Page 59 of Help Wanted

“Oh my God. You’re diddling your secretary!” his mother said, sounding both appalled and annoyed. Kenley let her hand drop down by her side as her mouth fell open in shock.

“No, I’m not.” Zane denied it emphatically.

“Do you see this, Randy? This is your fault. Fooling around with one’s subordinates apparently runs in the family. At least your son isn’t married.”

“Just kill me already. It would be better than hearing this again. It was eleven years ago, for Christ’s sake. A moment of weakness. What do you want me to do, cut my balls off and hand ’em over?”

“Please. What would I want with those shriveled up things?” She rolled her eyes. “Look, little Miss Secretary, Jackson men are incapable of settling down. You should run now. Save yourself.”

Kenley could barely swallow, her throat was so dry. There was no way she could talk. Before Tim had come out with the good news, Kenley had been worrying about all the possible pitfalls of having an affair with her boss.

She hadn’t even contemplated what would happen if everyone found out. She hadn’t made it ten seconds. What if Brady and Paul found out?

“Mom, knock it off. We’re not sleeping together. She’s my employee, that’s the extent of our relationship. I would never sleep with an employee.” Zane sounded very convincing. If it weren’t for the fact that employees generally didn’t accompany their bosses to the hospital in wrinkled clothing, it might have worked.

While she’d been in total agreement that they keep their relationship a secret just minutes before, she found his dismissal hurt. She wasn’t cut out for this kind of thing. She didn’t know how to be suave and sophisticated.

She wanted to go back to how things had been in her hotel room. When it was just the two of them and nothing else mattered. She didn’t want to think about how they would make it work in the office, and definitely not how it would feel to be accused of inappropriate behavior and actually be guilty this time. What had she done?

“You’re making an ass out of yourself, Diane. Let the boy do what he wants. He’s young. Don’t get yourself strapped down, son. Nail everything that moves while you still can.”

“Do you want him to get some sort of disease?” his mother went on. “And he’s twenty-eight. That’s not that young. He should be thinking about having a family. If he’s capable of such a thing after being tainted with your genes.”

Kenley backed away from the argument. It was easy to do since Zane was still insisting he hadn’t diddled his secretary, and his father was patting his back proudly for doing just that. In another time she might have laughed at someone actually using the word diddling, but it wasn’t funny yet.

Instead of going out the main entrance, she walked through the emergency room and found a cab waiting at the curb where it had just dropped someone off.

She could get her bag another time. She just needed to escape.

Zane had asked her if she had regrets, and at the time she hadn’t. But as the cab pulled up at her apartment, she couldn’t help but feel stupid and naïve.

The best night of her life had been nothing more than a one-night stand with her boss, and she’d just now figured it out.

* * *

As she showered she tried to calm down. She began sorting things into pros and cons. It was always a logical way to come to a decision when she was too emotional. So far everything on the list of whether or not it was okay to sleep with one’s boss was in the cons column.

“Damn it!”

She pulled out her phone after getting dressed and pulling her wet hair up in a ponytail.

“Hey, how’s it going?” Alyssa asked.

“I need cheesecake. Can you meet me at Junior’s?”

“Of course. See you in a bit.”

“Thanks.”

* * *

He couldn’t figure out where she could have gone. One second Kenley was standing next to him during the worst conversation ever, and then she was just gone.

He’d searched everywhere but couldn’t find her. He’d called and texted. Nothing. Not that he could blame her for blowing him off. He’d fucked up.

He should never have encouraged her to stay with him at the hospital. Not when he knew the hounds of hell were descending. Of course she’d run away without a word. His parents were hideous.

And he hadn’t been much better.