A Clandestine Corporate Affair by Michelle Celmer Page A

don’t want to—”
    â€œIt’s not that I don’t want to. I just…I’m a little surprised that you would ask me, considering my vast lack of experience with kids.”
    â€œWell, Max adores you, and you know his bedtime routine. Besides, he’s pretty easygoing. I can’t imagine that he’ll give you any trouble. And if you do decide to be a permanent part of his life, you can’t keep coming over here and just visiting him forever. You’ll have to get used to being alone with him. Sometimes overnight.”
    The idea both intrigued and made him nervous as hell. He would have to baby-proof his apartment, buy toys and baby furniture. With two extra bedrooms he definitely had the space. These just weren’t things he’d taken into consideration before.
    â€œBut like I said, if you’re not comfortable watching him,it’s okay. I don’t want you to think that I’m trying to push you into something you’re not ready for.”
    â€œNo, I’d like to do it,” he said, and realized, for all his doubts, he really did.
    â€œGreat! Can you be over at my place around seven-fifteen? That will give me time to show you where everything is before Beth picks me up.”
    â€œI can do that.”
    â€œI don’t know what you’re doing tonight, but Max and I were going to decorate the tree around seven.”
    With a dinner meeting scheduled for six-thirty with his team, there was no way he was getting out of work before eight tonight. So he might see him for ten minutes before he went to bed. Meaning he would be going over there to see her , not Max, which he didn’t think was a good idea after last night.
    â€œI just can’t swing it tonight, but maybe I can stop by around lunchtime tomorrow.”
    â€œSure. That would be great.” She paused, then asked, “By the way, did you get anything in the mail from Beth and Leo yet?”
    â€œI don’t know.” He’d brought a pile of mail with him to work this morning but hadn’t had time to go through it yet. “Hold on, let me look.”
    He grabbed the pile and rifled through it until he saw the greeting-card-sized envelope with Beth and Leo’s return address. He tore it open, but it wasn’t a card. It was an invitation to their annual New Years Eve party. Nathan went every year, except last year, and only because he figured he would run into Ana there. He’d known she was expecting, and the idea of seeing her, pregnant with another man’s baby…hell, for all he knew she would bring the father with her. Had he known it was his kid, he might have felt differently.
    â€œI take it you got an invitation too?” Nathan said.
    â€œYeah. I wondered if you were planning to go. I wanted to, but with us both there…well, it might be a little weird having to pretend we don’t like each other.”
    â€œWe can’t stop socializing just because we’ll run into each other. That’s not fair to either of us.”
    â€œI guess not. So you’re going to go?”
    If only to prove that this thing between them didn’t have to be a big deal. “Yeah, I’m going.”
    â€œThen I am too,” she said.
    They talked for a few more minutes about Max, and though Ana never once mentioned what had happened last night, it hung between them unspoken. He could hardly believe he was thinking this, but maybe not talking about it hadn’t been such a hot idea after all. Not if it was going to make things awkward. He would probably feel worse if he had been the one to make the first move. Not that he couldn’t have told her no. But that would have left her feeling dejected and hurt.
    In other words, he slept with her to spare her feelings? How philanthropic of him. Why couldn’t he just be honest with himself and admit that he slept with Ana because he wanted to? He still wanted to. It would take a hell of a lot