A Baby Surprise For My Billionaire Boss (Bossy Bachelors #4)

1. Eli

CHAPTER 1

ELI

“ T oday’s going to be my last day.”

Eli Sinclair stared at his live-in nanny. He had just walked in the door. He hadn’t even put down his briefcase yet, and she was hitting him with this. “What are you talking about?” he asked.

“I can’t do this anymore,” Katie said. “I can’t take it. The long hours, the never knowing when I’m going to be done for the day… This wasn’t what we discussed when you hired me.”

“We talked about you living in and caring for Charlie when I was at work,” Eli said. “We agreed that your time would be your own whenever I was at home.”

“But I never know when that’s going to be,” Katie said. “You told me you worked eight to six most days.”

“I do.”

“Look at the clock,” she said.

Eli glanced at the clock over the kitchen stove. It was ten forty-five at night. He sighed. “I’m sorry,” he said. “Things have been so busy lately.”

“It’s not lately . It’s been every night for six weeks. And I haven’t had a day off in over a month. I have no life of my own at this point,” Katie said. “I haven’t seen my boyfriend in weeks. I haven’t been out with my friends in ages. By the time you get home, it’s too late for me to do anything for myself — especially because I know you’re going to be leaving early in the morning to go back to work, so I can’t ever sleep in. Because you work such long hours, I’m forced to work long hours too, and I can’t do it anymore.”

“So you’re leaving just like that? You’re not even going to give me two weeks’ notice?”

“I can’t,” Katie said. “I can’t do this anymore. I’m sorry. I know this leaves you and Charlie in a bind. That’s not my intent. But I’m burnt out, Eli. I can’t keep living like this.”

“Have you thought about what it’s going to do to Charlie to lose you? He adores you, you know.”

“Please don’t make this harder than it has to be.” Katie sighed. “I adore Charlie too. He’s such a sweet kid. But… Eli, I’m not the one he needs. You’re his father, and you’re never home. In ten years, do you think he’s going to feel the lack of the nanny he knew for six months? Or do you think he’s going to wonder why his dad was never around?”

Eli simmered. The fact that she had the nerve to criticize his parenting while she was in the middle of quitting her job and leaving them high and dry was maddening. “Don’t worry about my relationship with Charlie,” he said. “If you really are leaving us, that’s no longer your concern.”

Katie nodded. “You’re right,” she said. “I just couldn’t leave in good conscience without saying it.”

“Well, I’m certainly glad you cleared your conscience.” He rubbed a hand across his face. “Look, Katie, don’t do this to us right now. We need you. We both need you. If it’s about the money, we can talk. Do you feel like you’re not being fairly compensated? I can increase your pay.” Hell, he’d double her pay if it would make her stay. He hadn’t realized until this moment just how much he depended on her, and how dire things were going to get for him and for Charlie if she was gone.

But Katie shook her head. “It’s not the money,” she said. “The problem is the schedule. If you could tell me — and make me believe — that things would change on that front, I’d reconsider. But the truth is, even if you promised me right now that you’d be home at five p.m. on the dot every evening, I don’t think I would believe it. I don’t think you’re capable of limiting your work hours. And you have to make your own choices for yourself and your family — that’s your business. But I can’t keep going like this. I have to prioritize the life I want to have, and working for you makes it impossible to have any work-life balance. I can’t take it anymore.”

“So you’re just going to leave. You won’t even finish out the week?”

“My boyfriend came by earlier and picked up most of my things,” Katie said. “I’m already moved out. He’ll be back in an hour for me. I just wanted to make sure I took the time to have this conversation with you before I left.”

“Oh, well that was considerate of you.”

Katie ignored his sarcasm. “I already said goodbye to Charlie,” she said quietly.

“You told him before you told me?”

“I had to,” she said. “He was going to bed. It was either say goodbye to him tonight or sneak out in the night and never tell him anything at all, and I couldn’t do that to him. You wouldn’t have wanted me to do that to him.”

No, he wouldn’t have. Eli could admit that. But even so, it was hard to accept that all this had been happening behind his back — that it had all been decided before he had so much as walked in the door.

“How long have you been planning this?” he asked.

“If I had been planning it, I would have told you,” Katie said. “I didn’t mean to catch you by surprise. Honestly. I just… woke up this morning and realized that I couldn’t take it anymore. I don’t know how to explain it, exactly. The way I felt this morning, realizing that I was getting up to work another sixteen-hour day, that I had no way of knowing when I was going to get any time to myself, if ever… I mean, I can’t keep doing it, Eli. I love Charlie. You know I do. I hate to do this, and it’ll make me sad to leave him. But I have to do the right thing for myself.”

Outside, Eli heard the sound of a car pulling up.

Katie turned toward the door. “That’ll be Evan,” she said.

“Your boyfriend?”

“Yeah. I really am sorry about this.” She hesitated. “You know, if Charlie wants to see me again sometime…”

“I don’t think that would be such a good idea,” Eli said. “I think that would be confusing for him. If you’re leaving now, that’s going to have to be the end of your relationship with one another.”

“All right,” Katie said. “I understand.”

“You can walk away from him that easily?”

Katie gave him a look. “Nothing about this is easy,” she said. “I care about that kid. But he’s not my child. If you want to judge someone for being away from him, take a look in the mirror.”

Eli was about to object to her saying that, but she held up a hand. “Don’t bother,” she said. “I don’t work for you anymore. And you’re right. It’s not my concern anymore. But you should at least try to hear it.”

“If that’s all you have to say to me, I think you should go.”

“I think I should,” Katie said. She picked up a backpack that Eli hadn’t noticed at first and slung it over her shoulder. “Thanks, Eli,” she said. “It was good while it lasted.”

He wanted to call after her, to tell her that she shouldn’t depend on a good recommendation from him if she wanted a reference for her next job — but he couldn’t lie. She had been good at what she did. That was why she would be so sorely missed. He might not like the way things were ending for them — he hated the way things were ending, as a matter of fact — but that didn’t erase six months of great childcare, or the relationship she had had with Charlie.

Speaking of whom…

“Dad?”

Eli turned and saw his six-year-old son standing in the doorway to the kitchen. Charlie was the spitting image of his mother — blond, blue-eyed, with dimples when he smiled, which he wasn’t doing now.

“Is Katie gone?” he asked.

“Yeah, bud. She’s gone.”

“Oh.”

“Are you okay?”

“I thought she might change her mind,” Charlie said. “She told me she still liked me.”

“Of course she still likes you,” Eli assured his son. “You know that’s not why she left, don’t you?”

“She said she couldn’t work here anymore and that she was sad about it.”

“Yeah, that’s about right.”

“Did you fire her?”

“No, no, I didn’t fire her.” Eli went to the fridge and pulled out a bottle of orange juice. He poured two glasses and put one of them on the table.

Charlie climbed up into his usual chair and took a sip. “Can I have cookies too?”

“It’s a little late for cookies.”

“I know, but please?”

“Okay, just this once.” Eli went to the cupboard, only realizing once he was halfway there that he didn’t actually know whether they had cookies. Ordering groceries had been one of Katie’s responsibilities, and she had always done a good job, but he left the weekly treats up to her discretion. He didn’t know what they might have.

He was in luck, though — an unopened bag of chocolate chip cookies was at the front of the cupboard. Eli pulled it down, took out two cookies, thought for a moment, and then added a third.

Charlie brightened up at the sight of them. “Katie only ever lets me have two,” he said.

“Well, we could each use a treat tonight, I think.” Eli kind of wished his treat could have taken the form of a splash of vodka in his orange juice, but he never drank while he was in charge of Charlie. Now that there was no nanny on duty, he knew the time wasn’t right for a drink. He grabbed himself a couple of cookies instead.

“If you didn’t fire Katie then why did she have to go?” Charlie asked.

“She wanted to live with her boyfriend.” It was the simplest explanation Eli could come up with for what had happened.

“Oh,” Charlie said. “Why couldn’t her boyfriend come and live with us here?”

“I don’t think they really wanted to do that,” Eli said. “And we didn’t really want to do that either. We didn’t want to invite him to live here.”

“Is he a bad guy?”

“No, I’m sure he’s fine. It’s just that this is our house, not a home for Katie and everyone she wants to live with. We had her here as long as she was working for us, but she’s ready to move on and do other things now. And that’s okay.”

“Is she going to marry her boyfriend?”

“I don’t know,” Eli said. “She didn’t tell me. Maybe she will.”

“And maybe she’ll have kids.”

“I guess. She didn’t tell me that either.”

“I hope she does. Maybe I could be friends with her kids someday.”

“Maybe,” Eli agreed, knowing full well that Charlie would forget all about that idea in a matter of weeks. There was no need to argue with him about it right now.

“Well,” Charlie said. “I guess that’s all right, then.”

“Yeah? That’s okay with you?”

“Yeah, I want Katie to get married if that’s what she wants,” Charlie said. “I hope we get to go to the wedding.”

Eli hummed noncommittally.

“Dad?”

“Yeah?”

“Do you think you’ll ever get married?”

It wasn’t the first time Charlie had asked that question. He was aware that his parents hadn’t been married, even though he didn’t have any real memories of his mother. Fiona had died in an accident when Charlie was only two years old.

“I don’t know, kid,” Eli said. “Seems to me our family is pretty good as it is, don’t you think?”

“I mean, yeah,” Charlie agreed. “It’s good.”

“So why would I want to get married?”

Charlie shrugged his shoulders and set about breaking his cookie into quarters, a habit he had to make his snacks seem to last longer.

Eli watched his son and pondered the question Charlie had asked him. Would he ever get married?

Honestly, he couldn’t imagine it happening.

He was barely able to keep his head above water as it was, and that was going to get even more difficult now that Katie had left. The responsibilities of his job kept him so busy that he barely had time to be a father to his son. Kate had been right about that, though he didn’t like to admit it — he felt a lot of guilt over the fact that he had to spend so much of his time at work, and that he wasn’t able to be with Charlie.

But he was all his son had. Fiona’s death meant that Charlie was alone in the world apart from him. Eli and Fiona had never had a romantic relationship, but they had been wonderful coparents, and Eli missed having her around.

He knew he would never marry, though. As much as he had enjoyed coparenting, he just couldn’t see how he would ever balance all the different sides of his life with a romantic relationship. When would he find the time to go on dates? It couldn’t be done.

“You’d better get back to bed, kid,” he told Charlie. “You’re up way past your bedtime.”

“Yeah, okay.” Charlie had always been good about observing bedtime — it was one struggle, at least, that they didn’t have.

But as he watched his son disappear up the stairs to the bedroom, Eli wondered what he was going to do. Without childcare, he was going to have to stay home from work tomorrow, and probably the next day as well.

Arrangements were going to have to be made for a new nanny as quickly as possible.