Page 12 of Moore to Love

I wondered, yet again, how he’d been smart enough to make it through dental school. “Penny just finished her associates degree when you hired her to be your receptionist. She’d never worked in an office before either, but that didn’t seem to be a problem.”

“That’s different,” he huffed. “You know why she got the job. My dad wanted to give her a chance because she was a friend of the family.”

His explanation was the same as he’d given me three years ago, except I wasn’t the same naive wife as I’d been back then. Now I didn’t believe a word of it because he’d proven himself to be incapable of telling the truth when it really mattered. “Mm-hmm, I’m sure the fact that you wanted to sleep with her had nothing to do with the decision.”

“Nothing happened between us for months.”

“It doesn’t really matter.” The timeline of their affair was still a little murky, but I’d reached the point of not caring about the details long ago. “My point is that if Penny was qualified to be the full-time receptionist at your dental practice, then I’m more than capable of fulfilling my duties as part-time help for Finn.”

Yet again, he skipped over the important part of what I’d said and asked, “You’re on a first-name basis with your new boss?”

Setting my coffee mug on the counter, I heaved a deep sigh. “Not that it’s any of your business, but all of his employees are. He’s a good guy, and you should be thrilled that the mother of your children landed a job working for him, especially since he’s letting me set my schedule around the kids. Instead, you’re angry about it.”

“If you’d bothered to tell me—”

“Nope. You don’t get to do that,” I interrupted, lifting my hand up, palm facing him. “Not when you’re the one who insisted that we limit our communication to stuff about the kids.”

“Are you really going to stand there and try to tell me that you getting a job has nothing to do with our children?” he scoffed. “Were you just never going to tell me?”

“Since they’re at school while I’m at the clinic, I figured the news could wait until I saw you in person when you picked them up next weekend.”

With how often he skipped out on his visitation, I mentally patted myself on the back for not sayingifinstead. Unfortunately, Thad didn’t seem to have the same appreciation for my restraint. “Next time something like this comes up, I’d like to hear it from you instead of my mother.”

“I’ll be sure to let you know the next time I accept a job offer,” I conceded.

“You should also have your lawyer call mine to discuss how your income will impact my alimony and child support payments.”

My patience with him officially ran out. Not that I had much to begin with.

“That’s not going to happen. If you want to bother the judge again over the six to seven hundred dollars I’ll be taking home a month from my part-time job, that’s on you.” I jerked my chin toward the front of the house. “And on that note, I think it’s time for you to go.”

He rolled his eyes, and I pressed my lips together so I wouldn’t say something I would regret later. No matter how much I’d come to wonder how I’d ever fallen for him in the first place, he was still the father of my children and would be in my life forever.

The house was still quiet as I followed him through the living room. Although Benjamin and Madison could use a couple more hours of sleep, they hadn’t seen their dad in far too long. Shoving my irritation with him to the side for the good of my children, I offered, “Want me to get the kids up so you can take them out for breakfast?”

He shook his head. “I can’t. I’m meeting my dad at the golf course for an eight thirty tee time.”

He didn’t even ask me to tell them that he loved them before he left, which left me feeling so angry that I had no hope of falling back asleep. But I refused to let him ruin what was supposed to have been a restful morning, so I climbed back in bed and pulled out my e-reader.

Reading an office romance where the heroine fell for her sexy boss probably wasn’t my best choice, considering how often I’d caught myself ogling Finn this past week. Or dreamed of him. But the story quickly pulled me in, and I managed to get halfway through before I heard Madison’s little footsteps in the hallway.

Setting the device on my bedside table, I patted the mattress when she came running into my room. “Come give me some cuddles.”

“Cuddles, yay!” Racing across the floor, she climbed up and threw her arms around me.

Benjamin wasn’t far behind her, but his mind was on food, so he stopped in the doorway and asked, “What’s for breakfast?”

“How about cold pizza?” I suggested with a grin.

His eyes widened as they lit up. “Can we really?”

“Sure, we have enough left over.” I slid off the mattress, tugging my daughter along with me. “This morning can be part two of our celebration of my new job.”

“Awesome!” He did a little dance, then stopped to look up at me with his hands pressed together. “Then can we go see the doggies?”

“I’m not working today, remember?”

“Uh-huh.” He nodded. “But if you’re with us, we’ll be extra ’sponsible, like your boss said.”

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