Page 46 of Boss's Baby Surprise

She continued to nod.

I set my drink down and stood up. “That’s a very interesting story, Clarissa, but I’m not inclined to accept it.”

“And why’s that?” she asked.

“Because it just seems convenient. Don’t you think so?” I pulled my wallet out of my back pocket, pulled out my credit card, and held it up for the bartender. “I think we're done here.”

“So, that’s it? We’re done. We’re over. You're just going to laugh in my face and walk away?”

“No one’s laughing, Clarissa. This isn't funny.”

“Then why do you think I'm joking?” she asked.

The bartender took my credit card. “The lady’s, too?” he asked.

I nodded.

“If the boy is my son, why didn’t you say anything before?”

Her eyes burned into me with a fierce glare. “You left without saying goodbye.”

Was she ever going to let me get past that?

“I was planning on telling you, but then you were gone. And I didn't think having Alayna send you an email, ‘Oh, by the way, you knocked up the intern,’ was a very good idea.”

“You could have reached out to me at any point in time, Clarissa. How old is he? Four?”

“Don’t you know how math works?” she asked. “He’s five and a half. He started kindergarten this fall, and he knows how to read.”

I had a son, and he knew how to read. It didn’t seem real. Couldn’t be.

The bartender set down the card along with the receipt to sign and a pen. I was still standing there trying to figure out what Clarissa wanted from me. She hadn't told me about my son when she first got pregnant, and she was only now telling me about him because I saw them together.

I scribbled my signature and put too much of a tip down before throwing the pen onto the bar.

“I've been back for months now, and you haven’t said anything.”

“You're right. I haven't. Would you have believed me if I had said something the first time you walked into James’s office? ‘Oh, hi. Remember me? You got me pregnant.’ You didn't evenknow who I was, Kyle. You didn't even recognize me. What was I supposed to do?”

I didn’t have an answer for her.

“I thought I meant nothing to you. And if that was the case, then we were all just better off with you not knowing about Leo.”

“His name is Leo?” I sat back down on the barstool. Knowing my son’s name somehow made it all the more real. “Leo? Is that short for anything?”

Clarissa shrugged. “Does it matter?”

“Of course it matters. Why would you name the kid Leo Love?”

“His name isn’t Leo Love. It’s Leonard Matthews.”

I shook my head to clear my thoughts. Matthews? “My name isn’t on the birth certificate?”

“Why would I put your name on the birth certificate?” she asked.

“Because I’m the father!”

“Now you believe me?”

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