His Surprise Baby (Book Three): His Surprise Baby, #3

By Layla Valentine and Ana Sparks

He's a bad-boy quarterback in need of an image overhaul.

Having a baby with his PR advisor wasn't part of the plan!

 

I'm an all-star. A football hero. A household name.

But my reputation precedes me.

After one too many drinks and one-night-stands, the public sees me as a bad boy.

Reckless. And my sponsors don't like it one bit.

I'm one scandal away from being off the team.

 

And now, the kicker. A sex tape that's gone viral.

I did what anyone would do and hired a PR pro; A hot, sassy spin doctor who's amazing at what she does.

How the hell could I resist her?

 

Only now I've got a problem. She's pregnant. And the kid is mine.

 

This is the third book in the His Surprise Baby series.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Layla Valentine
• Release date: Nov 16, 2021
• ISBN: 9798201505370

Book preview

Heidi

O kay, honey, need anything else?

Heidi turned to her father, smiled, and shook her head.

I’m good, Dad. You can stop worrying now.

A father never stops worrying. It’s our full-time job.

He went to pull her into a hug, then awkwardly stopped, trying to maneuver his way around Heidi’s growing belly.

You can hug me, you know; I’m not gonna explode, she said with a laugh.

Gingerly, he reached back in, and this time, wrapped her in a full bear-hug. She nestled her head in the crook of his shoulder, using his shirt fabric to dry the tears that, unbeknownst to him, were welling in her eyes.

Heidi had moved back in with her parents a few weeks back. To their enormous credit, when she’d called and told them the story—that she was flat broke, and the baby daddy was effectively MIA—they’d immediately started prepping her childhood room for her return.

At first, she’d said that wouldn’t be necessary; maybe they could just give her a short-term loan? It was painful, being an adult and begging her parents for money. But no, they’d insisted she move home so that they could care for her. She reflected, for possibly the hundredth time, how damn lucky she was to have them as parents.

Moving down to Miami hadn’t been hard; after all, there was nothing left for her in Orlando. Heidi had packed up her things, shoved them all into her car, and made the drive downstate only a day after speaking with her parents.

Her previous apartment—the nice one, as she now thought of it—had come pre-furnished, so when she’d had to leave because money got tight, she’d had next to nothing to take with her. She’d moved into an unfurnished studio apartment in a less nice area, and had been scrambling, day and night, to find a job, but hadn’t had the time to acquire any furniture besides a mattress. It hadn’t been a good way to live, especially not with a baby on the way.

So, yeah. She’d moved back to Miami. What else could she do? It was the healthiest choice for her unborn child.

That was another thing she hadn’t expected: the responsibility of parenthood. Suddenly, the baby motivated each and every decision she made, from where to live all the way down to how much salt to put on her food. The immense change had happened overnight—no, in a second. The second she’d seen the positive sign on the stick, she’d known everything would be different.

It had been strange moving back in with her parents. They still lived in her childhood home, which was absolutely gorgeous. The house was situated at the end of a cul-de-sac, the façade draped with enormous palm fronds. It was in a neoclassical Spanish style, with red brick and twisting iron-working. Her parents had decorated with taste, and she had been proud, as a kid, to show her friends just how nice her home was.

Her bedroom was the best part, in her humble opinion. It had a deck, which was covered by a trellis holding up strings of climbing ivy, where she used to read by candlelight in the summertime. The bed was swathed in white chiffon, forming a canopy that blew in the slightest breeze. A row of dolls from around the world—she’d collected them on her travels—was perched atop the book shelf, which itself was a marvel, and packed to the gills.

Thus, moving back in had been bittersweet. She loved her parents, and her home, but she couldn’t shake the feeling of isolation. How was it possible to live with the two people who loved you the most in the world, and still feel absolutely alone?

Today, her dad had insisted on driving her to the clinic for her mid-pregnancy scan. She’d shaken her head, telling him he really didn’t have to, but Tom wasn’t hearing any argument. There was no point fighting her dad when he set his mind to something; he may have looked a little older and frailer now, but he still had the heart of a lion.

They’d been in the beige waiting room for almost thirty minutes, and she was beginning to grow listless. Picking up yet another teen magazine, she thumbed through its pages, and stopped suddenly. In the centerfold was Bradley, taking up two whole pages with his wide shoulders