The Boy Who Has No Hope (Soulless 6)

“The four of us should have dinner together.”

“So you can embarrass me?” I asked with a laugh.

“Come on, that’s my job.” He smiled again, looking at me fondly. “We’d like to spend time with the two of you. I want to get to know her better, to thank her for making my son happy.”

“God, you better not say that to her.”

“Like she doesn’t already know, little man. So, how about Saturday?”

The relationship between my father and me already felt different, and since he wasn’t the one who had changed, that meant I was the one who did. There used to be a melancholy haze over my gaze, a coldness that went all the way into my bones, but now I’d burned off the fog and saw life in a different spectrum of color. She cleansed my heartache, destroyed my pessimism. “I’m not sure. Since our relationship is a secret, it’s hard for her to get out of the house without lying.”

“She’s really trying to protect her daughter, huh?” He nodded. “Sounds like a good mom.”

“She said she doesn’t want Lizzie to know about me for a while because she’s afraid she’ll get attached to me.”

He nodded. “I understand. We can always make a different day work if that’s easier for her. Your mother and I are really excited about her, Derek.”

I closed my eyes and released a long sigh. “Shit…”

“What?”

“She doesn’t know Mom is Cleo…” Up until this point, Cleo was just the woman who trained Emerson to work for me. I had to tell her Cleo was actually my mom before we all had dinner together. Otherwise, it would completely catch her off guard and ruin the night.

“Forgot about that.”

“Let me talk to her, and I’ll let you know.”

“I’m sure it’ll be fine, Derek.”

I felt guilty for lying to her when I’d made a big scene about Lizzie. But my mom had wanted to protect my privacy, to make the whole situation easier for everyone. Neither one of us expected Emerson and me to be together at some point down the road. “Yeah…”The situation with Pierre never improved.

He didn’t speak to me again.

We collaborated when necessary, but there was never eye contact, and it was always tense.

I’d assumed the discomfort would die down in a week or so, but it seemed to get worse and worse. There was no way in hell I was going to apologize, so that wasn’t an option. But I didn’t know what to do because I didn’t want to work with a colleague who hated me, and I didn’t want to fire him either.

I’d been so focused on the parts in my hand that I hadn’t noticed Emerson standing across from me at the table.

“Derek?”

I lifted my gaze, my thoughts destroyed by the beautiful sound of her voice. My eyes immediately went to her bright-blue eyes, the eyes that turned watery when she hit her threshold and writhed underneath me, leaving this earth and traveling somewhere I couldn’t follow. “Yes, baby?”

She flinched slightly at the nickname since we were in the lab. “Call me Emerson.”

I set down the parts on the table. “No.”

Her eyes narrowed.

“I’m not being defiant. I just can’t control the spontaneity. That’s what your name is to me.” I reached into my pocket and pulled out my phone so I could show her the name in my phone book. I’d changed it from Emerson to Baby.

Her eyes softened at my actions, but she retained her professional look since Jerome and Pierre were nearby. “Can we talk in private?”

I left my things behind and joined her in the office. The windows were nice because I could see the activities of the lab from my desk, but now I wished there were no windows at all. I faced her, my hands sliding into my front pockets as I stared at her, seeing her in the loose sweater dress and black tights with booties underneath.

“Pierre just put in a transfer. He wants to work in a different lab.” She extended the papers to me so I could see the request myself.

I dropped my gaze and read through the paperwork, offended that he wanted to walk away after we’d been working together for years—because of a woman. I closed the folder and handed it back to her.

Emerson studied my gaze. “What do you want me to do?”

“The whole thing is fucking stupid.”

“What happened, Derek?”

I looked out the window and watched him work beside Jerome, clear glasses on his nose to protect his eyes from flying shards. “He’s made a lot of inappropriate comments about you, and I lost my temper…basically. Then I told him we were together, so he needed to keep his mouth shut.”

Emerson had no reaction, like a man’s obsession was something she was used to.

“So, I’m not going to apologize. But I don’t want to fire him either.”