A Bride For The Boss. Maureen Child

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СКАЧАТЬ know.” Laughing, Jolene added, “I swear the man’s crazy. But he’s all mine.”

      Andi smiled sadly, caught her expression in the rearview mirror and silently chastised herself for feeling even the slightest twinge of envy. Jolene and Tom had been married for ten years and had three kids, with another on the way. Their family was a sort of talisman for Andi. Seeing her sister happy and settled with her family made Andi want the same for herself.

      Which was just one of the reasons she’d had to quit her job. Before it was too late for her to find what her heart craved. Love. Family.

      “And,” Jolene was saying, “I love that my kitchen’s about to get a lot bigger. But oh, Lord, the noise. Hang on, I’m headed out to the front porch so I can hear you.”

      Andi listened to the crashing and banging in the background fade as her sister walked farther away from the demolition zone.

      “Okay, backyard. That’s better,” Jolene said. “So, what’s going on, little sister?”

      “I did it.” Andi blew out a breath and rolled her car windows down to let the warm Texas wind slide past her. “I quit.”

      “Holy...” Jolene paused and Andi imagined her sister’s shocked expression. “Really? You quit your job?”

      “I did.” Andi slapped one hand to her chest to keep her pounding heart from leaping out. “Walked right out before I could change my mind.”

      “I can’t believe it.”

      “You and me both,” Andi said. “Oh, God. I’m unemployed.”

      Jolene laughed. “It’s not like you’re living on the streets, Andi. You’ve got a house you hardly ever see, a vacation fund that you’ve never used and a rainy-day savings account that has enough in it to keep you safe through the next biblical flood.”

      “You’re right, you’re right.” Nodding, Andi took a few deep breaths and told herself to calm down. “It’s just, I haven’t been unemployed since I was sixteen.”

      The reality of the situation was hitting home and it came like a fist to the solar plexus. If this kept up, she might faint and wouldn’t that be embarrassing, having Mac come out to the parking lot and find her stretched out across her car seats?

      She’d quit her job.

      What would she do every day? How would she live? Sure, she’d had a few ideas over the past few months about what she might want to do, but none of it was carved in stone. She hadn’t looked into the logistics of anything, she hadn’t made even the first list of what she’d need do before moving on one of her ideas, so it was all too nebulous to even think about.

      She had time. Plenty of time to consider her future, to look at her ideas objectively. She would need plans. Purpose. Goals. But she wasn’t going to have those right away, so it was time to take a breath. No point in making herself totally insane. Jolene was right. Andi had a big savings account—Mac was a generous employer if nothing else—and it wasn’t as if she’d had time to spend that generous salary. Now she did.

      “This is so great, Andi.”

      “Easy for you to say.”

      Jolene laughed again, then shouted, “Jilly, don’t push your sister into the pool.”

      Anyone else hearing that would immediately think built-in, very deep pool. In reality, Andi knew the kids were jumping in and out of a two-foot-deep wading pool. Shallow enough to be safe and wet enough to give relief from the early Texas heat.

      “Jacob’s game still at five today?” Andi asked abruptly.

      “Sure. You’re coming?”

      Of course she was going to the game. She’d quit her job so she’d be able to see her family. She smiled at her reflection as she imagined the look on Jacob’s little face when she showed up at the town baseball field. “You couldn’t keep me away.”

      “Look at that—only been unemployed like a second and already you’re getting a life.”

      Andi rolled her eyes. Jolene had been on her to quit for the past few years, insisting that standing still meant stagnating. As it turned out, she had a point. Andi had given Mac all she could give. If she stayed, she’d only end up resenting him and infuriated with herself. So it was no doubt past time to go. Move on.

      And on her first official day of freedom, she was going to the Royal Little League field to watch her nephew’s game. “I’m just going home to change and I’ll meet you at the field in an hour or so.”

      “We’ll be there. Jacob will be so excited. And after the game, you’ll come back here. Tom will grill us all some steaks to go with the bottle of champagne I’m making a point of picking up. You can drink my share.”

      Andi forced a smile into her voice. “Champagne and steaks. Sounds like a plan.”

      But after she hung up with her sister, Andi had to ask herself why, instead of celebrating, she felt more like going home for a good cry.

       Two

      Andi went to the baseball game. Jolene had been right: eight-year-old Jacob was thrilled that his aunt was there, cheering for him alongside his parents. Of course, six-year-old Jilly and three-year-old Jenna were delighted to share their bag of gummy bears with Andi, and made plans for a tea party later in the week.

      It had felt odd to be there, in the bleachers with family and friends, when normally she would have been at work. But it was good, too, she kept telling herself.

      After the game, she had dinner with her family and every time her mind drifted to thoughts of Mac, Andi forced it away again. Instead, she focused on the kids, her sister and the booming laugh of her brother-in-law as he flipped steaks on a smoking grill.

      By the following morning, she told herself that if she’d stayed with Mac and kept the job that had consumed her life, she wouldn’t have had that lazy, easy afternoon and evening. But still she had doubts. Even though she’d enjoyed herself, the whole thing had been so far out of her comfort zone, Andi knew she’d have to do some fine-tuning of her relaxation skills. But at least now she had the time to try.

      Sitting on her front porch swing, cradling a cup of coffee in her hands, Andi looked up at the early-morning sky and saw her own nebulous future staring back at her. Normally by this time she was already at the office, brewing the first of many pots of coffee, going over her and Mac’s calendars and setting up conference calls and meetings. There would already be the kind of tension she used to live for as she worked to keep one step ahead of everything.

      Now? She took another sip of coffee and sighed. The quiet crowded in on her until it felt as though she could hear her own heartbeat in the silence. Relaxation turned to tension in a finger snap. She was unemployed and, for the first time since she was a kid, had nowhere in particular to be.

      It was both liberating and a little terrifying. She was a woman who thrived on schedules, preferred order and generally needed a plan for anything she was going to do. Even as a kid, she’d had her closet tidy, her homework done early and her bookcases in her room alphabetized for easy reference.

      While СКАЧАТЬ