Page 41 of One More Baby for the Boss

He blinked, clearly not processing what she was saying. “What do you mean?”

“It’s time for me to move on,” she said. “I’ve got another job I have to go do.” She didn’t, of course, but she’d find one. She always did. Every time her bad luck caught up with her and forced her to move on from something, she inevitably found something else. It would happen again this time. It was just that, this time, she would be leaving more of herself behind than she ever had before.

“But you belong here with us,” Jack said, sounding more confused than anything else. “I thought you were going to stay.”

It was the worst possible moment, so of course that was the moment Elijah chose to open the door and come into the kitchen. He stood there regarding the two of them for a moment.

“Were you listening?” Alex asked him.

“I heard you,” he said.

“Do you have anything to say?”

“Sounds like you’ve made up your mind.” His voice was frosty. It made her feel sick to her stomach. The two of them had gotten so close — or so she had thought. Had none of that been real? Had he been faking it the whole time? Or maybe it had always been conditional — maybe he had only gotten close to her in hopes of persuading her to stay with Jack. Hell, maybe he had only opened up to her emotionally because he’d wanted to get her into bed.

Even now, she couldn’t bring herself to regret that it had worked. That night had been too good. She was going to remember it forever, and even though it had ruined everything, she was still glad it had happened. She judged herself for that, of course. She should have regretted it. But she didn’t.

She cleared her throat. “I meant, is there anything you want to say to Jack?” Surely he’d want to comfort his son right now. He would want to tell Jack not to worry, that the two of them would have each other after Alex was gone. There was no way he could pass up the moment to do that.

“I’ll hire another nanny, Jack,” Elijah said. “Don’t worry about it. We’ll find someone who isn’t going to take off on us.”

Jack’s lower lip quivered. “I want Alex, though,” he said. “She’s part of the family.”

“She’s not part of the family,” Elijah said. It wasn’t cruel, the way he said it — it was as if he was imparting a fact — but Alex still felt as if she’d been slapped. He was completely right. She wasn’t a part of this family. It was why she had to leave now, beforethings got worse. But hearing him say it so casually, as if it didn’t matter — that was painful.

“I put her on my family tree,” Jack said.

Alex couldn’t let this go on. “It’s okay, Jack,” she told him. “That family tree — that’s like a photo. You know your dad’s photo album?”

Jack nodded.

“It’s like that,” she said. “It’s a memory you can keep. You can look at it and remember the time I spent here with you and the good times we had. We had some fun together, right?”

“Yeah,” he whispered. She could tell he was trying not to cry.

“Whenever you look at the tree, you can remember the time I spent as part of your family,” she said. “That was real. And you can remember the fact that I care about you, because that’s real too. That’s not going away just because I have to leave.”

“Don’t drag this out,” Elijah said.

Irritation sparked inside her. He wasn’t helping. But then… maybe he was right. Maybe she wasn’t making this easier for anyone either. A clean break would probably be what was best for Jack. She should go now so that he could start to heal.

Packing had taken no time at all. Even though she was used to traveling light, it was kind of shocking to see how little she had to take away from this place with her. Nothing had ever felt so much like leaving home, and it felt as if she was forgetting something important — something irreplaceable — as she walked out to the car.

But there was nothing left in that house that she could call her own. There was nothing that she could take with her. She put her suitcase in the trunk of her car and slammed it, fighting back tears. It wouldn’t be appropriate for her to start crying now. She had to stay strong as long as she was where Jack could see her — and besides, she didn’t want Elijah to see her break down.

I really thought he might beg me to stay.

She couldn’t decide if she had wanted him to do that or not. It would certainly have made it harder to leave. But maybe she wouldn’t have left if it had been like that. Maybe that would have been the sign she needed that it was all right to stick around.

It hadn’t happened, so she would never know.

Jack came barreling out of the house. Alex caught him as he flung his arms around her waist. “Please stay, Alex,” he said, looking up at her with wide eyes.

Alex looked back toward the house. Elijah wasn’t coming out. It was the plea she had been imagining, but it was coming from the wrong person.

“I have to go,” she said, stepping out of his embrace but keeping hold of his hands. “But you’ll be okay, Jack. You’ve got your dad. You two can take care of each other. And whenever you think of me — just look at those mountains over there.” She pointed off to the west.

“The mountains?” Jack squinted at them.

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