“Needs doing,” I defended. “You don’t want your lavender looking all sad and dead.”
Mr. Lewis laughed. “You work too hard. You and Hayden should form a club.”
“With you as the chairman?” I asked, turning around to face him.
If I was being honest with myself, he looked a lot better than he had done two years ago when I’d first started working for him. Back then, he’d still been struggling with the stairs. I’d caught him sleeping on the couch a dozen times because he couldn’t face climbing up to his room.
These days, he did laps of the pool every morning. His medication had been cut down.
I still caught him sleeping on the couch—or at his desk—but because he’d fallen asleep working.
I wasn’t going to lose him. Iwasn’t.
I’d just been reminded today that it was a possibility. Hayden’s reaction had reminded me of what losing someone felt like, and I was still a little off-balance.
“I walked into that,” he said, holding a hand up in surrender. “Guilty as charged, although I think I’ve been doing okay recently.”
“I’ll let your doctor give you hell for working too much,” I said. “That’s above my pay grade.”
Mr. Lewis chuckled. “Speaking of things that’re outside of your job description, I know you normally take Saturday afternoons off, but Hayden’s too shy to invite you to dinner and I was hoping you’d accept an invitation from me in his place.”
Too shy?
He sure as hell wasn’t shy when he had my cock in his mouth last night.
Although, no, that wasn’t exactly true—he’d been shy right up until he’d believed I wanted to have sex with him.
“He likes you,” Mr. Lewis added. “I know how he talks about people he likes. You should consider it an honor, he’s not the kind of man who makes friends easily.”
“I like him, too,” I admitted. I wasn’t stupid, I knew Hayden wasn’t about to tell his dad he was sleeping with the hired help—even if it wasn’t Hayden who’d hired me.
But I wasn’t going to let Mr. Lewis think I didn’t like his son. That would’ve broken his heart, and I knew it.
Just as well Hayden was secretly adorable under that icy outer layer.
“And I’ll come to dinner,” I said. “If you’re sure you wouldn’t rather have the family time.”
“You are family,” Mr. Lewis said without missing a beat. “Besides, he’s still mad at me. I’d appreciate having his attention split. And I think he’d appreciate it, too.”
“You love him,” I said, looking down at the handful of dried flowers in my hands again. I hoped Hayden knew that, how much his dad loved him.
“Have done from the moment the nurse handed him to me and told me to support his butt.” Mr. Lewis shrugged. “Been trying to support his butt ever since.”
I chuckled, tossing the flower heads in the garden bag I’d brought with me. That was a nice way of putting that.
“So I can tell Hayden to cook for three?” Mr. Lewis asked.
“After all the awards and glowing reviews you’ve had me track down in newspapers and magazines? I’m not missing the chance to try his cooking.”
“You won’t be disappointed,” Mr. Lewis said. “I’ll text you later when I know what time he’s aiming for.”
14
Hayden
“Oh,no,thatone’s the cutest,” Wes said, pointing at one of the pictures spread out over the table.
Baby photos.
