Page 15 of Off Limits (Alpha Billionaire)

They couldn’t have been anywhere near her. It was as if she had dropped the tray and blamed Max on purpose. By the time I caught up to them, Jessica was holding Max behind her, he wascrying, and she was bending over trying to help pick up large chunks of broken ceramics. Clara wasn’t in the hall.

“What happened?” I asked.

“I don’t know, but…”

Jessica’s eyes went wide as we could hear Clara loudly complaining to my mother that Jessica had sent Max running down the hall and he had crashed into her, making her drop everything. The roaring in my ears blocked out the rest of what she said. Anger rose with my blood pressure.

“She called out to us,” Jessica started.

Max continued to sob loudly.

“I’ll take care of Max,” I said, stepping in. I picked up my crying son and patted his back trying to calm him.

Jessica stared up at me with wide eyes. She looked scared. “I didn’t do anything.”

I nodded. “I know. I saw. Are you all right?”

She nodded with quick little movements.

I had the urge to reach out to her and comfort her as I was comforting Max. My gut tightened at the thought of wrapping her in my embrace and stroking her hair and skin until her shaking stopped.

She ran her hand up and down the back of her other arm. “I think I’ll go for a drive, if that’s okay. I need to get out of here.”

I nodded. “That’s actually a good idea. I’ll take Max. He’ll calm down and fall asleep. You want to come with?”

Her hair bounced as she shook it. “No, but thank you. Maybe… maybe next time. I think this time, I need to just drive along the coast with my windows down and music blasting. Max would not find that very soothing.”

I nodded in understanding. The rage drive combined with as much salt air as possible, I had done that often in my youth. One of the benefits of living on the coast. The water might have been too cold for the beach, but there were still winding coastal roads and the waves and the wind.

“Drive safe,” I said.

“You too. Thanks.” She gave me a weak smile before she left.

I made soothing, shushing sounds for Max as I carried him. Jessica was already gone by the time we got to the car. I grabbed my keys and got him into his car seat without too much fussing. I put on his favorite audiobook and started driving.

“Dylan.” Ryan’s voice came through the speaker phone.

I punched the volume button on my steering wheel. I didn’t want his voice booming through the speakers and waking Max. He had finally settled and was not quite fully asleep.

“Ryan, how can I help you, man?”

“I was hoping you would be able to give me some good news. I hadn’t heard anything regarding the proposal I sent over,” he said.

“You did receive a confirmation from my assistant, right? I did get the proposal files. I’ve distributed them to the appropriate team players and board members to review.”

“Yeah, yeah, I got that email saying the files were received. But it’s been crickets ever since,” he pointed out.

Crickets? It had been a very long time since we had been associates. I couldn’t remember whether Ryan had always been this impatient. I chuckled. Overly bright headlights from a car headed in my direction took my attention from the conversation for a moment. I cursed under my breath.

“Is there a problem?” Ryan asked.

“That wasn’t for you. I’m out driving. Look, I gave my people a few days to review everything before we come together and review the proposal.”

“Well, I’m not in town forever,” Ryan pointed out.

“Don’t hang around on account of us,” I said. “We can always schedule a time for you to come back to the peninsula for a meeting.”

“I was hoping, based on our conversation on Saturday, that you’d be able to streamline this process.”

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