Page 51 of A Baby Surprise For My Billionaire Boss

“I don’t really want one.”

“You’re too young to be on your own all day,” Eli told him.

“I know, but I want you to be with me. Not a nanny.”

Eli sighed. “Charlie, you know I can’t do that. You know I have to work.”

“You’re the boss, aren’t you? At your job?”

“Yes.”

“So why can’t you make it so that youdon’thave to work?”

“That’s not the way it works,” Eli told him. “My job is important. If I don’t go to work, a lot of people might find themselves without jobs, and that’s not a good thing. I have to make sure I’m there for them, to help them.”

“But…” Charlie frowned. “Dad, I know your job is important, but you have a lot of people who work for you, like you said. Can’t anybody else do your job?”

“Well…” It was a fair enough point, of course. There were plenty of people capable of doing what Eli did on a day-to-day basis. “They can,” he said eventually. “But if I’m there, I can make sure everything is done perfectly.”

“Yeah,” Charlie said. “It’s just… other people can do your job, but you’re the only person who can be my dad.”

The words rocked Eli to his core.

Charlie was utterly correct, of course.

It was the same thing Maddie had tried to explain to him over and over. By choosing work, he was choosing not to prioritize Charlie, and Charlie was his only son. Charlie should be the most important thing. He went to work to provide for Charlie, but both Charlie and Maddie were right — his constant presence was not required in order for the business to run.

He didn’t want anything to go wrong at work. That was why he was so determined to be present all the time. But while he was making sure things were running smoothy at the office, things could easily go wrong at home.

And with a pang of horror, he realized that things had gone just about as wrong as they could go.

Maddie was pregnant — with his child, with Charlie’s sibling — and he had let her get away. Worse — he haddrivenher away with his actions. He couldn’t even blame her for having left. Of course she had.

He was the only person who could be Charlie’s dad, but he was the only person who could be that baby’s father, too. He was so devoted to his work that he was letting his family slip through his fingers, and there would be no correcting these mistakes.

He closed his eyes. How was he going to hire a new nanny after what had happened? How could he ever bring himself to do that?

“Dad?”

“Yeah, Charlie.”

“I think we should get Maddie back.”

Eli opened his eyes. “Is that what you think?”

“It was good having her here,” Charlie said. “I really liked her. I don’t know why she left. Did she move in with her boyfriend, like Katie did?”

“No, she didn’t. She’s living with her best friend Tess, remember. She told us when she left that that was where she would be.”

“Oh yeah,” Charlie said. “But then that means she can come back. She doesn’t need to live with that Tess person. They’re not going to get married or anything.”

“No.” Eli had to smile. “They’re not.”

“So get her to come back.”

“I don’t know, Charlie,” Eli said. “She decided that she was ready to go. We might need to respect that. It might be that she doesn’t want to work here anymore, and if that’s her choice, you and I need to respect it and move on.”

Charlie was quiet for a moment. “Because she wants to be a dance teacher?”

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