Page 37 of A Baby Surprise For My Billionaire Boss

Charlie turned to him. “Dad, can I have some candy?”

“Henry and his mom are going to be picking you up for your sleepover night soon, remember? You can have it tomorrow,” Eli said. “I’m sure it will keep just fine.”

“I’ll put it in the cupboard, Charlie,” Maddie said. “Maybe tomorrow we can watch that movie I was telling you about yesterday, the one where the dog gets a job on a sailboat, and we can make our movie snacks. Would that be fun?”

“Ooh, yes. Do you have to work tomorrow, Dad?”

“I do, unfortunately.”

Charlie took that in stride. “Maybe you can watch a movie with us another time.”

“We’ll make sure to set aside an evening for that.” The remarkable thing was that Eli could make a promise like that to his son and know that it was the truth. He could trust in his own ability to carve out time away from work to devote to family. That had never been true before. And in spite of the fact that his burgeoning feelings for Maddie complicated the issue, he knew that he did owe her a debt of gratitude for making that possible. “Do you want to show Maddie our surprise?”

“Oh yeah!” Charlie forgot all about the candy. His eyes lit up with excitement. “Maddie, Dad and I have a surprise for you.”

“Do you?”

“Come upstairs!”

Charlie led the way up to the conservatory, running the whole way. They had to walk quickly to keep up with him. He paused outside the door. “Ready?”

Maddie frowned. “I’ve never even been into this room before.”

“We were using it as storage,” Eli explained. “But now… well, I thought of a better use for it.”

Charlie flung the door open.

Maddie gasped.

Eli could see at once, by the look on her face, that he had gotten it right. The sense of satisfaction he felt was powerful. He hadn’t realized until this very moment how concerned he had been that she would walk into the room and not understand what he had been trying to create — that he would have missed the mark badly enough that she wouldn’t recognize it.

But she did, of course — he shouldn’t have worried. “It’s a ballet studio,” she breathed. “You have a ballet studio?”

“We built it today!” Charlie enthused.

“A team of contractors did,” Eli amended, not wanting to take too much credit. “I hope it suits you.”

“It’s gorgeous.” Maddie turned a slow circle, taking it all in. She walked out into the middle of the room, rose up on one toe, and did a tidy pirouette. “The mirrors — they were there before?”

“I had them installed.”

“Eli, this is too much. You shouldn’t have done all this.”

“It’s not too much at all,” he said. “I wasn’t using this room for anything, and you’re welcome to it. Itshouldbe put to some kind of use.”

“But…” she hesitated. “We don’t know how long I’m going to be here. You shouldn’t have invested in a project like this.”

“Do you think you won’t use it?”

“I’ll definitely use it. I’ll use it every day.”

“In that case, it’s worth having,” Eli said. “And if we redecorate again in a few years, that’s no problem — but for now, it will be put to good use. Much better use than this room was being put to, I’d say.”

They were interrupted by the sound of the doorbell ringing.

“That’s Henry,” Charlie said. “They’re here to pick me up for the sleepover.”

“I’ll take you down.” Eli turned to Maddie. “Wait for me here?”

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