Iris looks at me interestedly. “When will you know if you got the position? Can you tell us that, at least?”
I shrug a shoulder. “No idea…I’m trying not to think about it too much,” I say sheepishly. “I don’t want to jinx it.
“Ha. You’re our fairytale girl, remember? How could you be anything but optimistic?” Penny pokes at me.
She’s not wrong. But, I’ve found that sometimes looking at the bright side of things is a whole lot easier when you’re not in the hot seat.
“I’m optimistically realistic,” I chirp, wondering if that’s a thing. It could be. Maybe that’s why I still catch myself daydreaming about a man I don’t have a shot with.
I roam around the shop, stopping to show Luke each of my favorite bridal gowns. I’m sure babies can hardly see, but I enlist Luke as my personal stylist for the day, daydreaming about the type of gown I’ll wear at my own wedding.
I sigh, nuzzling the baby’s chubby cheeks. I bet Eli looked absolutely dashing when he got married. My heart can’t help but squeeze for him and the life he didn’t get to live. But maybe he’d be happy starting over…starting fresh with someone like…
No!
I shake my head. What am I thinking? I have to cut it out, right now, and be realistic for once. Me and Eli? We have no chance of getting together. No happily ever after for us. I’m not saying we can’t be happy...it just won’t be together.
As much as I want him, the cards are stacked against us.
The reasons are endless. He’s my boss. I’m his daughter’s nanny. Eli is moody as hell. On a day to day basis, I’m never sure which version of him I’ll get. Plus, I’m probably moving away for a new job. And besides, my sister is married to his brother. I glance around the shop at my friends. Heck, each one of these women here is tied to one of the Kingston men.
How weird is that? What is in this Crescent Harbor water? Maybe I do need to move away.
“So…” my sister starts, narrowing her eyes on me. “If you’re job hunting, I’m guessing things are still rough, working for the cranky ex-convict?”
The other ladies butt in before I can come up with an answer, firing questions off left and right.
“Is he really as mean as he looks?”
“He’s our brother-in-law, and we haven’t even seen him for family dinner.”
“Is he like a recluse or something?”
“What’s that tattoo on his bicep?”
“Yeah,” Lexi chimes in again. “Why don’t you fill us in? Why does the man act like someone pissed in his chicken soup?”
“Lexi!”
“What?” She bats her eyelashes at me. “I just don’t like that he’s been mean to you, Jess. And from what Cannon tells me, he’s still being really difficult about the family business stuff, too. If you ask me, someone with a criminal record like his shouldn’t be so picky about taking a job offer.”
I let out a big breath, hating the way the ladies are all looking at me. Even more, I loathe the way they’re talking about Eli. They don’t know him at all. If they did, they’d like him. He’s just a little rough around the edges, that’s all.
I squeeze onto the chaise next to Penny. “Look—Eli is my boss. And really, he’s not so bad. He’s been dealt a crappy hand, and he’s making the best of it. His daughter is his top priority, so anything beyond that just doesn’t interest him right now,” I say, all in one breath. Wanting to put a quick end to the conversation, I take a whiff of Luke’s diaper. The hot stench nearly gives me a sunburn. “Looks like somebody needs a diaper change,” I croak. When Penny goes to move, I grab the diaper bag. “You, rest. I’ve got it.”
I take the baby and head off to get him changed. The girls continue their conversation as I walk away.
“The guy is a massive jerk but I’m sure he’d rock my little sister’s world. Hot dads are the best. Wicked hot in bed.”
“Tell me about it. Did I tell you about what Walker did the other night after he got the babies to sleep?”
“Well, damn! Jude is gonna have to get me knocked up because I feel like I’m missing out.”
I leave the girls to gossip and giggle about their sex lives. Me and Eli are quickly forgotten.
I try to forget him, too, but it’s a losing battle. I don’t know what’s wrong with me.
The man is my boss, for crying out loud. My devastatingly, unnervingly handsome boss.
But, he is also damaged. Jaded. Broken.
When he looks out at the world around us, he sees something entirely different than I do. He sees betrayal. He sees darkness. He doesn’t see the internal goodness that resides in all of us. He doesn’t see bright hope and new opportunities at the beginning of a fresh week.
Eli Kingston is my opposite in almost every single way. He’s wrong for me. And it’s wrong for me to be so enamored with him.
But none of that stops me from wanting him. I’m either a fool, or I’m…in love.
And love is an option I’m not willing to entertain. So, a fool it is, then.
32
Eli
I tug my tie left to right and grunt. I can’t get this stupid thing to settle properly. My frustration is growing by the second.
The girls have been gone for awhile now. They left for the Kingston guesthouse to get ready for my parents’ black-tie wedding anniversary party. According to the watch on my wrist, I’m already running five minutes late. I know I’m gonna get an earful from my family about it.
I undo the tie and start over. This thing used to be second nature to me but today, not so much. I’m tempted to just ditch it completely but Ma would probably nag me endlessly if I showed up at dinner without it.
On a grunt, I take a break from the tie and allow my gaze to sweep over the reflection staring back at me. In the mirror on the living room wall, I catch a glimpse of the man I used to be.
I’m wearing a dress shirt and suit jacket. My hair is combed. I run a hand down my fresh-shaven jaw. I think I like it. I think I’d like to be that guy again. A guy who has his shit together. A guy who has his life in order. A guy who knows what he brings to the table.
But I’m not sure how to get back there.
It was on this night, three years ago that I got arrested. I was standing in this very spot in the living room, tie hanging loose around my neck, arguing with my wife when that fateful knock sounded at the door. When law enforcement stormed into my house and turned my life upside down. So, excuse me if I’m a little anxious about tonight.
I’m taking one last shot at the tie when the front door bursts open. My heart surges into my throat. I get flashbacks of police cruisers swarming my front yard.
Jessa steps into the room, distractedly digging around inside her purse. I suck in a calming breath. When she lifts her gaze and our eyes meet, she freezes.
Her focus slowly moves down my body before sliding back to my face. Cheeks pinked up, she smiles that shy smile at me. Like she enjoys this version of me even more than I do.
In an instant, my neck is sweaty, my cock is tingling, there's a stampede of adrenaline in my blood.
“Hi…” she says softly. She takes a few tentative steps forward.
“Hi.” My eyes sweep her. Well, damn. She looks amazing in the dress she’s wearing. It’s Tinkerbell-green with ruffles all over it. Short, flowy, dangerous to my health. All I know is I want to see it in a pile on the floor as I get my paws all over her.
The sound of her voice brings my attention back to her face. “I think I forgot Callie’s earrings,” she’s saying to me. “I just came back to grab them.”
Yet she doesn’t make a move to go find them.
We stand there in the middle of the living room, checking each other out.
“You’re fucking gorgeous, Jessa.” The compliment rolls out of me in a coarse tone, almost sounding like a threat. I ball up my fists to keep from touching her.
She takes a step closer and all the warning bells in my head shout at me to take a step back but I
hold my ground.
“Thank you.” She smiles that innocent, goodnatured smile. “You look so good in a suit. It always takes me off guard."
When my gaze latches onto hers, she bites her lip shyly. Like she hadn’t meant to say that out loud. Her tone may be neutral but I take note of the pool of fire in her eyes.
She quickly blinks away from my face, gesturing to where my hands are tangled up in the mess of silky fabric hanging around my neck. “You need help with your tie?”
I clear my throat and try not to come out of my skin. “Um…yeah. I’d like that.” I’d like it a whole lot.
Jessa steps closer. The sweet scent of her makes me dizzy with lust. I want to dip my head and take her rosy lips in a hot, dirty kiss. But her makeup is done up and I’m sure it took forever to get her hair into that river of perfect, glossy waves and I’d be an asshole to undo all that hard work with my probing hands. So, I stand there, throbbing in my skin as she reaches for my tie. With her small hands, she slowly twists and knots the silky fabric so it falls just right.
When she’s done, she rests her palms on my chest and smooths down my jacket. She takes a step back to explore me with her eyes.
And in this moment, I think I finally understand that old saying about trying to put out a fire with gasoline. It’s pointless. Resisting this feeling is pointless.
I approach her, ready to just say ‘fuck it’ and take her in my arms. “Jessa, I think you should know—”
The click-click-click of tiny feet running up the front steps snaps my attention toward the doorway.
Jessa and I jump apart like we’re dodging a flying grenade. I spin to face my daughter as she barrels through the front door.
She stops in her tracks. Her blue eyes go wide as they bounce between her nanny and me. The girl may be five but I swear, she knows exactly what she just walked in on.
I decide to take control of the conversation before she starts asking questions I’m not equipped to answer. I drop down to the floor, kneeling in front of her. “Hey now. Who is this gorgeous young lady barging into my house?”
The diversion succeeds. Callie’s focus settles on me and she beams up proudly into my face. “Don’t I look pretty, Daddy?”
“You definitely do, Cal.” I grab her by the hand and twirl her around. “You look like a beautiful princess.” She giggles as she spins on her toes.
Jessa observes us from a distance, a soft look in her eyes. “I’ll go look for your earrings, Callie.” The nanny veers around the couch and rushes off down the hallway.
As I continue to gush over my daughter, that heart-melting smile of hers goes even wider. “Nana said I could wear lipstick today! Is that all right?” She puckers her little face at me to demonstrate the pale pink glossy stuff on her mouth.
I nearly double over laughing at her expression. The girl is something else. I can just see it now. Ten years from today, she’ll be leaving piles of brokenhearted teenaged boys everywhere she goes. “It’s all right,” I tell her. “But only for today.”
She nods vigorously. “Yes. Because today is a very special day.”
“It is,” I agree.
“We’re having a big party because Nana and Papa got married a long, long, long time ago…right?” She knots up her little nose and I can tell that she doesn’t quite grasp the concept of an anniversary party but she’s willing to play along anyway.
I crack up. “Something like that.” I crouch down and gather her into a hug. She’s growing up so fast. It’s blowing my mind.
Callie clasps my freshly-shaven face in her hands. She stares lovingly at me. “You look so handsome, Daddy. Like a charming prince.”
“You like the shave?” I ask as she rubs her palms up and down my scruff-free cheeks.
She nods again. Then she glances down the hall where Jessa went off. When her eyes bounce back to mine, they’re a thousand megawatts brighter like a light bulb just went off in her little head.
She cups a hand around my ear and whispers. “And maybe you and Jessa can get married too, now that you don’t look like a big bad wolf anymore.”
33
Jessa
Boy, do the Kingstons know how to party.
I don’t think I’ve stopped chatting and laughing since this anniversary gathering started. The evening kicked off with a sentimental slideshow of Kingston family photos spanning the past thirty-eight years. Then, Lucas and Diana made a few toasts before slow dancing to an old Elton John ballad. Their hands were all over each other the whole time as they shared sweet kisses that made their sons blush red like strawberry Jell-O. Then the couple opened up the dance floor to their guests and it’s been a free for all ever since.
Diana’s father didn’t stay long. The old man’s caregiver drove him back to the nursing home around seven o’clock. Baby Di, Mayor and Luke also got carted off by the babysitters their parents hired for tonight. Now, the rest of us are really letting loose.
There’s a self-serve bar in one corner of the room and the alcohol is flowing. Next to the bar, an antique farm wagon with big rusty wheels has been set up as a buffet. The rustic-looking spread is bursting with chicken, meatballs, cheeses, pasta and fresh vegetables from Walker’s farm.
Some of the guests choose to eat immediately while others invade the dance floor. Callie and some kids her age are running around. I’m standing in the buffet line, metal tongs poised over a crispy-looking crab cake when a Pussycat Dolls throwback comes on.
Immediately, I drop my plate of lasagna, grab Lexi, Iris and Penny, and drag them to the dance floor. Diana, her sister, MaryAnn, and Penny’s aunt, Lucille, join along.
It’s the girl band reunion that no-one saw coming. And no-one asked for.
Tipsy, happy and decked out in our ill-suited dresses, me and my fellow wannabe popstars show off our risqué moves. Diana puts down some twerking maneuvers that would make Miley Cyrus weep with jealousy. The rest of us play the perfect backup singers, improvising forgotten lyrics, reinventing old dance moves and not always keeping time with the music, but having a blast nonetheless.
I see Mr. Kingston clasping his hands over Callie’s eyes more than once. His sons sit nearby, alternating between cringing and laughing and cheering us on.
My eyes meet Eli’s and our gazes hold. I forget about everybody else in the room. I’m shaking my body and putting on a show just for him. He wears a lopsided smile, looking amused and captivated both at once. And I know I probably look more silly than sexy but to me, that smile on his face is worth a little self-embarrassment.
After our impromptu burlesque performance comes to an end, Diana, MaryAnn and Miss Lucille go off in search of something to drink while my girlfriends and I collapse into random chairs positioned along the edge of the dance floor.
Iris fans her face. “I haven’t danced like that since I found Penny’s Spice Girls Live in Concert VHS tape in her room when she left for college.”
Penny slaps her cousin on the shoulder. “Oh my god. You stole my Spice Girls tape?”
Iris looks guilty. “Let’s just…let’s just focus on this happy day, shall we?”
Alexia looks at me and wiggles her brows. “I’ll tell you who looks happy right now. Eli Kingston.” She nudges me with her elbow. “Jess, that man hasn’t taken his eyes off you since this party started. Not once.”
“I know, right?” Iris chimes in. “I saw that.”
“Really?” My heart beats faster. I steal a peek over at the table where the Kingston men are sitting. Sure enough, my gaze runs straight into Eli’s. One corner of his mouth ticks up and every cell in my body flutters.
But I try not to get my hopes up. Because I’ve come to accept that what I want from him is something he will never be able to give me.
34
Eli
I can’t take my eyes off her. Trust me, I’ve tried.
And failed.
Numerous times.
Every time I avert my attention away from Jessa, I inevitably find myself st
aring at her again within seconds. She looks gorgeous. And after that little dance show she and her friends just put on—heck—my ability to ignore her just hit rock bottom.
A teeny-bopper song comes on and Callie drags my father out onto the floor for a spin. As Dad trudges along after his energetic granddaughter, he laughs and jokes that she’s keeping him young and ‘hip’.
Yes, he actually said the word ‘hip’.
Anyway, now I’m sitting at a table with my brothers. Jessa and the girls are on the other side of the room, sagging in a set of chairs arranged haphazardly along the perimeter of the crowded dance floor.
I’m not too invested in what anyone is talking about at my table. I’m too busy devouring the nanny with my eyes. The way her veil of long dark hair brackets her narrow shoulders. The way her giggles rise above the music like the twinkling chime of bells. The peachy flush of her cheeks. She’s had a little too much to drink and her laughter flows a little bit looser. She’s having a great time and I just wish I could be right there beside her.
“You could stop staring at her and actually go talk to her,” Jude suggests pleasantly. “Dance with her maybe?”
I glance over my shoulder to find all three of my brothers staring at me, identical smug grins on their stupid faces.
“I don’t wanna dance,” I grumble back.
“Oh, I see—you just wanna sit here all night and ogle her like a creeper.” Cannon leans back in his chair and clinks the ice around in his tumbler of whiskey.
“Dude, I don’t know what you’re talking about.” I turn back to my plate and stab my fork into my cold chicken parmesan.
Mister Bossy (Bad Boys in Love Book 4) Page 17