She had not. I would have remembered a detail like that. I was sure of it. She had kept the information from me.
“Willow?”
“Ashton,” she answered in her usual flippant way.
“Can I have a word?”
She bit her lower lip. Her nonchalance had vanished and now she looked worried. As she should. I was not happy to have a kid in my office. “Right now?” she squeaked.
“Yes, right now please,” I said, trying to keep my temper under control.
She let out a dramatic sigh. “Just a second,” she said before turning to the boy. “Sit here and don’t move. Don’t touch anything.”
“Okay, Mom,” he answered, confirming my suspicion. Really, it wasn’t hard to figure out he was her son, but part of me was hoping she would tell me she found the kid wandering the street and brought him in to keep him safe.
I walked into the office, standing at the door and waiting for her to follow me in. When she did, I closed the door behind her and stared at her. “What the hell is that?” I asked in a low voice to keep the boy from overhearing.
“That is a child. My child. I would think you have seen a kid before. They are the things that walk the earth before they turn into us.”
“No shit. Don’t get cute with me. Why didn’t you tell me you had a son? How many kids do you have?”
She sighed. “I only have the one. Jake. I didn’t tell you because it’s really none of your business. How many kids do you have?”
I opened my mouth before snapping it shut. “None. You know that.”
She shrugged. “Not really. It isn’t like we really know much of anything about each other. I don’t go around blabbing about my personal life. Jake is my business.”
“You have a kid,” I repeated.
“Yes, Ashton, I have a kid. A son. He’s nine.”
I shook my head, still trying to process what I had seen. “Why wouldn’t you mention that? Is that why you’re always out of here right at four-thirty?”
“Not that it matters, but yes. I have a personal life, as do you. I don’t mix my personal life with my professional life. What we are doing is at the office, nothing else. Why would I tell you about my son?”
“Why is he here?” I asked, realizing she was right. I had no business asking her shit about her kid. I didn’t want to be that close to her. To anyone.
“Because I got a call from the school and I had to pick him up.”
“Why?” I pressed, not taking the answer that offered no information. It hadn’t been that long since I was in school. They didn’t make a parent pick up their kid unless he was in trouble or sick. He didn’t look sick.
“Because I was asked to.”
I closed my eyes. “Willow, stop being dodgy. What the hell happened? Is this something you expect to do often?”
“No, it isn’t. It was a bit of an emergency. I had to pick him up. You said you wanted me back here. Here I am.”
“What happened to him at school?”
She let out a sigh. “He got beat up.”
That made me a little sad. I knew what it was like to be the kid that got beat up all the time. I didn’t want to add to the kid’s problems by being a dick to him or his mother. “He shouldn’t be here,” I said with a little less bluster.
“I didn’t want to bring him here, but I can’t very well leave him home alone.”
I nodded. “I get it, but this isn’t a daycare. This isn’t the place for kids. It’s a place of business.”
“I know that, and I don’t plan on making this a thing,” she said with obvious exhaustion. “It was an emergency. He’ll be quiet. You won’t even know he’s here.”
“I saw him. I have eyes. I know he’s here.”
“You know what I mean,” she scowled.
“I can’t do it,” I told her. “If I make an exception for you, I have to do it for everyone. I can’t show you any favoritism.”
“I’m not asking you to.”
“You need to take him home,” I said, knowing that meant I was on my own for the rest of the day. I had come to depend on her more than I cared to admit. I didn’t like being at the office when she wasn’t there. She just made things so much easier. I refused to think of it as anything more than that.
“I can keep him quiet while I finish out the day,” she said, almost pleading with me.
Everything started to make so much more sense. I understood why she needed the hours and why she had approached me for the job. She had a child to support. That brought up another question. Where was the kid’s father?
I didn’t ask. I couldn’t. It wasn’t any of my business and I had a feeling she wouldn’t have told me anyway.
“I need you to go home,” I said again, unwilling to bend the rules even once.
She sighed, shaking her head. “Glad to see you haven’t lost that hard edge. I would hate for anyone to think you had gone soft in your old age. You’re as hard as they come, and please, don’t take that as a compliment.”
“Willow, I’m not trying to be a dick here, but this is my office. I have clients that come in. I have other employees. I can’t have a kid making a bunch of noise and disrupting the flow of work. This is a quiet place. I don’t even have music coming through the speakers.”
She scoffed. “You don’t have to try and be a dick. It comes naturally to you.”
“Willow.”
“Don’t say any more. I get it. I can hear the ruckus my son is making. I would hate for the sound of paper being written on to get in the way of your business. It is rather obnoxious.” She opened the door and walked out before I could say another word. “Jake, put your homework back in your backpack. We get to go home for the day.”
She made it sound like she was excited. Her son jumped out of the chair, obviously thrilled to get out of hanging out in the office. “Okay, Mom,” he said.
Willow collected her purse, shut down her computer, and shot me one last dirty look before she and her son walked away. I had every chance to apologize. I had every chance to tell her it was okay this one time. I didn’t. I couldn’t. I couldn’t explain why, but the last thing I wanted was a kid hanging around.
I was acting like a chicken. Like I would pick up some kid cooties. I shouldn’t be so hard, especially to a woman who had saved my bacon on Monday and handled some of the things I didn’t want to deal with, like the police and the insurance adjuster. She did a lot for me, and I appreciated all of it, but I couldn’t do it.
I needed to eat a piece of humble pie. I went back into my office, leaving the door open. The first time the phone rang, I decided I wasn’t in the mood to deal with the calls. I quickly quieted the phones by sending all calls directly to voicemail. It wasn’t exactly good business, but it was better than me answering phones and being cranky.
I needed to figure out why I was so pissed. Not really pissed, but maybe a little hurt that she didn’t mention something that was kind of a big deal. She said we weren’t friends and things were strictly professional. Once again, I thought about how things went down with Kyle. He had basically told me the same thing. We weren’t friends.
The shitty part was I had thought we were friends. Not like “let’s have a sleepover” friends, but friends nonetheless. They obviously felt differently about the situation. Kyle needed me in his life because I was his business partner. The moment that changed, he was gone. Willow was in my life because she worked for me. The moment she got tired of the job, she would be gone.
“Bingo,” I whispered to myself, leaning back in my chair.
That was what was bothering me. I didn’t need a shrink. I spent so much time alone, I had a very good understanding of how my brain worked. I was pissed and hurt that she didn’t tell me because that meant she didn’t give two shits about me. I actually felt a little used. She wanted my body. I got the distinct feeling she was one of the very few people on the planet who didn’t want me for my money. I had to believe I knew her well enough to know she wasn’t li
ke that.
But why wouldn’t she be?
I rubbed my hands over my face. I shifted gears, taking a hard right turn in my brain and letting myself explore another avenue of thinking, one that made me furious. Was she trying to get close to me because she was looking for a father for her son? I knew she struggled financially. She had not been all that shy about that. I would be the perfect sugar daddy.
I mulled over the thought, wondering if that was really her game. The idea didn’t feel plausible, but I had been surprised by people before. That was one thing I could always count on, being shocked by the things people would do for money.
Was Willow really after me for my money?
Chapter 28
Willow
My heart raced as I loaded Jake into the car. Ashton had been pissed. I wasn’t sure if he was pissed that I didn’t tell him I had a son or pissed that I had brought him back to the office. I told myself he couldn’t fire me. I had technically not done anything wrong. Plus, I had the one-year contract in place that I would absolutely use to hold on to the job I desperately needed.
“What’s wrong, Mom?” Jake asked.
I looked in the rearview mirror. “Huh?”
“You look mad,” he pointed out.
I offered him a smile. “I’m not mad at all.”
“Did you get in trouble too?” he asked.
I shook my head. “Nope. Not at all. My boss told me to take the rest of the day off.”
“But I thought you said you had to work,” he pressed.
“Well, me and my boss thought it would be better if I just went home. Jobs are for adults. Kids don’t have to hang out at boring jobs. When you get old enough, there will be plenty of time for you to hang out at your job.”
He nodded, but I could tell he wasn’t completely convinced. “Okay.”
“Maybe we can go by and see if Aunt Lilly is home,” I suggested.
“But I don’t have my swim trunks,” he said.
“We left them there on our last visit.”
He grinned. “Yes! Let’s go.”
“Let me call and make sure she’s home.”
I quickly called her, found she was home, and invited myself over. She was always up for hanging out. I wanted Jake to have a little fun after the rough day he had endured. An afternoon at Lilly’s place would help him forget all about the nastiness that had happened at school.
We pulled into the driveway of her house, and as usual, Jake was off and running before I could even get out of the car. I collected my purse and followed behind him.
Lilly appeared with a drink in hand. “I know there is a story. You can stay long enough to drink this now and have some dinner while it works its way out of your system.”
I grinned, taking the Moscow Mule from her. I dropped my purse on the island in the kitchen and headed for the patio. “Thank you. I do need a drink.”
“I’ll grab some snacks.”
“You don’t have to feed us,” I told her.
“I like to feed people.”
“See, you have that maternal instinct you are fighting so hard to ignore. You want to feed people.”
“I want to feed my dog as well, does that make me maternal?” she quipped.
“You don’t have a dog. That makes you crazy.”
She threw her head back and laughed. “Oh. Whatever. Go sit down and take a load off. Jake is changing and I’m sure he will be splashing you in no time. I’m going to grab some snacks and I’ll be right out. I want snacks.”
I carried my drink outside and stretched out on one of the chairs. Jake came out a minute later and immediately dove into the pool. I watched as he frolicked without a care in the world. Ashton sending me home had turned out to be a very good thing.
Lilly joined us a few minutes later, putting down a tray of cheese and crackers with an assortment of meats on the side. She sipped on her own drink before settling in on the chair next to mine. “What happened?” she asked in a low voice so Jake wouldn’t overhear.
“Those same brats. Three on one this time. Thankfully, a teacher stopped it before it got bad. They pushed him down and tried to hit him, but their aim was off.”
“Oh my god. What little rug rats.”
I scoffed. “That is not what I called them.”
“So did he get kicked out?” she asked.
“No, but he was upset for obvious reasons. The counselor felt it was probably better if he went home for the day.”
“And the little shits that attacked him?”
I shrugged. “She couldn’t tell me but told me they had been dealt with. I swear if they come after him again, I will make them very sorry.”
“You can’t beat up little kids,” she lectured.
“Watch me.”
She giggled. “I know you would do it. He only has a little longer. Do you think he’ll make it to the end of the year?”
I let out a long sigh. “If he can’t, I’ll pull him out. Although I’m not sure what I’ll do with him. I took him back to the office and my boss flipped out. He told me to leave and take the kid. Not quite in those words, but it was made very clear my son was not welcome in his place of business.”
She winced. “Ouch.”
I nodded. “He acted like he had seen a monster. Jake was quietly sitting and doing absolutely nothing.”
“I guess he really doesn’t want kids. There goes the idea of scoring a little brother for Jake by him.”
I curled my lip. “Absolutely not.”
She laughed. “We need to find him a male figure,” she said, her tone turning serious.
“I know. Honestly, when he was a baby, I kept thinking I would start dating once he was a toddler. I was thinking I would start dating, fall in love with a man that would love him as his own, and we would have a big happy family. Then he was a toddler, and I told myself once he started school, I would have more time. And now, he’s nine. I’m no closer to finding time to date and he still doesn’t have a father figure in his life. I know it isn’t necessarily a requirement, but I want him to have a man he can look up to. I want him to have a man he can emulate. I’m a tough old bird, but I’m not a man.”
“Thank god you’re not,” she said. “That could be very awkward.”
“I need a man.”
“So there’s this new thing I’ve been approached to be a part of,” she said. The way she said it made me think it wasn’t a great thing.
“A thing that somehow relates to me needing a man?” I questioned. “I’m not going to be auctioned off for charity, nor do I have the money to rent a man.”
She slapped at my arm. “No. You’ve heard of big brother programs, right?”
“Yes.”
“The group that approached me wants to start one up.”
I wrinkled my nose. “Isn’t there already a program?”
“This wouldn’t actually be the program but a similar situation.”
Listening to the way she was talking was not convincing me it was a good idea. “Why do I get the feeling you don’t actually want any part of it?”
She shrugged. “Because initially, I didn’t. It’s a lot of responsibility to be a mentor. I prefer to write a check and leave it up to other people that know what they are doing to hang out with the kids. I’m not mentor material.”
“That isn’t true. Jake loves you. He looks up to you.”
She made a face. “You should probably think twice about letting him hang out with me. Look around. I’m a spoiled, lazy woman, creeping into my thirties with no prospects in life. I don’t have a job. I’ve never had a job and I don’t want a job. I spend money and lay about. I’m not exactly the kind of person kids should be emulating.”
“You are a great role model. It isn’t just about what you do with your time. It’s about your personality. You are warm and friendly and incredibly generous. You have a way about you that is light and airy. People need more of that in their lives. Kids don’t want to hang out with adults that are stressed
out and burdened with their own worries. Your life is virtually worry free, which makes it so easy to be around you.”
She smiled. “Thank you, but you’re only saying that because I’m your friend.”
“I’m saying that because you are my friend and that is why you are my friend. Do you think I would hang out with a rich bitch like you if you were any other way?”
She laughed. “Oh, Willow, always just putting it all out there. I’m going to buy you a filter for your face. You must learn to filter your thoughts.”
“Nah, I don’t have time for that. I’m a woman on the move.”
“I’m serious,” she said, turning to face me. “Will you think about it?”
I bit my bottom lip. “Will I be able to vet these people? I am not about to leave my kid with a stranger.”
“I’m sure they are vetted. I don’t have the details. It’s all kind of new, and they are looking for help, financially as well as volunteers.”
“I can help,” I quickly said. “Maybe a tit for tat. I’ll mentor the daughter of a single dad and he can mentor my son.”
“It’s not Tinder,” she shot back.
“I didn’t mean it like that!”
She snickered. “You said tit.”
I groaned, rolling my eyes and shaking my head. “I take back everything I said. You should not be around children.”
She burst into laughter. “I told you.”
We settled in and watched Jake. I thought more about the idea and decided it would be a great way for him to meet new people in what I assumed would be a safe environment. “I think I’m very interested. Is this a local foundation?”
“Not yet. It’s why they came to me. They want me to be the lady that does the charity work and make it my pet project. I do need something I can focus my time and energy on, but I’m just not sure that’s the one.”
“Why not? I think you would be amazing. You can hire a program director and you run all the stuff behind the scenes. You schmooze and ask your rich friends for money and organize benefits and what not to fund the program.”
Spring It On Me Page 17
