Chapter 7

Normally, once dinner ended at the Peyton estate, Rose and Zach would head straight home. Tonight, with Tommy in the house, Zach stayed to chat with him a while longer, and it was nearly nine by the time they finally left.

On the drive home, the phone mounted on the center console rang.

Rose saw the caller ID: Manager Robles. Her brow creased slightly.

She remembered that number, it was the same one that had called during their dinner at Libre a while back. It had called several times since. She'd asked Zach who it was, since he'd never bothered to save the contact.

Zach told her it was a new manager from the planning department, and he just hadn't gotten around to adding him to his contacts yet.

Lately, though, this manager had been calling constantly, often late at night, and it wasn't unusual for Zach to get pulled away right after. Over the past two weeks, he'd spent more nights away from home than not, something that had never happened before.

But it was work, so Rose hadn't felt it was her place to say much about it. "Want me to put it on speaker for you?"

"No need." Zach freed one hand and ended the call outright, then glanced her way with an easy smile. "I promised you I'd be all yours once your leave started. Nobody's allowed to interrupt that."

Rose brightened at that, relieved. For a second there, she'd worried he was about to get pulled away for work again.

Back home, they washed up and settled into bed together, flipping through a baby name dictionary.

After Rose had circled a few names she liked, Zach noticed something. "Why do all the names you're picking sound like girls' names?"

Rose rested a hand on the swell of her belly. "I have a feeling it's a girl."

Zach caught her hand. "You know what my mother did?"

Rose didn't try to hide it. "Yeah."

All of her prenatal checkups had been scheduled at her own hospital. But when she was four months along, Marilyn had taken her to the Peytons' private hospital for an additional checkup, and Rose had overheard the conversation between Marilyn and the doctor. The baby was a girl.

"Why didn't you tell me?"

Rose gave a small, bitter smile. "Why didn't you tell me either?"

"I didn't want you to be upset."

"I know. That's exactly why I didn't want to put you in a difficult spot."

If Zach had found out what his mother had done, he'd have confronted her over it, and Marilyn would have blamed Rose for driving a wedge between mother and son, resenting her daughter-in-law even more for it.

Over this past year, there'd been more of these small clashes than she could count. Better to let it go than stir up more trouble.

Zach's expression turned guilty, and he squeezed her hand. "I'm sorry you had to deal with that alone."

It had been hard, yes. But he understood what it had cost her, and that made it worth it. Still, there was one more thing weighing on her. "Would you be upset if it's a girl?"

Zach pulled her into his arms. "Never. Whatever you give me, I'll love it."

Rose settled against his chest, a soft, contented smile curling her lips, and closed her eyes to enjoy the rare, quiet closeness between them.

He'd been so busy lately that moments like this, just the two of them, still and peaceful, had become scarce.

Then, breaking the calm, a ringtone cut through the room.

Zach reached for his phone on the nightstand.

Rose saw the caller ID: Manager Robles, again. Her smile faded.

"Why is he calling again?"

Zach ended the call, then powered his phone off entirely. "No work tonight. Just you."

The next morning, Rose woke to find Zach still asleep beside her, and couldn't help the smile that tugged at her lips.

Lately, he'd either been sleeping at the office or leaving for work before she even woke up. It had been ages since she'd opened her eyes to find him right there.

Zach's sleeping face, bathed in the morning light, looked serene and unguarded, the picture of easy, undisturbed peace, exactly the kind of moment she'd been missing.

She reached out, tracing a fingertip lightly along the line of his brow, then down the bridge of his nose, letting it come to rest against his lips. His mouth twitched suddenly under her touch.

The next second, his eyes opened, warm with amusement as he looked at her. "You want me this early in the morning?"

She snatched her hand back at once, cheeks flushing.

Though they'd been married almost a year now, they'd really only been together once, that first night after the wedding. The morning after, a crisis had hit one of the company's branches, and he'd had to go handle it. He hadn't come back for over a month, and by the time he did, she was already pregnant.

Worried about hurting her or the baby, Zach had held himself back ever since, never once touching her through the pregnancy.

So when he said something like that, Rose couldn't help the wave of embarrassment that rushed through her.

Zach reached out and settled a hand gently on her belly. "Hurry up and come out, little one, or your father's going to make himself sick holding back much longer."

Her already-flushed cheeks went a deeper shade, red as a ripe apple. "Don't say things like that; you'll corrupt the baby."

"How is it not the truth? I'm just being honest." Zach leaned in closer against her side. "Am I wrong?"

Rose felt the change in his body pressed against hers, went stiff for half a second, and then bolted upright out of bed.

"I... I'm going to go wash up."

Zach watched her retreat like she was fleeing a burning building, glanced down at himself, and shook his head with a rueful laugh. He gave himself a minute to settle down before getting up too.

They still hadn't settled on a name for the baby the night before.

Every time Rose went looking through the dictionary without any name picked out yet, dozens of names had seemed lovely. Now that she actually had to choose one for her own child, none of them felt quite right, this one not good enough, that one just a little off.

Still, even without a name settled, they'd agreed to go shopping for baby supplies together today. So after breakfast, the two of them headed out to the mall.

In the maternity section, Rose found herself surrounded by tiny outfits and tiny shoes, and felt her heart melting on the spot.

They were just too adorable! She could already picture her daughter dressed in every single one of them, imagining how impossibly cute, how perfectly precious she'd look.

Zach watched as she picked things up, put them down, and went for the next. Her eyes lit up with delight each time, but she didn't buy a single item. "Whatever you like, we'll take it."

"What if I like everything?"

"Then we'll take everything." Zach turned to the sales associate hovering nearby. "Please have everything my wife's looked at wrapped up."

"No need." Rose stopped him at once. "I was joking. There's no way one baby could wear this much."

"So she'll wear something new every day. Our daughter deserves to look like a little princess."

Rose had grown up without much to spare, and was about to point out how wasteful that would be when a familiar voice drifted over from the boys' section nearby.

"Excuse me, do you have this set in a size for a one-month-old boy?"

Rose turned toward the voice and found Scarlett standing there.

She wore an ankle-length red dress and carried a small silver-white purse over one arm, both hands pushing a stroller. The canopy was up, a gauzy curtain draped over the front, and through it, Rose could just make out a sleeping child inside.

Scarlett had been back in the country for over two weeks now, and this was the first time Rose had actually laid eyes on her.

Something about the intensity of Rose's gaze must have caught her attention. Scarlett turned and looked over, surprise flickering across her face at the sight of them, then pushed the stroller over.