Page 14 of Holiday Promise

Blake’s head snapped up, giving himself away.

“I know it’s only been a couple weeks, but… do you think it’swise? Your HR policy states?—”

“I’m going to forget that you overstepped and asked such a thing. May I remind you that I’m the one in charge.”

“With all due respect, sir, that’s exactly my point. The power dynamic?—”

“I don’t need a speech about the dynamic between myself and Melody. The way I run my business is different from the way I run my household, and you’d be wise to remember that.”

Thomas shut his mouth and nodded grimly. Thankfully, he chose to be smart over being nosey. For the next strained five minutes, Blake initialed, dotted, crossed, and signed very line that Thomas had prepared. When everything was said and done, his assistant gathered up the documents and stacked them neatly in the folder before grabbing the whole thing and shoving it under his arm. “I was going to stay the night, but I think I’ll just head back.”

“I think that’s best,” Blake murmured.

Thomas gave him one last pointed look but didn’t utter a single syllable. He headed out the door, paused to say goodbye to Max and Melody, then slipped out the front door.

Blake watched it all unfold, his doubts continuing to grow.

He hadn’t been worried about professionalism. He knew he could handle the possibility of a failed relationship. Would it be difficult? Sure, but no more so than other issues he’d dealt with.There was only one thing that bothered him. It was like an itch in the back of his skull that he couldn’t scratch.

What if Thomas was right?

Had Blake manipulated Melody into their relationship? It was still so new that he couldn’t be sure. What did he really know about her besides the fact that she was amazing with children, her family had been local, but only her sister remained, and that she wanted to be a teacher? That last one had been learned today, for heaven’s sakes.

For all he knew, she’d agreed to try out this budding relationship because she didn’t want to offend him by turning him down. She might have agreed to it because she worried about losing her job.

He swallowed down his own disgust at the thought that she might have only agreed to it because she worried about Max more than her own self-autonomy.

Dang it!

Now he couldn’t pull her aside and ask her how she felt, because if he did now there was no guarantee she’d be honest. He should’ve let her be the one to make the first move. Then he wouldn’t have to wonder.

Blake hadn’t had to worry about this sort of thing when he’d met Alison. He’d only just gotten the promotion for the company he now owned when they’d started dating. He’d moved heaven and earth to ensure that his wife would be able to remain in the town she so loved growing up in. Sure, she might have married him for his future wealth, but that had been a concern that resided so far in the back of his mind that he’d easily brushed it off.

His life with Melody was so vastly different that he wasn’t sure where to go from here.

He returned to the kitchen, his gaze landing on the two most important people to him at this moment in time. Melodysmiled at him, but it faded just as quickly. Great, now he was going to make her wonder what was going on—especially if he couldn’t pull himself together. He smiled, but deep down, knew it wouldn’t be enough.

Max turned to look over his shoulder and the glee returned to his face. “Is it time to go? Do you think we can go ice skating?”

Blake dragged his gaze from Max to Melody. “I’m not sure, kiddo. I guess it depends on how busy they are.”

Max hopped down from his seat and hurried over to Blake. He lifted his arms and Blake picked him up.

“I can promise you one thing, though. We’ll go ice skating at least once before Christmas. And maybe once more before I have to go back to work full time.” He could feel Melody’s gaze burning a hole right through him, but chose to ignore it. All he had to do was push down his doubts and then they could go back to the way things had been before his ridiculous assistant had pointed out the only problem with dating his son’s nanny.

NINE

Something was wrong.

Everything had changed.

Melody didn’t know what it could have been, or how to pinpoint the moment exactly, but she could feel it. The air had shifted. The way Blake treated her was vastly different.

While he still spent time with her after Max had gone to bed, even their quiet moments in the dark of the night felt foreign and forced.

Two weeks of a relationship with Blake and all she could think of was that his work was stressing him out a little more than it had before. Thomas had brought some documents for him to go over. Maybe that was what bothered him.

She wanted to ask him, to have him confide in her, but she didn’t know where to start. A high-powered man like Blake didn’t need someone like Melody to talk to. He had a board of directors, an assistant, and any number of other corporate gurus that could put his mind at ease. What good would she do?