Page 77 of Bad Boy for Hire
Damn. Maybe they would end up having sex.
“I hope you’re not the one who hit him.”
“Tempting, but no.” He offered a half-smile that was almost as disarming as his brother’s. Except she was pissed at Xavier, which made it easier to stay armed. “It happened Friday night, and he’s been here since. Avoiding Mom and Dad.”
“Friday?” May blinked. Lynx had been in a fight two days ago? Yet another thing Xavier hadn’t shared with her. “Where’s the best place to talk? Privacy would be nice.”
Worry eked into his expression in the form of pinched eyebrows.
“How about we talk by the dock?” She wasn’t going to silence herself any longer. She’d come here to clear things up, and that’s what she was going to do.
“Sure. Do you need anything to drink before we go down?”
“The service industry is really baked into you, isn’t it?”
“Guess so.” He frowned.
“No. Thank you. I’m good.”
He pulled the door shut and followed her. They paced side by side down the hill, stepping carefully on the wide, natural rock steps.
When she reached the Adirondack chair, she gripped the back of it with both hands and looked out over the water. “You have the best view.”
“Better with you in it.”
When she turned to look at him, she could tell he was being sincere. Was it possible that he had no clue why she was upset?
“I hear you’re planning on asking me to move in.” She folded her arms over her chest. “Or were you going to discuss it with the movers before you mentioned it to me?”
His head jerked on his neck briefly. “What are you?—”
“And while we’re on the topic, I don’t appreciate you asking Jewell if I can work from home. I don’t want to work from home. Which you would know if you’d asked me.”
“It wasn’t premeditated,” he said. “I thought you’d need a break when the baby came, and I couldn’t ask her how long you’d be off for maternity leave since she didn’t know you were pregnant. Asking about working from home was a good workaround.”
“Uh, not really.” May continued, her voice rising, “You said you weren’t making plans, and now I’m finding out from other people that you are very much making plans. Worse, I’m not aware of those plans and they all involve me. I’m not only a part of this, Xavier. I am the biggest part of this. I’m literally carrying the baby you’re making plans for!”
He lifted his hands to touch her but then dropped them like he’d thought better of it. “I’m sorry. I thought that handling everything would take the pressure off you. I don’t want you to worry about the details.” He gestured to her still-flat stomach. “You’re carrying a baby. That’s a lot.”
She closed her eyes and sighed. He was making sense but missing the point. “I am more than a pregnant woman. I have a career. I have a life. A life and career that I had, by the way, before you and me were doing whatever it is we’re doing.”
“We’re in this together,” he said. “I have it under control.”
“Together?” She let out a loud ha! “You’re doing everything on your timeframe, and I’m in the dark. That’s not ‘together.’ To find out that you’ve been talking to Ant about cribs and cohabitating and to Jewell about my working from home—your home, I’m assuming—is presumptuous. And inconsiderate.”
“If it’s a communication issue?—”
“It’s more than that. You’re being Mister In-Control, handling the details, but you haven’t included me in your plans.” She took a deep breath and lowered her voice. “You have been avoiding me this weekend. When were you planning on telling me about Lynx?”
“When, exactly, should I have done that? When I found him walking down the street in the middle of the night? Or how about when I made sure he could handle his hangover the next morning so I could go to work? Which, by the way, I rushed to because my busboy didn’t show up. Maybe I could have called you after the guy who brews beer for me gave me two days’ notice that he was quitting?”
He raked a hand through his hair in clear frustration. “I promised Jewell a working app by summer, and I promised you that you wouldn’t have to worry about anything, also by summer. But my restaurant that was running smoothly before isn’t any longer, and my brother, who was running fairly smoothly, also isn’t any longer. So yeah, I had a few things on my mind and didn’t tell you about them. I’m doing my fucking best.”
She felt her face warm at his tone. She hadn’t known any of that, but there was a good reason for it: He hadn’t told her about any of it. He was allowed to be angry. Frankly, it was better than him trying to putty over everything with a smile.
But she was angry too, and his anger didn’t cancel out hers. She spun on her heel and started up the stone steps toward her car, calling over her shoulder, “Goodbye, Xavier.”
“Where are you going?”
