Page 82 of Taming the Boss

I looked between Jude and Owen, torn between them. But Owen was a child, so of course he won. I rushed to catch up to him, snagging him under both arms and swinging him in the air so his giggles rang out. We turned toward Jude, who’d sped up to reach us.

“Sorry,” I said under my breath as I set Owen on his feet. “I wasn’t thinking.”

“They practically own this town, so there’s no way to avoid them. Hell, I don’t want to. I’m going to talk to them soon, and get all of this out in the air. I’m tired of fucking secrets, my own most of all.”

“Well, you tackled one earlier, so this should be a piece of cake.” I took his hand. “Not that you were keeping Owen a secret, just it was kept from you for a bit.”

“Yeah.” He tightened his hand around mine and lifted it to his lips. “You make everything better, Maddie. Even me.”

Just then came a very loud screech of my name and my niece Reagan shot across the street, darting through traffic and clusters of families to come to a stop in front of Owen. “Well, aren’t you the cutest thing?”

He stared up at her then he looked back at us and announced, “Stranger danger.”

I laughed so hard I clutched my stomach.

Jude’s eyebrow did that climbing for his hairline thing. “And you are?”

“That’s Reagan, Christian’s daughter,” I explained.

“Oh. How old is she?”

“Almost her age, which is too young for you.” But Rea held out a hand just the same. “I’m Reagan. Nice to meet you.”

“Same.” He gave me a sidelong look. “Am I going to see literally everyone today?”

“Looking that way.” I lowered my voice. “Don’t look now, your virtual twin brothers are headed this way with their wives.”

“Jesus. I need a wife too.” He wrapped his arm around my shoulders and dragged me against him, making Rea’s eyes bug out. She shifted to make room for the Hamilton clan on the sidewalk and apparently, she noticed Jude had twin doppelgängers. As the twin doppelgängers realized the same damn thing, along with their wives.

Naturally, Oliver’s outspoken wife, Sage, realized it first.

“Holy shit, who are you?”

“Who are you?” Jude shot back in the same incredulous tone of voice, clinging so hard to me I was certain I would end up bruised. Even Owen ran back to hide behind my legs, peeking out as if he was afraid to continue onward.

I couldn’t blame the kid.

“Here, let’s move over so we don’t block everyone.” I led Jude and Owen to a nearby pair of benches. Luckily, the people sitting on the benches rapidly scattered. Quickly, I lifted Owen to sit on one of them before he could decide to run away. I wasn’t entirely sure his father wouldn’t do the same as his new family members filled in the other available seats.

One thing I was damn well used to was being part of a large family. Granted, I’d never experienced a thorny familial situation like this one. I’d never had parts of my family I hadn’t yet met, other than Reagan, and that was due to her selfish mom. As awkward as it must have been for her to meet us, she’d swiftly integrated into our group as if she’d always been there.

Which meant that when we were in private, maybe my bestie could help my…whatever Jude was becoming to me. Since she’d dealt with a situation not all that dissimilar, as far as coming into a formed family unit as basically a stranger.

Seth ran a hand over his wife Ally’s hair and looked to his twin for a moment before wading into the fray. “Uh, hi, I’m Seth. You’ve gotta be Jude, right?”

“He’s Jude,” Oliver announced, leaning around Sage to hold out a hand. “I’d been told he’d recently moved here.”

“Nice to be kept in the loop,” Seth said crossly.

“But no one fucking told us you were a damn dupe. The picture I saw of you years ago, you had way more facial hair, but without it…” Shaking his head, he trailed off. “The three of us might as well be triplets.”

Jude shook hands with first Oliver, then Seth. Their resemblance was truly boggling, especially when they were next to each other. Yet somehow I hadn’t taken notice of it until this very moment.

Probably because it wouldn’t have made any sense to me, so I simply hadn’t paid attention.

Plus, the first day I’d met Jude, he’d worn a thick beard that he’d shaved mostly off by the day he’d helped me with my tire situation, which also changed his look. Both of his brothers weren’t big on facial hair, at least on any consistent basis.

“Uh, hi, yes, I’m Jude. And yeah, I recently shaved.” He laughed awkwardly. You all know Maddie, I presume?” Then he gestured to his son. “And that’s Owen, my son.”

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