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

they didn't give it to her, getting her out of the house was going to be impossible, and Jamie didn't want her around the kids. She sighed again.
    “Okay. We'll give you some money, but you have to go find somewhere that isn't here to stay. And you need to talk to Dad.”
    “Talk to him about what? You know how he feels about me,” her mother answered, already holding her hand out.
    “About a settlement. And if you don't think you can work it out between the two of you, then I'll find you a recommendation for a divorce lawyer. But not until you've at least spoken to him.”
    The look Jamie's mother gave her was absolutely venomous, but she didn't say she wouldn't do it. She just stood there waiting, hand out, until Alex handed over a roll of bills that she quickly thumbed through. It was several hundred dollars in cash, more than she was likely to get from anyone else, but she looked at it like she'd been stiffed.
    “Alex isn't a walking bank,” Jamie said. “We don't keep most of our money here in the house. That's what we've got.”
    “Fine.” The woman tucked the money into her pocket and turned away. “Have a nice night.” Her tone said that she hoped they wouldn't have a nice anything, but at least she was leaving.
    As soon as the front door shut a little loudly behind her mother, Jamie sighed in relief. At least they’d gotten rid of her for a while, though there probably wasn't any guarantee she wouldn't be back.
    “Where are the kids?” she asked.
    “In the playpen in the living room,” Alex answered. “I thought it would be best not to bring them in here, all things considered.”
    “Thank you.” Jamie smiled at him, wrapping an arm around his waist and leaning into his side as they made their way back through the kitchen to where the twins were waiting. “I don't want her to be around them. I'm not subjecting them to the kinds of things that come out of her mouth.”
    “Maybe once she tries this with your father, she won't come back,” Alex suggested.
    Jamie wasn't sure that she believed that. Her mother would probably always keep coming back, just to drive the rest of them completely insane. She stood in the doorway and watched the twins in the playpen, rolling big, brightly-colored balls across the bottom of it. Both of them were laughing, pausing occasionally to squeal with delight or slap their hands against the floor. Despite the mess that the last few minutes had been, Jamie smiled. “Sometimes I still can't believe that was us. That we did that.”
    Alex’s arm tightened around her as they watched the twins play. They were growing up so much faster than she had thought possible, their hair as dark as their daddy’s and their eyes wide and blue. They were going to be heartbreakers when they grew up.
    “I can’t believe I haven’t messed it up yet, considering how terrible my example of motherhood was.”
    “You could never be like her,” Alex said. His fingers slid under her chin, gently tipping her head up so that she had to look him in the eye. “There’s nothing about you that resembles that woman in any way, Jamie. Nothing about you that could ever be so bitter and broken.”
    Jamie wrapped her arms around her husband and lay her head against his chest, eyes sliding shut. She really hoped that he was right.

Chapter 10
     
    Alex had hoped that Jamie would be in a better frame of mind the morning after her mother’s unexpected visit, but she didn’t seem to be much happier.
    “Dad has been trying to get the divorce for months. She finally agrees,” she said as she poured him a cup of coffee, “then she waltzes in here expecting me to help her drag him to court and squeeze everything she can out of him before she finally releases him from her clutches. It’s unbelievable. Or it would be if the woman was actually human, but I’m not convinced she’s actually capable of that kind of emotional complexity.”
    “Your father has a good lawyer,” Alex said, his hand on her