Title: Decidedly by Chance
Series: By the Bay #5
Author: Stina Lindenblatt
Genre: Romantic Comedy
Release Date: September 19, 2019
Blurb
She's
pregnant with another man's baby.
He's now
the father to his little niece.
A sexy romance
with all the feels!
Single
Mom-To-Be Rule #1: watch out for those horny hormones.
Oops.
After a
childhood of bouncing from one foster home to another and a series of failed
relationships, I’ve taken matters into my own hands when it comes to starting a
family.
Or rather,
someone else’s hand. And a plastic cup.
I’d rather
be a single mom than be let down again, and I’m definitely not looking for a
baby daddy. That includes sexy workaholic game designer Wes Chiasson, thank you
very much.
***
My software
company has been my number one, two, and three priorities. But that all changes
when I suddenly become the guardian of my three-year-old niece. Now my world
has turned topsy-turvy with princesses and little-girl tea parties.
When Hannah
Morrell needs a place to stay after the pipes in her apartment burst, I invite
her to move in with my niece and me. Hannah is a pediatric nurse, and given my
situation, who could ask for a better roommate?
Sounds
easy. Right?
It is—until
emotions get tossed into the mix. Because if there’s one thing history has
taught Hannah, it’s that the people who’ve gained her love can’t be trusted.
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Excerpt
Wes
The next
morning, I walked into Connor’s office without knocking first. “What can you
tell me about a Philip Stevenson? He’s a lawyer at Long and Fairbrother.”
“Any reason
why you’re asking?”
“A friend
of mine might be doing some business with him, and I want to make sure there’s
nothing sketchy about him.”
All right,
that wasn’t exactly the truth, but it was close enough. Business. Date. They
were pretty much kissing cousins on the grand scale of things, especially where
Hannah was concerned.
I knew
Hannah’s dating life wasn’t any of my business. It was her choice if she wanted to date some loser—as long as said loser
wasn’t also a big creep.
Which was
why I was in Connor’s office. As Hannah’s new roommate, it was my duty to
ensure things were on the up-and-up with this Philip guy.
“Give me
three hours, and I’ll see what I can find,” Conner said.
“Great.
Thanks. I owe you one.”
“You owe
him what?” Jayden asked, strolling into the office. He handed Connor a short
stack of files. “I need a level-four background check on these five guys.”
“I’m right
on it.”
“Great. So
let’s return to what Wes owes you…” He looked between us, expectantly.
“Have you
considered the possibility that it has nothing to do with you?” I inwardly
groaned. That was the worst thing I could have said to Jayden. It only spiked
his curiosity.
“I have—for
maybe one second. Two, tops. So spill it. What’s going on here?”
“Wes needed
to run a check on some lawyer,” Connor told him.
“Why does
Wes need you to do that?” Liam’s voice came from the doorway behind me.
I twisted
away from the desk. “Why is everyone suddenly curious about what I’m doing?”
Jayden
smirked. “Because we know whatever you’re up to is bound to be entertaining.”
Connor
adopted an identical expression. “He’s got a point there.”
“Looks like
we’re all in agreement.” Liam crossed his arms, demonstrating the
bad-guy-beware stance he had perfected while with the SEALs.
“All right,
if you really must know. A stranger asked Hannah out on a date, and I want to
make sure she’s not going out with someone who’s bad news.”
“Are we
talking about Hannah Morrell? The woman who’s one step away from getting her
black belt, the woman who knows how to look after herself?”
The smirks
on Connor’s and Jayden’s faces grew wider.
“That would
be the one. Normally I would agree that she knows how to take care of herself.
But she’s pregnant now, so I don’t think it’s a bad idea to ensure that she
isn’t in over her head.”
All three
men exchanged looks.
Shit.
“And for
the record, you didn’t hear about the pregnant part from me. She’s going to
tell everyone”—I looked pointedly at Liam—“including your fiancée, when she’s
ready.”
Did you
hear that? That was the sound of a pin dropping against Connor’s desk. That was
how quiet the room was after my little announcement.
Liam was
the first to get over his shock. “Hannah is pregnant?”
“I don’t
suppose you’re the father?” That would be Jayden.
“Why would
you even think that?”
“Because everyone
knows you used to have a thing for her.” Jayden might have said it, but his
tone implied I still had a thing for her.
“I didn’t
have a thing for her, and I still don’t.” Right,
just be happy that lightning can’t hit you inside a building, dumbass, an
annoying voice in my head said. “And
no, I’m not the father.”
“Do you
know who the father is?” Liam asked. “Connor can do a background check on him.
Just to be sure she won’t be dealing with some major headaches down the line.”
“Is that
the guy you want me to do the check on?” Connor asked. “Is he the father?”
I shook my
head, even though I had no idea if Philip the lawyer made a recent deposit at
the sperm bank. Even if he had, chances were slim that Hannah ended up with his
sperm. “No. He’s just a stranger she met in a store yesterday, and he asked her
out on a date.”
“Okay,
Connor, do the background check on Hannah’s date first. And then report back to
us.”
“Us?” I
asked.
“Yes, us.
We want to know what we’re dealing with. We all like Hannah, and she’s my
fiancée’s friend. If Ava even suspects I haven’t done my due diligence when it
comes to Hannah’s dating life, I could end up losing my balls. And I’ve grown
quite attached to them, no pun intended.”
I almost
felt sorry for Hannah’s idiot date if Connor did turn up dirt on him. If the
guys’ expressions were anything to go by, he’d be canceling soon after.
But none of
this surprised me. The team had already dealt with the individual who had been
fast on the draw when it came to towing Hannah’s vehicle. Connor had found dirt
on him, and Jayden and Liam had a little chat with the douchebag to make sure
he demonstrated restraint in the future.
“Is he
picking her up for the date, or is she meeting him somewhere?” Jayden asked.
“She said
she’s meeting him at Swizzle Sticks Lounge.” It was some fancy-ass place I’d
taken a couple of dates to in the past.
“Time?”
“That part
didn’t come up in our conversation yesterday.” I was lucky I even found out his
name and where they were meeting up.
And that
was only because she wasn’t expecting me to crash the date.
“Not a
problem,” Liam said. “We can set up a detail to follow her from Travis’s
building.”
“What
exactly are you guys planning to do?”
“Quite
simple. Jayden and Isabelle will show up at the meeting and make sure everything
goes smoothly.”
My gaze
shifted to Jayden. “You mean you two will be pretending to be on a date?”
“More like
two colleagues going out after work to discuss work-related matters.”
Plausible?
Quite possibly. “There’s only one problem with that plan,” I said, stalling on
revealing the next part. “Hannah isn’t staying with Travis and Emma anymore.”
Liam’s
eyebrows raised in either surprise or disbelief. “She’s already found a new
apartment?”
“Not
exactly. She’s moving into my condo this afternoon.”
Whatever
emotion Liam had experienced with my first revelation had just done an
unexpected U-turn. It was now fully in the disbelief zone.
“She’s
moving in with you?” Liam asked,
enunciating each word slowly.
“Well, not
permanently. Just until she finds a new apartment. She wanted to give Travis
and Emma some alone time before they become new parents.”
I’d already
revealed the part about her being pregnant. I had no intention of also
mentioning about the audio porn and her heightened level of horniness, thanks
to the pregnancy.
A level of
horniness her dumbass date might get to appreciate—unless Jayden and Isabelle
succeeded in disrupting his plans.
What does it matter if she and the dumbass have
sex? the annoying
voice in my head asked.
I ignored
it.
“But why
with you?” Liam asked.
“Because I
invited her to stay with me while she’s searching for a new apartment. But you
have to admit, it’s a brilliant move on my part. She’s a pediatric nurse, and
who knows kids better than a nurse who specializes in them? She’s about five
steps ahead of where I am as Everly’s guardian and uncle.”
I had
expected them to see the genius behind my inviting Hannah to stay with Everly
and me. Instead, skepticism stared back at me.
“Are you
sure that’s a good idea?” Liam finally voiced.
“Why
wouldn’t it be? She needs a place to stay. And now she has plenty of time to
find the right apartment to move into. She doesn’t have to settle for less.
I’ve seen some of the locations she’s been looking at. If you’d seen them, you would
agree with me, too. They weren’t the right apartments for her to raise her
baby.” And because I was on a roll, I threw in for added benefit, “Apartment
hunting is exhausting and stressful enough when you aren’t pregnant. Hannah
doesn’t need that extra stress now that she is
pregnant.”
Slam.
Dunk.
Clearly,
the guys didn’t agree with me. The skepticism had been turned up several
notches.
“Honestly,
there’s nothing going on between us. So don’t make more of this than there is.
I’m just being there for her as a friend. Any of you guys would do the same if
you were in my situation.”
Yep, that
didn’t do much to erase their disbelieving expressions either. “Do you want me
to text you when she leaves for her date?” I asked Jayden.
“That will
work. But first things first. I need to check that Isabelle is free tonight.”
“Tell her
it’s for work,” Liam called after him. “She’s been after me to let her be more
hands-on with our cases,” he added once Jayden was out the door. “Hopefully
this will appease her for a while.”
Connor
leaned back in his chair. “It’s one of our least dangerous cases.”
Right—not
dangerous at all. Unless Hannah puts two
plus two together when Jayden and Isabelle mysteriously show up at the same
location as her and her dumbass date.
I kept that
thought to myself.
Jayden
returned a few minutes later to let us know Isabelle had agreed to the scheme.
Connor got to work on gathering intel on Hannah’s date, and the rest of us
returned to our own jobs.
Several
hours later, we were in his office again, ready to hear the dirt on Philip
Stevenson.
“I swear,
he has to be the most boring man on the planet,” Connor said. “He’s a contract
lawyer with no dings on any aspect of his work ethics. He hasn’t had a single
speeding ticket, parking ticket, or accident. He has lived in San Francisco his
entire life. His mother owns a store that specializes in Christmas and his
father is an accountant. He volunteers once a month at the food bank and plays
racquetball twice a week with a colleague, who was also his best friend in high
school.”
By boring,
I assumed Connor was referring to the man’s lack of a criminal record.
Or an
indication that Hannah was in for a very dull night.
None of this matters, I reminded myself. As long as she has fun and he’s not a jerk,
that’s all that matters.
Nope, I
didn’t believe that either.
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Author Bio
Born in
Brighton England, Stina Lindenblatt has lived in a number of countries,
including England, the US, Finland, and Canada. This would explain her mixed up
accent. She has a kinesiology degree and a MSc in sports biological sciences.
In addition to writing fiction, she loves photography, especially the close-up
variety, and currently lives in Calgary, Canada, with her husband and three
kids.
Author Links
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