Page 44 of One More Baby for the Boss

“Like Mom,” Jack said.

“Not like Mom. Mom didn’t want to leave. She would never have wanted to leave.”

“But Alex didn’t want to either,” Jack protested.

“She did, Jack. That’s the reason she went. She wanted to go.”

“I don’t think so,” Jack said. “She was happy here. She liked me. She likedus, Dad. She told me she liked you.”

“She did?” Elijah very much did not want to pry too hard into that conversation. Hearing about how Alex had liked him after all would only make him feel worse about everything that had happened. But was it true? Was it possible that she had cared as much about him as he had about her?

If she had, why would she have left? He wouldn’t have sent her away. The thought would never have crossed his mind. Howcouldshe have left if she had anything like the feelings he had?

“She said she really loved it here,” Jack said. “That’s what she told me. That she hadn’t felt like any place was her home in a long time, but shedidfeel at home with us. And if she felt like that, why would she leave?”

“I guess we can’t know, Jack. We can never know what other people are thinking.”

Jack got up from the table. “I don’t feel like coloring anymore,” he said quietly. “You can keep using the crayons if you want.”

“Jack, are you angry at me?”

Jack shrugged. “It doesn’t matter,” he said. “I don’t care if you get another nanny or don’t. But I guess you should, because you’re going to have to stop spending time with me and start working a lot again.”

“That’s not true,” Elijah protested. “That’s not something that has to change, Jack. Things between us will stay the same even now that Alex is gone.”

“No, they won’t,” Jack said. “Everything always changes. Nobody ever stays. And you won’t either.”

Elijah closed his eyes. Hedidhave to work today, at least a little bit. There was no getting out of it. And Jack would feel his absence more than he had while Alex was here. Right now, he would have given anything to have her back.

But Jack was right. Alex had left them, and not because she’d been unhappy here. The problem had been that she had felt unwelcome. When she had tried to make her opinions known,Elijah had told her off. She must have felt as if she couldn’t come to him and talk about what she thought or felt. She must have felt as if she couldn’t do her best to give Jack the things he needed. Of course she wouldn’t want to stay under those conditions.

And as far as what she may or may not have felt about Elijah himself… well, she had liked him. At least, he thought she had. But it hadn’t been enough to keep her from leaving. So it was probably for the best that she had gone. After all, he had cared about her enough to want her to stay forever, and if she hadn’t felt the same way, the two of them didn’t belong in each other’s lives. They were in too deep for Elijah to have her here and know that she didn’t return his feelings, and he couldn’t possibly walk them back now.

He shouldn’t have slept with her. Ithadbeen a mistake. If they’d never had that night, he would have felt able to beg her to stay. It wouldn’t have tormented him so much to think that she didn’t want to be here of her own accord.

CHAPTER 21

ALEX

“Lady, I asked for five donuts, not six!”

Alex did her best to keep the smile on her face as she faced the angry man on the other side of the bakery counter. “You did,” she agreed. “But we sell boxes of two, six, or twelve. I would have had to charge you the same price for five, so I went ahead and threw the sixth one in there for you at no additional charge.”

“But I don’twantsix,” the man snarled. “And I shouldn’t be charged for six if I’m not going to eat them all — that’s outrageous.”

Alex sighed inwardly. “If you’d like you can pay for your donuts individually,” she said. “But donuts cost two dollars each, and the price for a box of six is ten dollars. So it’s going to come out to the same thing.”

“You’re cheating me,” he raged. “You’re charging me for something I didn’t order.” He threw the donuts down onto the counter. “I don’t want any of these now. You’ve lost my business. Give me back my money.”

Alex, who had been through this with her manager enough times now to know how that would turn out, opened the register and handed the man his money back. “I hope you have a nice day,” she said.

The man growled incoherently at her, turned and stalked out the door.

Alex glanced at her watch. She wasn’t a fan of this job, though she was able to acknowledge that her last job had spoiled her tremendously. Nothing was going to be as good as working for Elijah and Jack. Certainly food service would never hold a candle to it. But it was the first job she had been able to find in Herald Springs, the town she had decided to settle in.

It wasn’t like her to stay this close to the last place she’d been. In the past, after leaving a job behind, she would travel to a whole new state to look for something else. That was part of what had made her life so exciting — the knowledge that there was always something new around every corner, that she wouldn’t be settling into a rut. And now here she was, less than a hundred miles away from Hope’s Creek, unable to let go of the past.

It was just too difficult to think about leaving. Saying goodbye to Elijah and Jack was the hardest thing she had done in nearly a decade. She knew that once she crossed state lines, she would feel a sense of finality about the whole thing. Staying here was a way of delaying that feeling.

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