From Boss to Bridegroom by Victoria Pade Page A

loved to death. A son she was proud of.
    â€œGo wash your hands for dinner, Max,” Lucy told the little boy gently, meeting Rand’s stormy eyes with a defiant gaze of her own to let him know he could take this turn of events or leave them, that she couldn’t care less.
    Sadie poured Rand a glass of wine, making small talk that he responded to while still staring daggers at Lucy.
    Then Max returned from the bathroom, slipped his hand into Rand’s as if it were something he’d done a million times before, and said, “Come on. I’ll show you where to sit. You can be by me.”
    â€œThank you,” Rand said to both Max and Sadie at once as he accepted the wineglass with his free hand before letting the child take him into the dining room.
    He earned points with Lucy for not rejecting thehandholding or the invitation to sit with her son, no matter how mad he might be at her.
    The moment Max and Rand were out of earshot Sadie sidled up next to Lucy and whispered, “He didn’t know about Max?”
    â€œIt was an underlying condition of the job that I not be a single mother. He said he was sick of dealing with them and all the complications that came with them. He said having kids interfered with work. He assumed I didn’t have any and I didn’t inform him otherwise.”
    â€œOh, dear.”
    â€œIt’s okay. As long as he’s nice to Max tonight, he can do what he wants about me tomorrow,” Lucy assured her aunt, casting a glance in the direction of the dining room where she could hear her son regaling her boss with his career plans.
    Rand was nice to Max, though. All evening. More than nice, he was actually good with the little boy who had been stricken by a sudden case of hero worship and seemed to have made it his goal to charm the object of it.
    For her part, Lucy let her son have free rein. Ordinarily she would have attempted to keep him in check so he didn’t monopolize an adult evening, but tonight she didn’t. Tonight she wanted Rand to see that she doted on Max, that she wasn’t ashamed of him in any way.
    As a result, Max was the entertainment of the evening. He told his dinosaur stories and demonstrateddinosaurs stalking other dinosaurs. He did his full repertoire of knock-knock jokes and then he sang “Blue Suede Shoes”—complete with hip-wiggling gyrations, air guitar, and a curled lip at the end.
    For his part, Rand didn’t seem to mind. In fact he held up his own side of the conversation with Max, posing questions as if the little boy were the resident expert—which he actually was.
    Rand told a few of his own knock-knock jokes, surprising both Lucy and Sadie that he knew them, and laughed and clapped as heartily as Lucy and Sadie at the end of “Blue Suede Shoes.”
    It was all a relief to Lucy because no matter how angry Rand was at her—and it was still clear she was in trouble with him—at least he didn’t take it out on her son.
    By eight o’clock Max was getting overtired and slap-happy so Lucy announced that it was time to go home.
    After a few protests, Max went to stand directly in front of Rand and held out his right hand for Rand to shake.
    â€œIt was nice to meet you,” the little boy said like a seasoned businessman.
    Rand accepted Max’s hand with the same decorum. “It was nice to meet you, too.”
    Max beamed as if he’d been granted the best compliment in the world and then ran to where his mother waited for him at the front door.
    But Lucy couldn’t go without posing the firstquestion she’d aimed directly at Rand all evening. “Should I come to work tomorrow?” she asked with a high note of challenge in her tone.
    â€œThe car will be here at seven-thirty,” he answered, but dourly enough to leave Lucy wondering if he just wanted to berate her in his office before he fired her.
    â€œSeven-thirty,” she repeated.
    Then she