Boss Daddy: A Secret Baby Romance by Black, L. (good books for high schoolers .TXT) 📕

all in order, and we’re clear to open the bar now. He wants Matt and me back there next week to finish up the setup and get it going.”

“When’s the grand opening?”

“Tom’s thinking a couple weeks. He wants to spend some time working out the ad campaign. We might lose a little bit having a bar we could open that’s still closed, but if we build enough buzz it might see us through the lean period that usually comes after a place opens and then the novelty wears off,” Mason said. “So, maybe first of next month?”

“It would be a Friday night,” I said.

“It would,” Mason said. “Ava has already gotten busy working out a big theme party for it. She’s playing on the décor idea you had. From what I understand, she already had internet fliers and a mailing list ready, so he cleared her to release those earlier today. The wheels are officially moving.”

“Ah.” Knowing that the plans were already in motion before I was even told when I was heading back there was irritating. I got out of the military once already, I wasn’t particularly enjoying the rest of my life taking orders, too.

But it was part of the business. Mason and Tom were the business guys, and Ava was probably better at it than both of them. If the three of them had cooked up a plan for getting the Portland bar off the ground, I had no doubt it would work like gangbusters. It was just terrible timing for Hannah and me.

“Look, I know the situation with you and Hannah is… complicated,” Mason said.

“That’s one way of saying it.”

“I just want you to know we are going to be looking after her. If she wants to come stay with us, she is more than welcome,” he said. “I know Mom has a spot for her, too, but I can completely understand why staying with Mom would be a little much for her. If she stays with us, she would have a ride to work every shift, and we would make sure she was safe. I just wanted you to know that option was out there.”

“I appreciate that,” I said. “Seriously, that’s very cool of you.”

“So, where are you with this thing?” Mason asked. “How serious is it?”

I tried waving him off, but Mason was probably the one brother who could see through me, and he had zero problems calling me on my shit. He always had. It’s one of the things I respected most about it.

“Let’s just leave it at she’s been staying at my place with me, and I am not thrilled with leaving Astoria,” I said.

“Fair enough,” Mason said. “She will be okay, Jordan. She’s a smart woman, and she has resources. We will look out for her. And Portland, for you, will be temporary.”

“I know,” I said. “Come on, let’s get in there and finish up. I feel like having a beer after the shift.”

When we finally got back to the house in the wee hours of the morning, I was physically exhausted, but my mind was still rolling. I told Hannah what Mason said before our shift was even over. I wanted her to have time to process it before car ride back. It turned out that during the ride back we were engaged in a conversation about one of her customers, and it never came up. But the second the door shut behind us and she started getting changed for the night, I knew it wasn’t going to stay that way.

“Are you ready for bed?” she asked. “I’m weirdly awake.”

“Want to put on some TV and hang out on the couch a little while?” I asked.

“Grab the popcorn,” she said.

As I was making the popcorn, Hannah made her way into the kitchen, grabbing a couple of glasses and filling them with sweet tea before pinching my butt and walking into the living room. I was going to miss that. The little couple things that we did that I didn’t even think about. We had fallen into such a comfortable routine that we didn’t even talk about where we were.

But I knew. I was falling for her, hard. And I needed to address it sooner rather than later.

I sat down next to her, and we put on a cooking game show. When the popcorn was mostly gone and sitting on the coffee table, I lay back on the couch, and she curled up next to me. We kept watching until a commercial, and then I leaned down to kiss her on the nose. She moved at the last second, and I kissed her lips and laughed.

“Gotcha,” she said.

“You sure did,” I said. “Speaking of. I kind of wanted to talk to you about that.”

“I thought we weren’t going to talk about anything serious.”

“Is that the way you want to keep it?”

“I didn’t say that,” she responded.

“Well, it’s not how I feel,” I said. “I know we wanted to take it slow, especially in light of… everything. But I needed you to know something, especially before I went back to Portland.”

I took a deep breath. Staring into her eyes was like looking into the sun. She sparkled, even when she was sad or upset. I just wanted to hold her up and let her light the world with those eyes.

“I just needed to tell you I have never felt the way I feel with you before. Never. I know I have been protective and everything with you, and I never want you to feel like I am controlling you. But I care about you so much. Like I said, I’ve never felt this way before. I don’t know how to handle it sometimes.”

I expected her to say that it was too early, like she did when I suggested she live with me, or for her get upset. Instead, she smiled and rested her head against my chest.

“Me too,” she said.

28 Hannah

I couldn’t believe it was already the night before Jordan