Page 69 of Boss's Baby Surprise

“I haven’t gotten any test results, Clarissa,” I called out after her. “I realize I have been a fool. I don’t need some DNA test to tell me that Leo is my son or that I love you.”

She charged back toward me. Her eyes were narrowed as she shot a deadly glare at me. “You certainly need something, because if you really did love me, you wouldn’t have left for Hong Kong again without saying anything to me for asecondtime.”

“I get it, Clarissa. I fucked up,” I admitted.

“You can say that again,” she snarled.

“Did you know that Alayna quit working for me?”

Clarissa stopped walking again. “I had no idea. I thought she was too smart to always put up with your shit, but you did admit that you overpaid her. What did you do to finally drive her away?”

“She said that in the end, it was because of how I treated you,” I admitted.

Angry tears that I had mistaken for raindrops ran down Clarissa’s cheeks.

“It took Alayna quitting for you to realize that you missed me? That’s really rich. You couldn’t have missed me for my own sake? You couldn’t have believed me when I confessed that I’ve only ever had a relationship with you and Leo was your son. Why not? Why couldn’t you have just missed me and done the right thing without Alayna kicking you in the butt?”

She was right. It took my losing Alayna to realize I had lost absolutely everything.

I looked up and saw the coffee shop on the corner.

“Let me buy you a coffee and we can talk about this,” I said.

Clarissa passed back-and-forth at the corner as we waited for the light to turn. We made it about halfway across the street before she stopped.

“You know what, Kyle? Buy yourself a damned cup of coffee. I’m done. I have to go back to work.” She turned around and left me standing in the middle of the street.

I just stared after her, unsure of what to do, until the cars wanting to drive started honking their horns at me. I started to run after her but was cut off by a speeding truck that nearly hit me. I retreated to the coffee shop and over a hot mocha began formulating my next steps. I had relied too much on Alaynafor managing my professional life. So much so that I hadn’t really been managing my private life at all. Everything needed to change.

I needed to prove to Clarissa that she could trust me and that we belonged together.

33

CLARISSA

“Davey sent a package,” Marci announced as she walked into the kitchen of our new shared house. She had a large, padded envelope in her hands.

“Hopefully, it’s not all the bills that didn’t get paid when we left,” I teased. I didn’t look up as I washed dishes in the sink.

She tossed the large package onto the table.

“Is that for me?” Leo asked as he came bouncing into the room.

“No, sweetie,” I said. “That’s for Aunt Marci. Davey sent it from Chicago.”

“When is Uncle Davey gonna get here?” Leo asked.

“Not soon enough,” Marci complained.

It was the last week of January and Davey still hadn’t left Chicago yet. He was supposed to put all of our belongings onto a moving truck and head out here, but something came up and he had to extend his stay in Chicago by a couple of weeks. It was making Marci nuts. We were all living out of suitcases and folding lawn furniture because all our real tables and chairsand couches were crammed into their old apartment. Leo and I shared an air mattress while we waited for our beds to arrive.

“Come here, Leo,” Marci said. “Help me open this up. Maybe it is something fun.”

Leo climbed up on a chair so that he could reach the table more easily.

“What do you think it is?” Marci asked as she shook the package.

Davey had been forwarding any mail that came to the old address every week. This was probably just another envelope of that even though it was much bigger than what he typically sent.

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