Employed by the Boss (Managing the Bosses 7)

He didn’t protest that she was Jamie’s mother. Jamie hadn’t really expected him to. Any guy in his twenties who was dating a woman as old as her mother probably had his own interesting background. Not to mention the way her mother had talked to her since walking in the door. Jamie wondered if she talked to him like that. Probably. She’d never shied away from talking to Jamie’s father that way, after all.

“Where are you from, anyway?”

“Pittsburgh,” Nate said.

Jamie’s mother emerged from the bathroom and walked over to stand beside Nate. If he’d had anything else to say, Jamie thought, he wasn’t going to say it now. “So,” she said, keeping her body between her babies and her mother. “You’ve seen them. Anything else you need before you go? A glass of water, maybe?”

Help out the door?

“Go?” Her mother laughed. “We’ve planned the whole day around this visit. I’m not going to say hi to them once and then walk out.”

“Alex is going to be home for lunch in about fifteen minutes.” Jamie crossed her arms over her chest. “So you might want to clear out before then.”

Her mother’s eyes narrowed. “Is that a threat?”

“Just a head’s up.” Jamie met her mother’s eyes and refused to be the first to drop her gaze. These were her children. Nothing was going to stop her from protecting them… Even if it was from her own mother. “Whether you choose to stay or not is up to you, but I don’t think Alex will be happy to see you.” She turned back to the twins, lifting a spoonful of mashed banana from the jar and offering it to Lillianna. She ran her mother’s comments through her head. She wasn’t the insecure child who was scared of disappointing her mother anymore. “And for the record? If you’d planned the whole day around a visit, you should have called first. Not just showed up at my house with no warning and an expectation that we’d wait on your pleasure for the afternoon. We have plans already.”

“I cannot believe,” her mother said, frowning as Lillianna took the bite of banana, “that you would treat your own mother this way.” She shook her head and rolled her eyes at Nate. “Although of course I can, since you’ve always been like this. Putting yourself before other people. Honestly, it’s going to be a wonder if those children of yours grow up with any kind of manners. You had better watch that the little girl doesn’t end up as fat as you are.”

Jamie dropped the spoon she was holding, standing so quickly that her chair scraped back against the floor and nearly fell. She slammed a hand down on the back of it to hold it in place, then crossed the kitchen toward her mother, feeling anger rise in her like a flame. “You will not talk about my children that way,” she growled. “And you will certainly not talk about my daughter being fat.”

Her mother took a step back as she approached, and Nate looked vaguely alarmed.

“Don’t you think what you did to Christine and me was bad enough?” Jamie took another step forward. “I’m not letting you ruin another little girl’s childhood. You were a monster to us, to your husband. You think you can disappear, without so much as a good-bye or a head’s up of where you are, for months, and then waltz back in and we have to drop everything for you?” Her voice rose and the twins stopped eating to watch their mother with wide eyes. “You are never going to talk to my little girl with degrading words. Never! Now. Get. Out. Of my house.”

For a moment, there was just shock on her mother’s face. Then she drew herself up, glaring. “If you think that—”

“Mothers,” Jamie hissed, “are supposed to protect their children. Unlike you, that is what I’m doing. So don’t think for a minute that I won’t physically throw you out the door if my children’s safety depends on it. Go! Get the hell out!”

“I believe you heard her.” Alex’s voice carried in from the living room, and then he was standing in the doorway with his arms crossed over his chest, the expression on his handsome face cold.

Jamie’s mother opened her mouth and sucked in a sharp breath. She looked ready to blast the two of them but then, without another word, she spun on her heel and left the room, Nate trailing after. Jamie heard the door slam shut, and took two steps forward and all but fell into Alex’s arms. They wrapped around her, strong and secure, and she took a moment to hide her face against the safety of his shoulder and remember how to breathe. She was shaking, but not with fear.

“I’m so proud of you,” Alex said over her head.

Jamie laughed, and thought the sound might be just a little hysterical. “I can’t believe that worked, honestly.” She lifted her head to look up at her husband, and found him looking down at her with hunger in his eyes.

“I can,” he said. “The way you looked crossing the kitchen like that. I honestly thought you were going to smite her with lightning.” He grinned. “Honestly, it was hot as hell.”

That brought real laugher, and Jamie leaned into Alex’s arms, letting it roll through her. “Was it really?” she asked when she’d caught her breath again.

“Absolutely,” Alex answered. “Watching you go all mother bear on her. Protecting our kids. I’d show you how hot, but…”

He looked over her shoulder, and Jamie turned to find two pairs of curious blue eyes fixed on them.

“Yeah,” she agreed. “That might be a little scarring for the children.” She untangled herself from Alex’s arms, and moved back toward them to finish giving them their snack. He followed, seemingly unable to resist the lure of tickling each of the twins a little, making them giggle.

“I’m not going to be able to feed them if they’re too busy getting tickled,” Jamie said after a minute, and Alex relented, moving behind her chair instead to work his big hands over her shoulders, forcing knots of tension to slide loose. Jamie sighed appreciatively and offered Benton a bite of banana, which he finally ate. “Can you stay?” she asked.

“Stay here?”

“Just for the afternoon?” She turned enough in her chair to look at him. “It’s a nice day. We could take the twins to the park together.”

Alex looked at her, his expression saying he wanted to take her up on her offer, and he pulled his phone out of his pocket, thumbs moving rapidly over the keyboard. A moment later it dinged to signify a return message, and he tucked it back in his pocket, leaning down with a smile to kiss her.

“Yuppers,” he said when he pulled back. “Zander has it. I can stay.”

Jamie smiled, and pulled out a chair for him next to her own. The kitchen was bright, sunlight streaming in through the windows, and the room was warm and full of her family. For today, she and the twins had taken precedence over work. Jamie leaned against Alex’s side, and watched as he took the mashed banana, holding out the spoon.