Page 75 of Taming the Boss

Mommy loves you! I’ll see you very soon.

A card Owen clearly had not seen.

I frowned, not knowing what to make of any of this. But I had a feeling Jude would freak out. He didn’t sound as if he’d ever had much of a relationship with Owen’s mom, and I couldn’t imagine he’d be fine with sharing custody with her. Not that he’d spelled anything out, but he just seemed reluctant to go in that direction, especially since somehow he seemed routed toward me.

And Owen’s mom had just dumped him on a father he didn’t even know to, I guess, go live her life? I didn’t know enough about that story, but obviously, I needed to. This whole play-by-ear way of being with Jude and his son was not going to be feasible going forward.

Forget having a job working for Jude. I felt as if we’d already begun to build a life together. True, this was Crescent Cove, but this was an extremely accelerated timeline, even for here.

If Owen’s mom planned to soon make an unexpected reappearance in his life, Jude would need even more support from me. Whatever he would need, I would try to provide that.

For both him and his son.

Chapter 19

I worked for a few hours in my office before I rounded up Maddie and Owen to drive to the shoe store. On the way, we stopped at some local burger joint with a crammed kids’ playground in back, where Owen exhausted himself climbing some jungle gym thing with monkey bars and swings where Maddie pushed him so high he made himself hoarse from excited screaming.

Afterward, we all had burgers and fries and milkshakes—well, they both had milkshakes, I had a bottled water—and had fun playing video games in their retro game area. We played basketball and Skee-Ball before we finally carted Owen off to the car and headed to a couple other local stores near the sneaker store where Owen had gotten so lucky last week.

It was almost two weeks now.

Lo and behold, different sneakers with lights existed that he wanted. Different red and blue Spider-man ones that also fit him perfectly, although this time, he was fitted by someone who had not attended classes with Maddie. Owen was thrilled to wear his new kicks home from the store this time too, though during this ride home, he fell asleep and had to be carted in for a nap by Maddie.

I’d barely just hauled in the many bags we’d collected today. Not only from the grocery store, but we’d stopped in other shops after today’s successful sneaker shopping expedition. Owen had ended up with new jeans and new books and more new toys.

Oddly enough, now puzzles were something he enjoyed, as well, so we’d gotten a couple of those too. Since when were puzzles a thing with him?

“Since his mom sent him one,” Maddie admitted, leading the way to the sitting room coffee table where she pointed out the completed puzzle, and beneath it, the mailer from Owen’s mother.

I read the card inside as my gut tightened.

Caro rushed in the room and I held up a hand before she could speak. “Don’t tell me Melissa contacted you too.”

“Melissa?”

“Melissa Smith?” I reminded her, nudging aside the mailer on the coffee table shelf with my shoe. “Owen’s mother?”

“Yes, actually, she did. She called the other day and left a VM while I was shopping. Then again today.”

“What does she want?”

Although I was already certain I knew what she wanted. Most likely, she was already planning for the end of the summer. Maybe her play was winding down or she couldn’t line up others after the current one finished.

In whatever case, she wasn’t getting her claws back into my son without a fight. Not after realizing she must’ve yelled or scolded Owen enough he was afraid to make any mistake—or even in some ways, to just be a kid.

Not while there was still breath in my body.

“As I’m not you, I haven’t spoken to her yet. Honestly, I think you’d better have your lawyer contact her. You’d be better off keeping all of this official so she can’t pin you down to something said off the cuff.”

I pinched the bridge of my nose. “I fear you are very much correct that I need to keep all of this as official as possible.”

Maddie frowned. “You think she’s going to try to take Owen back?”

“It’s what she claimed she always intended to do. I was just supposed to have him for the summer.”

Right, because who wouldn’t be satisfied with getting their son for just a few months?

I had no intention of getting to know him and then just returning him as if he was a possession. No way would I stand for being a temporary part-time parent. How confused would Owen be if I just waltzed out of his life again? He’d been so messed up that his mom had gone away. If then I did the same, he wasn’t going to believe anyone could be trusted to stay in his life.

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