Bossman's List

by Ashlee Price

  “Son, I don’t want us to argue. There is…”

  I stopped him with a raised hand and told him there was nothing else to say. I walked out of there and got a few things from my office. Nothing else was even worth taking. When I got to the elevator and watched the silver doors close, I thought I would be in a good mood, over the moon that I finally was leaving the place forever, but there was instead something akin to sadness. It was confusing. Although I knew that my father didn’t care one way or another, I found that I still did. That hadn’t changed.

  Walking out, the change in me was negligible. It was rather a letdown compared to what I thought the experience would be. While I was sure that I would feel better tomorrow, when it had all sunk in, I still wasn’t happy with the conclusion. I’d said everything that I’d wanted to say to him, but there was no satisfaction in it, not like I’d expected.

  Getting into the car, I just kind of sat there for a moment and took one last look at the place that was supposed to be my legacy. I was going to miss it after all. I hadn’t liked Jackson’s role and my place there, but I’d liked the work. I wasn’t sure what I was going to do now, but I knew I would find something else. I always did.

  Driving away, my mind went to Jesse and I instantly started to feel better, my mood perking up. She was all that I needed now. I couldn’t wait for her to become my wife.

  Chapter 3 – Jesse

  It was a week before the wedding, and I have to admit I wasn’t paying much attention to my job. When I looked up from the register, I saw the same elderly woman who I’d seen every day for almost two weeks. She had the same color hair as me, and her eyes were only a few shades lighter green than mine, but there was something else about her that pulled my attention. Today, I tried looking right into her eyes. There was something there, some connection that I hadn’t felt before, and it bothered me a little bit.

  “Can I help you, ma’am? The usual?”

  She nodded her head and I started to get the coffee that my father had made so famous. Everyone wanted it, and just like my father, the older woman wanted it black with a raspberry Danish. My father used to eat the same thing every morning, though he would never tell me why. How strange it was to me, that coincidence, and when I mentioned it to her as I was ringing her up, she said something that stopped me in my tracks. Maybe it wasn’t a coincidence after all.

  “You know, I used to know a man like that a long time ago. He would drink his coffee and dip the Danish in it, telling me that it was all the sugar he needed to sweeten it.”

  I could feel my heart beating in my chest. I thought I knew who she was, but I had to be sure. It made sense, all of it, all of a sudden, but I still wasn’t sure. “Who are you?”

  “I’m your mother, Jesse. We look so much alike that I thought you would have figured it out by now. I didn’t know how to tell you, so I hoped that you would ask.”

  I was standing there with my mouth open and the never-ending line behind her. Of all of the places and of all of the ways to meet my mother again! I didn’t know what to say to her, and I knew I had to get to the next customer before long.

  “Can we talk later, maybe after you close, Jesse?”

  Nodding my head, I told her that we closed around three and that I would like to speak to her. I was full of emotions that left me speechless, but there was a lot that I wanted to ask her, a lot that I wanted to know. I’d said before that I didn’t care, but I did. My father was gone, and now that she was there, I had to learn about her. More than that, I had to ask her why she’d left and why I’d spent most of my life without a mother. I only had a few memories that involved her, and they were faded so much in my mind that I sometimes wondered if I’d made them up.

  I watched her leave with mixed emotions. I was excited at the idea that I might get some answers, but I wasn’t sure why she was there. And I was worried that she wasn’t going to come back.

  “Who was that?”

  I looked back at Melissa. I knew my face was different. I’d been thinking about what I was going to say to Clara, and I was torn with emotions.

  “That was my mother.” I said it plain and simple, like it was no big deal, but Melissa knew different. I could tell that she wanted to say something to me, but the steady stream of customers kept us both silent for a time.

  “Are you okay?”

  I shrugged. I wasn’t sure if I was okay. I was still anxious to see how everything worked out first. Then I would know if I was going to be okay or not.

  “Well, what did she say?”

  “She wants to talk after the shop closes.”

  “Do you want me to stick around so that you don’t have to be alone with her?”

  I was tempted, but I knew that I had a lot of things to ask. Having Melissa around wouldn’t make that any easier.

  “No, I think I can handle it. I just want to ask her a few questions and see what happens. I don’t know, Melissa. I wish Dad were here. He would know what to say.”

  She bumped me and smiled, trying to make me feel better. “Let me take over the register for a while and you go get something to eat. You haven’t eaten all day.”

  Food was the last thing on my mind, but a few moments with my own thoughts sounded good. I thanked her before going into the back.

  ***

  I waited nervously for my mother. It was already four o’clock. Scott was going to be back soon, and I wanted to know what was going on before he got there. I didn’t want to get my hopes up and then have everything go south. By now I was starting to wonder if she was even going to come at all. Me waiting for her to come back seemed to be a reoccurring theme in my life.

  I heard the jingle of the front door and looked up. Clara was coming in, and she was smiling at me. It had been a while, and all of the tough acting aside, it was good to see her. The connection that I’d felt before made sense. She was my mother.

  “Do you want to go somewhere to talk, or stay here?”

  “We can do whatever you want, Jesse. I don’t have a preference either way. I would just like to talk to you. You look a lot like your father. How is he?”

  Her question made me stop. She didn’t know. Why did I think that she would? “Dad is gone. He died a couple of months ago.”

  Clara sat down at the counter and reeled like she’d been physically hit with something. “I didn’t know. Oh, Jesse, I should have come sooner.”

  She moved to me and pulled me into an embrace. At first I fought the warmth of her, but I eventually gave in. It felt good to be held by her. No matter what had come between us, she was still my mother in the end.

  We spent the next couple of hours catching up. There was a lot to catch up on, and we finally settled in upstairs with a bottle of wine. She helped me go through dad’s closet, and she told me all kinds of stories about the two of them before it all ended so badly.

  When I told her about my engagement to Scott, Clara seemed even more interested, and before I knew it, I was inviting her to the wedding. It was short notice, but I couldn’t think of anyone else that I would rather have there. I wasn’t happy with everything that had happened and the way she’d left, but if anyone deserved a second chance it was her. She was family, after all.

  By the time she left it was dark outside and Scott still wasn’t back from work. I called him, a little worried, and he told me he would be back soon. He had news. I told him that I had news too.

  “I’ll see you when I get home, Jesse. I love you.”

  “I love you too.”

  Chapter 4 – Scott

  She looked beautiful. Her red hair was swept back and piled high on her head. But there was something else about Jesse. She was practically glowing, and as soon as I heard the music start and finally saw her walking down the aisle, I felt like my heart was going to stop beating altogether. Jesse was the very image of perfection, and soon she was going to be all mine.

  A lot had changed, but I knew that this change was going to be the best of all. There were so many face
s in the crowd that I didn’t think I would see. My father was there, although I hadn’t spoken to him since I put in my resignation. He wasn’t looking too happy, but he was there, and him and my mother were actually sitting together. My father didn’t have a girl half his age on his arm, and I saw that as progress. I had to, really.

  Jesse stopped in front of me and it was only her that I could see anymore. Everything else had faded into the background. I loved the slight pink that was in her cheeks. She was nervous. Jesse had asked me to keep the wedding small, but I couldn’t do it. I would have invited the world to witness us getting married if I could have done it. If I could have shouted it off every rooftop in the city I would have. Jesse was finally going to be mine.

  The preacher started to recite the words that everyone seems to know from movies. It didn’t feel like it was as long as it was supposed to be, because the next thing I knew, there was a pause and I looked up to see Jesse looking at me. It was clear then that I was supposed to say something. It was my turn to say that I would take her forever as my wife. When I realized it, I said it quickly, so quickly that there was laughter throughout the church.

  “And do you, Jesse Olsen, take this man to be your lawful wedded husband as long as you both shall live?”

  She nodded just as quickly, her words so soft that I could barely hear her answer, but it was loud enough. The last words were said over us, and then just like that, the woman I loved became the woman I was married to. It was strange, but having Jesse back in my arms helped me to see that it was the way it was meant to be.

  “I see that your mother is here, Jesse.”

  Jesse looked into the crowd, and I could tell that she was pleased. I was pleased as well. Her mother may have abandoned her when she was younger, but Jesse needed someone, and with her father gone, Clara seemed to be filling in where he’d left off.

  “It looks like your father made it as well, Scott. You should really go talk to him. He’s trying, so maybe you should as well.”

  I didn’t want to argue with my wife only moments after she became that, so I told her that I would. I didn’t say how long I would talk to him, but I would make the effort. It was the least I could do. I’d learned more about forgiveness since being with Jesse than I ever had before. If she could forgive her mother, I thought that I could at least give it a try as well.

  ***

  “Everything was so beautiful, Scott. I can’t believe that you wanted to have all of those people. I don’t think that I’ve met that many people in my whole life.”

  “It wasn’t that big. I had a client who had over five thousand guests at his wedding. I went and it was massive. Ours was puny in comparison.”

  “Well, it was perfect, puny or not. I couldn’t have asked for a better day. Everything was just perfect.”

  I smiled at her overuse of the word. She’d been saying it all day, and I had to admit that I agreed with her. Everything had worked out, and even my talk with dad hadn’t ruined the mood. He’d actually apologized, and he hadn’t even seemed that drunk. When my father got emotional, there was usually whiskey involved.

  “I was glad to see you two get along. It was just a perfect day,” Jesse sighed as I moved to hold her.

  “You’re the perfect one. I don’t want to talk about them tonight. I want to talk about us and the perfect night that we are going to have together. It’s been too long since I’ve felt you underneath me.”

  I felt her body shake a little at the thought, and my hands moved to her shoulders. I wanted to keep my wits about me, but it was hard when she looked as good as she did. I’d spent most of the reception doing my best not to drag her into the bathroom and ravish her. Now that was all that I could think about.

  “It hasn’t been but a couple of days. You weren’t deprived for that long.”

  I growled at her and pulled her in for a kiss. A couple of days had felt like a lifetime, and I was not inclined to wait any longer. I just couldn’t.

  “Every moment without you is too long, Jesse. I just want to stay with you all day and night.”

  “How would we ever get anything done?”

  Kissing her again, I wanted to shush her and take her mind off of anything but my lips on hers. It worked for a time, and then I heard the soft moan that disappeared into my mouth. It was the sound that I’d been waiting for.

  “Tonight we don’t have to do anything but be together. Tomorrow will take care of itself.”

  “I know, Scott. I’ve been looking forward to this night since you asked me to marry you.”

  She started to lift up her dress, and I could see the small band of blue that she’d hidden underneath. “Why don’t you help me get undressed, Scott?”

  I couldn’t move fast enough to get to her. I wanted to rip the dress off – I now regarded it as more of a hindrance than a beautiful wedding dress – but the idea of getting close to her nether regions won out, and I was quickly on my knees in front of her.

  My fingers went up to her inner thigh and she slapped my hand back. “Not with your hands, Scott, with your teeth.”

  “Even better.”

  She squealed as I moved closer with my mouth. I spent some time all around the belt before I finally nibbled just a bit on her flesh as I took it between my teeth. Pulling it down, I watched her finally step out of it as I finished it off with a quick jerk of my hand.

  “Do I need to take everything off with my teeth?”

  Jesse’s eyes darkened moments before she nodded her head. “I like the sound of that.”

  To be continued in Part 10…

  Served Part 10: Savor

  By: Ashlee Price

  Prologue

  It’s been a year since Scott and Jesse’s wedding. A lot has changed since then. Scott no longer runs his father’s company and has instead gotten into the restaurant business with his wife. The bistro is doing better than ever, and they’ve even opened another branch on the other side of town, so the newlyweds are keeping busy. The addition to their family is also spreading the pair thin, but they feel like anything is possible; their love conquered all before, so why not now?

  Then a new test comes as a surprise. Scott is on his way to the west side location when he gets a call from his father’s longtime live-in housekeeper. While Scott hasn’t talked to his father much since his resignation, he’s still shocked to hear how he’s doing. He didn’t know that his father wasn’t well, but no matter how poorly he treated him in the past, he realizes that he must help him now. Things are going to change again, and Scott is just worried about how Jesse is going to take it all.

  Chapter 1 – Scott

  “Come on, Jesse. I’ll take care of this. You take care of Glenn and I’ll be back in a little bit. I don’t mind, really I don’t. I know that there’s something going on over at Tridad street, so it will be packed. You can’t work at both of them, so let me help you.”

  “It’s just the first time it’s going to be open, and I wanted to make sure that everything is just right. I want the new location to be just like the old one, don’t you?”

  I watched her feed our child a few bits of food that she’d whipped up a little while before, and I couldn’t help smiling at her. She had more patience than I could ever manage, and watching her with our son just made me love her that much more. I never thought that a year later we would be where we were, but I wouldn’t have changed it for the world. After quitting my job at my father’s company, I’d been helping Jesse with the bistro. Now that we were opening another one, I was finally starting to understand the restaurant business. It was ridiculously hard, but I’d fallen in love with the personal feeling that I got every day. I got to help people and see their happiness when they were there.

  “I do want it to be the same, but you’ve already been over there twice in the last week. Everything is ready. You approved it all.”

  “I know, but I just want to make sure that the new hires understand how to act and how to talk to the customers. The staff is almost a
s important as the food and drinks.”

  She was worried, and I loved that about her. She always had her mind on the next task. Never slowing down was hard for me to get used to. I was learning, though. I’d been a powerful businessman for many years, but I was learning a lot about leadership from Jesse. She had a way of looking at things that I envied.

  “I’ll take care of it, love. Just stay here for today. I promise you that everything will be as it’s supposed to be. I don’t want it to be any different. It’s going to be just like the one that you and your father built together. Every detail is the same, and Melissa is going to be watching over everything now that I gave her the keys.”

  Jesse smiled at the thought of her friend finally taking over a little bit. She’d always refused the responsibility before, but everything had changed for her as well. Melissa was engaged, and we both hoped that she would be pregnant with her own child soon. It was what she’d always wanted, and now it was like everything was coming true. Jesse had her mom back, and I had Jesse and Glenn. My heart was so full some days that I thought it would explode at any minute. I was sure that no one was supposed to be this happy.

  “Thank you, Scott. I don’t know what I would do without you.”

  “You’ll never have to find out, Jesse, because I’m not going anywhere. I don’t even like leaving you and Glenn to go to the other location. I know that it’s good that we expanded, but I don’t want to get too big. Sometimes I wish we could just take a little time off and go away somewhere. Neither one of us has to work.”

  “I know, but this will be his one day, Scott. I want to leave him something when we’re gone, like my father did for me.”

  That made me think of my own father and what he’d tried to do. I don’t know why I thought that Glenn would one day feel the way that I had about my father’s business. I would make sure that I gave it to him and trusted him enough to make the best decisions that he could. I wasn’t going to hound him, though; if he didn’t want it, I would let him walk away.