Page 69 of Broken Boss Daddy

“Talk?” He tracked us down just to talk? And more than likely, the talk was going to be about his leaving.

I moved past him and down the steps of our porch, feeling somewhat unsettled that he had just shown up there without an invitation.

“Yeah.” Grant breathed out slowly. “There is quite a bit I need to talk to you about.”

I did not like the sound of that.

Taking a deep breath and preparing myself for that conversation, I was just about to ask him what he wanted to talk about when the front door swung open.

“Mommy, can I— Grant?” Abby stood with her hand still on the handle, eyes shifting curiously between him and me.

A bright smile graced her beautiful face at seeing him, and she bounced on the balls of her feet.

Grant’s eyes lit up, looking back at me for permission to go to Abby. Who was I to deny that father-daughter moment? With a nod of my head, I watched as the two of them practically ran each other over.

Abby’s sweet giggles rang out across the yard as Grant scooped her up and held her close to his chest.

The chill that had been settling at the bottom of my spine melted, and was replaced by a warm, fuzzy feeling. As much as I liked the feeling and seeing them together like that, I didn’t want to feel it if he was there to say goodbye to us.

I gave them a couple of minutes, but when I started to feel uncomfortable, and left out, I cleared my throat. “Abby, baby, Grant and I need to talk alone.” I opened my arms for him to hand her back to me.

“Aww, but Mommy!”

“You can play with him in a bit. I promise.” I threw a glance at Grant before going back to her. “But for now, we need to talk with just the two of us.”

Abby pouted, clearly sulking with me as she cuddled more into his neck. Grant’s hand came up behind her and held her in place. “It’s okay,” he said, playing with a bit of her hair.

My eyes snapped to him. I tried to convey a look that said it was not okay if he was there for what I figured he was there for. But, unless I was useless at trying to speak with a look, Grant wasn't paying any mind to it.

“Hey, Jess?” Grant called.

“Mm?” I couldn’t tear my eyes away from Abby in his arms.

“We get to be whatever we want to be.”

“What?” Snapping out of whatever trance I was in, I crossed my arms and faced Grant questioningly.

Grant gave me his signature smile, the one that made my knees weak, and repeated, “We get to be whatever we want to be.”

I was completely confused. “I’m not sure what you’re trying to get at.”

Shifting Abby to his other arm, she was a bit too big to be carried like that, Grant pointed to the house next door to mine.

“I was driving by to see my grandparents’ old house when I saw you guys,” he said.

“Your grandparents’ house?” Still, I was utterly confused.

Taking a step closer to him, I stretched my neck to get a better look at the neighboring house. My brain worked overtime trying to piece everything together.

We get to be whatever we want to be,I repeated that statement in my head for some time.

The familiarity of the phrase hits me, and it was like a light bulb had finally flickered on.

“No,” I gasped in disbelief.

One of my arms hung limply by my side when I pointed to the house with the other one, lost for words.

“Yes,” he said, proud of himself.

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