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time over the past week. That was what she should have been focusing on, not her stupid crush on the man helping Fyra with the approval process.
    This was the absolute worst timing. Fyra was poised to hit the billion-dollars-a-year mark in revenue with Harper’s revolutionary new skin-care formula, and Alex couldn’t do a simple thing like working with the senator on the FDA approval process without messing it all up.
    â€œPhillip didn’t call,” she told Trinity, who she knew was chomping at the bit to get started on a new marketing campaign. “I’m pregnant.”
    Harper and Trinity exclaimed happily and took turns hugging her. She had her friends, if nothing else. She breathed easier.
    Cass smiled and rubbed her back. “See? We’ll hold your hand through it and be your village. Single women raise children all the time.”
    Single mom. Oh, God. She hadn’t even got that far in her mind. It wasn’t just a pregnancy, but a child who needed nurturing and love.
    The complexities nearly knocked her knees out from under her. She’d never intended to have children, never planned to expose a helpless child to pain and suffering at the hands of adults. Her own parents’ divorce had changed her, hardened her, driven her into teenage experimentation with drugs and alcohol, then ultimately a brush with the law. And now she’d done the one thing she’d sworn to never do—force a child to live with his or her parents’ mistakes.
    This was what happened when she threw caution to the wind.
    Cass had made a broad, sweeping assumption that Alex would be handling this without Phillip, but nothing could be further from what Alex had envisioned. Babies needed a family. A father. She hadn’t had one and knew that pain. Her child would have one come hell or high water.
    Did Phillip even want kids? What if he would be happier washing his hands of her and the baby, perfectly fine with never seeing either of them again? How would she convince him otherwise if he hated the idea of being a dad?
    And what kind of relationship would she and Phillip have? How could they be parents when they weren’t even a couple? Panic sloshed through her already nauseated stomach.
    â€œWhen did you become an expert on motherhood?” Alex snapped, too freaked to temper her tone.
    â€œSince Gage got full custody of Robbie,” Cass said simply. “Just because I didn’t give birth to him doesn’t make him any less mine. I wanted to learn.”
    Cass had fallen in love with a single father and thus had to become a mother in short order. Looked like Alex would be doing the same.
    A horrifying thought occurred to her then.
    Maybe Phillip would want to raise the baby...without her. Oh, God. What if he tried to use his power and influence to take the baby away for some reason? Instantly, she cradled her still-flat stomach protectively. He wouldn’t do that. Would he? She bemoaned the fact that she didn’t know him well enough to guess.
    It didn’t matter. No one was taking this baby from her. The child was equally hers and Phillip’s, and they were both going to have a role in its life. Period.
    No child of hers was going to grow up without a loving mother and father. That started by talking to Phillip about how they would manage the next eighteen-plus years together and ended with honesty. She certainly didn’t need his money, but what she did need from him would require courage and fortitude to secure.
    â€œI have to see a doctor. To confirm. And then fly to Washington,” she told Cass woodenly. “I know it’s the worst time to be gone, but—”
    â€œDon’t be ridiculous. Go. Take the time you need to figure out the next steps. We’ll be here.”
    Yes. Next steps. If she took this in the logical order everything would be fine.
    Trinity and Harper both nodded, throwing in their own versions of support and talking a mile a