Page 23 of Contracted and Claimed By The Boss

‘I studied childhood education while I worked, via an online university. The kids I looked after were at school during the day and once I’d organised their activities and tidied their rooms, I still had a lot of time left.’

‘And your own parents?’ he prompted softly, as though on some level he understood that this was a difficult conversation for Paige. She kept her face averted, staring straight ahead.

‘They’re not in my life.’

His gaze was heavy on her face, his probing curiosity searing her, and for the first time in for ever Paige felt as though she wanted to answer the question directly.

‘For any reason?’

She turned to face him slowly, sensed the chasm between them. How could someone like him understand? She opened her mouth, contemplating how to tell him, to even begin, and then shook her head. ‘For about a million,’ she said with a grimace that had been quite famous at one point.

He frowned, as though he was still trying to place her, and Paige hurriedly looked away. Her secrets were her own; she wasn’t ready to share them. And especially not with Max. It had become important to Paige, more important than she could explain, that he saw her as she really was, not as she’d once been, not as her parents had made her. She wanted to close her eyes and pretend the rest of the world simply didn’t exist, that it was just her, and Max, and this stunning tropical paradise...

CHAPTER SEVEN

BUT THE REST of the world did exist and, regardless of how absorbing she found life here with Max and Amanda, she couldn’t ignore the fact that time was marching on, and her parents’ book was getting closer and closer to being published.

She couldn’t face it, which was precisely why she was hiding out here.

Her first instinct on reading about the upcoming ‘memoir’ had been to dig her head into the sand. And yet there’d been a part of her that had wanted to fight back, too. Her parents had no right to speak about her, to control the narrative of what her life had been like, to speak about her childhood and adolescence. It was yet another example of how they totally disregarded her as a person and saw Paige simply as an extension of themselves.

Even though the book was on the horizon, she felt safe here, as if Max were somehow capable of protecting her, even though he couldn’t possibly. He didn’t even know who she was, nor what she was up against.

And so she needed to keep hiding, to keep pretending it wasn’t happening, otherwise the sadness of all this would swallow her whole. Tuning out the big wide world was an important self-preservation technique so she focused on the here and now with all her might. She would work harder, be better, invest everything into Amanda—and Max—so that the book lost some of its power to hurt her. At least, that was what she hoped.

On the drive to school the next morning, with Amanda sullen and Reg talking non-stop, Paige eventually managed to interrupt his monologue.

‘Amanda, we’re going to cook dinner tonight. Any requests?’

Her response was predictable. ‘I don’t want to.’

‘It’s important to help out around the house,’ Paige responded. ‘So? What’s it to be?’

Amanda sighed as though she’d just been asked to scale a brick wall with her fingernails.

‘Don’t care.’

‘Great. Pickled ox tongue it is.’

Amanda gasped before she could remember not to react, and Reg cackled. ‘You might think that’s gross, but actually my mother used to make it all the time.’

Paige flicked a conspiratorial smile at the older man. ‘Last chance,’ she told Amanda. ‘Otherwise you’ll get whatever I decide.’

‘Fine. Whatever. I don’t care.’

She hopped out of the car and slammed the door.

Paige sighed heavily. ‘Is there a shop somewhere we can stop at?’

‘Yes, ma’am.’ Reg’s face crinkled with amusement as he turned the car in the direction of the only grocery store in town. ‘You’ve got your work cut out for you with that one.’

Paige watched over her shoulder as Amanda crossed the street to the school gates, shoulders hunched, arms crossed over her slender frame.

‘Reg, do you have any idea what’s going on with her?’

‘Nah.’ He shook his head. ‘The missus says it’s just one of those things. That she’ll come good. But it sure is a shame. She used to be one of the sunniest kids, smiled all the time.’

Paige was waiting by the gates when Amanda finished school that afternoon, and she saw the girl emerge from her classroom. As on the day before, she was alone, a group walking just behind her. One of the girls looked up, scanned the waiting parents, presumably for her mother, and looked directly at Paige, then glanced away, before her eyes travelled back again. Paige barely noticed—her attention was focused almost completely on Amanda. She did see, however, when one of the girls ran up to Amanda, grabbed her arm and leaned closer, said something and laughed, then skipped away. Amanda stared after her, face like thunder, then spun around to look at Paige, lips parted, eyes wide.

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