a few more minutes, at least he didn’t sound quite so defeated. She was confident that although the answers weren’t presenting themselves to Nick right now, they would. He was a resourceful guy.
“And I’ll be in town in a few days,” she said before they hung up. “I promise I’ll help you out as much as I can, okay? It’ll be okay, Nick. I promise.”
Too bad it was a promise Stephanie had no idea whether she’d be able to keep.
Chapter Five
Things were moving quickly. Almost too quickly. Nick barely had a chance to keep things straight in his head. After discussing it at length with his legal team and getting a little bit more advice from Damon and Katie, Nick’s first response had been to hire someone to be his girlfriend or fiancée. Or whatever made sense. And that was the entire problem. None of it made sense.
He couldn’t hire someone. It was ludicrous. And the idea was dismissed.
The only option would have been if he had a female friend who was willing to turn their life upside down for him and Amelia. But he didn’t. It was way too big of an ask for Stephanie, and she was right. She was way too famous for it to work with her.
There were no other options. He’d made his decision, and Chris had filed the paperwork with his current—and truthful—situation. He was single. And now he’d have to face the caseworker.
He’d been hoping to put it off a little longer, but it seemed that the universe had a funny way of working. Because as soon as Chris processed the application for adoption, it had immediately triggered the system, and a caseworker had already been in touch for a preliminary meeting.
Apparently it didn’t usually happen so quickly, but there was something about an opening and the woman passing through town and it all worked out. Nick didn’t question it because as far as he was concerned, the faster they could get everything done with, the better. Or in this case, as soon as they could get started with what would surely be a huge fight and ongoing legal battle for him to convince the courts that even though he was a single man with a history of partying and womanizing, with no biological relation to the child, he was absolutely the best candidate.
Even he had trouble buying it.
He’d been hoping to get to Sweetie Pies early for his meeting to find a good table, get Amelia set up in a high chair and most importantly, get himself a strong coffee, but as was way too familiar these days, he was running behind. He’d made the rookie mistake of dressing Amelia before feeding her and of course, the baby chose today to smash yams all through her hair and pretty dress that Katie had brought over for the occasion. After a quick bath and a change of clothes, he’d be lucky at this point to have enough time to order before Susan Johnson arrived.
Mercifully, the bakery was surprisingly not busy when he got there. And after a quick scan of the room, it looked as if he’d beat Susan there as well. Nick wheeled the stroller to a table by the window, and leaving Amelia where he could see her, he went to the counter to give his order.
As always, Georgia’s smile was warm and flirty as she took his order, and the ridiculous thought flashed through his brain that maybe he could ask her to fill in as his fiancée. But he dismissed the idea almost immediately. He barely knew her. Although she seemed like a genuinely nice woman, she could have some sort of sinister past that he had no idea about and would only make everything a million times worse. It wasn’t likely, and Nick felt bad for thinking something so terrible about the woman who handed him his coffee, but he was not in a good state of mind.
She finished preparing his order and when he held out his cash, she waved it away. “It’s on me.”
He tilted his head in question and she grinned.
“In fact,” Georgia said. “I was thinking maybe we could go out sometime.”
Oh shit.
He couldn’t even begin to process what dating Georgia would mean right now. Hell, what dating anyone would mean. He had one focus and— The subject of his focus, Amelia, let out a shriek of delight behind him. Coffee forgotten, he spun on his heel to see his baby girl laughing and