Page 28 of A Baby Surprise For My Billionaire Boss

Charlie turned to face Maddie instead. “Maddie, can we stay all day?”

Maddie laughed. “Your dad is in charge, you know, Charlie.”

“I thought you were both in charge.”

“Well, I happen to agree with him, anyway. Let’s see how we all feel after a few hours. I’m not sure any of us are up to a whole day here.”

She glanced at Eli.

He looked away quickly, knowing what she must be thinking. When he had told her that he’d made arrangements to have the day off, she had raised her eyebrows and said nothing, and he’d gotten the feeling that she didn’t quite believe it.

If he was honest with himself, he knew he couldn’t blame her for doubting. He hadn’t shown himself to be reliable about this.

Today was different. Today he really would be spending the whole day with Charlie. What she’d said about her own father the other night — about losing him so young and the memories that had stayed with her — that had really affected him. He had always thought of his relationship with Charlie as something he had forever to get right, but they didn’t, of course. Even if they were lucky and nothing tragic interceded, as it had with Maddie and her own father, Charlie was getting older every day. One day, the mere fact of time passing would take the two of them away from one another, and Eli would never get these years back.

He was determined to make the most of them.

“I’m going to get some shells so that we can decorate a sandcastle,” Charlie announced.

“Don’t go any farther than…” Eli eyed the beach. “See that striped umbrella down there?”

“Yeah.”

“No farther than that.” They had come to a fairly secluded beach today — it wasn’t the one where Charlie had first met Maddie. Eli still felt spooked from having temporarily misplaced his son that day, and knew that it would be easier to relax on a beach with fewer people. Here, at least, he wouldn’t have to fear that anyone had snatched Charlie up — the striped umbrella, several yards off, was the closest person in either direction. “And no going in the water,” he added severely. “Don’t even get your feet wet. I mean it.”

“Aw, Dad.”

“I’m not joking. If you want to go into the water, you come back here and Maddie or I will take you. You can go down the beach a ways to collect shells, but you stay out of the water. Am I understood?”

“Yeah, yeah.”

“Okay, then. Have a good time.”

Charlie trotted off down the beach. Eli watched him go. Without taking his eyes off of him, he asked, “Do you think I’m making a mistake?”

“A mistake? What mistake?” Maddie was setting out beach chairs.

“Letting him go off on his own. That’s what I did last time, and it didn’t turn out so well.”

“Well, things are different this time,” Maddie said. “We’re on a private beach for one thing — I can’t understand why you brought him to the public beach in the first place, to tell you the truth. It’s not as if you can’t afford the membership fee to this place.”

“It’s where his old nanny took him,” Eli explained. “I never bothered with membership fees to exclusive beaches because it wasn’t something I thought about, and because I wasn’t usually the one going, so I didn’t care.”

“But that experience got you to change your mind?”

“Something like that. That and the fact that I just don’t want to spend my day on a packed beach like the one where you used to work.”

“Well, I have to admit, this is a lot nicer than what I used to deal with every day,” Maddie said. “And it makes it easier to keep an eye on Charlie.” She glanced at Eli. “I guess it probably makes it a little easier for you to focus on checking your emails, too.”

“No,” he said, eyebrows lifting. “I told you that I’m not working today, remember?”

“I mean, yeah, I remember that conversation.”

“I knew you didn’t believe me.”

“Well, can you blame me?”

“Just because I haven’t done a good job at prioritizing my home life in the past doesn’t mean I am incapable of it.”

---