Page 53 of Boss's Baby Surprise

We were still arguing almost every day, but the reasons were less important. I don’t know if I would even call our exchanges arguing. It was more like we were bickering like an old married couple. Maybe we were past the flirting stage of our relationship and into something deeper where differences were a matter of course. We accepted them, discussed, and continued moving forward.

“Just tell me where you live. I won’t judge. It’d be easier if I just picked you up at your apartment.”

I wasn’t going to let him know just how close he had come that day. I didn’t want him to know, not yet.

Kyle rolled his eyes at my refusal, but I was going to hold that one small bit of privacy as close as I could.

“How about, instead, you bring our bags to work in the morning? And then we can pick Leo up from school after work on Friday?” he suggested.

“We can’t do that. Leo would be too tired and too cranky. We all will be too tired and cranky after a week at school and work. I would have to carry everything into work with me, and everyone would know that we were going away for the weekend together.”

He grunted. “At least let me pick you up on Saturday morning.”

I shook my head. “Saturday morning, Leo and I will be at your place bright and early with our bags all packed and ready to go. Think of it as saving you from having to drive through city traffic to come get us.”

Kyle grunted in acquiescence. I knew he didn't like the plan, but it's what was going to happen. All Friday night, Leo was bouncing off the walls. He was so excited and ready to go. MaybeI should have let Kyle pick us up, but I had to be honest with myself. I didn't know how I was going to handle being alone with him with Leo in tow.

I didn't know what a family vacation with the three of us was going to be like. Was Kyle going to expect me to sleep with him? Would I even be able to, knowing that our son was in the next room over?

It was just as well that I had insisted we show up at Kyle’s place on Saturday morning. He wasn’t even ready to leave. At least he was dressed.

The drive out of the city didn’t take long, and we didn’t go too far north into Wisconsin before he navigated to a quaint little lake house.

Once out of the car, Leo immediately ran for the shoreline.

“It’s too cold to get into the water,” I shouted out after him.

Fortunately, he seemed to understand that we weren’t here to go swimming. He picked up a rock and threw it into the lake. He seemed to think that was great fun. While Kyle and I unpacked the car, Leo walked up and down the water's edge tossing stones into the water as if he was returning them to where they belonged.

Without much of a plan other than to find one of these mysterious corn mazes, we didn't do too much more than drive around the countryside, looking at a lot of cows and stopping to eat when we found a place for lunch.

“I'm beginning to wonder,” I announced as we sat in a booth at the small diner waiting for our lunch, “if these corn mazes actually exist.”

So far, we hadn’t stumbled across one as we randomly drove around, getting lost in the countryside.

“There has to be one around here somewhere,” Kyle said.

“You folks not from around here, are you?” our waitress asked when she set down our drinks.

I smiled and shook my head. “We’re up from the city.”

“I want to see a corn maze,” Leo announced.

Kyle gestured across the table at him. “What he said. You don’t happen to know of any around here?”

“Oh, there are plenty of those around. What you want to do is find an apple orchard or one of those farmers’ markets. Most of them might already have shut down their mazes for the winter, but I bet if you jumped on one of your smartphones, you could find something. I'll be right back with your food.”

“Thank you,” I said as I pulled out my phone and began trying to find something close.

I laughed. “Well, this says the world’s largest corn maze is actually back the way we came from.”

I showed Kyle the map on my phone.

“There’s gotta be something closer by.” I scrolled through and found another location. “The trick is going to be finding a place that still realizes it’s fall and isn't trying to get ready for Christmas.”

“Christmas is months away,” Kyle said.

I shook my head. “It’s a lot closer than you think.”

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