Page 59 of Bad & Bossy

She shook her head again.

Before I understood what was happening, she dropped the bottle on the seat and fished around in her bag for something else. Drew stared up at me, his little giggle far cuter than Brody’s. Something about him tugged at my heartstrings—the look on his face, the light in his eyes, the way his little nose wiggled.

I only realized what it all meant when Dana sat back down beside me, a plastic, squishy giraffe in her hand, and coaxed my finger from his mouth before passing him the toy. Almost immediately it was in his mouth, its head being chomped on by the tiny baby in my lap.

“Of course, he’d choose now to start teething,” she groaned, her forehead falling in defeat against my shoulder.

Chapter 20

Dana

Costa Rica was more beautiful than I could have ever imagined. The resort was massive, spanning multiple properties with independent suites, each with its own infinity pool and in-house catering. We were staying on the Peninsula Papagayo, right along the beachfront, with thick, lush forests behind us and an unwavering amount of ocean before us.

I could stay here forever.

Of course it wouldn’t be a Pearson Beers retreat without Cole occasionally making us do work. We still had meetings, discussions about the upcoming launch in a few months, and the overwhelming amount of press that it would bring. Cole still had to do the rounds and answer emails, communicate with the board members who had come with us, as well as field calls and video meetings with the people he’d hired to ensure the brewery was still running efficiently. The bar, tours, and restaurant had all been shut down, but the brewery needed to continue to run.

Cole still made time to see me and Drew, almost going out of his way to do so.

Unbeknownst to me, he’d spoken to the resort staff in advance and ensured a nanny would be on site for me as needed. The moment she’d turned up and introduced herself, it was like every worry I’d had about Cole had dissipated—he’d done everything he could, from booking me a child-safe room to making sure that our meetings fell within Drew’s schedule so I could either bring him along or put him down for a nap with the nanny. It only made the fear of falling for him that much less terrifying.

But what had surprised me more than anything was when I’d come back from a morning meeting on the third day and found Cole in my private residence, Drew on his lap with a bottle in his mouth, Cole holding onto him while speaking down the phone about some upcoming press release.

I stood in the doorway as the nanny gathered her things, my heart swelling in my chest. I wanted to tell him. I wanted to fall on my knees and apologize for keeping it from him, tell him how well he was doing without even knowing Drew was his. In a paradise away from Boulder, everything just felt right.

Drew clocked my presence before Cole did. His little smile tripled as he popped the bottle from his mouth, his giggles filling the room as he reached out toward me. The nanny shuffled beside me, mumbling a quick goodbye before she walked out the door, and only then did Cole follow Drew’s line of sight.

“I’ve got to go,” he said, hitting the end call button as muffled words filtered through the small speaker. He put the phone down on the table and took Drew’s arm in one hand, making him wave to me just as I’d done to him on the plane. “Look who’s back,” he cooed to Drew, the baby voice he’d adopted making me laugh. “It’s mommy.”

“Don’t call me that,” I chuckled, crossing the room to them and planting a kiss on Drew’s bald head. “What are you doing here? You weren’t at the meeting.”

He shrugged. “I figured I’d let Ben take the reins and hang out with this little guy instead.”

“You’ve been here the whole time?”

“Since a few minutes after you left.”

“And miraculously Drew’s still alive,” I mumbled.

“Well, the nanny helped a bit,” Cole laughed. “He only got fussy once, though. I tried the bottle and it seemed to calm him down.”

Tell him. Just tell him, here, where things are perfect and he won’t get mad.

I opened my mouth to follow up my line of thought, but the words I wanted wouldn’t come out. “I was planning on going to the beach,” I said instead, that rock plummeting in my stomach from my fucking cowardice. “Do you want to come?”

He stood from his seat at the table, holding Drew the same way I did and tucking him into his arms. His lips pressed against my cheek gently, and for a moment, everything slotted into place. Cole holding Drew, his affection toward me, my reception to it… I wanted this. And I let myself want it.

“Of course I do,” he said softly.

————

Our time together was beginning to feel easy and natural. We spent nearly the entire afternoon on the beach beneath a canopy, the waves hammering against the shore, the sun beating down around us. I’d covered Drew in a thick layer of sunscreen to be safe, despite keeping him in the shade, and as I relaxed and read a book Cole adorably tried to teach my—our—son how to build a sand castle. But Drew was only interested in trying to eat the sand.

The absurdity of it was the best part. Cole didn’t understand babies, but in fairness, neither did I until I’d spent nine months carrying one while reading every parenting book I could get my hands on. I didn’t expect Cole to know that Drew didn’t know how to pack sand into a mold. Instead, I watched in amusement as he figured it out along the way, as he panicked when Drew shoved a handful of sand against his mouth, as he gently beat against his back to get him to spit it out. He learned as he went.

It was only when Drew started to drift off that we decided our beach trip was done. We decided it would be better for him to cry the way back up to my residence than to fall asleep on the beach and not be able to take a proper nap, so Cole held him in his arms as we walked, distracting him and shoving toys at him to keep him somewhat happy.

“I’ll put him down,” Cole said as I shut the door.

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