My Stepbrother's Secret Baby: A Billionaire Stepbrother Romance (10 page)

BRENNA

Two weeks later…

I zipped up my jacket and prepared to face the frigid February cold. After a week in Turks and Caicos, I was not prepared to come home to near-blizzard conditions.

The last couple weeks had been a whirlwind, and our vacation was perfect timing. Just as Trenton had predicted, my name became news fodder after our red carpet event together. Everyone wanted to know who this “Brenna Smith” was and the internet was peppered with several articles on gossip sights all speculating about who I really was. If only they really knew I was just a college student from Chicago that he happened to find in a New York City department store one day. No one would believe our story, and that was fine because we were never going to tell it.

And God help us if anyone did enough digging to find out we were once brother and sister. I could only imagine what that would do to his reputation. And his poor mother. He had still yet to tell her exactly who I was. We’d discussed it briefly, and with her age, we felt she was better off not knowing.

Trenton was a genius for giving me a fake name, he really was. He was so smart. And protective.

Ever since I’d become pregnant, he was extra attentive and shielding, and we were becoming close friends.

“Why don’t you go buy some things for the baby?” Trenton suggested that morning at breakfast. “I know it’s a little early, but it’ll get you out of the apartment.”

“I have no qualms about sitting by the fireplace reading a book all day while I kick my feet up,” I razzed him. “But if you really think I should go shopping …”

He smiled and hoisted his briefcase up. If we were truly an item, that would’ve been the part where he would’ve kissed me, but we weren’t anything. We were just partners in a business deal. Never mind the fact that I was quickly becoming wildly and undeniably attracted to him. I mean, he was hot, sure, but the way he protected me and cared for me forced me to wonder what it would be like if he really had feelings for me.

He might have had a stoic, ice-cold exterior, refusing the love of a woman, but deep down, he was a softy. I knew it.

But I never allowed myself to get my hopes up. Every time I found myself envisioning what our future held, I always played it safe. We were just a couple of adults co-parenting our child.

In the future we weren’t married. We didn’t have more children. We weren’t madly and passionately in love. Those things weren’t a part of the deal. It just wasn’t in the cards for us.

I headed out to the street below and I hailed a cab to the lower east side where I’d heard of this cutesy, hip baby boutique.

“It’s supposed to stop snowing today,” the cab driver said. “I’ll believe it when I see it.”

Twelve inches of snow had fallen over the city while we were gone, and apparently it had never let up. As he dropped me off in front of the boutique, I shopped until my arms were full, and I doubted whether or not I’d be able to carry all of that stuff out.

“We can have this delivered to your house,” the sale associate said as she filled bag after bag with blankets, bottles, bibs, books and baby toys.

I sighed. “Yeah. I think we’re going to have to.”

She rang me up. “$1,578.29.”

I slapped Trenton’s credit card on the table and signed the receipt when it was all over. “I think I’d like to take one bag home right now.”

I grabbed the bag with a fuzzy yellow blanket and stuffed giraffe. I wanted to hold it and cuddle with it and try to imagine how beautiful our little baby was going to be. I wrote down our address on a slip of paper and the associate assured me we’d have everything by that evening.

I carefully stepped back onto the crowded Manhattan street. The sun had begun to shine through the clouds and the snow had stopped. I took a deep breath, allowing the frosty hair to cool my lungs as I thought about what an amazing year we were about to have.

Up a head, a woman in a fuchsia coat with a mink collar walked towards me, her eyes burning into me even from a distance. I stopped to hail a cab and the women kept walking towards me, staring. The closer she got, the more I saw she sort of almost looked like a more exotic version of me.

“Are you Brenna Smith?” she asked.

“Are you with the media?” I replied, looking her up and down.

“Do I look like I’m with the media?” she countered, her big diamond studs catching the sun as she tossed her hair over her shoulder.

I raised my hand in the air to hail a passing cab, but it kept on going.

“You’re with Trenton Ellsworth, aren’t you?” she said, shooting daggers at me as if I’d encroached upon her turf and she wanted him back.

“I don’t know who that is,” I lied, trying to hail another cab. As if the gods were shining upon me in that moment, a cab pulled up. I reached for the handle, trying to get away from that crazy bitch as quickly as possible.

“He still loves me, you know,” she called out. “And I love him. He’s just going to hurt you.”

If she only knew. He couldn’t hurt me because I didn’t love him. Not technically. Not out loud. He couldn’t hurt me if I didn’t allow myself to love him.

Right?

***

“How was shopping?” Trenton asked as he came home from work. His entire foyer was filled with shopping bags from the baby boutique. He cracked an amused smile. “I thought you were going to just get a few things.”

I shrugged. “I saw one thing and then I saw another and another …”

“This baby’s spoiled already,” he said with a smirk, slipping off his suit jacket.

“I hope you don’t mind, I had the chef make some comfort food tonight,” I said. “Fried chicken and macaroni and cheese. It’s so cold out and it just sounded good.”

Trenton stopped in his tracks. Trenton picked dinner. He always had. That’s the way it was. I hoped I wasn’t stepping on his toes.

“That does sound good,” he said, much to my relief, as he walked to his bedroom to change.

“I’m going home this weekend, Trenton,” I said to him over dinner. “I miss my grandmother. I need to go home and check on her.”

“Of course,” he said. “How long you think you’ll be gone?”

“Maybe a week at most? If that’s okay with you.” I wondered why I was seeking his permission all of a sudden, like I was some sort of pet on a leash.

“I leave Friday at noon,” I said.

“My driver will take you to the airport.”

“Oh? Thank you.”

“You never have to worry about those things, Brenna,” he said. “You’re the mother of my child.”

It warmed me over to hear him say those words. We may not have been in love, but he cherished me in his own way. Which was more than any of his many conquests could ever say.

As we munched on fried chicken and devoured the chef’s gourmet, four cheese mac and cheese, the room was silent. And I couldn’t help but wonder if I was going to miss him when I was gone.

Or if he was going to miss me …

TRENTON

I came home Friday night to an empty, silent penthouse. First time in over a month. It was weird not having Brenna there, but who was I to keep her from her grandmother? We weren’t dating. She wasn’t obligated to spend her weekends with me. But she always did. I suppose I’d gotten used to it.

Coming home every day, Brenna would ask me how my day went and we’d eat dinner together over candlelight overlooking the city. If we were dating, I guess that would’ve been romantic. But we weren’t dating. Not even close. She was the mother of my child and nothing more.

I’d never admit to her, or anyone else, but there were times I let my mind wander a bit too much, imagining the three of us in the future. A family. It was weird to think about, but I secretly enjoyed it sometimes.

I whipped out my phone to text her and make sure she landed in Chicago and then I stopped myself. She didn’t need to report to me. She was a big girl. I didn’t want to give her the wrong impression.

Saturday morning I paid a visit to my lovely mother.

“Trenton!” she beamed as I walked in to her apartment. “How are things?” We hadn’t seen each other since Christmas, nearly a month ago. Me being busy with work and she being busy with her philanthropic efforts, we always struggled to fit one another into our schedules, especially during the post-holiday season.

“I’ve got news, Mother,” I said.

“Okay,” she replied with a smile, leading me into the family room.

“I’m having a baby,” I announced with a smile. I reached into my wallet and pulled out a sonogram, handing it to her.

My mother’s blue eyes lit up like a Christmas tree as she stared at the picture, taking it from my hands.

“Really?” she asked. “Is this true, Trenton?”

“Yes, Mother,” I said, happy to make her proud. “I have to say you were right. I already love the little bugger.”

“So you found yourself a nice woman?” she asked. “Or did you, um, go the other route we discussed?”

“I’ve got it all worked out,” I assured her. “Trust me.”

“What’s her name?” my mother asked. “The surrogate.”

“Brenna,” I replied. “She’s a college student at Columbia, studying accounting.”

“Nice,” she replied. “Can I meet her?”

I chuckled. “We’re not dating. We’re just … business partners.”

My mother studied my face. She knew me better than anyone. “Your face lights up when you talk about her, Trenton.”

“Oh, Mother,” I said, swatting her implications away. “You’re just imagining things. She’s a nice girl. We’ve actually become good friends. That’s about it.”

“Sure,” she said, not believing me.

“Are you staying for breakfast?” she changed the subject. “Rosalie is making eggs benedict!”

“Sure, Mother,” I replied. Giving her my Saturday morning was the least I could do for the woman who’d given me life.

***

The weekend came and went, my apartment still and quiet. I’d realized I’d come to enjoy Brenna’s presence. Her conversation. Her company. She was a sweet girl and I was glad to host her while she did this favor for me.

Come Wednesday, I picked up the phone without thinking when I realized I sort of missed her voice. She was set to come home on Friday, and it couldn’t come soon enough. I missed our dinners. I missed our banter. I missed having a beautiful, radiant woman around. She simply glowed from within.

“Just checking on you and Baby Ellsworth,” I said as soon as she answered.

“We’re doing good, Trenton,” she said. “My pants are getting tight. I don’t know if it’s all this Chicago pizza I’ve been eating or if the baby’s just growing. Or both. I’m going to need new clothes soon.”

“Of course,” I replied. “As soon as you get back, why don’t you go out and treat yourself.”

“Only if you insist,” she teased. She knew I spoiled her. “Say, I was going to ask you if I could maybe stay another week out here? I’ve really missed my grandmother, and there’s still so much to do back here.”

I paused. I wasn’t expecting her to ask that, and I sure as hell wasn’t expecting to feel the way I felt. Punched in the gut. Grasping for something that wasn’t there. I hadn’t had those kinds of feelings since Tierney and the Hamptons.

None of it made sense. Brenna wasn’t my girlfriend, but suddenly I found myself missing her on a deeper level, especially since I knew it’d be another week or so until I saw her again.

“Trenton?” she asked. “I can come home Friday if you want …”

“No, no,” I insisted. “It’s fine.”

“You sure?”

“Yes,” I said. “I look forward to seeing you next week.”

“Okay,” she said. “Believe it or not I miss our dinners and our evening chats. You can call me more if you want. It’s not weird or anything, at least not for me.”

“Goodnight, Brenna,” I replied, unsure of what to say. I hung up the phone, placed it on the charger, and retired to my bedroom for the night. It was going to be a long nine days.