Page 30 of Boss's Baby Surprise

I shook my head. “No, I’ll be fine. I live close by.”

“Clarissa, are you sure? Let me call you a car,” he said.

“I’m fine. I’m really only just a block away.” I inwardly flinched when I said that. I didn’t want him following me. He didn’t need to know where I lived.

“I’m home,” I announced when I walked in the door of my small apartment.

Marci unfolded herself from the couch and stood up. “How was dinner?”

I could tell from her expression that she was eager to know all the details. After all, she already knew everything.

“He wanted to know what it was like to work with James. There was no flirting, nothing that makes me think he’s even interested.”

“Are you okay?” she asked.

“I’m good,” I said. “I’m actually glad. I don’t want him to be interested.”

“Why not? You know I’m happy to babysit when I can. And if you want to go on a date?—”

“It wasn’t a date,” I said.

“If you say so. Like I was saying, if you want to go on a date with him, I will be here for you.”

“Thank you for helping me out tonight. Now go home.” I practically pushed her out my door.

She waved her fingers at me as she danced down the hall and into the apartment she shared with her boyfriend. Marci had been a great roommate, and I loved that we were still able to be neighbors.

Something Kyle had said over dinner stuck with me, and when I was back in the office on Monday morning, I went and saw James.

“Clarissa, what can I do for you?”

I stepped into my boss’s office and sat down, twisting my fingers together nervously.

“I had a very interesting dinner with Kyle Love,” I admitted. “He wanted to know what it was like to work for you.”

I wasn’t planning on keeping secrets from James, just as I wasn’t planning on keeping secrets from Kyle as long as it was related to work.

“It sounds like you guys are coming to a rather quick deal,” I said nervously. “He didn’t tell me anything that I couldn’t have asked you about, so I didn’t think that would be an issue. But remember how you agreed to start my internship this semester?” I continued to twist my fingers together.

“Yes, I remember.”

“Well, if you’re selling the firm to Kyle, do you think he’ll honor our agreement to allow me to work part-time and do the internship part-time?”

“You’d have to ask him that yourself,” James said.

I bit my lip. I didn’t want to ask Kyle for anything, but this was important.

“Clarissa, if he isn’t willing to complete your internship or doesn’t want to take you on as one, I’ll help you find a situation with one of my colleagues. I won’t leave you on your own for this. We had an agreement, and I’m the one changing everything, so it’s the least I can do. Besides, I’m proud of you. You’ve really stuck with it.”

16

KYLE

Iwas sitting at my desk reviewing a proposal on my laptop. I could hear Alayna in the outer office laughing with somebody. It was a little distracting, and I was having problems focusing on the proposal. I needed to power through this and get it back to the prospective client by the end of the week. If we were invited to the next round, this could be a very lucrative project for us.

I thought about getting up to close my office door but decided to double down on my concentration. I stayed in my chair and forced myself to read the words on my laptop. I wanted to at least get through this before I stopped for lunch. The talking in the outer office quieted, and I thought I was finally going to get some good quality work done when there was a knock on my office door.

It took me a moment to realize it wasn’t Alayna standing there. I had to blink a couple of times before my brain caught up with my eyes. Standing there biting her lip looking as beautiful as she ever had been was Clarissa. Her hair was down around her shoulders, and her clothes were less severe than they had beenthe past couple of times I had seen her. She looked like the young woman who had grabbed my attention so long ago.

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