Page 61 of My Not So Wicked Boss (My Not So Wicked 3)

I jumped up, not sure what I was going to do, but knowing I needed to act. “Chloe, stay here, honey.”

My parents’ heads darted toward the entrance too. Red anger flooded each of their faces.

Miles too was alerted and stood immediately.

Chloe, who was sitting next to my dad, buried her head into his chest. My dad securely wrapped her up in his arms.

By now, everyone at our table saw Leland. For those who didn’t know who he was, Brad filled them in.

I knew I had to go talk to him, intercept him from causing further damage to our daughter, but my feet didn’t want to move.

“Do you want me to go with you, love?” Miles asked.

If I was being honest the answer was yes, I wanted him to hold my hand through this, but I knew that would make the situation worse. If Leland felt threatened, he would retaliate.

“I’ve got this.” Sort of. “Stay on standby.”

“I’ll be watching.” Miles lasered in on my jerk ex-husband.

Mom squeezed my hand before I walked away while all my friends gave me sympathetic looks. Brad, though, was on his feet and ready to join Miles if he needed to. Not sure what they would do, maybe brawl by the looks of it.

Thankfully, Leland didn’t notice me until I was almost to the hostess desk. It was the first time I was glad there was an attractive female around to distract him. Leland and Mike looked as if they had come from his auto body shop. They were in blue coveralls, each with a smudge or two of grease on their hands. Mike the slick, as we used to call him on account of his slicked back brown hair that he was still wearing, saw me first. He tapped Leland and pointed my way.

Leland stopped trying to impress the much younger woman and sneered my way.

I didn’t let his dirty looks stop me. “Can I speak to you outside?” I needed to get him as far away from Chloe as I could.

“Looking good, Aspen.” Mike eyed me up and down. “Still single?” He licked his lips.

I didn’t even bother to respond to him other than wrinkling my nose. I walked toward the door hoping Leland would follow. He did, which might very well be the first thing he had ever done right by me. We stood outside the café in the cool autumn air, the sun bearing down on us to keep away the shivers.

Leland stood there with his left hip cocked and arms folded. “What do you want?” he growled.

So many things, but it could all be summed up in one sentence. “I want you to be a good person.”

His nostrils flared. “How do you know I’m not?”

“For starters, you’re cheating on your wife . . . again.”

“What do you know about it? We’re separated.”

“Right. Let me guess, because you were cheating on her?”

“Get to your point, Aspen,” he snapped.

“My point is, our daughter is in the café—”

His head jerked in the direction of the café window. What we both found there warmed my heart. Miles and Brad stood in menacing poses watching over me.

“You brought your boyfriend and that pansy Brad with you, I see.”

“Brad is more of a man than you’ll ever be, so lay off him.” He was never very nice to him growing up. That should have said something to me. Sure, Brad was somewhat of a nerd, but he was our nerd and I loved him. I should have been better at showing that. “And Miles isn’t my boyfriend.”

“So why is he with you?”

“Not that it’s any of your business, but I work for him and he came to see Chloe’s game today.”

Leland faced me and smirked. “You’re sleeping with your boss? Didn’t know you had it in you. But I thought you said his name is Taron.”

I was surprised he remembered that tidbit. “It’s his pen name and we’re not sleeping together.”

“Since it’s you, I believe you. Always so uptight,” he said, trying to rattle me.

It was working. I know a lot of people thought Leland and I were having sex in high school. After all, Leland had a reputation, so it was no surprise to them when I turned up pregnant my freshman year of college. But we got pregnant my first time. He’d begged me at least a dozen times before that, but I’d always said no. I stupidly thought if I finally gave him what he wanted, he would give me what I always wanted, his whole heart.

I hated that I ever gave him the honor. That he made it something so cheap. That I was so easy to discard. Most of all, I hated that I never knew what it was like to be cherished. For a man to love me soul and body. Someone to be gentle with me and never compare me. I clasped my hands together and breathed. I refused to be the abandoned girl anymore.

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