It was feel-good food. That was the marketing line we had chosen for Danes, which was the name I’d chosen. I’d been right when I told William at first that the name would come along when the time was right. Because it was our family name. This family that meant all the world to me, the family that made William so happy that he spent less and less time at work, more and more days with us. I joked that he’d be fully retired in his forties, and he said that he worked all those years when he didn’t have me to come home to. That he planned to enjoy his life now. Secretly, even when I teased him about it, I was very pleased that he felt that way. I missed him horribly when he was gone to work. When he had to take a business trip, we all went along. There were no airport goodbyes for us. We couldn’t bear to be apart. So our children had seen Indonesia, Greece and England already. And I had awakened beside my husband every single day of our married life. There was nothing better.
Now my dreams were all coming true. Danes was set to open in February, just before Valentine’s Day. I wanted all that comfort food available when it was snowy, slushy and horrible in winter. It was the best time to launch such a restaurant.
I pulled out my phone and showed William the final drawing for the restaurant sign. There was a heart in the middle of the letter ‘a’. Just like the heart on my engagement ring. Just like the heart I’d healed, the one he’d given to me.
“You know what we should do when the restaurant opens?” he said.
“Take the kids back to Disney?” I said.
“Have another baby. And then when the restaurant is a great success and we open another in London, we celebrate by having another baby,” he said mischievously.
I laughed and kissed him. The light, happy kiss turned passionate, my lips parting, his tongue stroking mine, and then the real estate broker wisely left us alone in our new building.
“Yes,” I said, “I think that’s a fabulous idea.”
Boss’s Secret Baby for Christmas (Sample)
Enjoy a free sample of one of my other novels.
1
Mindy
I looked up at the massive building in front of me and pulled my messenger bag a little closer. I didn’t want to admit that I felt intimidated by the building, but there it was. It was more the job that waited for me inside the building, way up there on the tenth floor. This job was everything I’d been working for, but I still couldn’t quite believe that I was getting it.
I was top of my graduating class, and in the two years since I had graduated, I had worked my butt off trying to prove myself to people just like my new boss. All the same, to be realizing those dreams at the ripe young age of twenty-four? If you had told my eighteen-year-old self that this was where I’d be a scant six years after graduating high school, I don’t think I would have believed you.
I took a step forward and watched the big glass doors whoosh open automatically. I navigated my way up to the offices of Designed by You, the marketing company that had decided to take the risk on hiring me.
I was only an intern, and even though they’d be paying me for my time there, there was no guarantee that I would still have a job with them six months from now. All my friends thought I was crazy, giving up the cushy job I’d had since graduation, all for a potential disaster. But you couldn’t make a name in the marketing world working for a small local company. You needed to take your chances with a company like Designed by You.
The bored-looking secretary directed me toward HR in between answering phone calls in a snooty monotone. I felt another rush of nervousness go through me. Was this what working for the company would be like? I sure hoped not.
Friendliness was something sorely lacking in my life since I’d moved to Chicago, and I didn’t know if I could handle a whole six months of brusque interactions with people who didn’t care where I was from, let alone what I aspired to in life.
I managed to find the HR office and took a seat with the other interns, waiting to sign over the next six months of my life. There were three of us in there, and I found myself quietly sizing up the competition as we waited to go into the office. If there was only one job offer at the end of those six months, I wanted to be sure I understood who the competition was.
The thing about the internship was it wouldn’t really show off our skills…unless we proved that we were worthy of more responsibility. It was mostly going to be a lot of menial labor. If I was lucky, I might get a minute or two each week with one of the higher-ups in the company.
And man, I couldn’t wait to meet the two guys who ran the company. There was a reason I had applied for this internship. Designed by You really spoke to me as a company and as a consumer. From the mission statement to its execution, I was sure this was the place where I was meant to be.
Surely the other two interns couldn’t feel the same way that I did. I was sure they were both talented individuals, but there was just no way that they couldn’t feel as passionate about this internship as I personally did.
As the silence in the waiting room started to become unbearable, I finally made the split-second decision to introduce myself and get the ball rolling. After all, even if we were competitors in the pursuit of one full-time position, I was sure that we three were going to be working closely together over the next six months while we were all interns. Might as well get to know one another.
I would never go so far as to sabotage one of them. But then again, the more I got to know the two of them, the better equipped I would be to pick out their weaknesses and show the higher-ups why I more suited to a long-term position with the company.
I gave the two of them a nervous smile. “You guys ready for this?” I asked. “I’m Mindy, by the way.”
The hipster dude looked vaguely uncertain, glancing over at our companion before giving me a shy smile in response. The other woman tossed her head, a grin flashing across her face. “I’m not nervous,” she said, but before I could wonder if she was really that arrogant, she tossed out a joke: “One of my biggest weaknesses is saying something stupid, but I feel like I’ve been researching Designed by You so much since I heard about this job posting that the only things that could come out of my mouth now are random trivia about the company. Like for example, did you know…”
She trailed to a stop, looking sheepish. “See, I told you.”
I had to giggle. “Me too,” I admitted. “I mean, I knew a lot about the company before I applied here, but now I keep having dreams about all the trivia I’ve dug up about them. My biggest fear is that I’ll spout out one of my facts only to find out that it’s not true at all.”
“Exactly!” the woman said. She leaned forward and held out a hand to me. “I’m Vera, by the way.” We shook hands, and from the smile on her face, I could tell we were going to get along pretty well.
The guy smiled nervously. “I’m Pierce,” he said. He glanced toward the door. “I feel kind of dumb for thinking that HR would get us in there as soon as we arrived, but I don’t know, I thought we had an appointment or something?”
Vera groaned in agreement. “Me too,” she said fervently.
I shrugged, trying to play things cool. “It’s a huge company,” I reminded both of them. “I’m sure they have better things to do than to usher us right through form signing.”
“I guess,” Vera said. “I’m just so excited to get started with work that I hate sitting here for any longer than I have to!”
Fortunately, waiting around to sign our HR forms was the final breather that we had through the whole day. After that, it was rushing around getting to know the layout of the office, then getting us set up at our workspaces, then teaching us the basics of the position, then running us through a mock-up of a normal day in the life as an intern, then setting us free with some instructions for things to get done that afternoon.
I couldn’t help but feel excited. This was my first real job in my field of study, and I couldn’t help but hope that I’d be able to turn this into a long-term position. A shiver ran down my
spine. I wanted this.
Still, for all of my excitement, or perhaps because of it, by the time I was walking out of there at 6 P.M., I couldn’t help but feel worn-out. Vera looked just as exhausted but thrilled, though. I wondered where Pierce had gotten off to; we hadn’t seen him for most of the afternoon, and even though I was sure that meant that he had a different project to work on, I couldn’t help but wonder what it was. It would have been nice to all walk out together that first day.
“Look!” Vera said suddenly, her fingers digging into my arm. With her free hand, she pointed excitedly toward the elevator.
I followed the direction of her finger, about to rebuke her for pointing at someone. But the words died on my lips. Holy hell.
There were two guys standing there. The one was nothing special, and my eyes immediately slid away from him. But the man beside him was, for lack of a better word, gorgeous. He was tall and blond, with a strong jawline and piercing blue eyes. His face was animated as he talked to the man beside him, seeming not to realize that the world had pretty much come to a standstill around him.
Because Vera and I weren’t the only ones staring at him. It seemed like everyone in his vicinity was waiting with bated breath, ready to leap to his every whim. The man didn’t even seem to realize, though. He had power, but he had the air of someone who didn’t even notice how much of it crackled like electricity around him. It wasn’t arrogance; it was simply that he was so caught up in what he was saying that he didn’t seem aware of anything else.
I wondered what it would be like to have that kind of intensity focused on me. I shivered, not sure whether that would be a good thing or not.
“That’s Adam Parker,” Vera hissed, not seeming to realize the emotions going through me. “And his assistant, I think. Wendell Carlton. Isn’t he handsome?”
My eyes slid over Adam’s companion again, but I dismissed him just as easily as I had before. I supposed he was good-looking, but I only had eyes for Adam. So this was the president of the company, and one of my new bosses. Interesting.
I was struck by the sudden urge to walk up to Adam and introduce myself. What better way to be noticed as an intern than to make a bold move like that? But I knew that unless I could back it up with a reason, he would see it as nothing more than a waste of his time, and I didn’t want that. No, if I wanted to capture his attention, I was going to have to come up with some brilliant way to do it.
My eyes lingered on him for a minute longer, hoping beyond hope that he might glance over at me. Then again, it was probably just as well he didn’t. I was tired, and I knew that after the long and busy day I’d had, I had to look frazzled. That wasn’t how I wanted our first meeting to go.
In any case, he didn’t look over. He breezed past us, still chatting animatedly to his assistant. My eyes followed after him, getting a good eyeful of his shapely ass as he walked away. No guy should ever be that good-looking. It was practically a crime.
But I couldn’t stop trying to think of ways to get the man to notice me.
2
Mindy
I looked up at the massive building in front of me and pulled my messenger bag a little closer. I didn’t want to admit that I felt intimidated by the building, but there it was. It was more the job that waited for me inside the building, way up there on the tenth floor. This job was everything I’d been working for, but I still couldn’t quite believe that I was getting it.
I was top of my graduating class, and in the two years since I had graduated, I had worked my butt off trying to prove myself to people just like my new boss. All the same, to be realizing those dreams at the ripe young age of twenty-four? If you had told my eighteen-year-old self that this was where I’d be a scant six years after graduating high school, I don’t think I would have believed you.
I took a step forward and watched the big glass doors whoosh open automatically. I navigated my way up to the offices of Designed by You, the marketing company that had decided to take the risk on hiring me.
I was only an intern, and even though they’d be paying me for my time there, there was no guarantee that I would still have a job with them six months from now. All my friends thought I was crazy, giving up the cushy job I’d had since graduation, all for a potential disaster. But you couldn’t make a name in the marketing world working for a small local company. You needed to take your chances with a company like Designed by You.
The bored-looking secretary directed me toward HR in between answering phone calls in a snooty monotone. I felt another rush of nervousness go through me. Was this what working for the company would be like? I sure hoped not.
Friendliness was something sorely lacking in my life since I’d moved to Chicago, and I didn’t know if I could handle a whole six months of brusque interactions with people who didn’t care where I was from, let alone what I aspired to in life.
I managed to find the HR office and took a seat with the other interns, waiting to sign over the next six months of my life. There were three of us in there, and I found myself quietly sizing up the competition as we waited to go into the office. If there was only one job offer at the end of those six months, I wanted to be sure I understood who the competition was.
The thing about the internship was it wouldn’t really show off our skills…unless we proved that we were worthy of more responsibility. It was mostly going to be a lot of menial labor. If I was lucky, I might get a minute or two each week with one of the higher-ups in the company.
And man, I couldn’t wait to meet the two guys who ran the company. There was a reason I had applied for this internship. Designed by You really spoke to me as a company and as a consumer. From the mission statement to its execution, I was sure this was the place where I was meant to be.
Surely the other two interns couldn’t feel the same way that I did. I was sure they were both talented individuals, but there was just no way that they couldn’t feel as passionate about this internship as I personally did.
As the silence in the waiting room started to become unbearable, I finally made the split-second decision to introduce myself and get the ball rolling. After all, even if we were competitors in the pursuit of one full-time position, I was sure that we three were going to be working closely together over the next six months while we were all interns. Might as well get to know one another.
I would never go so far as to sabotage one of them. But then again, the more I got to know the two of them, the better equipped I would be to pick out their weaknesses and show the higher-ups why I more suited to a long-term position with the company.
I gave the two of them a nervous smile. “You guys ready for this?” I asked. “I’m Mindy, by the way.”
The hipster dude looked vaguely uncertain, glancing over at our companion before giving me a shy smile in response. The other woman tossed her head, a grin flashing across her face. “I’m not nervous,” she said, but before I could wonder if she was really that arrogant, she tossed out a joke: “One of my biggest weaknesses is saying something stupid, but I feel like I’ve been researching Designed by You so much since I heard about this job posting that the only things that could come out of my mouth now are random trivia about the company. Like for example, did you know…”
She trailed to a stop, looking sheepish. “See, I told you.”
I had to giggle. “Me too,” I admitted. “I mean, I knew a lot about the company before I applied here, but now I keep having dreams about all the trivia I’ve dug up about them. My biggest fear is that I’ll spout out one of my facts only to find out that it’s not true at all.”
“Exactly!” the woman said. She leaned forward and held out a hand to me. “I’m Vera, by the way.” We shook hands, and from the smile on her face, I could tell we were going to get along pretty well.
The guy smiled nervously. “I’m Pierce,” he said. He glanced toward the door. “I feel kind of dumb for thinking that HR would get us in there as soon as we arrived, but I don’t know, I thought we had an appointm
ent or something?”
Vera groaned in agreement. “Me too,” she said fervently.
I shrugged, trying to play things cool. “It’s a huge company,” I reminded both of them. “I’m sure they have better things to do than to usher us right through form signing.”
“I guess,” Vera said. “I’m just so excited to get started with work that I hate sitting here for any longer than I have to!”
Fortunately, waiting around to sign our HR forms was the final breather that we had through the whole day. After that, it was rushing around getting to know the layout of the office, then getting us set up at our workspaces, then teaching us the basics of the position, then running us through a mock-up of a normal day in the life as an intern, then setting us free with some instructions for things to get done that afternoon.
I couldn’t help but feel excited. This was my first real job in my field of study, and I couldn’t help but hope that I’d be able to turn this into a long-term position. A shiver ran down my spine. I wanted this.
Still, for all of my excitement, or perhaps because of it, by the time I was walking out of there at 6 P.M., I couldn’t help but feel worn-out. Vera looked just as exhausted but thrilled, though. I wondered where Pierce had gotten off to; we hadn’t seen him for most of the afternoon, and even though I was sure that meant that he had a different project to work on, I couldn’t help but wonder what it was. It would have been nice to all walk out together that first day.
“Look!” Vera said suddenly, her fingers digging into my arm. With her free hand, she pointed excitedly toward the elevator.
CEO's Secret Baby: A Single Dad & Nanny Romance Page 17