Page 33 of Maid for My Billionaire Boss
She looked at the car, before her eyes returned to me. Then she swept her eyes back to the car before raising both brows and fixing her eyes steady on me. “You’re serious?”
“Of course, I’m serious.”Okay, I did hear a minor squeak in my voice that time. New plan. Deep breath and focus on lowering my tone.
“Why would you get me a car?”
I raised one shoulder, feeling it should be obvious and maybe I was still scared to talk, but she kept staring at me like she was expecting me to talk, so I forced out, “We talked about it, remember?”
“As a joke.” Her eyes took another pass at the car, glittering over it. “This is way too much of a gift.”
“It’s a minor work benefit.” I couldn’t handle talking anymore. As much as I loved being a boss who could spoil his staff,thiswasn’t really about that.
This was about Atalie.
I was selfish in that I had wanted a reason to see her on her week off, and I wanted her tolikeme. Even more, I loved the softness etched in the stolen glances she gave me in between the exploratory looks she gave her car. I could have bottled that moment if it had been an option. But there was still another huge part of the surprise, so I clapped my hands once and ushered them toward the car, opening the driver’s side car door for her. “You still have another surprise, and you get to drive.”
“This is crazy,” she said, but she didn’t need more convincing before hopping into the driver’s seat. I ran around to shotgun while Josiah jumped in the back. “Okay.” She looked at me, her eyes filled with wonder. “Where am I going?”
“I typed the address in the GPS.”
“Another secret.”
“It’s easier to show you than to explain it.”
She gave me a sassy quirt of an eyebrow. “And you promise it’s not a swamp thing?”
I picked up on her playfulness. “It’s not a swamp or a shredder.”
Her lips caved beautifully, pinning the most perfect smile in place, brightening her face like an ambient light that produced the perfect canvas for every emotion on the spectrum of joy. Catching me completely off guard, I was captivated by her and spent the next nine minutes trying not to stare.
“It looks like some sort of a school,” Atalie thought out loud when she pulled into the long private drive a few minutes later. She glanced at me briefly, “Is this it? Should I park?”
“Right up here.” I motioned to the visitor parking spots. “They’re expecting us.”
“I’m so confused right now,” Atalie said as she hopped out of the car. “I seriously thought we were going to have lunch.”
I chuckled, totally feeling food would have been a good surprise too. “Are you hungry?” I waited on the sidewalk for them to join me. “We can grab something when we’re done.”
“I was hungry. Now I’m excited and you know how my sensitive stomach gets.” Atalie flashed me a warning look and patted her middle.
“It won’t take that long.” I put my hand on her lower back, guiding her forward up the front steps, past the colonnade façade. Looking back at Josiah, who was still lagging, dragging his feet I called to him, “Come on, Josiah. This is all about you.”
He gave me a coy smile, hinting he was being shy of me. I realized although, I had seen him almost every day, I hadn’t ever gone out of my way to engage with him before. I understood how this might feel odd to him. I slowed my steps, synchronizing with his. “Have you figured it out yet?”
“It’s a private school. It said so on the sign.” His voice was unimpressed, like I would expect any kid his age to think about school.
“It is,” I agreed as we pushed through the heavy doors. “I went to school here, and it’s one of the best private schools in the country. I can’t wait for you to see it.” My voice trailed off at the end because I saw my friend, Tony, waiting for us outside of his office door. “Good morning, Tony.” I reached out, shaking his hand, and then put a hand on Josiah’s shoulder. “This is the young man I was telling you about. His name is Josiah. He’s exceptionally bright and excited to see your school today.”
“Nice to meet you, Josiah.” Tony reached out to shake Josiah’s hand. Josiah received his hand but eyed Tony suspiciously, like he wasn’t sure what planet he was from. I should have probably prepped Josiah a little more about why we were here. Tony turned to Atalie with his hand still extended. “I’m Tony Bran, the Headmaster here. Nice to me you—”
“That’s Atalie. She’s my . . .” I should have let her introduce herself, but I felt like since I was the shared link, I had to make the connection, but I got stuck. I didn’t want to say maid because that sounded so demeaning. Never thought about it before, but she needed a better title. She definitely was so much more than a maid. “She’s my, ah . . . She’s my Atalie.” I went stone-faced when I heard how that sounded, and the heat in my face flushed all the way to my ears.
Atalie took Tony’s hand. “I’m Josiah’s mother, Atalie. I work for Trey. Nice to meet you, Mr. Bran.”
“And you as well.” After shaking Atalie’s hand, Tony looked back to Josiah. “Would you like to see my school?”
Josiah’s eyes floated to his mom, who grinned back at him. When Josiah looked back to Tony, he shrugged. “I guess.”
Tony led the way, talking directly to Josiah. “Our school has two main concerns. One, futurism is at the head of everything we teach. Our programs teach information valuable today and in years to come. However, we can’t just teach futurism, unless we understand our past. We pride ourselves on having ample literature studies to assist our history programs and we have one of the most impressive libraries, housing both physical and digital collections. We also have extensive creative time to round everything out.”
