Page 31 of Off Limits (Alpha Billionaire)

“I’m sorry, it wasn’t my place to ask,” I said, trying to backtrack.

She began nodding. “Yes, my son likes you a lot. I don’t think he ever got so frustrated or emotional over Max’s mother as Isaw him this afternoon. Max is what most people would call amistake.”

I opened my mouth to say that no child is a mistake, but she held up her hand to stop me.

“Even Dylan admitted that Max’s conception was not intentional. Max, himself, is a wonder. Dylan loves that boy more than anything else. He probably should tell you the details, because I can only tell you the parts that I know. I never met Max’s mother. That was her choice. I know that Dylan cared for her, at least financially, if not emotionally. After all, she was the mother of his child. Dylan had shared custody, and one week after Max stayed with us, his mother never came back.”

I covered my open mouth in shock. “Had something happened to her?” All I could think was how horrible if she had been in an accident or something.

Mrs. Anderson shook her head slowly. “She didn’t come back. She abandoned Max. Left him. Even then, Dylan wasn’t as flustered as he was earlier. His focus was on making sure Max was cared for. Dylan seemed relieved when the custody papers came through, granting him full custody. I’ve seen my boy through many difficult situations. He holds his temper well. He did apologize, didn’t he?”

A small smile crossed my face as I tried not to be embarrassed.

“Yes, he apologized. But I think we need to have a longer talk when Max has gone to bed.”

“You do that. I like you. Don’t let Dylan get away with messing things up between you.” She sighed and closed her eyes as she let her head fall back against the chair.

“You’ve been so kind to me. And thank you for telling me about Max’s mother, and Dylan. You need to rest, and I think I need to go find the two of them.” I placed my hand on her arm.

She patted my hand and barely nodded her head. She had worn herself out.

I quietly left under the judgmental glare of Clara. Not certain where to start looking for them again, I went back to the kitchen. As I was about to give up and leave, Dylan opened the kitchen side door.

Max ran inside and straight to me. “Jessica!”

I picked him up. “I looked for you,” I said.

Dylan had a cardboard box in his arms. “We thought you might need a few moments of quiet time, so we decided to go pick up takeout for dinner.”

“We got Chinese.” The next few sounds Max made, I couldn’t decipher. But he looked really excited about it.

I smiled and nodded before looking to Dylan for a translation.

“Crab Rangoon,” Dylan said.

“Oh, I like crab Rangoon, too,” I said.

Concern for everything I was worried about got set aside while I helped Dylan unpack. My focus was taken over by the wonderful smells of our dinner and the unexpected rumbling of hunger in my middle.

15

DYLAN

Jessica helped Max onto a chair so he could help unpack dinner.

“I wasn’t sure what you liked, so I got our favorites and crossed my fingers that we got something you'd like.” I removed the containers and set them on the table.

“I pretty much like everything. It’s Chinese food. It’s all tasty,” she said with a genuine smile on her face.

I pulled out the container of soup and set it aside.

“What’s the soup?” she asked.

I glanced at it and checked a to-go container. It was full of rice. “I got some soup and rice for Mother.”

“Oh, that’s good. She was resting when I left her.”

“You visited?” I asked.

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