Page 20 of A Baby Surprise For My Billionaire Boss

The next thing he knew, he was halfway down the stairs on his way to ask his nanny — his devastatingly lovely nanny — to join him for an evening glass of wine.

CHAPTER 8

ELI

“Red or white?”

“Oh, whatever you’re having is fine,” Maddie said quickly. “I don’t want you to feel like you need to open two bottles.”

“No, I won’t,” Eli said. “But you’re my guest, and I’d like to give you whatever you’d enjoy most here.”

“Red, then.”

Eli nodded and uncorked the bottle. He pulled down a pair of glasses and poured a measure of wine into each of them, and then he handed one to Maddie.

She took a sip. “This is really good,” she said.

“I’m glad you like it.” It was one of his nicer bottles, and a part of Eli’s mind was aware of the fact that it was strange — unusual — for him to be opening such a nice bottle for somebody else. It was the kind of thing he would usually have saved for a holiday, or a special occasion when he’d have had the chance to show it off to a lot of guests. To open this bottle on a whim because hehad decided to have a drink with his nanny — well, there was so much about that that was unprecedented, he didn’t quite know where to begin to address it.

“Do you know a lot about wine?” he asked her. Maybe he had sensed a fellow enthusiast.

She laughed. “I know nothing about wine. My roommate Tess and I have been drinking box wine since college.”

“Well, it’s definitely going to be better than that,” he agreed. Internally, he was forced to shake his head at himself. She wasn’t interested in wine — at least not in the terms he’d been thinking of it. She didn’t have fancy tastes. He could have given her anything at all and she would have appreciated it.

And yet, he found that he didn’t regret his decision to offer up the good stuff. He was glad he had opened one of his nice bottles for Maddie.

At some point, he was going to have to explore why he was feeling that way. But not right now.

“Do you want anything else?” he asked her. “Something to eat? I could cut up a couple of cheese pairings.” As long as he was going all out, he might as well do it right.

“You don’t have to do all that,” she said.

“I do have some cheeses that go well with this,” he said. “And it wouldn’t be any trouble. You’ve been working out, and I don’t want you to be hungry, especially late at night.”

“It’s nice of you to take the trouble,” Maddie said. “It really isn’t necessary, though. I don’t tend to feel that hungry after I’ve been dancing.”

“All right,” he agreed. “Just let me know if you change your mind.”

“Will do.”

He sipped his wine, trying not to stare at her. Even the way she held the glass was alluring — delicately, between her fingertips, as if she was holding the stem of a flower. He wanted to watch every move she made. He knew that he couldn’t, though. He had to do what he could to keep the distance between the two of them. She wasn’t on the clock now, but she was still his employee, and there was no getting around that fact. He had to make sure to treat her professionally at all times. And that was more important now than ever, with the two of them sitting here with an open bottle of wine. They were courting disaster, if they weren’t careful.

Not that anything would happen between them. Eli might be feeling things he shouldn’t, but there was no reason to allow himself to believe that Maddie was. She was probably in her right mind, even if he wasn’t.

“Is Charlie still asleep?” she asked.

“Yeah, I looked in on him when I got out of the shower. Out like a light.” Eli was grateful for the change of subject. At least Charlie was something they could talk about without things feeling weird between them. What was more, theyshouldbe talking about Charlie. That actually was keeping things professional.

Maddie smiled. “He’s such a cool kid,” she said. “You’ve done an amazing job with him. I hope you know that.”

“He is pretty great,” Eli agreed.

But he wasn’t sure how much credit he could actually take for the way his son had turned out. He was proud of Charlie, of course — but he also knew he hadn’t done as much of the work of raising him as he should have. He hadn’t been around for that much of Charlie’s growing up so far. The hands-on stuff had been left mostly to nannies, and every time Eli felt pride in his son, he had to wrestle with a competing feeling of shame over the fact that he couldn’t take responsibility for how great Charlie was turning out.

That wasn’t something he needed to unpack with Maddie, though, even if it did make him feel slightly guilty to receive her praise. “I’ve been so happy with everything he’s done so far,” he said instead. “He’s incredibly smart.”

“I can tell. He’s a great reader. I feel like that’s always the best way to tell with a kid his age — not even how much skill they have at reading, but how much enthusiasm they have for it. I’ve seen him sit with a book for a solid hour. The first time I saw it, I thought he might be looking at the pictures.”

---