Page 26 of Baby Bombshell for the Boss

“That isn’t right,” Janelle countered. “You’ve been working for him for weeks. You have some relationship.”

“He’s my boss. That’s not the right kind of relationship for something like this!”

“Okay, but it’s not like he’s your boss permanently. That was always a temporary thing, right? When you finish working for him, the two of you could transition into…”

“Into what?” Ivy asked. “He doesn’t want a relationship with me. We said that from the beginning, and neither of us has ever wavered on it.”

“But this changes things, doesn’t it?” Janelle asked. “You didn’t want a relationship with him before, but now you at least want him in your life for the sake of the baby. Right?”

“Of course I want that,” Ivy sighed. “But if I’m honest, I don’t think it’s right to say that I never wanted a relationship before now.”

“You did want a relationship?”

“I wouldn’t have thought so, but the way I feel about him… yes, I think there was a part of me that always wanted more.”

“Then why are you so upset?”

“Upset isn’t the right word,” Ivy said. “I’m confused. I’m worried. I really don’t think he feels the same way I do. I mean, we almost kissed again the other night?—”

“What? You never said that!”

“Well, it didn’t happen. And I think he’s probably relieved that it didn’t. I think that was a moment of weakness on his part, not any desire to turn our relationship into something more.”

“You think that, but you don’t know,” Janelle said. “You won’t know until you talk to him. You are going to talk to him, right?”

“I think I have to,” Ivy said. “He’s going to find out about this one way or another, because the job isn’t done. I don’t have an end date on it. I mean, I could always bail out on the project and hope I never see him again?—”

“You couldn’t do that.”

“No, I couldn’t,” Ivy agreed. “I want to see the job through. And besides, he deserves to know. This is his baby too. And if there’s even the slightest chance of his wanting to be involved in our child’s life, I have to shoot for that, for the baby’s sake. I have to tell him so that he has the opportunity to be a part of our baby’s life if that’s what he wants to do.”

“Okay,” Janelle agreed. “For what it’s worth, I think you’re doing the right thing.”

“Thanks, sis. I just wish I could know how he’s going to take it. It terrifies me, having to go to him with this news when we’ve been trying to keep things so professional.”

“Don’t worry,” Janelle assured her. “I’m sure you can count on him to handle it well. And if he doesn’t, I’ll come to New York and yell at him for you.”

Ivy laughed. It felt good to release some of the tension she’d been feeling. At least she knew that her sister always had her back.

She just had to hope that Elliot would too.

CHAPTER 12

IVY

“You mentioned that you wanted to talk outside the office,” Elliot said, eyeing Ivy with concern. “I’ve been worried about you over the past few days. Is everything all right?”

“Everything’s fine,” Ivy said, feeling herself blush. “Or rather — I assume you’re worried because you thought I might be sick.”

“Well, you have been out of the office for over a week,” Elliot pointed out. “And I know you weren’t feeling well the last time we saw each other. But you say everything’s all right now?”

“It’s a little complicated,” Ivy admitted. She had no idea how to begin this conversation. There seemed no way to do justice to what she needed to tell him. It wasn’t as if something was wrong, exactly, so the answer to whether everything was all right ought to be yes — except that that answer seemed to imply that there was nothing to be concerned about, and that certainly wasn’t true. There was plenty the two of them needed to concern themselves with.

That was why she had asked to have this talk outside the office — why she had made arrangements to meet him in a nearby coffee shop. She wanted to break the hold that their promise to keep things professional had over them, because there was no way this was going to stay professional. There was nothing professional about telling your boss that you were going to have his baby.

“Whatever it is, you can tell me,” Elliot encouraged her. There was such concern on his face. If only Ivy could have been sure that he would feel the same way once he knew the truth — but of course, there was no guarantee that he would. There was every chance that what she was about to tell him would send him running.

She almost backed out. It was so hard to face telling him the truth! But in the end, it was going to have to be done. This wasn’t something she would be able to keep to herself, and he had a right to know. She would just have to be brave about it.

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