Page 6 of Bossy Baby

“Is everything okay?” Mitch whispered.

That was another thing about Mitch. He seemed to care whether or not Mac was okay. No one else had ever cared about him.

“I think I messed up,” Mac said quietly. He hated to admit he didn’t know what he was doing. He’d been trying so hard to get to know Hayley, and doing it the right way. No stalking, or only minimal stalking—he hadn’t put listening devices in Hayley’s shop or apartment. And he had really wanted to. Mitch had been very firm about that being a bad thing.

“I’m sure it’ll be okay,” Mitch said. “Tell me what happened. We’ll figure out what you should do next.”

Byron set down a sippy cup in front of Mitch. He rubbed the boy’s shoulder as he glared at Mac.

“Daddy, don’t be mean,” Mitch said peering up at Byron. “Our friend is hurting. Can’t you see that?”

Byron narrowed his eyes at Mac. But when he looked at Mitch, his expression softened. “I didn’t agree to adopting a hitman.”

Mac huffed.

Mitch grinned.

“Fine.” Byron threw his hands up. “I’m making breakfast.” He pointed at Mac. “You will talk to Mitch. You will eat your breakfast. Then you will leave. And stop breaking into our house!”

Mac just stared back. He wasn’t going to make any promise he had no plans to keep. He kept breaking into the house because he secretly thought Byron enjoyed it. Maybe. Probably not. But Mac enjoyed annoying the professor. Plus Byron always ended up cooking for him. Mac liked that too.

Byron leaned down and kissed the top of Mitch’s head before stomping back to the fridge.

“What happened? If I have to guess, it has something to do with this mysterious boy you won’t tell us anything about.”

Mac nodded. “I messed up.”

“Did you hurt him? Tell him you were going to chop him up into little pieces and eat him? Actually chop him up into little pieces?” Mitch asked.

“No!” Mac reeled back. “I wouldn’t.”

“Exactly,” Mitch said with a firm nod. “So you didn’t do anything that you can’t recover from. Tell me what happened.”

“Everything was going fine,” Mac said. “We were talking, and he was even holding my hand. He does that a lot. But then all of a sudden, it was like I’d hit him. He dropped my hand, wouldn’t look me in the eye. He’s never acted like that before. I don’t know what I did!”

“Okay, calm down.” Mitch frowned as he rubbed his chin. “What were you talking about?”

Mac shrugged. “Houses?”

“Huh.” Mitch pressed his lips together. “That doesn’t tell me much.”

“I was trying to open up,” Mac said. “He mentioned his apartment, asked if I had a house. I said yes and told him I’d just finished decorating. I was trying to get the nerve to ask him if he wanted to see it but then he just…started acting weird.”

“Start from the beginning. Tell me everything that was said, word for word.”

Mitch’s strong mind, calm voice, and interest helped Mac settle. So he did what Mitch asked. He repeated the conversation as best he could remember it.

“Maybe he thinks you’re a snob,” Mitch ended up saying.

“A snob?”

“Well you did tell him that you live in the richest part of the city. Or maybe he doesn’t like people with money. I’ve seen that before. But he was okay before you said where you lived.”

“He’s always been very accepting of anything I’ve said before. I can’t see him minding if I have money.”

“Huh.” Mitch tapped his lip.

“It’s time to eat,” Byron interrupted.

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