Page 48 of Boss's Baby Surprise

I shook my head. “He had some half-assed excuse for being in the neighborhood. As far as I know, he still doesn’t know where I live. But I showed him the house.”

“Not your dream house?” She sounded so disappointed in me. “Why did you show him your dream house?”

“I was stupid and angry. He was playing games at work, thought he was being clever by making me take him on an architectural tour of Chicago again. So, I showed him the house. I wanted him to look beyond the façade, to see that there are more interesting things in the world than something with a famous name.”

“You wanted him to see that there were more interesting things in you,” she said.

I groaned and sank onto the couch. “Oh, God, it was a metaphor for our relationship.”

“What are you talking about?”

I waved my hand about, dismissing my stupidity. Or maybe I was wafting it about. “Stupid stuff I said when I was trying to be profound and smart and witty, and furious and pissed off at him. I wanted him to regret what he did. I wanted him to regret leaving me all those years ago.”

“Only it backfired and bit you in the butt.”

I laughed. “It bit me hard. I probably have teeth marks.”

She laughed. “What happened? Tell me.”

I told her everything that I managed to understand through my confusion. Kyle saw Leo and me and jumped to the conclusionthat I was married or had a boyfriend or a situation of some kind. I thought I was going to play it off and deny everything, but I caved and confessed that Leo was his son and he didn't believe me.

“Leo isn’t proof enough for him?”

I shook my head and held my hands out wide. “His name isn’t on the birth certificate. Kyle seems to think that’s proof that I’m trying to trick him or something.”

“Get a paternity test,” Marci suggested.

“Are those expensive?”

She shook her head. “I don't know. Not one of those genealogy tests. Those are expensive. You should be able to get a paternity test from the drugstore.”

“And what? He pees on a stick and they match?”

“You’re funny, Clarissa, even when you're stressed. I don't know how it works. But if he wants proof that Leo is his kid, he’s going to have to agree to a paternity test.”

“I don't want it to hurt Leo,” I said. “You know, needles and drawing blood.”

Her thumbs were already speeding over the front of her phone. Knowing Marci, she was getting answers for me in real time. She switched to swiping her finger across the device a couple of times, nodded, and then held her phone out to me. “See, it's do it yourself. A cheek swab, and we should be able to get it at the drugstore. There are no needles at all.”

“What am I supposed to tell Leo?”

“Leo doesn't even have to know what's happening,” Marci said.

“You know him. He’s going to ask questions.”

“Leo doesn't have to know anything. He's five. You tell them you’re doing a science experiment or something.”

I could handle that. Leo loved science.

The next day while out running errands, I purchased the same kit that Marci had shown me from her phone. Getting the test was the easy part. Asking Kyle to take it was a different matter.

On Monday morning, my nerves left me a complete mess. I had the box, ready to hand the paternity test over to Kyle the second he walked in the door. Only he didn’t. I didn’t find out for a couple of hours that he and James had a client meeting.

They returned some time later while I was helping Michelle fix an issue with the printer. For some reason, her computer decided to stop communicating over the network to the printer. This was an issue we had managed to troubleshoot before. It took the two of us yelling back and forth across the office to let each other know whether a document was sent or received.

When I was running back and forth between Michelle's office and the printer, I noticed that Kyle had come back, and he was set up in the conference room. Once we successfully managed to have a document print, I went to see him.

“I have something for you,” I said before he could say anything.

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