Page 90 of The Wrong Boss

She stood up straighter and peered over, then took the bag. Her face brightened. “A bee plushie! Mom, look!”

“Wow,” Carrie said, putting her arm around the back of Evie’s chair as she leaned over to inspect the gift.

“Feel how soft it is,” Evie commanded, pushing the stuffed animal—stuffed insect?—toward her mom. Then she did the same to me, thrusting the fuzzy black-and-yellow bee toward me.

I dutifully petted it with my fingertips and nodded. “Really soft,” I confirmed.

Evie smiled, then brought the bee to her chest to cuddle it.

Now, I’d been in business for a while. And I’d worked in many different industries, from finance to advertising to tech. I’d brokered huge deals, and I was generally considered to be a hard ass who got the job done. But nothing—nothing—had come even close to being as satisfying as seeing that little girl hug the gift I got her. I actually got a little choked up. The Italian restaurantCarrie had chosen was dusty to begin with, but my eyes suddenly became suspiciously watery.

“What do you say?” Carrie asked.

“Thank you!” Evie said, still hugging that silly stuffed bee. “I love it. I’m going to call her Freya.”

“Freya?” I frowned.

“The hero ofBee Good,” Carrie explained, reaching over to stroke her daughter’s hair. “It really was a good show,” she said, and a little awkwardly, added, “Thank you.”

“I’m going to be a beekeeper when I grow up,” Evie informed me.

I frowned. “Is that even a full-time job?”

Evie shrugged. “Who cares?”

Carrie snorted, and I couldn’t help my own laugh. The three of us looked up when a waitress stopped by our table to introduce herself and take our drink orders, and I used the opportunity to steal a glance at Evie—and one at Carrie.

This…wasn’t awful. I’d sat here sweating about how hard it would be to talk to a little girl I didn’t know in the presence of the woman who had betrayed me, but in reality, it was as easy as breathing.

Evie told me about the play, then segued into bragging about winning her school’s spelling bee. I found myself reading words off the menu for her to try to spell. She sounded them out and occasionally looked to Carrie for guidance, who was always patient. She never gave Evie the answer but gently prodded her to figure it out herself.

I’d never had that. In my house, I’d been on my own for homework, even though my brothers got endless hours of tutoring.If one of them got a bad grade, somehow it would be my fault for not supporting them properly. I had to struggle on my own from the start, wondering the whole while why I was being treated differently.

As I watched Carrie interact with her daughter, I realized that what I felt was relief. She was a good mom, and she loved her daughter. Even though I was still furious about her lies, I could acknowledge that she’d done a good job with Evie.

We had lunch, and then I ordered three brownie sundaes, which made Evie’s eyes go comically wide. “I get one all to myself?” she whispered to her mom.

“Don’t make yourself sick eating it,” Carrie cautioned in response. She glanced up at me and explained, “Usually we split one of these between us.”

“Well, it’s a special occasion,” I said. “It’s our first meal together.”

“That’s true,” Evie said, and whipped her head around to beam at her mom. We ate brownies slathered in ice cream and chocolate sauce, and then I paid the bill and walked the girls outside.

Saying goodbye was harder than I expected. As I drove back to the city, I realized that a bit of my anger had chilled.

Carrie had kept Evie’s existence from me—but seeing them interact made me think that it might not have had everything to do with me. Maybe she was trying to protect her daughter. That’s all I’d wanted and needed when I was a kid—how could I begrudge Carrie for giving that to Evie?

THIRTY-EIGHT

CARRIE

Evie was thrilledto meet her father. I watched as she charmed him within minutes, then spent the next month and a half wrapping him around her little finger. Cole seemed delighted by her jokes and constantly impressed by her wit. He became the primary spelling bee practice partner, calling her every night with words of ever-increasing difficulty. Every night, she came off those calls looking like she was floating on air.

I pretended I wasn’t jealous.

Cole took us to the aquarium, the zoo, and to a pottery painting studio. He organized lunches and dinners, and as the end of our two-month trial approached, I had the sense that the animosity between us was almost gone. I wasn’t naive enough to think he’d forgiven me, but I appreciated that he was putting my daughter first.Ourdaughter. I kept having to remind myself that she wasn’t only mine anymore.

The night before we were due to meet Cole for our nextvisit—the third-to-last before we needed to go back to mediation—Evie was busy speaking to him on the living room couch while I put away leftovers from dinner and got started on the dishes. Seth was at work, finishing up a big contract for a client, and Hailey was passed out on an armchair across from Evie.

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