Page 52 of Boss's Baby Surprise

The few hours I had to kill before dinner felt like an eternity. I made it to the restaurant early, only to learn that Clarissa and Leo had also arrived early.

Leo spent his time telling me about dinosaurs and telling me about his day at the museum, even though I had to remind him that I had been there with him. This didn’t seem to make a difference. My discussion with Clarissa was mostly about Leo.

“It was like magic. He went from not being able to read. He recognized his ABCs, but words were beyond him. And then less than a week later, he could read almost any word he got his eyes on.” Pride shone through her eyes. “He’s a smart kid.”

“That reminds me.” I reached into my pocket and handed over the vial with my cheek swab.

Leo reached out and grabbed it. “Are you doing the science experiment too?” He sounded very excited.

Clarissa extricated my sample from his fingers. “Yes, he is doing the experiment too. Now give me that. That’s not yours. What have I told you about grabby hands?”

She opened her oversized purse and pulled out the mailer box that came with the kit. She looked me dead in the eye and said, “You’re seeing this, right?” As she put the plastic tube into the box, she tilted it so that I could see that there were onlytwo plastic tubes. She pulled one out, showing me that it was imprinted with the wordChildon the side.

I nodded and watched her as she sealed the box.

She held it out to me. “Do you want to put it in the mail or should I?”

“I'll trust you to handle it from here,” I said. “What are your plans after dinner?”

She narrowed her gaze at me. “I take him home and I put him to bed.”

“Alone?” I asked.

She nodded. “Alone.”

“What would you say if I invited you and Leo out to the country next weekend?”

“Sounds like it could be interesting. It could also be very cold,” she said.

“I think the weather next weekend is supposed to be nicer than this week. We could go find one of those corn mazes. That’s something Leo would like. They still have those, don’t they?”

Clarissa laughed. “I have no idea. I thought those were only in horror movies.”

“Not at all. I think it’s just something they do with large fields of corn after they’ve picked everything. It could be fun.”

“What, were you thinking about getting a cabin or just driving up for the day?”

“I could get a vacation house,” I said. “We can make a whole weekend of it. It’ll be fun. Come on.”

“Can we, Mommy? I want to see a corn maze,” Leo said. It was good to have the kid on my side.

She let out a sigh. “Well, if the two of you are going to gang up on me, I guess I should say yes.”

25

CLARISSA

Maybe I should have let Kyle meet Leo sooner. After all, everything seemed to have changed after that one morning at the museum. Even though I sent the paternity test in, I felt like maybe Kyle was going to come around and say he didn't need the test results to believe that he was Leo’s father.

After all, couldn’t Kyle simply look at our little boy and see that he was a mini copy of himself? I know I saw it every time I looked into Leo’s blue eyes. I had all the proof I needed.

I still wouldn't let Kyle know where I lived, even though he was taking us out to the country.

“Come on, Clarissa. I have to pick you up.”

“No, you don’t. Leo and I will grab an Uber, and we can leave from your place.”

“It would be easier on everybody if I just came to you,” he argued back.

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