Page 74 of Boss's Baby Surprise

“You can do that?”

“This is a full-service concierge service. It may take a little longer than making arrangements for your office space, but yes, I can do that. I’ll reach out and leave a message for you when I have some information.”

I scratched my head as I turned to walk away. She was on top of things. She was exactly the kind of person I needed to replace Alayna. I turn back around. “Are you sure you don’t want a job?”

She laughed politely and again declined my offer. I walked outside and found a local coffee shop to start my day.

With a hot coffee, I started to think a little clearer. I had an office lined up, even if it was just temporary. An assistant was potentially in my future if that concierge was as good as I expected her to be. I needed to find something more permanent than the hotel.

I texted Clarissa.I’m looking for an apartment or a townhouse out here. What would be a good neighborhoodI asked.I would like to be close to you and Leo.

I sat and watched my phone, waiting for Clarissa to respond.

Are you serious? You’re really going to stay in Seattle?When I saw her text, my heart actually sped up. At that point, I realized I had expected her to not answer me.

I will be wherever you and Leo are from now on.

What about your offices in Chicago and Hong Kong?

I wanted to be able to call her, or better yet, sit down and have a conversation.

Can we have dinner for a real conversation and not just texting back-and-forth?

The truth was I didn’t know what I was going to do about my offices in Chicago or Hong Kong. Right now, I didn’t really care. All of my focus and all of my desires were to get Clarissa back. This felt like one of those times when I would go into hyper-focus on a project, only for once, I didn’t have Alayna as my backup, making sure the rest of my life didn’t fall apart.

And here I was with my life falling apart with too many pieces for me to be able to solely focus on only one aspect of it. However, my main priorities at the moment were Clarissa and Leo.

Chicago and Hong Kong are in capable hands. What about that dinner?I asked.

I’ll think about it.

It was a reasonable response even if it isn’t what I wanted to see. I was surprised when she sent another text.

The neighborhood around the coffee shop where we last met is a good one. Maybe an apartment there would suit your needs.

35

CLARISSA

Several weeks later

Kyle seemed to have been true to his word when he said he was staying in Seattle. Not that I reached out to him, but he shared with me the results of his attempting to find a local apartment nearby. And he asked me to dinner at least once a week.

I know how Leo feels about dinosaurs. What are his thoughts on the zoo?

I smiled as I read Kyle’s text. He was definitely trying to engage with us in a family positive manner. If he was finally willing to admit that he was Leo’s father, it didn’t seem fair that I withheld that relationship from our son.

Leo loves the zoo. He also likes the Museum of Natural History, I texted back.

I didn’t even know Seattle had one.

There’s also a pretty terrific science center here, but we can’t do both in one day. That’s too much stimulation. Both have dinosaurs, I informed him.

Which would you prefer?Kyle asked.

I had to think about that for a minute. Was I really discussing meeting Kyle for an outing with Leo again? In the end, we arranged to meet at the science center.

I didn’t tell Leo exactly what we were doing, leaving the meeting Kyle part as a surprise on the off chance that he actually didn’t show up, I didn’t want to disappoint my baby that way. However, Kyle was there waiting for us.

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