could watch Oliver sleep. Talk about baby fever—Anna had it.
“Now that you’ve had twenty-four hours to come to terms with it, how’s fatherhood?” Jacob asked, settling in on the living room couch.
“Surreal. That’s the best way to describe it.” He scratched his head and glanced out the window—the sky was crystal clear. Not a single cloud. “Honestly, it’s the only way to describe it. It doesn’t feel real.”
“I take it you’re going to have a paternity test?”
“We have to for my name to be added to Oliver’s birth certificate. Then Sarah will sign over guardianship.”
“Is there any chance he might not be yours?”
After his first look into Oliver’s eyes yesterday, and especially after seeing his birthmark, Aiden had been viewing the paternity test as nothing more than a formality. There was no way that Sarah could’ve popped into his life with a baby that looked just like him. But the question brought up feelings he’d wrestled with for so long. Had his dad done a paternity test? Was that the moment when things went wrong? When Roger Langford decided he wanted nothing to do with him?
“I don’t want to entertain the thought, to be honest. I look in his eyes and I know he’s my son. It’s the best feeling, even if it has been out of the blue.”
Jacob smiled and stretched his arm across the back of the couch. “I can’t believe Anna and I are so close. Only six weeks until her due date. Talk about surreal, try touching someone’s stomach and feeling a kick and realizing there’s a tiny person in there.”
“Are your parents excited about becoming grandparents? That’s a lot of pressure on you as an only child.”
“My mom says she is, but we’ll have to wait and see what happens. Your mom, on the other hand. All she talks about is the baby.”
That gave Aiden a sliver of optimism.
“Look who’s up from his nap.” Anna waltzed into the room, talking in a happy singsong, holding Oliver and smiling warmly at him. It was funny the effect that Oliver had on people. Aiden felt as though he’d been given a ray of sunshine.
Jacob got up from the couch and went to Anna, wrapping his arm around her back. “Holding a baby suits you. You look perfect.”
Anna’s smile only grew. “Oliver is perfect. I have the perfect nephew. It’s a fact.”
Aiden soaked up the joy radiating from his sister. He needed to share Oliver with his family, which meant he needed to get his mother up to speed and invite her over to meet him. It was time to let her in. Aiden walked over to Anna as Oliver cuddled with her. He pressed a gentle kiss to his petal-soft cheek. This child will always know love. Oliver would never doubt that he was wanted and adored. Not for a minute.
“If you guys are going to take him on a walk, I’ll show you how to use the stroller.”
* * *
As she watched the elevator doors to Aiden’s apartment draw closed, and Oliver, along with Anna and Jacob, disappeared from sight, Sarah was struck by one thought. We’re alone.
She turned and walked square into Aiden’s chest.
“Slow down, champ.” He grasped her shoulders. “I know they won’t be gone long, but we have time to get down to business.”
Get down to business. Why did her brain have to translate everything he said into a rambling internal dialogue about S-E-X?
“No time like the present.” She laughed nervously. He still hadn’t let go, and his warmth poured into her like a waterfall into a thimble. She was sure he was trying to hypnotize her with his blue eyes.
A smile rolled across his lips and Sarah was now distracted by his mouth. It was so tempting, so kissable, and she was dying of curiosity. Which version of Aiden Langford would she get if she kissed him? The powerful, broad-shouldered businessman? Walking sex in a suit? He’d probably want to be in charge in the bedroom. Or would it be the effortlessly sexy tattooed guy in board shorts? The one who needed space and jumped out of planes? She could see that guy taking his time, tending to the small touches that send a woman over the edge. She shuddered at the realization—she wanted both.
“I just want to thank you.” With no other sound in the apartment, the timbre of his husky voice echoed in her head.
“For what?”