Page 2 of Boss's Baby: A Fake Fiance Romance

“Yeah, dude,” said Mike. “Just got a text from Brittany Meyer, says she and some of her friends are already there and, uh, sounded kind of drunk as shit.”

“Hell yeah,” said Paul. “Something about family time always gets the girls ready to, you know, take their minds off things.”

The rest of the guys laughed loudly, making it clear what they thought of that idea. But I shot them a look that was both hard and annoyed. Not my scene, and the immaturity didn’t exactly suit me.

“I’m good,” I said with a cutting tone. “But we can grab some breakfast tomorrow before I head back to the city.”

The guys knew me well enough to get that the subject wasn’t up for discussion.

“All right, all right,” said Carter. “We’ll have the fun you’re going to be missing out on.”

“You sure?” asked Mike.

“Sure.”

I said my goodbyes, and moments later they were gone. It was me and my whiskey and my thoughts, exactly how I wanted it. I sipped my drink, my mind drifting back to work—the last place it needed to be. After all, Dad had asked me and Sam to come back with him to get away from all that crap. No good, though. Between the expansion and Dad’s health spell a few months ago, there wasn’t any chance of not thinking about it.

I found myself scanning the crowd for Cassidy, if only to have another subject to distract me. But she was gone. For all I knew she was with her fiancé, already on their way back to enjoy the rest of their holiday as a couple. Must’ve been nice.

“Ho-ly shit.”

Right at the moment I’d allowed myself to sink into a halfway pleasant staring-off-into-space-at-the-bar kind of thing, another voice yanked me out of it. But this wasn’t one of the guys. Nope—this was a woman.

When I glanced up to see who it was, exactly, I realized it wasn’t just any woman. It was Melody Hain, my kinda-sorta girlfriend from senior year in high school.

Or was it junior? Hard to keep track—I had more than a few girlfriends back then. And most of them at the same time.

She didn’t ask before slipping into the seat beside me so quickly she nearly sloshed her red wine onto the table. Her brown eyes were wide in that manic way they typically were, her mouth in an equally unsettling overeager smile.

She’d said two words, and already I didn’t like where the conversation was going.

“Josh Taylor.” She plopped her palms on the table hard enough to rattle our drinks. “I can’t believe it’s freaking you.”

“It’s freaking me,” I said.

She shook her head, her wild mane of blonde curls shaking along with it. “How long has it been?” she asked. “Ten years? No—no-no-no-no. It’s been, like, fifteen years, right?”

“Fifteen years since graduation.”

I was trying to keep things concise—polite but firm enough to send the message I wasn’t interested in having a conversation. Diplomacy had always been key with Melody, and the half-crazed look in her eyes made it clear that the more things changed…

“This is so crazy,” she said. “And we haven’t talked since, um, junior prom. The one you never took me to…”

Her voice trailed off and an almost cartoonishly pained look appeared on her foxlike features. It was as though she’d been taken right back to high school, like the last fifteen years hadn’t happened.

“That’s because we’d broken up,” I said. “Remember? Made that pretty clear.”

That was true. Sure, I’d had a reputation for being a touch noncommunicative with shit like that in the past, but with Melody I’d put the matter in no uncertain terms. But it looked like I hadn’t been certain enough.

“I mean, sure, you’d said we were done. But I could tell you were just saying that. You know, playing it cool.”

“Nope,” I said. “That was a real breakup—the kind where I meant it.”

“Yeah, yeah,” she said, waving her hand through the air. “Maybe it was. But that was all the way back then, and look at us now!” She leaned forward, her eyes excited. “I’ve heard about what you’ve been up to since Gray Stone,” she said. “Went off to join the Marines, Harvard after that, then in New York to work for your dad. And making some pretty damn good money from what I hear.”

Probably not a surprise to guess which part of that caused her eyes to light up the most.

“That’s about the long and short of it. You sound like you’ve been keeping pretty close tabs.”

Her eyes went wide, as if she’d been found out. “No,” she said, emphatically shaking her head. “I mean, it’s hard not to hear about what the great Josh Taylor’s been up to. Especially when you’re still living here in town. People talk, you know?”

“Oh, I know.”

“But like I said—you’ve probably grown up a ton since then. Bet the military really knocked some of those wild ways out of you.”

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