Page 30 of Rich and Bossy

“Sure you are.” I shove him down on the ground with a classic stiff arm move from my playing days.

It doesn’t deter him one bit. He bounces right back and tries to jump on my lap.

“Hey, be careful with him!” Mom narrows her eyes at me.

“Aww, he can take it, look at him!” I do it again.

He laughs so hard it echoes through the house. I did it to distract Mom and get her off my case, but it may have been a mistake. Now Brody is hauling ass at me waiting for the same treatment. It’s like playing whack a mole with them and they’re laughing like hyenas when I do it.

“You’re being too rough in my house, and I know what you’re doing.”

I look at Brayden and Brody with wide eyes. “Hear that? She knows what we’re doing.” I laugh and keep doing it.

“You’re all gonna go to your rooms if you don’t stop.”

The two boys come to attention immediately, because it’s a real threat for them.

I point over at her. “Aww, mean grandma.”

Poppy is dying.

Mom gives me a stare, and I’m not going to lie, it still strikes a little fear. “Fine.” I hold up my hands.

The second I do, I have two four-year-olds in my lap, one on each knee. I turn to her with my arms spread wide around them. “Happy now?”

She nods. “Actually yes. Now, about my question.”

I groan.

Poppy laughs even harder.

My lap is not enough. Now I can feel them fighting for position on my already-sore shoulders. “Now I have two monkeys climbing all over me.”

Poppy glares. “Just great, Pax.”

Before she can get my name out, the two boys start hooting and hollering, making monkey noises. I don’t move a muscle and just smile right at Mom and Poppy.

Mom winces at the cacophony but won’t be swayed. “We know what you’re doing. For heaven’s sake, you’re thirty-five years old. It’s time for a family, Paxton. What else could you possibly achieve before you’re ready to settle down?”

Not a bad question. Though considering the fact that I paid for the house we’re now sitting in, my family, including these two boys, will never want for anything. They’ll go to any schools they want, do anything they want with their lives. I paid for that precious piano too. You’d think I could get a little bit of gratitude, even though I’d never demand that in return.

The worst part is I can’t even bring up Hazel. If it were normal circumstances, and it was a real date, I could mention it. I could get Mom off my case. She’d be happy about it, though I would get hit with more follow up questions.

But what can I say? She’s a twenty-one-year-old employee and I had to steal her fliers and follow her around to get her to have a drink with me. Oh no, she wouldn’t approve of that. Nobody would.

Jesus, it was so reckless. I couldn’t help myself. I can’t stop thinking about her! Even now, with a toddler-size shoe slamming into my cheek. God knows where it’s been and what it’s trampled on.

What would John think about what I’m doing?

Man, I can’t even go down that rabbit hole of a thought process. He would lose his absolute shit.

The lawyers. Hah! He’d have me in a room with them, guarding me until this whole thing plays out.

There’s no way I can tell him. He might try to fight me. He’d lose, but still. I don’t know if he could stop himself.

Then, there’s the shareholders, the board. I’d be done. Ousted from our baby, that we built from the ground up in our dormroom at Minnesota. It’s possible it’d turn into a national scandal, embarrass my family.

Knowing all this, I still can’t stop thinking about her! Why? Fucking why?

---