Perfect Grump (Bad Chicago Bosses)

Nick: Very funny. You’re a riot. What are you and Millie doing?

Reese: She’s upgraded from nuggets to chicken ala Kiev, and I ran away with a biker. Want me to see if he can give you a ride?

Nick: Bullshit. What are you really doing?

Reese: We’re at your SIL’s art studio. She’s teaching Millie to make a clay pot. It’s cute to watch.

Nick: It just so happens this is the last ride I’m requesting. I’ve hired a nicer driver without a club for a tongue, and she’ll be starting tomorrow. I’ll miss your good looks.

For a second, my heart stops, until I realize it’s too absurd to be true.

Reese: Like hell, bossman, and you don’t need a ride. You just wanted an excuse to text me.

Nick: Whatever you want to believe.

He attaches a gif of a man running around, hysterically trying to fan out the flames in his pants.

Liar-liar.

Laughing, I put the phone down.

Paige leans over and places her hands under Millie’s small hands, helping her mold the clay. “What’s he saying now?”

“Oh, he just might need a ride later. Nothing too important. Just business.”

“That was a lot of grinning for boring business,” Paige throws back.

“Yeah, maybe.”

“Push your thumb in the center of the ball and then wiggle it around to make a hole, okay?” she tells Millie.

Millie giggles, jabbing one hand into the top of the whole lump. “It’s squishy.”

“Is it fun?” Paige asks her.

“Yeah!”

I smile at Paige. Thank God for friends like her.

“You and Ward are going to be awesome parents,” I say.

“I hope you’re right.”

It’s true and kind of amazing considering the type of parents the brothers had.

Deep down, I know Nick will make an amazing father, too. The way he’s so attentive with Millie is impossible to miss.

I really shouldn’t have gone off on him the way I did yesterday. It’s just embarrassing, needing so much help from my boss, and I wasn’t wrong when I said we’re from two different worlds.

Still, I have to make it better to soothe my own conscience.

He’s not mad, but it doesn’t excuse my big mouth.

“You’re awfully quiet over there. What’s cracking?” Paige asks.

“Well...I may have been rude to one of my bosses yesterday and it’s bothering me. I think I should apologize. Umm—apologize again, I mean.”

“Nick made you put your foot in your mouth, huh?” She flashes me that famous Holly grin.

Her last name might’ve changed to Brandt, but she’ll always be a Holly at heart. There’s a reason her cousin, Milah, is this big pop star singer known around the world.

“Nick the Prick is my friend!” Millie says.

I level a stern look on her. “Amelia Halle, I told you to never say that again.”

“It rhymes, Auntie Reese,” she insists, like that excuses everything.

“Find another rhyme.”

Paige doubles over laughing.

“I see you’ve taught her well.” Her eyes move to Millie. “You and Nick are friends, huh?”

“Yee! He showed me dollhouses he makes before the big house, and when Miss Tiffany gets cranky he lets me go slide.”

That’s the first I’ve heard about this.

“Miss Tiffany is cranky?” I ask.

“She makes me write my name and ABCs in my notebook, and...and I don’t like it one bit!”

“Oh, my. That’s a hard life,” I say, sharing a knowing look with Paige.

Paige smiles at me. “Well, if you need to see Nick to talk this out, you know where he lives. But you seem fine to me.”

Maybe, but she doesn’t know how low I hit him.

“Although, if you’re going to go over to apologize, you might want to find a new nickname for Millie first.”

I roll my eyes. “We need a new rhyme. I’ve been playing around with Nick the Trick but it just doesn’t sound quite right.”

I push my tongue in my cheek. I also don’t need a reminder that he could nail the part of evil magician in any big fantasy film with that build, that smirk, and that agonizing hint of what he could do on a long, dark night.

“Good luck with that,” she says to me before turning to Millie. “Okay, I think our pot’s looking good. Do you want to paint it?”

“Yeah!” Millie squeals.

Paige takes a plastic bag filled with assorted paints out of a drawer and hands it to Millie with a small brush.

My eyes go to Millie’s light-pink jumper. I know Paige is trying to help, but I don’t want to have to buy new clothes on top of everything else.

Paige’s gaze follows my eyes. “Oh, shoot, maybe we should get a smock first. What do you think, Millie?”

“’Kay!” She follows Paige to a coat rack filled with smocks and lets Paige help her into one before she returns to her creation.

“So, do you think it’d be weird for an employee to show up at their boss’ place to talk about something that happened at work?” I ask.

Paige smirks. “Given all the other factors? Nah. Quit second-guessing and do it. Now help me set up for my next class real quick.”