Free The Boss: (Billionaire Romance) by Lexy Timms Page B

don’t either.” She kept her eyes on the road and hoped it kept her father from asking more. She had a terrible poker face, but it didn’t matter, he was caught up in his own issues.
    She watched him from the corner of her eye. As much as her family was a pain at times, she still loved them. She didn’t want to see him down. “Hey, Dad, do you think next Wednesday you would be up for going out for dinner?” Jamie asked him. “Someplace with decent atmosphere and healthy options, of course. You need to keep down on the cholesterol like the doctor told you to. I’ll ask Christine, and you ask Mom? My treat for all the hassle. How about Michael Angelos?”
    “You’re treating?” He grinned. “I’m sure I can make it. What’s the occasion? It’s not often that you want to go out to dinner with your family.”
    Jamie smiled sadly. Of course he wouldn’t remember. Why would he when he’s only attended two his entire life? “I know I usually don’t like to, but next Wednesday being my birthday and all, I thought it would be nice.”
    “Good idea. Christine will take Stephen as well, of course.”
    “Of course.”
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    S he didn’t see her father for the rest of the week. He was supposed to be resting, but he started doing work in bed and banned everyone from his room, even his wife, which made her particularly snippy. Christine called her nonstop and had her running wedding errands left, right and center. At the same time, Jamie was able to finally unpack her things and rearrange the furniture to feel more like home. Nothing, however, kept her from thinking of Alex.
    She heard the gym equipment in the morning and waited until she was certain he had left before going in there herself. Trying to avoid him didn’t help, he entered her mind all the time and that kiss dominated her fantasies. It was wrong of her to keep thinking of him, but she couldn’t help herself. Alex Reid was the sexiest man she knew. It was very hard not to be tempted by him.
    Images of him working out, building up a sweat, left her unable to sleep. She’d lie in bed while he worked out, waiting for him to leave at six and then spend an extra hour in the gym, on the treadmill or bike, or even in the pool. With all the stair running and healthy eating from the past while, Jamie’s workout clothes grew baggier than they already were. She refused to go out and buy new ones. She didn’t need sexy, tight stuff to look ridiculous in. Part of her begged her inner self to go out and buy spandex capris and a hot pink sport bra so one day in the gym she could be there beautifully sweaty from a workout and have Alex come in and stop in his tracks. It would never happen, but hey, it was fun to imagine the scene playing out.
    She’d be glistening with just the right amount of sweat, her blonde hair pulled into one of those sexy ponytails. It would be straightened instead of her usual wavy, curly messy bun she normally wore. She’d be walking—no, running in her pink top and perfectly fitted capris. Or it could be short spandex shorts fitting her curved ass just perfectly. She’d smile when he walked in, maybe wave or nod, unable to hear him because of the iPod music blaring from her earbuds.
    Alex would be shocked, his mouth hanging open as he walked over to her. “Where’d you go? Half of you is gone!”
    Okay, he wouldn’t say that. Way too stupid.
    She would wake herself up by throwing the covers off, and head to the gym in ugly, baggy stuff, or her one-piece square looking bathing suit that didn’t have an ounce of sexy to it.
    On Monday morning before she headed back to work, she got a knock on her door. She had gone in to Alex’s gym in the hopes of possibly seeing him so she could make sure they would be fine at work. She didn’t want to show up to his office and the work day be impossible to get through. Alex didn’t come in so she finished her workout on her own.
    When the knock sounded again, Jamie set aside