Page 33 of Billionaire Enemy's Baby
“I think I’m relieved,” she finally whispers. “Because if he suddenly starts coming into Mya’s life now it might get really complicated.” She pauses for just a moment. “But then I’m also really angry because how dare he? How dare he come back into town with no intention of seeing his daughter.”
I shush her because I don’t want Mya to overhear. “I suppose his family is all here. It’s not a surprise that he’s back in town. I should have expected it.”
“After five years?” Mom is disbelieving, I understand that, but I really need her to just go along with it because I can’t get into this now.
“I don’t know, that seems pretty crazy. The fact that he’s just turned up like that after all this time… seems like he wants something from me. Are you not concerned about this? Because I know I am.”
I gulp. “Mom, I don’t know. I guess yes, I am worried about it, but what can I do? I will just have to wait to see what’s going to come my way. Deal with it when I need to.”
Mom doesn’t look convinced by this, but she doesn’t get a chance to say anything because Mya bounds back into the room, ready to leave for school. I’m sure I’ll hear about it tonight, because Mom will be stewing on it all day long, but I’ll deal with it then.
I just need to get through one day at a time. The only good thing about today is that I can be pretty sure I won’t have to deal with Josh. Surely there’s no way he’ll come into Wyatt’s workplace today. Not after our argument yesterday and my brutal rejection of him. Plus, he was acting really strange in front of his brother.
Wyatt is definitely suspicious of him.
I don’t think I’d be able to cope if I had to worry abouthimas well.
“We’re going to go, Mom,” I tell her with a knowing smile. “I’ll be back later, and we can really talk everything through. But there’s nothing to worry about at the moment. I’m going to handle it. Everything will be fine.”
If only I could really be as confident as I’m pretending to be. I know she won’t stop worrying and neither will I. But I scoot Mya out the door anyway and hold it together for her sake. She doesn’t need to be worrying about Josh Macauley as well as the rest of us.
With a bit of luck, we’ll get through this time without her having to know anything about him at all. He’ll be in New York City soon and all of this won’t mean a thing…
* * *
Ding.
What the hell?
No, surely not. There’s no way. Why is Josh here now? I’ve utterly convinced myself that there will be no sight of him today, but here he is, strolling in through the door like things didn’t go to shit the day before. My heart flies up into my mouth, especially because this isn’t lunchtime. This isn’t the time to try and grab a moment alone with me. The office is busy, it’s filled with people, and a lot of them have turned around to stare at him with open curiosity.
But he clearly only has eyes for me. He’s staring at me, grinning like we’re the best of friends still.
What the hell is going on inside that man’s head?
He steps closer to me before producing a bouquet of roses from behind his back. My blood ices over, I feel sick to my stomach, the butterflies flap harder and far more violently. What is all of this? Did Josh not hear me at all yesterday?
I could scream in frustration.
If it was just me and him then that’s probably what I would have done. I can’t make a scene at work though, so I lean back and silently beg him with my eyes to stop whatever he is doing.
But he either doesn’t hear my silent plea, or he chooses to ignore it completely because he hands over the roses to me and leans down to kiss me on the cheek. The physical affection feels nice, even among all the anxiety zig zagging through my body.
“Lexi, I have been meaning to ask you this ever since I got back to Beaufort,” he starts to say in a grandiose manner, drawing even more attention to us than he already had. Shit, I can feel myself burning with embarrassment, this is way too much. I’m definitely not used to all of this. A nice romantic gesture, sure, but way too much.
“I want to take you out on the town for a date. Me and you. Drinks and dinner, what do you say?”
Someone calls out, telling me to ‘say yes’, which makes me shrink in on myself more. I rise up slowly from my seat before I bolt for the front door. I know I shouldn’t run out on work like this, but Josh is overwhelming me, and I can’t stand everyone’s eyes on me. I need to get out of here. Right now! If Wyatt wants to yell at me, he can do that later.
But I can’t seem to move towards the exit. So I rest my hands on my hips and stare upwards, blinking back all the emotions that threaten to consume me whole. I’m not supposed to be dealing with Josh today, I thought he would give me a break, I thought we were done, that I made my feelings clear.
What thehellis going on? Why is he doing this to me?
“Erm, I don’t know if….” I start, very quietly, but it doesn’t make any difference because everyone is straining in to listen anyway. God this is humiliating, I absolutely hate it. I try to fix my eyes downwards and on anything else but him, but it doesn’t make any difference. His presence is enough to have me absolutely on edge. “That might not be the best…”
“Don’t you think we need to talk?” He cocks his head to one side as he asks me this meaningfully. “I’m pretty sure that this would be a good opportunity for us to hang out and have fun, get to know one another a bit more now. Talk things through…”
“Tell him yes, honey!” someone else calls, making all my insides squirm with disbelief. Can’t everyone tell how uncomfortable this is making me? Why the hell would you want to want to put yourself in the middle of that? It doesn’t make any sense to me.
