With Brave Wings (6 page)

"I think you've misunderstood everything," she argued tearfully. "A child is a blessing, and Sophie is a sweet girl. But she's so young and spoiled. She's not right for you—"

Tennyson interrupted. "And
I'm
saying you don’t know her enough to make any kind of judgment whatsoever. Lastly, you clearly don’t know what you're talking about if you believe Trisha is perfect for me. I ended our relationship for a reason."

"Fine," Mom replied stiffly. "I'll go tell your father now. Keep me posted on the pregnancy because, unlike what you seem to think, I'm very happy for you." She sniffled and hung up.

Tennyson blew out a breath, frustrated, but he wasn’t going to apologize for upsetting her.

*

They made it back to Sophie's loft right as breakfast was being served, and everyone was amused by the CVS bags the two Wrights stuffed under the tree.

"You really didn’t have to buy anything, boss," Noah chuckled.

"I had to get a toothbrush and deodorant, anyway." Tennyson smirked and, without warning, picked up Sophie from her seat at the dining room table. She squeaked, and he sat down with her on his lap instead. "Don’t mind me, but I have a baby bump to feel up."

She giggled and returned to spreading butter on a piece of toast. Everyone dug into the food she and Brooklyn had set out, but Tennyson was content to sip his coffee and keep one hand on her belly.

"Why do grown-ups eat so slow?" Maliah complained. "I wanna open presents, Mom."

"And I want a million bucks. Finish your pancakes, baby," Brooklyn said.

Tennyson glanced over at his brother, who was looking pensively between Brooklyn and Maliah.

"Holy f—" He stiffened and pressed his palm a little to the left of Sophie's belly button. "I think he's moving."

"I know he is," she laughed. "He's inside
my
belly."

It was extraordinary, and now that he'd felt it once, he couldn’t get enough. Throughout breakfast and, later, the gift exchange, he stayed glued to Sophie so he could feel their son moving again.

He was vaguely aware of Brooklyn and Noah saying they'd gone overboard with the gift cards, but Tennyson waved it off. Asher just pointed to an exuberant Maliah and said they'd clearly done well.

"
Too
well," Brooklyn argued, though she was laughing.

Noah grinned and slapped the stack of gift cards to his knee. "It pays to know the upper crust of Hollywood."

"See?" Asher chuckled. "That’s the spirit. And I know you deserve it since you've put up with my brother for two productions. How the first one didn’t kill you, I'll never know."

"But holy hell, has it given me more work," Noah replied. "Thanks to
Unrecovered
, I'm booked solid for a year, and not for indies, either."

Tennyson tuned them out and gave one of the CVS bags to Sophie. The two of them occupied a corner of the large couch, so it was easy to get lost in their bubble.

"I told you not to buy me anything," she chided halfheartedly.

"Technically, I didn’t." His hand slid under her T-shirt to caress her stomach. "It's for him."

"Oh." Now she looked more excited, and she tore through the bag and pulled out all the items he'd bought. Pacifiers, bibs, bottles, a small blanket, a pair of baby socks, and a small strap for pacifiers to attach to his clothes. "Oh, Tennyson…" Sophie got emotional and threw her arms around him. "This is so cool." He grinned as she crawled onto his lap and began looking at the things more closely. "Daddy's bug, huh?" She sniffled and chuckled at the next one. "Daddy's star. Where's the mommy stuff?"

"I'm afraid that was all sold out."

She gigglesnorted and whacked his chest playfully. "Very funny—oh!" She sat straight up. "I actually have something for you, too. I'll be right back." She left the living room, only to return a few seconds later with an envelope. "I should've thought about this yesterday."

Tennyson welcomed her on his lap again and pressed a kiss to her neck while she opened the envelope. They were images, he noticed, and when he looked closer, his throat closed up.

They were ultrasound photos of their baby.

He could see a small, closed fist. He could see the shape of his son's nose. The little one seemed well developed for being so small.

"I got a bunch, so take as many as you want." She smiled softly and brushed the pad of her thumb under his eye. He hadn't even realized he'd gotten emotional; he was too focused on the tiny creature on the photo.

"I—thank you," was all he could utter, and he doubted she understood exactly what he was thanking her for. The sonogram picture, sure, but…God. He had never thought a moment could captivate him like this. Being here with Sophie, seeing the evidence of what their romance in Vancouver had given them; it was life-changing and beautiful.

She sighed in contentment and rested her head on his shoulder. "We're gonna rock this parenting thing in our own way, aren't we?"

He squeezed her tightly and glanced over at their friends. "Definitely." When Tennyson wasn’t able to be here in person, he had no doubt Sophie's closest would be. But for now, he couldn’t bear thinking about being away.

Chapter 7

San Diego
 

Sophie peered down the hall where a bunch of kids was coming in from recess. As part of PR for the animated movie they were making, the actors were flying around the country and visiting schools to hand out comic books about their characters' adventures leading up to the movie. Each character had their own comic book, and it was like a prologue that would make the kids want more.

Stellar PR tactics. Go after the children.

"I'm glad you're here," she told Tennyson, who'd flown down to San Diego with her.

He smiled and gave her hand a squeeze. "You'll do great. Good practice too, eh?"

"What am I, chopped liver?" Daniel asked.

*

Los Angeles
 

"I wish you didn’t have to go." Sophie blinked back her tears. "Texas is overrated, anyway."

Tennyson grinned into the kiss he dropped on the top of her head. "The location was perfect when we picked it, but now I have to agree with you."

January fifteenth had come like a boy on prom night. Way too fast.

After a few moments, Tennyson released her and got down on one knee to kiss her stomach through the fabric of her T-shirt. "Be good to Mommy for me," he murmured. Sophie's ovaries went kaboom. "I'd rather not ground you before I even get to meet you."

Stupid,
stupid
horny hormones.

*

"Time to go, Sophie!" Noah called.

She made a face at the mirror but figured there was little she could do about it. She couldn’t hide her pregnancy anymore; then again, what was the point? The world knew already.

Pursing her lips, she debated internally and then left the top two buttons open.

"Coming." She left her bathroom and adjusted her snug button-down. The buttons weren't straining or anything, but it was two sizes larger than she was used to. Damn boobs, damn basketball belly.

"You look like a hot CEO." Noah waggled his eyebrows before he frowned. "Why do you look like a hot CEO? We're going to dinner, not a board meeting."

Yeah, well. Sophie wanted to look classy. The media continued to scare her, and dinner at a fairly popular restaurant meant paps might find out where she was. Hence button-down, black dress pants, and stilettos.

In her defense, she was wearing some cool accessories—that sure as hell didn’t belong in a boardroom—and her hair was down.

"Nobody can call me a tramp when I wear stuff like this." She shrugged. Her feet were already killing her, but she'd get used to it. She and her friends were constantly busy with work, but tonight they were off. So dinner it was.

She'd voted for pizza and a movie marathon.

She'd been in the minority—four against one.

"Sophie…" Noah sighed. "You need to give yourself more credit."

She waved it off, wanting to get the evening over with. "Come on, let's go. Are we meeting up with the others there?"

Noah nodded and followed her out of the loft.

Halfway to the restaurant, she got a text from Tennyson.

Asher thinks we should name our son after him. I admit, I laughed in his face.

Sophie giggled and replied.

Poor Asher! So he's visiting you in Texas, huh? Does he find it overrated, too?

"What'cha gigglin' about?" Noah asked.

"Names." She grinned. "We look for names everywhere, but whenever we start texting about it, it leads to goofing around."

She'd found a name yesterday she liked though, so she fired off another message to Tennyson.

What about Flynn?

His response came shortly after.

Yes, and Asher says hello. My uncle's grandson is named Flynn, though I do like the name.

"Shoot." Thinking cap back on, then.

"I say you go with Noah," Noah said with a firm nod. "A little Noah Wright. Someone should pass on my name."

"It's last names you pass on, dingus," Sophie laughed.

"Fine! So Collins, then. Collins Wright."

"That sounds…" Sophie tried to put it as nicely as possible. "Honey, I love you, but no chance in hell."

He huffed. "All right, but I get naming rights on the second kid."

"Sure." Sophie humored him.

She hadn't even given birth to her first child. Thinking about a second was a decade or so too fast.

*

Noah ended up being just one in the crowd when it came to commenting on Sophie's outfit. Brooklyn, Daniel, and Zane thought she looked fabulous, but they didn’t like her reason for going so…conservative.

It was nothing Sophie could help, though. She was terrified of what kind of rumors would circulate if she showed more skin.

"Is this gonna be a problem, darling?" Daniel asked quietly as he placed his napkin in his lap. They'd been seated and had ordered and, unfortunately, the others were busy chatting about Noah's next film location. Sophie couldn’t get out of this one.
Sigh.
He squeezed her hand under the table. "I know you don’t like the attention anymore, but I don’t want it to hold you back."

"Don’t exaggerate." She played it off with a kiss to his cheek. "You're like the best big brother I could ever have, but I'm fine. Let's enjoy dinner before we gotta go home and pack."

At this point, she didn’t even know where she was going, but since Daniel was still trying to build up his clientele, he had the flexibility to travel with her most of the time. It meant he took care of all her schedules. He told Sophie where and when to show up, and she went.

What she did know was that she had a meeting and a PR event in Sydney coming up, so she'd have to make sure she could see Tennyson before then. Hopefully, he could fly out to LA, or she'd go to overrated Texas.

"The doctor said one glass of wine here and there is fine." Daniel held out his. "Want some? It's really good."

She smiled and shook her head. A glass might be fine, but being called an alcoholic in the press wasn’t.

"I think we went to that vineyard in Napa last year," Zane said and reached for the bottle. "Remember, love?"

"How could I forget?" Daniel smirked wryly and placed his arm along the back of Zane's chair. "You did that spread for some fashion house and got recognized by a whole group of flaming boys from San Francisco. Fun times."

Sophie and Brooklyn exchanged a grin.

Daniel was head over heels in love with Zane, but he worried. Zane was ten years younger, and Daniel feared his boyfriend would get bored. Which couldn’t be further from the truth, and Daniel would know that if he only opened his eyes and saw the way Zane looked at him. But jealousy could cloud the best of judgments, Sophie guessed.

"Yeah, but who took me home?" Zane shot back with a mischievous glint in his eye.

Noah flicked his gaze between the two men. "Am I watching foreplay here, or…?"

Sophie chuckled and took a sip of her water as she glanced out over the large restaurant. She preferred smaller, more intimate establishments these days, but the food here was supposedly orgasmic.

"I got to watch foreplay today at work," Brooklyn said. "We were minding our own business on set when a studio rep came down to fire one of the girls in wardrobe. She'd had an emergency the day before—got called away because her son was sick and got sent home from school, and this douche tried to fire her."

"How is that foreplay?" Noah asked.

"Because you should've seen how everyone teamed up against the suit. It was pure pleasure," Brooklyn continued with a grin. "Two actors had overheard him, and they didn’t mince words. My girls and I got into it, too. Asshole. But at least she wasn’t fired."

Sophie frowned. "So just because this woman had to pick up her child—who was friggin' ill—they wanted to let her go? How the fuck is that fair?"

"I see that shit all the time." Daniel shook his head. "One of my assistants thought I was gonna fire her when I learned she had lied on her resume. She'd listed a friend's downtown address instead of her own, which makes her daily commute two hours. Add the fact that she's a single mom… Not many would hire her."

Sophie didn’t understand that at all, and she said so.

Noah explained it to her. "
Fair
has no business here, I'm afraid. Single parents are unreliable. Hell, you don’t even have to be single."

"That’s ridiculous." Sophie scoffed. This crap angered her, maybe because it was personal now, but she'd really had no idea. "They should look at it the other way. I'm no expert, but isn't it more likely that a single parent will work harder in order to support her child?"

"Preach, sister," Brooklyn agreed.

Okay, maybe this hadn't been a bad idea, after all. It felt pretty good to be out like civilized people and having dinner and meaningful conversations with her friends.

Her stomach tightened in hunger as she saw their waiter and another heading toward them. Her spirits lifted a little. But before she could shut out the world and focus solely on her meal, she spotted a few people she'd never wanted to see again.

"Fuck." She dropped her gaze and set down her glass. Anxiety rose in her, and instinct told her to flee.
Quick exit, drive home, hide under the bed.

Screw her previous thought. This had been a
horrible
idea.

"Something wrong?" Noah asked her.

Of course, that got everyone's attention, but Sophie couldn’t speak yet. The waiters came with their food, and she had to pretend she wasn’t wishing the floor could swallow her whole.

"Motherfucker," Daniel rumbled in a low growl. One glance at him told Sophie he'd seen what she'd seen. "Peter's here."

It was more than that. Her father and his wife were here with the Whittingtons, including their daughter Cassandra, a party princess and former friend of Sophie's.

"Shit, I'm sorry, hon." Brooklyn reached over the table and grabbed Sophie's hand. "Want us to leave?"

She shook her head minutely. She wanted to
be
home, but the getting-there part could get tricky. It didn’t look like Dad or her ex-friend had seen her, but they were only some twenty feet away. If Sophie and her friends stood up to go, it might get their attention.

"Let's just…" She let out a nervous breath and picked up her fork.

Dinner was effectively ruined, and she cursed herself for it. Her friends tried to engage her in conversation, but it was hard hearing past the ringing in her ears.

She picked at her food and wondered where the hell her balls were. Her dad and Cass could only destroy her if she allowed it.

I'm stronger than this, damn it.

"Okay, give me that." She reached for Daniel's wineglass and took two large sips. "I'm not gonna let Dad and some diva ruin my evening."

"Diva?" Noah looked over his shoulder.

"There's my girl," Daniel praised.

Sophie nodded at their table. "The blonde. Cassandra—we used to be friends. Our dads play golf together."

Noah snorted and returned to his vegetarian chili. "Whenever I see those skinny girls, I just wanna force-feed them." He smirked wryly at Sophie. "I thought the same when I met you."

In response, she flipped him off at the same time as she blew him a kiss.

"You've been spotted, babe," Zane said quietly.

Fuck.

It was like the pep talk got sucked out of her, and she swallowed nervously. Taking another bite of her pasta was impossible.

"Who?" She pulled forward her acting skills and smiled as she reached for her water. Under the table, Daniel gave her leg a squeeze.

"All of them now," Brooklyn muttered. "Jeesh, I feel like a circus act."

"Imagine how I feel." Sophie chuckled and discreetly eyed the other table. Sure enough, Dad was watching her, and Cassandra was looking awfully busy with her phone. "Uh, we might wanna leave, after all. If the paparazzi aren't already nearby, they will be soon."

Cass was known for alerting the press. Back in the day, Sophie had loved it. Now, not so much.

"Fine by me. This chili's shit. Just because I'm a vegetarian doesn’t mean I want an overabundance of beans." Noah turned in his seat and was quick to flag down a waiter. "Yeah, hi. Can we get the check, please? And some to-go boxes, if that’s all right."

Sophie was grateful for her friends reacting so quickly. The waiter left, only to return a minute later, and those who had enjoyed their meal placed the food in fancy containers.

"Want me to ask if we can take another exit?" Daniel asked.

"No, it's okay." Sophie reached for the check, but Noah snatched it up first. "What're you doing?"

"Paying, of course." He fished out a few bills from his wallet. "I'm the only one who prefers to use cash these days, and it means we can leave right away."

Sophie had every intention of arguing over the bill later, but for now, she wanted a quick getaway.

As they all headed toward the exit, she cursed internally.
Something
was going on; otherwise, there wouldn’t be a handful of dinner guests bringing out their phones to take pictures of her.

She assumed Cassandra had said something online. It only took seconds for gossip rags to pick up the news and spread it like wildfire.

Daniel and Noah handed over their tickets to the valet outside and then returned to the interior vestibule to avoid being spotted.

The girl at the coat check eyed Sophie.

Being an actress was all Sophie knew, and she'd grown to love it and be very passionate about her job. But during times like these, she wished she weren't a public figure. It was like living under a magnifying glass, and everyone was waiting for her to make a mistake.

Her son chose that moment to kick her a bit. "Really, baby?" She looked down at her belly and quirked a grin.

"Is he kicking up a storm?" Zane asked.

She nodded. "He's always more active at night. I may be giving birth to a night owl."

Zane chuckled and moved his palm over her stomach. "Oh, I felt that one."

"Sophie?"

Sophie's head snapped up at the sound of
that
voice, and the last thing she wanted was to turn around. Brooklyn and Zane were sort of frozen, and Daniel and Noah were standing by the exit, waiting for their cars.

Help me.

"Sophie, don’t be a child. Face me, damn it." Dad sighed and came to stand in front of her.