Free Forever the Boss: Billionaire Romance ~ Hot and Steamy (Managing the Bosses Series Book 10) by Lexy Timms Page A

much as an 'excuse me.' “And I don't know why you kept me waiting out there so long. There are things called manners, Jamie. I didn't raise you without them.”
    Jamie was still staring, trying to get her scattered thoughts together.
    “Mom?” Christine was saying in her ear. “You’ve got to be joking. Mom’s there?”
    “I'm going to have to call you back,” Jamie said. “I'm sorry.”
    “No problem. Just- No problem. Good luck, Jamie.”
    “Thanks.” Jamie hung up and tucked the phone into her pocket, turning to look at her mother, who was standing in the middle of the kitchen with a pinched expression on her face. Jamie had once wondered if that expression was permanently stuck there. “What can I do for you, Mom?”
    “You can tell me why you felt the need to make me stand outside the door for ten minutes, is what you can do. And then you can suggest a good lawyer.”
    “A good lawyer?”
    “Yes. Don't just repeat what I say. I’ve divorced your father, now I’m entitled to his money.”
    Jamie stared. Any minute, Alex was going to come out of the living room and wonder what was going on, but Jamie wasn't really thinking that far ahead.
    “You have a divorce from Dad,” she said slowly.
    Her mother glared at her. “What are you, a parrot? Take some initiative. I know that you know a good lawyer. You did enough damage to poor Stephen that you have to have had one, and the only reason your husband's company hasn't gone under yet is due to you having legal counsel, I’m sure.”
    “Excuse me?” The words came out sharper than Jamie had meant them to, but she couldn't believe her mother had just said that. Actually, she could believe that her mother had just said that, but that didn't mean that she was going to stand there and take it. “Our company is doing just fine, actually, despite constant attacks on it. If you have something to say about Reid Enterprises, you can say it somewhere else because I'm not going to stand here and listen to you act like you know what you're talking about when you have absolutely no idea.” Jamie took a step forward. “And as for Dad, you don't need a good lawyer. You aren’t getting anything.”
    “Is that any way to talk to your mother?” Under the words, Jamie heard the sound of footsteps, and sighed inwardly. Alex had decided to get involved. “I do need a good lawyer, because there is no way your father is going to give me what I'm due in the settlement, and I've got a wedding to plan.”
    A wedding to plan. She was actually going to marry that guy who was young enough to be her son? “With that kid you're hauling around?”
    “He's a better man than your father ever was,” her mother snapped, and that was enough. Jamie was going to bodily throw her out of the house if she didn't stop.
    “I think,” Alex's calm voice said from the doorway, “that you need to go.”
    There was an instant of silence. Jamie's mother looked at Alex, and Alex looked back at her, his arms crossed over his chest.
    “You're really going to just kick me out without any kind of help?” She looked from Alex to Jamie. “When I'm your mother? You're going to throw me out on the street?” Her face twisted like she was going to tear up.
    “Are you actually living on the street, Mom?”
    “Well, I'm certainly not living the kind of life that a woman my age would expect to be living. I lost all that when your father decided to kick me to the curb. I'm too old to be staying in cheap motels. The least you could do is give me a little assistance.” There were definitely tears in her eyes then, and as much as Jamie didn't believe them she wondered if she could really make herself ignore them.
    She sighed, turning enough to meet Alex's gaze, a silent 'What do you think?' in her eyes. The look Alex gave her was one she was pretty sure said 'Just get her out of here.'
    If they started giving her mother money, Jamie was sure the woman wasn't going to stop at just one request. But if