Plan B (Best Laid Plans #2) - Jana Aston Page 0,2

no, I don't need help processing a return.

Oddly, ‘your CEO knocked me up’ was not an option on the website. After ten minutes of frustration I exited the contact us screen and placed an order for pre-natal vitamins instead. And a tote bag made out of recycled water bottles. I wanted to hold a grudge but they really do have great prices.

It's time for Plan B.

3

Daisy

Remember that movie about the two guys who crashed weddings in order to pick up women without having to pay for drinks or dinner?

This isn't that.

This is a pregnant girl crashing a retirement gala so she can get a moment to notify her baby daddy.

I wouldn't normally stoop to such a level, crashing a retirement party of all things, but I'm desperate. Besides, it's not like I'm staying for dinner. I'm just gonna slip in and out. No one but Kyle will even know I was there. I probably won't even have an appetizer, unless a waiter walks past with a tray of pickles or something and I can't resist. Just kidding, I don't have a cliché pregnancy pickle craving. It's more of a cliché craving for everything that isn't a pickle.

Anyway, that's my plan.

If he's there.

I think the chances are good that he'll be there because his grandfather is the guest of honor at this shindig and my internet sleuthing tells me that Kyle just took over as CEO of the family company.

Family company as in KINGS, the largest retail chain in America.

Recently promoted, as in the week after he knocked me up.

His promotion to head of the company is the only reason I know who he is and where to find him. I got his name that weekend, but it didn't mean anything to me. Why would it? He was just a guy I'd met while passing through Philly, and his last name was Kingston, while the retail chain was called KINGS.

When I realized I was pregnant I Googled him, hoping it'd lead me to a Facebook profile with his picture so I could send a quick message and be done with it. Done with him. Instead the first search result was a story in the New York Times accompanied by the KINGS logo and a professional business photo of Kyle. The accompanying article announced the retirement of Kyle's grandfather, company founder William Kingston, and named Kyle as the new CEO of Kingston Enterprises.

Kingston Enterprises, which owns all six thousand KINGS locations in the United States. Locations ranging in size from corner convenience marts to supercenters and warehouse clubs. The penny finally dropped and I understood two things. Firstly, Kyle Kingston was the heir to a retail empire bearing his name. And secondly, he was going to be impossible to get hold of.

Then in a stroke of good luck or serendipity or cosmic intervention, I was invited to a conference taking place next week in Philadelphia. I figured two birds, one stone. Am I right? I could attend the conference and while I was in town, find Kyle. So I poked around the internet a bit, figuring maybe I'd get a second stroke of luck and find a home address for him. Camp out on his doorstep until he showed up, whatever it took. I know stalking isn't nice, but desperate times, desperate measures.

Besides which, who hasn't stalked? Everyone does it in one form or another. Looked through their boyfriend’s stuff. Listened in on a stranger’s conversation in public. And everyone with access to the internet has looked up something that's none of their business a time or five hundred. Totally normal.

So I looked. And looked and looked. Turns out my stalking skills are shit because I couldn't find anything on him other than the mention of a sister named Kerrigan. Matching K names are the only thing they have in common with the Kardashians because the Kingstons keep their lives private. I couldn't find a single social media account for the sister either. I'd been hoping to reverse-stalk him through her, but no such luck. Their parents are deceased, having passed away in a plane crash five years ago. There were a few old articles about that, but otherwise not much to go on. Until I ran across a mention of a retirement gala for William Kingston. Kyle was bound to be there, right? How could he not be, when he'd just taken over as head of the company his grandfather founded and was retiring from? Crashing this party was my best