The Hot Daddy Box Set

by Lexi Wilson

  There was something about this woman that was so good at making me lose my calm. Yes, I was tense most of the time, and I was rarely in a good mood these days, but with most people, I was able to hold back my outbursts, or at the very least keep them in check enough for them to get the meaning of what I wanted without annoying me too much.

  “I seem to recall saying that things weren’t working anymore when you were blowing all the money we had on yourself and partying all the time. We have a daughter with cancer, Maisie; we have other things we need to do with the money than impress your shallow friends.” My tone had shifted. I hardly recognized the sound of my own voice.

  “Don’t remind me,” she remarked.

  My heart was pounding in my chest. I didn’t doubt she loved our daughter, but Maisie was a very shallow person, and she cared more about what her friends thought about her life than she did anything else. She had wanted to be a celebrity since the day I met her, and she had hoped I was going to be the one to push her to that status.

  We had been on that path, and I wouldn’t have been surprised if we had achieved it if things hadn’t so suddenly changed.

  “Listen, you can say what you want, but I remember clearly what happened, and I’m not going to keep feeding into the problem. I’ve been down that road once. I’m not going down it again.” I shook my head even though she couldn’t see me, fighting the urge to hang up the phone before she had the chance to aggravate me further.

  There was another laugh at the other end of the line, and she got in one final remark before ending the conversation and leaving me to my bad mood.

  “If that’s how you want to remember things, then feel free. I’m not going to lose any sleep over it. Anyway, if you’re going to be difficult about this, you can plan on hearing from my lawyer. I’m going to get my money, Anthony. Trust me.” She hung up the phone before I had the chance to reply. I threw my cell back down on the desk, my mind spinning and my bad mood soaring.

  She had her money. I had given her the alimony payment for the month already, and as far as I was concerned, that was the end of our interaction until the next month. In fact, we didn’t even have to get in touch then. I had it set up so my lawyer would handle any issues that arose, and the bank would transfer the money automatically.

  Even passing Kellie back and forth between us shouldn’t be a big deal, and we didn’t even have to get in touch then. But, I felt Maisie often orchestrated things so she could pop up in my life again and again, reminding me of the fool I’d been in thinking she was going to be the love of my life for the rest of my life.

  I refused to think that our marriage had been anything but what it really was:one of show and one of convenience. Love had never been part of the equation. She had powerful connections; I had the money. Together, we made the perfect team. At least, we did when it came to finances.

  Having a family together had never really been part of the plan. In fact, I wasn’t certain what we had in mind. Of course, Kellie was the best thing that had happened to me in my life, and I wouldn’t trade her for anything.

  But her mother was a different story.

  A knock on the door brought my attention back to my office, and I looked up. “What?”

  “Good morning!” Stella, the new girl, pushed her way into my office, a cup of coffee in one hand and a stack of notebooks and papers in the other.

  “It’s too early for you or anyone else to be in here! Get out!” I snapped. I pointed to the door as I spoke, but she ignored me. She walked over to my desk in a bright, peach-colored suit that commanded the attention of the entire room. The early morning sunrise reflected off the color, sending a peach tone onto my white walls.

  “I won’t take much of your time. I’ve got your coffee here, just like you like it, and here are a couple of reports I put together and had printed up this morning. I already organized my desk, and while I did, I found a lot of manuscripts to be sent over to the editorial staff; I took the liberty of doing that already.” She set the coffee down on my desk as she spoke, along with a folder from the stack in her arms.

  I stared at her. She looked like cotton candy, but there was no denying she was one of the most efficient women I had ever met. She glanced around the office, as though checking for anything else she might need to do while she was in there. Evidently satisfied she didn’t have to gather anything else or deliver anything, she stood with her shoulders drawn back and her head held high as she looked at me with a bright smile.

  “Shanice has gotten me started with a lot of the basics, and Molly showed me around the offices up here. I’ve looked over the calendar in the main system, but I feel like there’s a lot of your schedule missing.” She looked at me with raised eyebrows, and it took me a second to realize what she had just said to me.

  “Of course. What I’m doing is not anyone else’s business for the most part, except now it’s going to be yours. Here, I’m going to send you over a copy of what I’ve got coming up, and you can make adjustments as necessary. Please take note of the days that I have marked as off. I’ve got other things going on, and I’m not going to be here, even if there is a meeting or something that needs to be done.” I opened my calendar and sent it to her phone, which chimed as she stood in front of me. She watched me keenly the entire time; then she gave a curt nod and a smile when I’d finished.

  “Also, if you have any questions about the schedule, please clear it with me directly. Molly means well, but she doesn’t know half the shit I’ve got going on, and I’m not going to rearrange the things I’m doing outside of here for this place.” I glanced around the room as I spoke, and once again, she nodded.

  “Alright. I think it sounds straightforward. I’m going to get these down to the personnel office for Shanice to put on file, and I’ll be back here to check in with you at lunch. Let me know if you’re going to want takeout; I can handle that, as well.” She gave the room one last look over before she turned to go.

  I watched as her delicate hips swayed side to side as she made her way out the door, the peach illumination following her as she went. The door opened and closed, and I was once again left in the solitude of my office. In the back of my mind, the phone call I had just had with my ex-wife was still agitating me, but suddenly, it didn’t seem to matter that much anymore.

  It was hard to be in a bad mood when I had everything done and in front of me. I could now get to work and not spend half my morning running around and trying to gather the things that I was going to need. In fact, it didn’t even sound like I was going to have to worry about breaking for lunch.

  Who was this girl? How was she so damn well rounded? I wondered. And, most importantly of all: what the fuck just happened?

  Chapter 4

  The water bottle crinkled as I finished the last drop. I had forgotten my own water bottle that morning, but this would do. I’d refill it throughout the day and recycle it when I left that night. Not my favorite way to drink water, but I didn’t have another choice.

  I would have the chance to run home and grab my actual bottle at lunchtime, but I didn’t see myself doing that. The last thing I wanted was to have to see my mother any more than I absolutely had to, and I knew she would be there.

  I sighed as I went through the drawers of my desk once more. There was no doubt in my mind my mother would be at home. She was always there. Living off disability from an accident she had long since recovered from, she didn’t do anything with her day besides drink and get pissed off at me.

  I had made enough breakfast that morning for the two of us, but would be too hungover to enjoy it. If she bothered trying it, at all. For all I knew, she might just throw out the entire thing. It was such a waste, and it irritated me in more ways than one.

  If there was one thing that really annoyed me, it was people being wasteful. Everyone I met seemed to have an entitled attitude about them, and I hated it. I strongly felt anything and everything in life ought to be worked for and earned. The world didn’t owe anyone
anything, and neither did the other people on the planet.

  Hard work was what paid, plain and simple.

  “Okay, so you’re going to have to go through these one by one and organize them,” Molly said as she walked over with a stack of paper in her hands. I smiled. I loved being busy at work, and I had already gone through all the morning things she told me I had to get done. It wasn’t even ten o’clock yet, and I had accomplished more than what the previous secretary had in her entire day.

  “Thank you, just leave them there, and I’ll get to them,” I replied.

  “Just categorize them, really. They’re going over to Jace when you’re done, and he’ll take care of choosing which to push through to the editors and which ones toss out.” Molly lingered at my desk for a moment, and I got the impression there was more she wanted to say. She changed her mind, however, and went back to the other side of the lobby.

  I smiled to myself. Molly had to be closer to twenty than she was my age, but it was clear she wanted to be friends. I got the impression she didn’t have many friends in life, and I made up my mind to be as nice to her as possible.

  I didn’t have many friends, either. But then, that didn’t really bother me. I wasn’t the kind of person to need a lot of friends to be happy. I would rather focus on my career than anything.

  Especially now that I had landed the job of my dreams.

  I picked up the pile of papers and thumbed through them. There were a variety of different submissions, each one hoping for a chance to be published with the company. I smiled to myself as I thought about how Anthony must have gotten a start in the business. No doubt there was a time when he was the one who had gone through all of these himself.

  Not to organize them like I was, but to actually decide which ones he was going to use in his company, and which he was going to turn away. I wondered what it would be like for those who were eagerly hoping their work would make it. Would they be like I was walking into the interview the morning before?

  Would they have the guts to stand up for themselves as I did?

  I had to admit; I was pretty impressed with the way I had learned how to handle Anthony Miller so quickly. In the few short hours I had spent out on the lobby floor, I learned it was no secret among the staff he was always in a bad mood. They all described him as short-tempered and no-nonsense, though each one did follow it up with the fact they couldn’t blame him.

  I had picked up bits and pieces of his story. Evidently, he had a daughter who was sick and an ex-wife who cared more about the money she could get out of him than she cared about either him or their daughter. It wasn’t my place to judge the situation, but I promised myself I was going to do what I could to make his life at work a little bit easier.

  It didn’t take me long to figure out dealing with Anthony was much like dealing with my mother. My mother was never in a good mood. She was the kind of person who was either pissed off because she was drunk, or she was pissed off because she wanted a drink. There was no in between.

  Anthony seemed to be the same in a way. No doubt the stress that he was dealing with was far above and beyond anything I could imagine, but he manifested that stress as being cranky and irritable.

  So, I would do the same thing to him that I did to my mother. I wouldn’t back down, and I wouldn’t react. I would reply to what they had to say, I would offer solutions, and I would do what I could to make their lives easier — but I wasn’t going to get involved with the drama, and I certainly wasn’t going to let either one of them railroad me or bully me into doing what they wanted.

  I didn’t care if one of them was my mother and the other my boss.

  “Are you about done with those?” A voice cut into my thoughts, and I jumped in my seat. I looked up quickly, surprised to see another young man standing at the corner of my desk.

  I had quickly become used to the high traffic walking back and forth in front of my desk all day. I really wished that I had my own office where I could close the door, or at the very least get to do what Molly did and live by the door, but this corner of the room would do for now.

  “Almost. It’s not going to take me long to get through them,” I replied with a cheerful smile. The young man smiled, and I realized he had only been teasing me.

  “You must be the new secretary. Took him long enough to pick one,” he continued. He moved to the side of the desk and sat partially on the corner, partially standing.

  “It was a tough interview. I think he just needed the right one to tell him they wanted the job,” I said with another smile. He nodded.

  “I saw an awful lot of people go in and out of that office. I couldn’t say that I would have guessed you were the one he was going to choose. You must have some pretty awesome credentials or something,” he said with a grin. I laughed.

  “Or, perhaps I just know how to do a good interview. I don’t take any shit from anyone, and I think he liked that.” I thumbed my way through the rest of the documents, quickly rearranging a couple more sections and handing them back to him with a grin.

  “Are you Jace?” I asked. He tossed his overgrown bangs out of his eyes and smiled down at me.

  “Jace Ender. I’m the senior intern.” He puffed out his chest as he spoke, and I laughed.

  “I didn’t know there was such a position,” I chuckled.

  “All it really means is that I can boss Molly around,” he replied. He said her name louder than he had been talking, and she poked her head around the corner.

  “What? Do you guys need me?” She looked from me to Jace and back again, though I could clearly see a flirty smile playing at the corner of her lips.

  “I was just telling the newbie here that I’m going to be your boss one day,” Jace replied with a smirk.

  “In your dreams. I’m going to be CEO long before you are, buddy, and you’re going to be demoted back to being a janitor.” She walked around the corner and leaned against the wall, crossing her arms and giving him another flirty smirk.

  “For me to go back to being a janitor, I would have had to be a janitor in the first place. So, what you’re really saying is that you’re going to simply make me a janitor. Geez.” He shook his head dramatically, and she rolled her eyes. I couldn’t help but giggle.

  “Why don’t you quit bothering the new girl and get something useful done with your time?” Molly asked, and Jace threw his hands up.

  “Would you look at that! Not even CEO and she thinks she can tell me what to do!” He looked at me with a look of mock horror on his face; then he shook his head once more. “Unbelievable. Next thing you know she’s going to be wanting me to make lunch runs or something.”

  “Well, if you’re offering…” Molly said with a laugh. Jace shot her a look, and she was about to continue, but the phone rang around the corner and she had to go. Jace watched as she vanished, then he turned back to me. I finished with the last of the papers and handed them up to him.

  “They look good to me, but Molly said you were the one who decided which ones got pushed through and which ones didn’t,” I said. He flipped through them briefly with a nod.

  “Yeah, most of them are going to head over to the editors, but if there is anything totally ridiculous in here, I’m going to get rid of it. We get submissions from everywhere; we can’t throw it all in the magazine.” He licked his finger and flipped through a few more pages.

  “Oh? These are going in the Newsletter?” I asked. I knew the Springwater Newsletter was a popular writer’s magazine in the city, but I didn’t know they took that many submissions for a single issue. I hadn’t read the newsletter myself, and I made a mental note to do so. I might as well be familiar with everything we sent out.

  “I mean, most of them will. We aren’t interested in some of the shit that comes through.” He rolled the papers into a large tube in his hands and knocked them against his other palm. He gave me one last smile and headed back toward his office, and I settled back into my chair. There were several things I could be doin
g, but it was now nearing eleven and I was getting hungry.

  Of course, I did tend to be most productive during the morning, and I wasn’t going to go to lunch until I had done everything that was on my to-do list, but it didn’t stop me from thinking about lunch — and whether I was going to go out and get something for Anthony.

  I got up to refill my water bottle, saying a few words here and there to the others in the office. If there was one thing I liked about this place, it was that I was getting along with everyone right off the bat. I really liked Jace and Molly and hoped that the three of us might become friends.

  I let my eyes linger on Anthony’s closed door as I walked past, and I briefly wondered what he was doing. I ignored the urge to knock on his door and check on him. I wasn’t going to be that secretary.

  I would see him in an hour.

  Chapter 5

  “Every damn time!” I muttered as I slammed my hands down on either side of my laptop. I had just gotten an email about a meeting I had attended the day before, and the other CEOs weren’t happy. We were all in the publishing business, some of us working harder to make things work than others.

  I had dreams of being the best of the best, but with so much competition, it was difficult. I’d put together the meeting with the others hoping that some might want to merge our companies, or at the very least streamline our production methods for the benefit of everyone who got on board.

  But from the sound of the email I had just received, that wasn’t going to happen. Not only did none of the others like the idea, but many of them were accusing me of trying to get inside other companies to monopolize the industry. I shook my head.

  Looking out the window, I briefly considered going home for the day. It was still early, just barely after lunch, but it was late enough I could go and not be missed. Sure, I was going to come back to a ton of work the next day, but then, that might not be a bad thing.