Page 16 of One More Baby for the Boss

“Sure he would,” Alex said. “I could teach him how to make s’mores. Has he ever done that before? I bet he’d love it. All littlekids love s’mores.” She hesitated. “Maybe you and I could make a plan to bring him out here next week sometime? If we plan ahead, that might give you enough time to arrange your work schedule so that you could be out here with the two of us.”

“There’s no way I could ever bring Jack out here,” Elijah said, in a tone that made it clear that the conversation was over. “And I don’t want you to do that either.”

But Alex wasn’t ready to let the matter go. Maybe it was the wine loosening her up, but she felt bold enough to speak her mind. “Why not?”

“He’s not well-behaved enough to be trusted around open flames. Imagine if he had one of his fits. He could end up seriously hurting himself, or causing damage to something. I can’t take that kind of risk.”

“I think you might be overestimating how dangerous it would be,” Alex said. “I know you worry about him, but he really is a very well-behaved little kid. I’ve found his outbursts to be fairly easy to predict and control, and I think if he was invited to spend time with you at the fire pit, there’s not even a chance we’d see any acting out.”

“You can’t know that,” Elijah objected.

“Elijah…” Alex hesitated for a moment. Did she dare to say this? “Jack acts out because he wants you to notice him. That’s what’s causing it.”

He narrowed his eyes. “What are you talking about?”

“I know you were willing to listen when I suggested that he might benefit from a more involved parenting style, so I have to hope you’ll be willing to hear me about this too,” Alex said. “Youkeep referring to the fact that Jack has behavior issues. Well, the reason he has them is that he wants attention from his father. He’s noticed that you pay the most attention to him when he’s acting up.”

“Are you saying I shouldn’t?” Elijah demanded. “I have to pay attention when he acts that way.”

“I’m saying you should give him attention when he’snotbehaving badly,” Alex said. “You have to show him that he doesn’t need to act that way in order to get your attention.”

“I do pay attention to him,” Elijah said sharply. “You’ve only been here for a week, Alex. You don’t know everything about us. These ideas you have are very clever, but do you really think I haven’t paid any attention at all to my child over the past four years? I have been raising him on my own since his mother died, you know, and I’ve managed to keep him healthy.”

“I didn’t mean that.” Alex blushed, grateful for the darkness. Perhaps she shouldn’t have said anything. But on the other hand… she did think she was right about what she was saying. Jackdidneed more from his father. And someone needed to say these things to Elijah. It was possible that she was the only one who would ever do it, and if that was true, she had a responsibility here. She had to do the right thing by Jack.

So she steeled herself and continued. “I’m not saying you haven’t done a good job raising him and providing for him,” she said. “You’re right. Idon’tknow much about what’s happened throughout his life. And I do see that he’s healthy and well taken care of. But at the same time, I’ve spent enough time around him now to understand him a little bit. He’s a lonely kid, Elijah. I am completely confident that if he was able to spend a littlemore time with his father, you would see a massive change in his behavior.”

Elijah’s expression darkened. “It’s easy for you to come in here and tell us how we’re supposed to be living, I guess,” he said. “You haven’t been through what we have in the past few years. You don’t know how hard it is to have the job I do and also try to raise a kid. It’s easy for you to tell me I’m not doing a good job — you don’t know what it’s like.”

“I’m not saying you aren’t doing a good job,” Alex protested.

“Well, that’s what I’m hearing,” Elijah said, getting to his feet. “Put the fire out if you decide to go in, please. You can put the lid over the pit.”

“Elijah—” Alex felt awful. She shouldn’t have said anything. But at the same time, it had needed to be said. She hadn’t meant to upset him like this, but someone needed to tell him the truth about what Jack needed from him.

Elijah walked off toward the patio door and went inside without looking back, leaving Alex alone to wonder if she had ruined everything already.

Alex hardly slept at all that night. She lay in her bed staring up at the ceiling, wondering whether the first thing that would happen in the morning would be Elijah pulling her aside to fire her.

She’d convinced herself that it didn’t matter if he did. She had been willing to step up and tell him the things she felt he needed to hear about Jack because it was okay if she lost this job. But now, lying in bed and thinking about the expression on his faceas she’d talked to him tonight, she began to question herself. Could she really stand to leave Jack so soon after she had arrived here? It had seemed so important to express to Elijah how lonely his son was. But wouldn’t Jack be even more lonely if Alex was fired? Maybe she should have been more careful.

And then there was the matter of leaving Elijah himself. She was surprised to find that she didn’t want to do that either. The fact of the matter was that, before their argument last night, they had been having a good time. It had been a long time since Alex had felt able to open up to anyone about the loss of her family, and the fact that he had been through something similar had made her feel deeply understood.

She was hesitant in leaving her room the following morning, expecting a confrontation. She was sure Elijah would be waiting for her outside in the hall so that he could call her away and dismiss her before she had a chance to go to Jack. But the hall was empty. Feeling as if something unpleasant was lurking over her shoulder, Alex went next door to Jack’s room, knocked, and opened the door.

He was sitting on the edge of his bed, already dressed for the day and with a picture book open on his lap. He grinned up at her. “I picked out my own clothes,” he announced.

“I see that!” It was something she had noticed he didn’t usually do, having gathered that the routine was for Dora to lay clothes out for him. And, in fact, she saw a folded outfit on top of the dresser that looked as if it hadn’t been touched. “You didn’t want to wear what Dora chose?”

“I wanted to show you my dinosaur shirt.” Jack held his arms out to either side so that she could take it in.

“I love it,” she told him. “What kind of dinosaur is that?”

“Ankylosaurus.”

“You know a lot about dinosaurs!”

He held up the book he had been reading. “I learned about them here,” he explained.

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