Page 27 of Rolling with My Bosses

“We heard that you were let go.”

“Wait a minute.” Beatrix slaps the table and I motion for her to hold off. “You didn’t ask for me to be fired?”

“Why would we do that?”

I’m confused.

Austin tries to discreetly motion to Beatrix. “Do you want to discuss this in front of people?”

I reach out and pat her hand. “She’s my support person.”

“Then can we sit with you?” He motions for us to scoot into the corner.

I grab Beatrix’s hand to keep her in place. “Say what you have to say and move on.”

Beatrix says, “You’re interrupting our C.U.M. party.”

John cracks up. “Trying your hand at acronyms?”

I can’t let them make this feel friendly. “You’re focusing on the wrong thing.”

Austin says, “No, we’re finally focusing on the right thing. You.”

Bear kneels on the floor next to our table. The sight of him taking a knee in front of me makes my heart flutter. Why can’t I stop feeling things for them? For people who have deceived me? Besides, I’d have to backtrack my secret.

“I’m not much of a catch since I’m no longer employed either, but we want you. And two of us still have jobs.” He motions to Austin and John.

Oh no, did he get fired because of me? Time to be a big girl and fess up.

“Roll that back. Before you talk about wanting me, I need to come clean. My dad is—”

He cuts me off. “We know who your dad is. Just found out. Why didn’t you tell us?”

“I didn’t want anyone to think I was using him to advance.”

“Starting in the mail room?”

“I just graduated high school. I don’t have a lot of skills.”

“I beg to differ,” Austin says.

I shoot him a look and he stops joking. “I just want to show my dad, or technically my stepdad, that it’s possible to have a career and a home life. I grew up in his house, but he was hardly ever around. And my biological father left when I was too young to remember. I never felt important.”

How about a side of daddy issues with that career goal?

Bear takes my hand. I let him. “You are important, Baby Girl.” Austin and John move closer, voicing the same.

“He’s so detached, I figured I could work at the company for years, if not decades, before he’d even know. And by that point, I’d be able to say I started five, ten, fifteen years ago, and proveto him that I was worth something and that I didn’t have to give up a personal life to do it.”

Bear squeezes my hand. “You’re the most important thing that’s happened to us, Lexi. Please let us show you that every day for the rest of your life.”

This is dangerously close to a marriage proposal, which makes things even more confusing because I still don’t understand whatever they’re hiding. Then it hits me. I yank my hand away. “Are you using me for my connection to my dad?”

Austin speaks over Bear. “Exactly the opposite, Kitten. We love you despite your dad. He’s a dick. We love you for having the balls to stand up to him. We love you because of who you are.”

“Why risk being with me?”

Bear laughs. “I quit so there’s not that much risk for me, other than if you’ll have us, I’d see him at family gatherings.”

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