The Baby Surprise by Brenda Harlen Page B

wings and no visitors had shown up until the day after Emma’s birth. Of course, Paige hadn’t thought too much about it at the time because she hadn’t had anything to compare it to, but now that she did, she couldn’t help but feel both sad and sorry that her friend had been so alone.
    She smiled at Cameron when he came in to give his sister-in-law a quick pep talk and a hug before taking his daughter—despite her vehement protests and heartfelt pleas to stay until her new baby cousin was born—to her grandparents’ house. Ashley stayed, almost as excited about the impending arrival of her niece or nephew as she was about the birth of her own baby due in another couple of months.
    Because the waiting room was still rather crowded and Megan was pacing the halls and didn’t seem as if she was going to have the baby anytime soon, Paige decided to take Emma down to the cafeteria for a snack.
    Although she hadn’t invited him to come along, Zach followed them into the elevator and, after he’d been so great with Megan, Paige couldn’t bring herself to tell him to get lost. And even if she did, he probably wouldn’t listen to her anyway.
    Of course, he then insisted on paying for their coffee and Emma’s snack, which made her feel even guiltier for wanting to ditch him. But when they were settled at a table and Emma was happily squeezing cubes of red Jell-O in her fists—and occasionally stuffing one into her mouth—she had to ask, “Why are you still here, Zach?”
    He shrugged. “I’m curious.”
    â€œAbout what?”
    â€œThe whole process, I guess. I never had a chance to experience any of the stages of pregnancy or childbirth with Olivia because I never even knew that she was pregnant.”
    â€œAnd if you had known, you still would have been in Afghanistan while she was having your baby in Syracuse.”
    â€œI could have asked for leave.”
    â€œBut there’s no guarantee you would have got it, is there?”
    â€œNo,” he admitted, sounding so genuinely regretful, Paige felt her heart softening toward him.
    â€œShe was in labor nineteen hours,” she told him.
    Zach’s head swiveled toward her. “That’s right—you were her birthing partner.”
    She nodded. “I was surprised she chose me. I mean, we’d become pretty good friends at law school and were both pleased when we got hired on at Wainwright, Witmer & Wynne, but I thought there must have been someone else she was closer to.”
    â€œShe was an only child born late in the lives of both of her parents,” Zach remembered. “And she lost them both the year after she graduated.”
    Paige nodded again and wondered why she was surprised that he knew those details. Obviously he and Olivia had engaged in conversation and sex—which was definitely not a path she wanted her mind to be wandering down, because just thinking of Zach and sex in the same sentence made her blood heat and her pulse race.
    The attraction she felt for him was purely physical—and not entirely unexpected, considering how long it had been since she’d been with any man and that she’d never known a man who oozed testosterone the way Zach Crawford did. She also knew her feelings were wrong—and self-destructive. Unfortunately, that knowledge didn’t give her any more control over them, but it did help her refocus her attention on their conversation.
    â€œI was hesitant at first,” Paige said, referring to the childbirth classes she’d attended with Olivia. “Or maybe it’s more accurate to say that I was terrified that I would screw up or somehow let her down. But I finally agreed.
    â€œEvery week on our way to class, she would thank meagain, telling me how grateful she was for my support, as if I was doing her this huge favor.”
    â€œTo her, you were.”
    â€œMaybe,” she acknowledged. “But I