Page 15 of One More Baby for the Boss

“It’s all right.” She drew a breath. “I think of myself as having bad luck because I lost my family nine years ago.”

For a moment he didn’t know what to say. He had thought she might be about to tell him about a love affair gone wrong or something of that nature — he hadn’t expected this. “Your whole family?”

“My parents and my brother and sister.”

“What happened?”

“It was a house fire.” Her voice was steady, but she wasn’t looking at him. She seemed as if the only way she could bring herself to keep talking was by keeping her gaze lowered. “My bedroom was at the back of the house, and I was able to get out through a window before the fire got too bad. But nobody else made it out alive.”

“My God,” he murmured. “That’s awful.”

“The fire investigators said it was just a freak thing. For a while I was sure I must have done something wrong — left an appliance on or something. It was the only way to explain why I had lived when everyone else had been killed. I thought I was being punished for causing the fire, and that my punishment was to live with the consequences of what I had done.”

“Of course that’s not why,” Elijah murmured.

Alex nodded. “I know that now,” she said, taking a sip of her wine. “But there were some hard years. I had a lot of survivor’s guilt to work through.”

“I know what you mean,” Elijah said softly. “I felt the same way after Jack’s mother died.”

“Did you?”

“Jack was a surprise to us,” he explained. “And of course I’m thrilled that I have him now. I wouldn’t change it for anything in the world. But when I first learned that Stephanie was pregnant, I didn’t handle it so well. It took me a long time to feel joyful about the fact that we were having a baby, but she was thrilled about it from minute one. Sometimes, after she died, I wished I’d been the one to get sick. She was so much better for Jack than I’ll ever be. She’s the one he deserves, and he’s stuck with me instead. It still breaks my heart.”

“Grief is hell, isn’t it?” Alex said.

“It sure is.”

Something loosened in his chest as he said it. It felt good, after all these years, to speak those words aloud.Grief is hell. It feltgood to admit to how terrible the grieving process had made him feel, and how empty and lost he still felt sometimes.

He hated that Alex had lost her family. But at the same time, it was such a relief to finally feel as though someone understood this pain.

And yet… she was a stranger to him. She had only been in their lives for a week. How could he already be talking to her about Stephanie? He had never spoken to anyone about Stephanie. The grief he felt about losing her was the most private and visceral thing in his life. It wasn’t something to be shared with a member of his household staff, even if the two of them had decided to drink a little wine together.

He could walk this back. He could turn this night back into something appropriate. “Why don’t we go set a fire in the fire pit out back?” he suggested. “That’s always nice on nights like this, and it’s been a long time since I’ve gotten the chance to use it.”

“I think that would be fun,” Alex agreed. “I love fire pits.”

He led the way out through the back patio doors. The fire pit was built into the ground in the center of the patio, surrounded by comfortable outdoor furniture. Alex sank into a chair as Elijah began to work on the fire. In a moment, he had a crackling blaze going.

“I’m surprised you haven’t hired someone to do that,” she noted dryly.

He laughed. “I love building fires,” he said. “That’s one task I’ll never hand off to anyone else.”

“I know what you mean,” she said. “Some things are too good to give up to anyone else.”

He sat down in the chair beside her and the two of them watched as the flames grew higher, lighting up the night.

CHAPTER 7

ALEX

“This is really beautiful,” Alex said, relaxing into her chair and swirling the wine glass she held gently. “If I had a fire pit like this, I’d probably be out at it every night.”

“It’s been quite some time since I used this one,” Elijah said. “I just never seem to have the time for it.”

“You know who I think would love this? Jack.” Alex smiled at the idea. Even though she and Jack were new to one another, she already felt she understood him well enough to predict how he would respond to an evening by the fire pit. He would love it. He always liked trying new things, and the fact that his father would be involved would put the matter over the top for him.

But Elijah was shaking his head. “We don’t need to bring Jack out here,” he said. “It’s not really a fit place for a child. There would be nothing for him to do. I can’t see him enjoying himself.”

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