Who's the Boss? (Around the Square Book 4) by Holly Jacobs

Author:Holly Jacobs [Jacobs, Holly]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2023-07-31T23:00:00+00:00

Dinner with Mac.

On purpose.

Mia figured she must be out of her mind.

She tried to convince herself she’d only said yes because she was hungry. Mac had ordered a pepperoni and mushroom pizza from Teresa’s, one of her favorite delis.

“Pizza beats cooking any day of the week,” Mia said as she finished her second slice. She glanced at the baby, sleeping in her car seat and wondered how mean it would be to nudge the seat and wake her up.

Things seemed…more awkward without Katie running interference. After all, there’s no way Mia would be sitting in Mac’s kitchen having dinner with him if it wasn’t for the baby.

Mac must have felt it too because he looked as if he felt as awkward as she felt.

“So, did you make any calls about finding a family for Katie?”

“No,” he said. “I was tied up at court all day.”

“I thought maybe you’d done some checking during a break.”

“No. I called you during breaks.”

“To check on the baby,” she hurriedly clarified.

“Yeah. Checking on Katie. There would be no other reason to call you.”

“Right,” she said. “We don’t have a call-you-on-the-phone sort of relationship.”

“Yes. What we have is a…partnership. We’re working together for Katie’s sake.”

“Yes,” Mia said with relief that they’d clarified what they had. “The baby. Nothing else.”

They lapsed into an awkward silence as they finished the pizza.

Katie still slept, blissfully unaware of the tension that radiated between the adults.

“I have to go get something from the car,” Mac said abruptly as he finished his dinner.

“No problem,” she said, relieved for a brief respite. “I’ll clean this up. Maybe Katie will wake up and I can help with her bath before I go home.”

She busied herself around the kitchen, making herself at home. She was just wiping off the table when Mac came in carrying a large box.

“Here,” he said, thrusting it at her and looking uncomfortable. “This is for you.”

“For me?”

“I wanted to do something to thank you for jumping in and helping me with the baby. You didn’t have to, but you did. Not just over the weekend, but today.”

She just stood there gaping. “You didn’t have to…I mean…”

“Just open it. I called Sarah and she said this should be okay, size-wise.”

Mia set the box down on the table and opened it slowly. It was black…a coat. She pulled it from the box. A long, wool coat. Soft. Thick. Definitely warmer—much warmer—than her old one.

“Listen,” he said, “I know you. You’re going to get all huffy, especially since I made cracks about your layered look. But I didn’t mean buying the coat as an insult. I just knew it was something you could use and I wanted to thank you and,” he paused and then said, “sale. It was on sale, so—”

“Mac, I’m not going to get mad. This was—” she paused, stroking one hand down the fabric “—it was kind and thoughtful. Those are two words I never thought I’d use to describe you, but I guess I’ve discovered there’s a lot about you I didn’t know.

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