Page 40 of Maid for My Billionaire Boss
Itwasamistaketo come to the beach tonight with the high winds. We crossed the sand behind the pier where Mom said she walked earlier, and lucky for us the pier was empty. I suspected it had to do with the nearing storm. The only person I did see was a man walking his dog far out in the distance. “Where did you say you were?” I waited for her to give me some directions, but she was distracted, craning her neck as if she thought her earring would be walking toward her.
“Let’s head back this way and start along the water,” I planned out loud since she gave me nothing to go on. Before I could step, I startled by a voice from behind us.
“Hey, you guys.”
I identified her voice before I turned around, but it didn’t lighten my breath. If anything, I stiffened. Atalie was walking toward us with Josiah trailing behind her. “What are you doing here?” I called, wondering why she would pick tonight in this near storm to come out.
“I’m meeting your mom for her book club.” Her eyes bounced to my mom, and I instantly got suspicious about what Mom was up to. I turned to her, shaking my head. “Since when do you have a book club?”
“Oh dear.” Mom’s hand flew to her chest. “Did I get my nights mixed up?” Looking over at me, she tacked on, “Tell me it’s Wednesday, right?”
“No, Mother.” I smiled, amused as I went on, “It’s Tuesday and even if it was Wednesday, you still wouldn’t have a book club.”
“Oh hush.” She playfully batted her hand at me, pushing the center of my chest. “It’s a new thing I started.” When she looked at Atalie, her face held an apology. “I’m deeply sorry, I have been so spacey lately. I forgot what night it was, but it’s good we ran into you. I had asked Trey to help me find my earring. I think I lost it somewhere . . .” She scanned the beach a couple of times like she was scouting for the perfect place to sunbathe before pointing to the farthest point from where we stood. “Somewhere over there.” Patting a long tote she had under her arm, she added, “I brought my metal detector.” She made a deliberate look at Josiah as she pulled the wand out of the tote. “You know, young people are so much better with technology than us old people. Josiah, I bet, you’d be good at helping me work this thing. Why don’t you come with me?” Her eyes smacked Atalie and she added, “I was also by the water. Can you and Trey go look way over there?”
A curious smile budded on Josiah’s lips, and that’s when I understood this was a trap—and little innocent Josiah had been in on it. My mom started walking away with a boisterous matchmakey smile on her face, and called back, “It’ll just take a second for us to run over there.”
Josiah was fast on her heels, with little snickers piping out of his mouth as the duo marched off together like they couldn’t get away fast enough. A chuckle brewed in my chest because I wasstunned.I figured Mom had been up to something, making me go on an earring hunt in this coming storm but I didn’t thinkthiswas what she had in mind.
Atalie’s eyes landed on mine, and they were broadcasting some serious nervous energy. “What was that?”
“That . . .” I spiked an eyebrow, equal parts amused and bewildered. "I’m pretty sure it was a setup.”
“What? Why . . . would she get that idea?” Her eyes fled to the backs of Josiah and my mom as they continued to walk farther away, not even peeking back once.
“Not just my mother,” I teased, enjoying the opportunity to banter with her at a time when my words were actually working. It would just be a moment and they’d break again, but I took advantage of the glitch and added, “It was pretty clear your son was in on that too.”
“Remind me to ground him for life when he gets back.” Her comment should have sounded like a joke, but her voice came out in breathless whisps, almost like she was suffering. I caught my bottom lip in my teeth and held my breath, knowing I was witnessing her vulnerability.
It had nothing to do with grounding Josiah.
It had everything to do with the way she kept looking at me.
She felt this weird thing too.
Earlier at the house today was too much to ignore. However, underneath what I thought was her want, I felt her resistance, because she always found a way to pull away. I didn’t want to make her uncomfortable, but that left us both dancing around this thing—apparently, we weren’t the only ones who saw it.
“I wouldn’t be that hard on him.” There was nothing cheeky about my comment when I went on, “He’s not a bad kid.” I slowly shrugged like it was helping to ease my words out. Oddly, I was grateful for my mom for setting up this opportunity to talk to Atalie. It’s exactly what we needed, some time away from the house and work. Time to talk. I wasn’t going to waste it. “I, ah . . . wouldn’t mind taking a walk with you.” I pointed to where Mother had asked us to look. “If you think that’d be okay?”
There was a mild twinkle in her eye that softened the potency from the whirlwind of emotions I could see she was unsuccessfully concealing. She nodded just once and together we took slow intentional strides toward the water. The movement served as the perfect transition I needed to fill in the awkward gap of words. When we’d walked a good distance, I saw her shoulders relax, and I didn’t want to risk making her nervous again by getting too personal right away. “So.” My words came out casually. “Tell me something about you I don’t know.”
“I’m really not that interesting,” she rushed. “My life is Josiah and work.”
“You must do something for fun.” I was super impressed with myself for staying calm. It was so different than how I had felt earlier. Something about the timing—or maybe it was having Mom and Josiah on our side—but I relaxed, feeling like this was meant to be. “You can’t work all the time?”
She let out a sigh that started as disgruntled but the tail end of it fizzled into something I swore was amusement. “Nope, just work. I have a real boss hole.”
A surprised chuckle tumbled out of my mouth. “I deserve that.” Caught off guard, I bit my lip about the boss comment because she had a few points she could easily use to back that up.
“Well.” Her head tilted thoughtfully to the side, and the corners of her lips curled up. “I mean he isn’talwaysterrible.”
That’s what I needed to see. Not her making fun of me, but her opening up. I pressed on, “Something besides work. Any hidden talents?”
“This is not what you want to hear,” she said with a serious face, "but I can throw up on command.”
“Right.” I motioned to her stomach. “Your sensitive blood sugar thing.”
“It’s more than a sensitivity. It’s literally a switch. I just have to think about it and it’s done. It’s a superpower.”
