Free From Boss to Bridegroom by Victoria Pade Page B

you’ll start looking into this right away?” Emily said hopefully.
    â€œAs soon as I figure out where to start, yes. Believe me, I want you home and this whole thing over with as soon as possible.”
    â€œThank you,” Emily said, reminding him of the little girl who had become part of his family so long ago. “I have to go. Someone is waiting to use this phone.”
    â€œTake care of yourself,” he said, not wanting to end their connection, worrying that it might be their last.
    But there was no stopping it.
    Emily said, “You take care of yourself, too,” and hung up.
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    â€œThe brachiosaurus is like the dinosaur giraffe only way, way, wa-aay bigger. Forty whole feet tall with a long, lo-oong neck with a little bitty head that weighs eighty tons.”
    â€œThe brachiosaurus’s head weighs eighty tons?” Rand asked, winking conspiratorially at Lucy as she looked on.
    It was nearly eight o’clock that night and, good to his word, Rand had been patient with her son’s interruptions of the work they were trying to finish up for the day.
    â€œNo, his head doesn’t weigh eighty tons,” Maxanswered as if Rand was just being silly. “His body weighs eighty tons. But his head has huge nose holes—”
    â€œNostrils,” Lucy supplied.
    â€œâ€”high up on his head to keep him from getting too hot.”
    â€œAnd when did he live?” Rand asked.
    â€œAt the end of the Jurassic time.”
    â€œThe Jurassic period,” Lucy amended.
    â€œ Nostrils at the end of the Jurassic period, ” Max repeated to let them know he’d made note of both of his mother’s corrections.
    â€œAnd that’s it for tonight’s dinosaur lecture,” Lucy said before her son could get started again. “Time for bed.”
    Max put up his usual fuss but finally gave in with a warm good-night to Rand.
    Rand ruffled up Max’s hair and answered the good-night with one of his own, leaving the little boy beaming as if Rand had bestowed the medal of honor rather than a simple hair mussing.
    â€œI’ll be right back,” Lucy told her boss, appreciating his kind treatment of her son, who was obviously even more enamored by the man than he’d been the previous evening.
    Max was already in his pajamas, having been dispatched to put them on earlier, so when Lucy got him upstairs she oversaw him brushing his teeth, read him a quick story and tucked him in.
    â€œCan Rand come back tomorrow night, too?” the little boy asked as she kissed his forehead.
    â€œI don’t know. That depends on whether we’ll still have work to do.”
    â€œHe could just come to play if you don’t have work to do,” Max suggested.
    â€œOh, I don’t know about that,” Lucy hedged, wishing the idea of having Rand over just to play didn’t have an appeal for her, too. “You just think about going to sleep now.”
    â€œâ€™Night,” Max said, wiggling around in his bed with one arm around his bear. “Bart says ’night, too.”
    â€œGood night, Bart,” Lucy said to the teddy bear, kissing its forehead the way she had her son’s. “And good night to you, Mr. Max. I love you. Sleep tight.”
    As always Max was nearly asleep by the time she got to the door and turned out his light. And, as always, Lucy paused a moment to look back at him and revel in the peaceful sight of the little boy dropping off into dreamland. Then she closed the door halfway and left him to it.
    As she passed by the bathroom next to Max’s room, though, she hesitated. She had an inordinate urge to take a moment to check the mirror.
    She shouldn’t, she knew. It wasn’t as if she were going back downstairs to a date. She was going back downstairs to work.
    But she was powerless to stop herself and beforeshe was even finished mentally listing all the reasons she shouldn’t do it, there she was in