Page 53 of The Boss

The worry line reappeared as Lana opened the door wider. “You better come in. This calls for chocolate.”

“It’ll take ten blocks to even begin to cure me.”

“You’ve been bitten, I see.” Lana rummaged through her pantry before plonking a family size block of nougat chocolate on the table and flicking the kettle on.

“Bitten?” Beth broke off an entire row of mouth-watering chocolate and stuffed six small blocks into her mouth at once, hoping the sugar and cocoa fix would ease her pain. It didn’t.

Lana propped against a bench and grinned. “By the love bug.”

“Ha, ha, you’re a real riot.” Beth reached for the chocolate again before pushing it away with a groan. “What am I doing? Stuffing myself until I’m sick isn’t going to solve anything.”

“But the endorphins will make you feel better.”

Beth could think of a much better way to get her endorphins spiking and it had nothing to do with eating chocolate and everything to do with getting naked with the one guy who had rocked her world.

“So you fell in love with my boss? Nice.”

“He’s not your boss anymore.”

Lana straightened so fast she knocked a spatula off the bench and it clattered to the floor. “What?”

“Aidan quit. He’s going back to archaeology.”

“But what about the museum?”

“I’m sure it’s still there. After all, it ran perfectly well before he arrived on the scene, right?”

“Right.” Lana nodded, her eyes round orbs behind her glasses. “Of course, I’m being silly. A guy with Aidan Voss’s reputation wouldn’t leave the museum in the lurch.” Lana paused, her eyes widening. “Ohhh…now I get it. That’s why you’re upset? Because he’s leaving?”

Beth shook her head. “He asked me to go with him.”

“What?” Lana’s screech had Beth reaching for the chocolate again. “That’s the most romantic thing I’ve ever heard.”

“Hold onto your heart, romcom queen. I turned him down.”

“Youwhat? But why?”

“Because he wants a relationship.”

Lana frowned. “And?”

“I don’t do relationships.”

The kettle whistled at that moment and Lana busied herself making two hot chocolates complete with marshmallows before taking a seat at the dining table and pushing a steaming mug across to her.

“That’s not what you said the night I got the job.”

Beth took a sip of the hot chocolate and sighed, savouring the slide of rich chocolate across her tastebuds. “Honestly, Cuz? I don’t have much recollection of what I said that night. As I recall, I was pretty wasted, celebratingyourdream job.”

Leaning forward and fixing her with the ‘listen up’ glare she’d had down pat since childhood, Lana said, “You said you wanted a family of your own. Hubby, kids, the works, but you were too damned scared to let any guy get too close for fear of losing him.”

“I said that?” Beth hid behind her mug, silently vowing to stay clear of celebratory Cosmopolitans no matter what the occasion.

“There’s more. You offloaded about your folks, and how your mom was the love of your dad’s life and how he shut down after she died and didn’t have anything left to give you.”

Beth cringed. “Like you didn’t know. You were there the whole time, you saw it. He basically waited until we turned eighteen before pegging out.

“You don’t know that.”

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