Brazen Bossman: A Hero Club Novel, стр. 56

Piper,

I haven’t heard from you after our last exchange. I hope that means all things have been well?

I must admit, I’ve grown protective of you during all of this. I have a stake in your love life now. Haha.

Do we need to hatch an escape plan or has everything settled into an easy medium?

Ida

I fire off a reply to her, filling her in as best I can without divulging the things I just want to keep to myself.

Ida,

Things are more than great. I’m spending the weekend with him in East Hampton.

He said he wanted us to have a chance to really feel each other out.

Let’s just say it’s been spectacular. My life has a way of tossing a wrench into things when I feel they are going well, but maybe the tides are turning for me?

Stay tuned!

Piper

I reach down to the floor and find the T-shirt he discarded the night before and slip it over my nakedness, not bothering with panties or a bra.

There have been a few moments in my life that have embarrassed me so horrifically I wished I could crawl into a hole and disappear forever. The most embarrassing of which was when I stood behind a mannequin in a boutique on the Upper East Side for a solid ten minutes because I thought it was a real person waiting in line to pay. I didn’t even notice until the girl working there came to ask me if I was okay.

That held the number one spot in my life until right now, this very moment, because there is something mortifying about walking into the kitchen of your current boss’s family home and coming face-to-face with your former boss and his wife, whom happen to be the parents of your current boss, wearing nothing except his T-shirt and a stellar case of sex hair.

“Oh my God!” I half-gasp, half-scream before bolting back around the corner and out of sight. “I’m so sorry. Holy wow. I’m sorry.”

“Why didn’t you tell us you had someone here? You should have called us to let us know you’d be using the house, Nathanial. We wouldn’t have even come up here,” I hear his mother say.

“How was I supposed to know you’d use it? You haven’t come up in months, Mom,” he replies.

I’m not able to hear the rest of the conversation because I move with lightning speed back into the bedroom, rifling through my bag for a pair of jeans and a tank top to put on. I dress quickly then pile my hair into a bun on top of my head.

I’m brushing my teeth quickly when I hear the bedroom door open and Nathanial’s full form appears in the bathroom doorway.

“I’m so sorry. I didn’t know they were coming,” he says with his arms above his head, gripping the top of the doorframe.

“It’s okay,” I say with a mouthful of toothpaste before holding a finger up to ask him to wait a second. I rinse my mouth out then kill the water. “It’s completely okay. This is their home. I’m sorry I just walked in there half-dressed. I should have paid better attention.”

“You didn’t do anything wrong.” He wraps me in his arms. “My mother has invited us to breakfast with them. She said they’d like to treat us then they’d head back to the city.”

I shake my head. “They don’t have to leave. Nathanial, that makes me feel like an asshole.”

“I told them as such but she insisted. I think she’s just happy there is a woman here with me. Look, we absolutely don’t have to go anywhere with them. Don’t feel obligated or pressured just because it’s my parents. I told you from the beginning that this would be about us and…”

I push up on my toes to silence him with a kiss. “We should go. You should go. It’s important. Spending time with your family, no matter how awkward, is important.”

I can see the reluctance in his eyes, but I’m not going to give him the out he is looking for. He wants me to say no, so he can say no without feeling like an asshole.

Well, I refuse.

I’d give anything to go have breakfast with my father, and I’m not letting him be as stubborn with him as he is with me.

“Okay. I’ll go tell them.”

“I just need a couple minutes to look more presentable.”

“You look perfect to me,” he says, and my heart does a backflip.

“Thank you, and while I appreciate that, I want to look good for me, not just for you.”

***

I come back out to meet everyone ten minutes later, still dressed in jeans, but sporting a nicer, flowy, pink blouse and my hair is in long waves down my back.

They are all seated in the living room. Nathanial on a sofa alone and his mother and father on the other side.

His mother rises first to greet me. “Piper, sweetheart, it’s so good to see you.” She wraps her arms around me in a hug. She was always so kind to me when she would come into the office. She always wanted me to make sure I kept Mr. Lennox in line.

“It’s great to see you too, Caroline. You look great,” I tell her before looking over her shoulder at Mr. Lennox.

“Well, who is this pretty lady my son is hiding from us?” He slowly stands from his seat.

I’m taken aback for a moment, before the initial shock of his question settles in.

“This is Piper Kingston, Carlson. She worked for you at Lennox Publishing for five years,” Caroline reminds him.

I look back over my shoulder at Nathanial and he is standing just behind me with his hands shoved into his pockets. I give him a reassuring smile and turn my attention back to Carlson.

“Piper.” He snaps his fingers. “Oh, yes, yes, that’s right. Piper. You used to bring me those delicious cannoli on Fridays.”

“Well, it was panna cotta on Mondays, but I’ll