The Boss Baby Daddy (A Secret Baby Romance)

by Claire Adams

  “I’m serious. James is waiting for you,” I said, then turned my attention to my computer, completely shutting him out and hoping that would do the trick. And it did, because he turned and walked away, heading upstairs to see James. I didn’t hear from him again and I was pretty thankful for that.

  Being hit on had always kind of irritated me, especially by strange men. A few minutes later, James came down the stairs and I thought for sure he was going to scold me for the way I’d treated his friend. Instead, he asked if I could go pick up Nell for the day, so he could keep talking with Derek. I didn’t mind doing it; I loved spending time with Nell.

  “Sure thing,” I said to him. I quickly stood up, grabbed my purse and headed out the door. I didn’t look back, unsure of what to do or say. He seemed to be acting funny towards me today and I was just getting a weird vibe from him. I drove to Nell’s school, her booster seat in the backseat of my car, and she practically screamed when she saw me. I was glad that James had added me to the pickup list.

  “Rachel!” she yelled, when she got to my car.

  “Hi, Nell!” I said to her, then got out and helped her buckle up.

  I tried not to seem too distracted on the drive back to the office.

  “How was school, sweetie?” I asked her.

  Nell smiled at me when I caught her reflection in the rearview mirror. “It was good,” she said, and then she giggled.

  “What?” I asked. I didn’t know why she was laughing, and wasn’t quite sure what was going on. Maybe there was something on my face. I didn’t think I’d said anything that could have made her laugh. I felt really confused.

  “I know something,” she said, then giggled again.

  I just shook my head.

  Little kids: I loved how they acted like this when they had secrets. I didn’t know what her secret was, but I had to admit I was getting more and more curious by the second. The more she didn’t tell me, the more I wanted to know. But I guess that’s how secrets work.

  “What is it?” I asked her.

  She shrugged and giggled once more, and then she finally spoke. “My daddy likes you,” she said with another giggle.

  I tried to focus on my driving, but what she said had thrown me off. I hadn’t been expecting her to say that at all. In fact, that was the last thing I thought she was going to say. I thought maybe she was going to tell me she had a crush on a boy school, or there was something on my face. I don’t really know what I thought she was going to tell me, I just didn’t expect it to be that.

  “Really?” I asked her.

  She nodded her head at me. “He likes you a lot, Rachel.”

  I let that sink in for a minute before I responded to her. I wasn’t even sure if I believed it myself, so I wasn’t quite ready to be talking to her about it. Did he say something to her? Did he tell her that he liked me? Did he tell her that we went on a date this week? Or that—no, he wouldn’t have. What did he tell her? All these questions were running through my head, and it was all just confusing me more.

  “Are you sure about that?” I asked her. I hoped she wasn’t lying. What I really hoped was that she was telling me the truth, and what she was saying was true because I really liked James.

  She nodded her head enthusiastically “He’ll never tell you, but he likes you a lot.”

  “Why won’t he tell me?”

  She shrugged, “I don’t know. But I thought you should know because I really like you, Rachel. And I really like how happy my dad is when he’s around you.”

  I couldn’t help the smile that came across my face. I tried to fight it off, but I just couldn’t. It felt so good to hear her say this. Because I knew she would never lie about such a thing. There was no way she could make something up like this. It had to have come from James. Or at a minimum, it was something she’d put together from being around him and hearing him talk about me.

  “Thank you, Nell,” I told her. I really was thankful that she told me, because before that I was so confused about what was going on with us. Maybe he himself was still trying to wrap his head around his feelings for me. I just needed to give him time. Hell, I needed time myself.

  This was so new to both of us, and we both had been hurt, badly. I went through my divorce, and he lost his wife. We both probably needed more time, but there was just something about him that I couldn’t resist. I couldn’t and didn’t want to stay away from him. All I wanted was to spend more time with them, getting to know him even better. Having sex with him again was on my mind as well. The sex was mind-blowing, and I hadn’t been able to get him off my mind. In fact, I thought about it all the time.

  “I wish my daddy would tell you,” she sighed, as she looked out the window. “I like when you hang out with us,” she said.

  I smiled at her. Children were so innocent, thinking that everything was always so easy. But things weren’t always so black and white. I mean, there was a reason why I was holding back from telling him how I felt, and I knew I felt a lot of things for him. When I woke up in his arms the other morning, it was the single best moment of my life in years. I hadn’t wanted to leave that spot.

  “I’m sure he will,” I winked at her.

  “Do you like him?” she asked me.

  I wasn’t sure what to say. I knew if I told her ‘yes,’ she would probably tell him. But I didn’t want to lie and say I didn’t like him and break her little heart. Especially when I really did like her dad. I decided the former was probably better than the latter. So, I took a deep breath, “I like your daddy a lot,” I told her. It felt weird to say it out loud. It made it so much more real it seemed.

  “I knew it!” Nell yelled from the back seat.

  I laughed. She was so cute and innocent. She wanted nothing more than for her dad to be happy. I really loved that about her. I liked that she also wanted me to be a part of her life so much that she was willing to play matchmaker, even if she did know what she was doing. Part of me hoped that she would go tell her dad what I said. Even though a tiny part of me hoped that she wouldn’t. It was scary to think that he might know my true feelings for him.

  It had been a long time since I’d had a crush on anyone like this; it had been since before my ex. It was hard to process these feelings and realize that I had them and they were for someone new. I never thought I would feel this way again, and here I was driving with this innocent little girl in the backseat of my car, trying to hook me up with her daddy. It had to have been the single best time in my life.

  We got back to the gallery to find that Derek and James were still upstairs. I could hear them laughing periodically. I took Nell back into the kitchen area where I made her a peanut butter and jelly sandwich.

  “You’re not sick of these yet?” I asked her.

  She shook her head, “No, I’m not. I love the way you make sandwiches,” she said.

  It was really heartwarming to hear her say that. I know it was just a sandwich, but it meant more to me than she would ever realize.

  Chapter Twenty-Three

  James

  I was sitting in the office talking with Derek about his upcoming show.

  “I got it all set up dude. There’s a bunch of big people coming out that are looking specifically at you,” I told my longtime friend.

  “Really? That’s awesome,” Derek said.

  “Yeah, man. I’ve never experienced anything like this. But people really love your work. Even people just seeing it for the very first time. This is why I chose to represent you, and this is why I don’t want you to try to sell your art in the other galleries,” I said. He knew I was just kidding, and I knew he would never go anywhere else.

  “This is so awesome, man,” Derek said.

  “I know. I’ve never been this excited about a show before. We’ve got Donna Newbury coming all the way from New York City.” She was a world-renowned art critic. She hardly ever left New York City for art.

  “Are you serious?” he asked. He was in as much shock as I was when she told
me she was coming. It was one of the messages that Rachel had handed me this morning. So, I’d just found out myself. But I wasn’t going to tell Derek that. I didn’t want him to think she had just decided to pick him up at the last second.

  “Yeah man. I’m totally serious. There are some big people coming out, and I don’t say that lightly.” I said to him, reiterating the fact that this was a huge show for both of us, and that he shouldn’t do anything to fuck it up. Though I wasn’t going to say that in so many words.

  “Nice, man,” he said. He looked down at his phone and texted away, something he did often. I put his phone away, and he looked at me, then folded his hands and leaned into my desk. “So, your new assistant, Rachel? She is fucking hot,” he said.

  I felt a wave of anger rush through me. Anger and jealousy. Derek wasn’t a good person where women were concerned. I didn’t like the way he treated women, though I didn’t judge him on it because he was his own person. But I wanted him to stay the hell away from Rachel. He didn’t know this yet, but she was mine.

  “Don’t. She is not going to be one of your one-night stands,” I said. I made sure to put emphasis on the word ‘not’ so he would realize just how serious I was about this.

  Derek sucked air through his teeth, and he gave me a funny look. I knew that he had figured out that he probably shouldn’t press it. I didn’t get angry about very much, but there were some things that I didn’t like. One of those was that you didn’t talk about the woman I liked in any way that was disrespectful to her or to women in general. I wasn’t like him. I respected women. That might have made me look like a pussy in his eyes, but I didn’t really care. He seemed to realize just how serious I was because he didn’t press the issue any further.

  The wave of anger and jealousy that rushed through me made me question everything, though. I hadn’t been this protective over any female since Whitney, and now the first thing Derek said about Rachel and I jumped down his throat. I felt very protective over her, and I didn’t get it. Was it because we had sex? Was it because I really do like her? I was so confused. I don’t think it would’ve been so hard if I wouldn’t have had a wife that passed away. But with Whitney in the back my mind all the time, it was making things a lot harder for me. Everything was more emotionally charged, and it was harder to figure things out objectively. I wasn’t sure what to do, and I wasn’t even sure where my life was headed.

  I know that a big part of me really liked Rachel, and I wanted to be with her more than anything. But I also had to wonder about her. There were things she was holding back and hiding from me. Things that she didn’t want me to know. Did she really want to be with me? Maybe she was in the same exact boat I was. Maybe that was good, or maybe it just guaranteed that things weren’t going to work out between us. I just didn’t know.

  “Well, I gotta take off. But I’ll see you on Saturday for my show,” Derek said.

  I stood up with him. I kind of wanted to escort him out, mostly just to make sure he didn’t do anything rude in front of Rachel. I followed him down the stairs, and he paused for a moment when he passed by Nell and Rachel.

  “See you later, ladies,” he said, and then walked out the door.

  That left me feeling a lot better. He obviously knew that Rachel was off limits now, and I knew I didn’t have to worry about him. It wasn’t that I was worried about him going after her; I was more worried about him being disrespectful towards her, and that wasn’t okay. I wasn’t ready to tell him about us yet, but I didn’t want him to be rude to her either. She deserved to be respected and not treated like a piece of meat or a toy for men’s enjoyment.

  “How about we go get a smoothie?” I asked the girls.

  “Yes!” Nell yelled.

  I looked at Rachel, who smiled and nodded her head. She was laughing at Nell’s reaction, which was pretty cute. I actually thought Rachel’s reaction to Nell was pretty cute too.

  Once we were all out the door, I locked it behind us. We walked down the street to the local smoothie shop. It was just a few blocks away, and it was still pretty warm out, so it was nice to get out in the sunshine for a bit. We got down to the smoothie shop and ordered our drinks, and then sat down in a booth.

  “So, Rachel. There’s a show this weekend for Derek, as you know. Would you like to come help me out with it?” I asked her, hoping that she would say yes. I would understand if she were to say no and wanted the weekend off though. She didn’t have to help me with this; I usually had shows handled pretty well by myself. It would be nice to have her with me, was all. Come to think of it, I’d never really had an assistant that was actually helpful, so it was a new experience all around.

  She smiled at me. “I’d love to,” she said.

  “Good,” I said, then I realized that might have sounded funny. So, I fixed it. “I mean, that’s good. I’m glad to hear that you can help me out.”

  Get it together man, I scolded myself. I was falling apart. I was fumbling for words, and I had to admit I’d been pretty nervous when I’d asked her.

  She laughed, and I knew that she knew it was only because I was nervous. I wondered if she knew what I really thought about her, and that I really did want to be with her.

  “What did you think of Derek?” I asked. I wanted to know what she thought of him, and I wanted to find out if he had hit on her already. Maybe he’d made her feel uncomfortable. I wasn’t really sure.

  “He’s, uh…” Her voice drifted off like she was trying to figure out what to say next. Maybe she didn’t want to upset me. Maybe she didn’t want to hurt my feelings by talking bad about my best friend. All I know is that I wanted to know more. She was hesitating, and it was making me uncomfortable.

  “What? Did something happen?” I asked her.

  She looked down at her smoothie, instead of at me, and I knew something happened.

  “What did he do?” I asked.

  “He might have hit on me a little bit,” she said finally.

  “He did? Well, to be fair, I didn’t say anything, so he didn’t know.” I didn’t go into further detail with Nell sitting here, and I figured Rachel knew exactly what I was talking about by the way she looked at me.

  “You didn’t?” she asked as if she couldn’t figure out why I wouldn’t tell him.

  “Nope. It’s none of his business,” I explained to her.

  Rachel smiled at me, and I think that maybe she respected me for doing that. For keeping my mouth shut, instead of being like a normal man and running around telling all my friends that we’d slept together. But I had never been like that. I never told anybody about Whitney and me having sex for the first time, and I definitely wasn’t going to start doing that with Rachel.

  “This smoothie is so yummy,” Nell said.

  I looked at her as she took one big gulp from her drink. I followed in suit, and so did Rachel. Soon the three of us were laughing from the brain freezes we all experienced. At that moment, I felt like my world was finally complete. I liked being there—just three of us, sitting there drinking smoothies and laughing. It was fun, and most of all, I had two beautiful girls with me who were both smiling and laughing. It was all I would ever need in my life, and I knew I didn’t want anything to ever change. I knew then that I wanted nothing more than to have Rachel stay in my life with me and Nell.

  “Why do these hurt so bad?” Nell asked, tears in her eyes from laughing so hard.

  I was laughing too hard to answer her, and so was Rachel. The both of us just looked at Nell and shrugged. Rachel tried to talk, I think to explain to Nell why that happened, but instead, it sounded like a wheezing noise, which only caused us to start laughing harder. I think we laughed for three minutes straight. We finally calmed down when we realized that people were staring at us like we were crazy. Nevertheless, it was one of the best moments of my life.

  “Can Rachel come home with us?” Nell asked as we were finishing up our smoothies.

  I looked at Rachel, who answered for me. A pretty big part of me w
as hoping she would say yes. I would have supported that plan. In fact, I hoped that she would.

  “Not tonight sweetie. I’ve got some things I need to do,” she said.

  I tried not to seem disappointed after she said this, but it was hard not to. I loved spending time with Rachel. I just loved being around her. Looking at her, talking to her, all of it. But most of all, I loved the way she interacted with Nell. She provided something for Nell that I couldn’t.

  “But I want to hang out with you more,” Nell responded, making a sad face.

  “Aw, Nell. We’ll have plenty of time to hang out together; I promise.”

  “Okay,” Nell said and went back to her smoothie.

  After the smoothies, we walked back to the gallery. I didn’t have anything else to do that day, so we closed up early. Rachel headed home, and Nell and I went back to our house. We watched one of her shows together. It was becoming my favorite time with her because I had a feeling deep inside of me somewhere that the time for just Nell and I was winding down, and coming to an end. That made me nostalgic, but also pretty damn excited, because I knew, whatever the future held for me included Rachel as well. I hoped so anyway.

  Chapter Twenty-Four

  Rachel

  I was headed out the front door on Thursday afternoon. James had given me the next couple of days off to prepare for the crazy busy weekend we were going to have. As I was leaving, James and Nell showed up. Nell ran up and hugged me.

  “Daddy says you are leaving early,” she said.

  I smiled at her and nodded my head, “Yeah, is that okay?” I asked her.

  She shrugged, and I had to laugh at that. Sometimes, she did things that were so almost adult-like it amazed me. She definitely was a very curious child and picked things up like crazy. I had to constantly watch what I was saying around her. I had to make sure that I wasn’t cussing and things like that because she would probably pick it up. I would hate to have to explain that to James.