Page 70 of Surprise Baby for Daddy's Best Friend

As soon as everyone put their seat belt on, the car shifted gears and backed out of the parking spot. I leaned back and sucked in a deep breath. I had only let autopilot take control in the city a handful of times, and still, it made me nervous not having full control. I read it helped with anger problems, but for me, it just added to my frustrations by the end when it refused to take shortcuts or try to beat the light when I knew it could.

"No way! Seriously?" Carl leaned forward, gripping the top of my chair. "Is this like one of those self-driving cars? Wait, we're not going to crash, are we?"

I rolled my eyes, "If we were going to crash, we would have done that already." I lifted his left hand off the chair. "So please don't attach to me like I'm going to kill you."

"Sorry," he muttered and leaned back in his seat.

I peeked over at Kim who was staring out the side of the window. I almost expected her to say something too about the Tesla, but she seemed disinterested in it. Her closed fist caught the corner of my eye and I realized she was softly shaking.

"Kim? Are you--"

"I'm fine!" she snapped and closed her eyes. "Sorry, I'm fine."

I sighed and reached for her hand, bringing it toward the center console, "Don't lie to me."

Her soft, small hand felt helpless under mine. I squeezed to comfort her. I was here to keep her safe.

"If something bad happens, I'll switch to manual immediately. Don't worry."

She stopped shaking a little and her balled fist relaxed under my grasp. I rubbed a thumb across hers. I wanted to wrap her in a comforting hug, but there was no room to move around. If anything, it would stress her out more seeing no one behind the wheel. At least with me pretending to drive, she had some comfort there.

We pulled up in front of Carl and Amanda's apartment after half an hour. Not once did I need to turn off the autopilot, and Kim seemed more interested in the inside of the car instead of what lurked outside it by the end too.

"Thanks again, Jared. I loved trying this out, but I don't want to know how expensive this thing is," he smacked my shoulder as he climbed out."

"I appreciate the ride home, Jared. You two don't do anything too crazy. You still need to rest before you have to get back to work, Kim," Amanda brushed her hand against Kim before stepping out as well.

We were alone once again. With the silence of the ride, it was different from earlier. I had dreamed about being alone with her again after the chaos of dinner, but now I wasn't so sure. Without Kim talking much, it left me alone with my thoughts. Seeing Maurice as angry as he had been, didn't sit well with me. If he was as upset as he seemed to be, I was worried about what my relationship with Kim would be.

It wasn't like I didn't want to be around Kim or not be with her. I desperately wanted to stay with her. Not even the devil could stop me from that, and yet the disapproval from Maurice was still haunting me.

"Jared?" Kim asked.

"Hm?"

"About what my dad said," her voice was soft and quiet as if she wasn't sure what she was saying was correct.

"About him not liking us being together?"

She nodded, "I was thinking about that, and I was thinking about what my brother said too..."

I waited for her to continue her thoughts. If she needed time to process it, I would give it to her.

"He mentioned weddings and marriage. I'm... well I don't want to ruin your public reputation because of me. I know my family will know who you are, but I don't mind if I'm a secret from the rest of the world."

I shook my head, "No. They'll know. If they want to argue with me about it, I'll fire them. They're replaceable."

"Replaceable!" Kim snapped and pulled her hand away from me. "They're people, not things!"

"And they can be replaced because they work for me."

Her voice dropped to almost a mumble, "That's not right."

"And I'm the person that runs the business, not you," I rubbed my temples. "I don't expect you to understand what it's like to be a CEO, but I do expect you to respect how I run my business."

She said something I couldn't catch under her breath. I held my breath and counted to three to prevent myself from snapping at her. There was no point in arguing about it. Whether she liked my choices or not, they were mine to make. Perhaps one day she would understand and accept it, but for now, I wasn't going to let her get too involved in my work life. My previous ex-wife had gotten in too deep, and she had run off with a lot of my money because of it.

I didn't expect Kim to do the same, because she was so different. But she reacted based on morality and emotions, versus what was best for a company to thrive. If anyone on the board or other upper management questioned my home life, or changed their attitude towards me, I would remove them. Doubt created chaos in a business, and we couldn't afford to have chaos.

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