A Baby for the Boss(50)

“Maybe you do.” Sean waited until his brother looked at him again to continue. “You’ve been in charge of things so long, you’ve forgotten how to just be Mike.”

“That’s ridiculous.”

“Is it? You talk to Jenny like she’s your employee...”

“She is.”

“She’s more, too,” Sean said. “And it’s the more you’re not getting. To get what you really want out of all of this, you’re going to have to get humble.”

Mike snorted. “And you think you know what I want?”

“Yep,” Sean mused. “Don’t you?”

Yeah, he did. He wanted Jenny. In his house. In his bed. He wanted to wake up in the morning reaching for her and have her curl up against him. But “humble” wasn’t the way to get it.

“You can’t just march up to Jenny and order her to forgive you,” Sean said.

“It’s the easiest way,” Mike mumbled.

“Yeah, if you want to tick her off even more.”

He might have a point, but Mike didn’t want to think about it. “Can you handle things here at the office for a few days?”

“Sure,” Sean said. “Why?”

“Because,” Mike said, “I’m going to Laughlin.”

“It’s about time,” Sean told him.



Early the next afternoon, Jenny stood back from the wall to take an objective look at the finished painting. It was just as she’d imagined it. Hints of danger hidden among the trees, moonlight filtering through the leaves to dapple on the overgrown ground. A river wound through the back of the painting like a silver snake, a moonlit, watery path that only the brave would dare follow. The painting was vaguely menacing and intriguing and set just the right mood for the River Haunt hotel.

The other artists were doing a great job on the murals and already the dining room motif was coming together. Another day or two and they could move upstairs. While the construction crew were mostly huddled in the kitchen finishing the cabinets and the new countertops, Jenny walked through the lobby into what used to be the lounge.

Here, the plan was to have clusters of furniture scattered throughout and several game-playing stations set up, with four-flat screen TVs that invited guests to dive into Celtic Knot games. There would be a bar on the far wall where a battered old piano now stood and one section of the room would be set up with wide tables so guests could also play the role-playing board games as well.

It was going to be a gamer’s paradise, she told herself with a smile. And that wasn’t even taking into account the midnight pontoon rides on the river, where animatronic banshees, ghouls and hunters would lunge from their hiding places onshore. It was all going to be amazing.

Jenny hated knowing that she’d have to quit her job at Celtic Knot. She enjoyed being a part of something so fresh and interesting and fun. But working with Mike now was just impossible. She couldn’t see him every day and know she’d never have him. So she’d do her best on this project and then she’d walk away, head high. And one day, she promised herself, she’d come to the River Haunt hotel as a guest, just so she could see people enjoying what she’d helped to build.

Sighing, she stopped at the piano and idly stroked a few keys. She hadn’t really played since she was a girl and Uncle Hank had paid for the lessons she’d wanted so badly. That phase had lasted more than a year, Jenny remembered, and then she had discovered art and playing the piano had taken a backseat.

For an old instrument, the piano had good tone and as her fingers moved over the keys in a familiar piece from her childhood, the music lifted into the stillness. She sat down on the bench, closed her eyes and let her troubled thoughts slide away as she listened only to the tune she created.



Mike found her there. A small woman with a halo of golden hair, sitting in a patch of sunlight, teasing beautiful music from a piano that looked as old as time.

His heart gave one quick jolt in his chest. Damn, he’d missed her. Everything in him was drawn to her. How had she become so important to him in so short a time? She was talented, brilliant, argumentative and beautiful, and he wanted her so badly he could hardly breathe. Now that he was here, with her, he wasn’t about to wait another minute to touch her.

Wrapped up in the music that soared around her, she didn’t hear him approach. When Mike laid both hands on her shoulders, she jumped, spinning around on the bench, eyes wide.

“You scared me.”

He grinned at the glint in her eyes. He’d even missed her temper. “I didn’t mean to sneak up on you, but with the music, you couldn’t hear me. I didn’t know you played piano.”