She chuckled. “I love everyone here, but you might be my favorite.”
I shrugged. “I get that a lot.”
She chuckled again, knowing I was kidding.
I liked that she got my humor so easily, that she didn’t take what I said seriously like someone else might. I listened to the machine crank as it moved the elevator toward us.
“But seriously, it’s nice. I liked my last boss, but he definitely had an ego, and it would just get in the way of everything. Because I was a woman, he always had to make sure he was above me in every way possible, and every other job I’ve had has had the same issues.”
It was probably because of the way I was raised. My parents kept all of us down-to-earth, and my mom was always a hard worker who ran an entire building and earned the respect of everyone around her. I grew up with parents who were both bosses in their respective fields, so gender roles never really occurred to me. And one of my biggest mentors in medicine was a woman, one of the most brilliant physicians and educators in the field, and she taught me more than anyone else ever did. “That’s not ego. That’s insecurity.” The doors opened, and we stepped inside.
“Yeah. True.” She joined me.
I hit the button to her floor and dropped her off before I returned to the lobby. Mom was alone at her desk working on spreadsheets, her black coffee beside her. When I walked over, I saw it was nearly empty. “Want a refill?”
“That’s okay, baby. I’ve had enough.” When no one was around, she switched back to being motherly, calling me by the nickname she’d given me since I was a boy. “How’d it go?”
“Fine.” I took a seat beside her and leaned back to give my body a rest after running around all day. “Everything is ready to go. I did all the troubleshooting for it.”
“Great.” She kept looking at her computer and scrolling through spreadsheets, her glasses on the bridge of her nose because she had a hard time reading without them sometimes. She never mentioned the conversation Dad and I had had the other day, choosing to leave it alone. She seemed to be more understanding about the situation, wanting to do whatever was necessary to make me happy. And if that meant working for her and acting like nothing happened, then that’s what she’d do. She was definitely the good cop and he was the bad cop when it came to parenting. “So, what do you think about Sicily?”
“She’s hot.”
She rolled her eyes and tried to hide the slight smile on her lips. “Dex.”
“Come on, you know I’m a professional. But she’s a beautiful girl.”
“I know she is.” She finished adding her numbers into the spreadsheet before she turned to me. “She used to work in a medical office.”
“Yeah, she mentioned it.”
“You guys must have a lot in common.”
Not really.
She watched my face for a moment, as if waiting for me to respond.
But I had nothing to say to that.
It grew tense, but then she let it pass. “Things are going to get hectic as we get into the holidays.”
“Yeah, I remember last year.”
“You’re okay with the overtime?”
“I’m all yours, boss.”
She smiled. “Crazy to think that this time next year, Lizzie won’t be living at home.”
“She’ll still come for the holidays.”
“Yes, but she’ll be an adult.” She released a long sigh. “I feel like it was just yesterday when she became a teenager.”
“Well, it was only a few years ago.” Lizzie had become a part of our family, and I’d never looked at her in an adopted niece kind of situation. She was just my niece, one who was only like ten years younger than me.
“Yeah.” She looked at her computer again. “Wish we had more time with her. If only he’d met Emerson sooner…”
“Yeah, Emerson is the man.”
She chuckled.
“You know what I mean.”
“I do. She’s great for Derek. Couldn’t have asked for anyone better.”
I grabbed an energy bar off my desk and started to eat it. “So, what am I doing tomorrow?”
“Well, I have that event on Saturday night, so I’m going to need you to pick up the flowers, the decorations, the imported wine—”
“Basically, run around like a chicken with its head chopped off.”
“You could say that,” she said with a laugh. “Sicily is going to join us. I want you guys to show her the ropes and let her help out whenever it’s appropriate. I can tell she’s a smart girl. But she’s also a perfectionist and she overthinks things, so she’s a little timid to just jump in.”
She was right on the money, which was incredible considering the fact that she wasn’t around Sicily often. She didn’t really ask our opinions about one another, so I didn’t know what data she relied on. She was just superwoman. “You’re right.”