His voice was soothing and I instantly felt at home. My worries seemed to dissolve in front of me. “Good morning,” I said, with a giddy tone. “How are you?” “I guess I'll find out in a little bit,” he said, with a chuckle. “Hopefully I'm doing really well, but I won't know until I get to the office and sort all of this out.” “Yeah, I'm keeping my fingers crossed that whatever is going on will work itself out in the best way possible,” I said. “Sorry I cut our time short on Saturday morning,” he said. “Don't be sorry,” I said. “You had a meeting to go to anyway. I completely understand.” “You're such a sweetheart,” he said. “You know, I missed you yesterday.” I nearly dropped the phone out of shock, but managed to somehow keep it up against my ear. “You, what?” I asked. “I said I missed you,” he replied casually. “I'd tried really hard to distract myself, but no matter what I did, I just kept thinking about you.”

The moment the elevator doors opened up on the main floor, I could hear the sounds of the crowd coming from outside of the building. It was muffled, but still loud enough so that I knew that the media hadn't gone home yet. I stepped out and glanced toward the front. Carter's security guards now stood on the outside of the glass in an attempt to keep the media swarm out. It seemed like every journalist in town wanted to speak to Carter, despite the fact that Carter wanted absolutely nothing to do with them. Are they just going to spend the entire day out there? I thought. I think Carter was spot on when he referred to them as vultures. Jesus, they're relentless. I didn't stand there too long, though. After a moment of crowd watching, I turned and walked the opposite direction toward the cafeteria. It was officially called The Winthrow Cafe, but in all reality, it was more like a fancy variation of a school cafeteria. I'd never actually eate

Driving up to the front entrance of a mall in the back of an eighty thousand dollar SUV with black tinted windows was definitely the thing to do if you wanted to garner stranger's attention. It seemed like every soccer mom that was out there glanced over at us as soon as we pulled into the parking lot. “Carter, I can just run in really quick if you don't want to be seen,” I said. “Your face is all over the news right now and I'm assuming you don't want any extra attention.” “It's fine. I'll go with you,” he said calmly. “Besides, I'm not going to let the damn media run my entire life. They've already taken over my building for the moment and I refuse to give them any more control than I have to. If I want to go shopping with my girl, then I'm going to do just that. Also, though, and more importantly, I kind of want to see you try on a swimsuit for me.” “Oh yeah?” I asked, raising an eyebrow flirtatiously. “Yes, please,” he said, with a wink. D

The drive down to the docks took a little over an hour. I really enjoyed the trip, though, because I got to see the Southern park of New York for the first time. It was nice get away from the concrete jungle for a bit and see a little bit of actual countryside. I'd almost forgotten how beautiful trees and grass were, and the hand-planted foliage in the city didn't count. It was completely different. When we finally arrived at Raritan Bay, I was still completely clueless as to what this date with Carter entailed. All I knew is that outside of the car were tons of boats, fisherman, and seagulls. Needless to say, that didn't really help me figure it out. “You won't even give me a little hint, huh?” I said, staring out of the rear window. A seagull landed nearby on the sand and squawked at me, as though we'd just interrupted his day by showing up. “You'll find out soon enough,” Carter said, patting the top of my knee. “Just don't forget your bag from the

My new swimsuit was laid out on the counter in the bathroom located at the back of the ship's cabin. I'd already taken the price tag off and was busy just admiring it for a moment. It was the nicest suit I had ever owned. Every part of it looked expensive. The craziest thing about it, though, was that it cost more than my very first car that my parents had bought me when I turned sixteen. I stripped out of my uncomfortable work clothes, then took off my bra and panties. I placed my hand over my belly. Touching my stomach had become an uncontrollable habit lately. Every time I was in front of the mirror with my top off, it was like I just had to say 'hello' to the new life inside of me. With Carter on the other side of the door, though, I couldn't exactly have a full on conversation with the unborn baby. He would think I had officially lost my mind. So I spoke quietly. “Hey, little one,” I whispered. “Daddy has taken us out on his boat. I hope you're ready to go for y