Page 17 of Mistletoe and the Billionaire Boss

“That’s nothing, Henry can do well over 200.” Her lips twist as I raise an eyebrow. “Not that I’ve been watching them in the gym or anything.”

I chuckle. “Seriously, though, that was impressive. And the way Finn put his arms around him… He’s normally very reticent with people he doesn’t know.”

She blows on her tea. “He must miss his dad a lot.”

My gaze drifts out of the window. The ducks have gone, and the sky is clouding over. “Yeah,” I say.

We sip our tea, watching the first drops of rain appear on the glass.

Eventually, Juliette asks me about the primary school where I work, and we chat for a while about teaching and children, as Juliette works with kids a lot. In the end, it’s about twenty minutes later that I say maybe we should check on Finn, as I don’t want Alex to think he has to babysit him for me.

She leads the way out of the boardroom. Instead of heading back to the lobby, she turns the other way, following where the guys went, crossing the glass-walled main office and heading for the brick building at the end. We go through a set of doors and find ourselves in an area that looks more scientific, with clean white walls, and rooms with people in lab coats and lots of computers and machinery.

She takes me up a ramp and stops at the top, her hand on the door. “This leads to a balcony that looks down at the treatment room,” she says, “so we’ll get a good view of how they’re doing.” She puts a finger to her lips, then pushes open the door and goes in.

I follow her onto a wide platform with a balustrade at the front, and we lean on it and look down at the room.

I don’t know what I expected to see—possibly Finn bolted into the robot equipment, with the guys giving him a lecture on its uses. Instead, the robot device stands in the corner, and Alex, James, and Henry are all in wheelchairs, playing office basketball with Finn. The ball is a soft one, and they’re obviously in two teams—Alex and Finn against James and Henry. The plastic hoop is stuck to the wall.

There’s lots of shouting and laughter, and my lips curve up as I watch Alex park his chair in front of James’s to intercept the ball, then pass it to Finn, who neatly steers around Henry to shoot the ball through the hoop. Finn whoops and goes over to Alex, and they high five.

Finn spots us and waves, and Alex looks up. “We’re unbeatable,” he says, spinning his chair in a circle. Finn watches, then copies him, and Juliette sends me a smile.

“Come on,” she says, leading the way down the stairs.

James and Henry rise from their chairs and fold them up, but Alex stays seated as we walk up to them, playing with the ball.

“How did you get on with THOR?” I ask Finn.

“It was brilliant,” he says enthusiastically. “Just like a Transformer. I tried it on, and Alex showed me how to stand up and sit down using the controls. It’s so cool.” He laughs then as Alex throws the ball at him and it bounces off his head.

“He did great,” Alex says, catching the ball as Finn tosses it back. “We went through some of the games, and he’s going to try The Knights of Avalon. It’s an Arthurian adventure where you have to quest for the Holy Grail.”

“I play a knight wearing a suit of armor,” Finn says. “You have to do all these exercises that real knights had to do.”

“Tilting at windmills,” Alex says.

I smile at Finn. “Did you get to—” I stop as the ball bounces off my head, and my gaze slides to Alex.

“Sorry,” he says, not looking the least bit mortified, and Finn giggles.

“I think it’s time we went home,” I say wryly.

“Aw…” Finn obviously doesn’t want to go, which I take as a sign that he’s gotten over his accident and is enjoying himself.

“Thank you all so much,” I say to them. “Except for you.” I poke my tongue out at Alex, and his lips curve up.

I take the handles of Finn’s chair. “We’ll see you on April the third.”

Alex hooks his foot under Finn’s chair and turns him to face him. “What are you doing on Saturday?”

“Nothing,” Finn says.

“Wanna go up in the helicopter then?” Alex asks.

Finn’s jaw drops. He looks up at me, his eyes widening. “Can we?”

I meet Alex’s gaze. As usual, he’s not smiling, but his eyes are sparkling.

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