Page 37 of Baby Bombshell for the Boss

Ivy chuckled. “I guess you’re right,” she agreed. “It’s tough figuring out where the lines are in all this. I don’t know what I should and shouldn’t do. I’m so glad I have you to bounce my thoughts off of. You really are keeping me sane right now, Janelle.”

“Maybe I should come out and stay with you for a while…” Janelle said.

“You’re just saying that because you want to stay in Elliot’s house.”

“He’s a famous billionaire! Of course I want that.”

“He isn’t famous. Anyway, I’m sure you’ll get the chance to meet him at some point down the road. He’s your niece or nephew’s father.”

“If you set up a meeting, I wouldn’t be angry.”

“Tell me you’re not going to try to hook up with him.”

“What!” Janelle was scandalized. “I would never do that.”

“You’ll have to be careful. He’s charming.”

“Charming, huh?” Janelle asked shrewdly. “Sounds like you’re the one who’s more at risk of hooking up with him, if you ask me.”

“Oh, God, don’t speak it into existence,” Ivy laughed. “I’m trying to behave myself. I can’t let that happen. For the sake of the baby, I have to keep things off that level.”

* * *

A week later, Elliot poked his head into the guest room and let out a low whistle. I wouldn’t even have recognized this as the same room,” he admitted. “You did an amazing job. Are all these plants safe for the baby?”

“As long as I don’t eat them, we’ll be fine,” Ivy said with a smile. “You really like it?”

“I won’t do a good job remembering to water these things, but I can ask the people who work for me to do it,” he said. “I think it looks great. You should do the rest of the house.”

Ivy laughed.

“I’m serious,” he said. “I mean, only if you want to, of course, but as long as you’re here, I’d love to update the place. When I moved in, I just bought all the furniture I thought I was going to need. I didn’t stop to worry about whether anything matched or how it all looked. I think you could make this place look great. I love what you’ve done with the office.”

“You really want me to do it?”

“I can pay you, of course.”

“Oh, God, no. I can’t take any more money from you,” she said. “You can pay for the cost of the decorating, but that’s it.”

“Well, you’re not going to work for free,” he countered. “That would be me taking money from you!”

The two of them grinned at each other.

“What are we going to do?” Ivy asked, aware that they both had a point.

“I’d like you to decorate the house for me,” he said. “Will you accept an increase in your per diem money? We can call that your payment.”

She laughed. “I guess I can agree to that,” she said. “And you’re really going to let me do the whole house?”

“I mean, yes, if you’re willing to. That’s what I’d like to have happen.”

“I’m more than willing,” she said. “I don’t know if you realize how much fun this is for me.”

“Oh, is that why you’re so reluctant to get paid?”

“No, don’t mistake me. I’d absolutely take payment from anyone else. It just feels a little strange because…”

She trailed off, confused and a little distraught. Because it’s you, she’d been about to say — but what difference did that make? What did it matter that it was him? The two of them didn’t have the kind of relationship that ought to prohibit business transactions. In fact, theirs was a business relationship first and foremost. But it didn’t feel that way anymore. They’d been doing their very best to keep things professional between them, but somehow that had already slipped away from them It had been lost.

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