Page 24 of A Bossy Surprise

“Thank God for that.” he balls the tissues in his hands together and launches them at the trashcan in the corner. The bloody pile sails through the air and lands neatly in its target.

He turns to me. “So what happens now?”

“I don’t know…”

“Kayla, I want to be part of Brady’s life. I want him to know me. It’s been long enough that he’s gone without a father.”

“Of course. If that’s what you want then that’s what we will do. It would actually be nice to introduce him to his father. He keeps asking about you.”

“Oh, yeah?” He smiles. “What have you told him about me?”

“Nothing.”

“Nothing?” His smile falters.

“Yeah, he’s asked a couple of times, but I’ve avoided the topic entirely.”

“How?”

“You’ll meet him soon enough and you’ll see that Brady is excitable; easily distracted. Most of the time all I have to do is wave a candy bar in his face and he forgets whatever he had been talking about.”

“Awesome parenting.” He smirks.

“Don’t judge me. You gotta do what you gotta do.”

He laughs.

“Anyway, just give me a couple of days to figure out how to tell Brady and then I’ll introduce the two of you properly.”

“That’s fine.”

“So how are we going to handle all of this here at work?” I ask.

He raises an eyebrow. “What do you mean?”

“I mean, you’re my boss, and we have a son together. That’s bound to raise some eyebrows.”

“I don’t see how that’s anyone here’s business. It’s not like we’re in a relationship. If we were then it might be an issue, but we are not. So I don’t think it’s anything to worry about.”

I’m a bit of a worrywart. I’m concerned about word spreading through the company that the new boss man and I share a child. I’m anxious that if anyone were to find out about my connection to Adam, they’ll think I got my new position because of it.

The timing does seem suspicious.

That would basically be the end of my short-lived career. If that were to happen, I would get a reputation as someone who sleeps her way to the top. It wouldn’t matter that the ‘sleeping’ in question happened seven years ago and had nothing to do with my promotion. I won’t have any control over the gossip that spreads.

However, Adam is right. I’m probably being paranoid. There’s no way anyone will know unless we tell them.

“Okay,” I say. “We’ll keep this to ourselves.”

He nods then gets to his feet. “Good. Now, I have to get back to work. I’ll be waiting to hear back from you about Brady.”

I nod.

He smiles at me then leaves.

I collapse into my chair and take a deep breath.

I can’t believe any of that just happened.