Call Her Mine (Harmony Pointe #1)- Melissa Foster Page 0,48

knew Ben would never want to give up his house and his gorgeous property for a minuscule two-bedroom apartment. He probably wouldn’t want to move away from his family, either, but did she want to give up her space?

Everly pushed the box to the side of the room and said, “Maybe this is where it was just supposed to start. New beginnings are called that for a reason, right? Changes happen. Love happens. Babies happen.”

“I guess.” Aurelia reached for another stack of books.

They worked on inventory for the next few hours, and then Everly showed her drawings of the mural she was going to paint in the children’s area. Everly was going out of town for the weekend to attend a green-living conference. She made plans to return Monday so she could start the mural.

After Everly left, Aurelia headed upstairs, rehashing their conversation about moving. She knew she was overanalyzing and that it was too early in her relationship with Ben to even think about those types of logistics, and Everly was right. Driving from Sweetwater wouldn’t be the end of the world.

But as she entered her apartment and found Ben and B fast asleep on the couch, his work spread out across her dining room table, his shoes by her door, and B’s baby paraphernalia scattered around the room, she knew it wasn’t the driving that bothered her.

She simply liked the world she and Ben were creating here in her cozy Harmony Pointe apartment, more than the one they’d been floundering in back in Sweetwater.

CHAPTER ELEVEN

BEN WAS TOO restless after B’s 5:00 a.m. feeding to go back to sleep Saturday morning. He headed out to the dining room table, where he tackled emails and tried to prepare for Wednesday’s meeting. But he had a hard time focusing on work. He’d spoken to Bodhi’s friend Mason Swift and scheduled a meeting for Monday. He’d also spoken to Aiden, catching him up on the situation and explaining that his attorney was preparing paperwork to declare him as B’s father. He reassured Aiden that he would be in the office Wednesday for their meeting. As Ben had expected, Aiden was understanding about his need to continue working from home while he wrapped his head around being a father.

A father.

That word had grown to monumental proportions, taking on new meaning over the past twenty-four hours. He’d never considered what it would feel like to be a father, what it would do to his psyche, his outlook, his heart . . .

Even when he’d known there was a chance he was B’s father, what that actually meant hadn’t hit home. But now it was all he could think about. When he held her, changed her, and fed her. When she was crying and he couldn’t soothe her, or when she smiled and he wanted to memorize the preciousness of the moment. When he lay beside Aurelia, when he kissed her, when he tried to concentrate on his business, thoughts of fatherhood invaded his mind. There was no escaping the importance of those six little letters. It was his responsibility to protect that sweet little girl, to make sure she learned right from wrong, to help her feel loved and cherished. It was his responsibility to make sure she grew up confident and strong. A weaker man might wonder if he was qualified for such a task, but Ben didn’t wonder. He knew it would take everything he had to be a good father, and he was ready to give her his all.

He prepared for fatherhood in the same way he had prepared for the night he’d wanted to profess his feelings for Aurelia, which in his eyes had been far more important than any business deal. He began with a list of goals, starting with financial ones, because those came easily.

Start a college fund.

Increase my life insurance.

Draw up a will.

With those out of the way, Ben thought about his father and the things he had done that had had the biggest impact on him as a child and as an adult. He didn’t have to think long, because one thing stood out among all others. His father had always been there for him. Whether he was a phone call away or standing beside him didn’t matter. Ben knew that if he needed his father’s emotional or physical support, his dad would find a way to be there for him.

He added Be present to the list.

He remembered his father playing ball with him, reading to