AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Once she was in the room, he sat down, and she handed out the meals. Opening her container, she was happy she chose the stuffed shells. She loved to make them and eat them, though she hadn’t made them in almost a year now. A few weeks before, the leftovers on Saturday had been stuffed shells, but Lucy hadn’t been able to eat them, and it wasn’t the babies that were holding her back.
“Lucy, I need to know that everything we say tonight will be confidential. I do not need anything we talk about to get out,” he started. His fork was still lying on the table beside his food.
Stopping mid-chew, she nodded in agreement. She was hungry, okay?
“I would have you sign something, but I think I can trust you,” he continued, and she stopped eating. Signing papers was a serious thing.
“What’s going on, Mr. Montgomery?” she asked, finally setting her fork down. She hoped he wasn’t firing her. She was having twins now, and this job was all she had.
“Leo. You can call me Leo when we’re alone,” he said, and her eyes went up to his. Did he even look like a Leo? This was going to be hard.
She tried the name out. “Okay, Leo.” Maybe that wasn’t going to be as hard as she’d thought. The name made him more human, and it was better than Leonard.
“I don’t know if you know that Stacy wants to take the two little girls to Chicago,” he stated.
“No, I didn’t know. I know you go to court a lot, but just that.” Actually, she didn’t care what happened in his personal life. She was his secretary, so her only concern was what happened here at the office.
“If the judge agrees, I’m going to move the company to Chicago. Aubrey is basically an adult, and Alexis is sixteen, but the little two are young, and I don’t want to lose contact with them,” he explained.
“I understand about the children, but won’t it cost a lot of money to move the company?” She leaned back in her chair.
“It will, but they’re my children, my first priority.”
“As they should be. The girls should be together, but I regret that you would leave the bigger girls when you go. I was raised in a house full of girls, and I’m having a hard time with them moving out, and we’re adults.” Her mind went to the day each had packed their belongings and moved in with their new man. Mabel had been the hardest. She was first, and she was her twin. The empty room across from hers had been hard to look at for months.
“How many girls?” he asked with his head slightly tilted.
“Seven in all.” She grinned; it was a lot of women. And it didn’t even count the two sisters that they had just found out about a few months before, girls that their birth mom had after leaving the older five behind. It was still new, and they both lived in Chicago, so they weren’t part of the count in Lucy’s head yet.
“Well, I don’t have that many, but I would like them to be close. But I have to follow the ones that need me the most.”
“What can be done to stop Stacy from moving?” she asked.
“My lawyer said that my life is a revolving door of woman and that a judge would be more favorable to give Stacy custody rather than me,” he admitted.
“It is. I make those reservations. But what can you do to change that?”
“A wife,” he said, then pushed his container of food away. “And I want you to help me find one.”
“What?” She didn’t see that coming at all.
“You know women, and I need a woman who can take care of my kids, be responsible for my household, and stay married to me no matter what. The judge needs to see I’m in a happy, healthy relationship.” His eyes pleaded with hers.
“What are you looking for?” she asked. She didn’t know that many people, and the ones she did were not who he was looking for. Mom would have been perfect for this; in fact, she had almost done it before when she had married Lucy’s dad. Though as far as Lucy knew, that was supposed to be a real marriage. But now she had Harrison.
“I don’t know. I have a type, but I don’t want that kind of woman. I want someone who can make a meal, make a birthday cake, drive the kids around, and look the part,” he explained.
“For how long?” She rubbed the back of her neck. This was going to be impossible.
“I was thinking a year, but what about until Amelia graduated? I don’t know….” He sounded like he hadn’t put a lot of thought into it.
“So, one to eight years.” Her toes were tapping; she wanted out. “What about sex?”
“What about it?” he asked in defiance.
“Well, do you want to have sex or not? With her, I mean.” She knew her face was red; she could feel the heat. But then again, she was talking about sex with her boss, her sexy boss with the hidden tattoos.
“Up to her. I can get it elsewhere if I need to. I can be discreet about it.” He leaned back in his chair and grinned.
