Page 65 of Quarantined with the Billionaire

Chapter Nineteen

Maddox peeked out of his home office, looking in the study over to my makeshift desk—which now had a desktop computer.

Oh…and as the third week of April rolled around, Peggy, Maddox’s real assistant, was working at home, almost fully recovered. By this point, Maddox had had a long conversation with Dominique and Jeffrey and discovered that I’d been right all along. She’d been afraid to lose me because of my knowledge. But Maddox gave me a promotion to a new position: head trainer.

For now.

He knew I wanted more eventually. But how could I say no to a promotion and raise, to new job duties and more responsibility? In the meantime, I was continuing to help him while communicating with Peggy through Skype to get her back up to speed.

At the moment, though, I was doing something a little more…personal.

“How’s the search coming, Bailey?”

“Well, according to this,” I said, pointing to the computer screen, “the governor is allowing licenses to be obtained remotely.”

“What would we need to do?”

“Fill out the application and send payment.”

“Sounds easy enough.”

“But there’s still a little problem. We still can’t have more than ten people there. That restriction’s still in place.”

“True.” Walking over to my chair, Maddox placed his hands on my shoulders, looking at the screen. “How many people are doing weddings using Skype nowadays?” This week, the governor of Colorado announced a lift on certain restrictions regarding the virus—but still urged prudence and caution and, without research, it was hard to know what specific activities would be okay in the upcoming weeks.

And we had lots of plans.

My cell phone rang, and I glanced at it. It was my mom, and Maddox saw it, too.

“Go ahead. I know you’ve been wanting to check in with her.”

Picking up the phone, I paused, making sure my voice sounded calm. “Hey, mom. How’s Tod?”

“He feels better every day.”

My stepfather had been in the hospital for quite some time in ICU, and my poor mother had been beside herself. While he was every bit a train wreck as my mother, he was good for her—and a far better support system than I.

“Good. You guys are still being safe, though?”

“Well…thanks to your boss, we’ve been able to have our groceries delivered, so we’re distancing a lot.”

I turned slightly, glad to see that Maddox had gone back to his office. As much as I loved his attention and company, I didn’t want to gush about him while he was standing right there. “He’s a good man, mom. And, speaking of Maddox, there’s something I need to tell you…”

* * *

At lunch later that day, Simon brought us bowls of warm stew that smelled divine. “I don’t ordinarily serve food like this,” he said, placing the bowls in front of us, “but after being sick for so long, my philosophy is that life is too short to never break the rules.”

“Hey, now, I never made a rule here that you couldn’t serve homestyle food.”

“Ah, yes.” Simon grinned, walking toward the kitchen with what appeared to be a spring in his step. I hadn’t seen him since the weekend when Maddox and I got together. Simon had taken off two weeks to deal with the virus, and Maddox had told him to take a third just to be sure.

I dipped my spoon in the hearty broth and blew on it before touching it to my lip. Still too hot. Maddox already had a mouthful and was nodding in approval.

Simon returned with a plate full of crusty bread and another bowl of stew before taking a seat next to us. “This is the rule I’m breaking today, sir.”

Maddox cocked a lovely brown eyebrow, the grin on his face contagious. “It’s your rule to break.”

“As I said, life is too short. What will it hurt to have a meal once in a while with my employer and his assistant?”

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