Page 34 of Enemies to Lovers

Seven

Driving class: hands at 10 & 2.

Copper hot biker guy: Noon and my thigh.

—Baker’s secret thoughts

BAKER

Color me surprised when on the drive from Copper’s apartment to his work, Holt didn’t cry a single time.

I sat there pumping in the front seat, and Holt didn’t even wake up when the pump alarm told me it was full.

I unstrapped myself in the front seat, uncaring who saw my nipples—not even the sexy as hell man beside me—and placed both full bottles in the cup holders of his car.

His very old, but overwhelmingly comfortable car.

He’d explained when he’d noticed my surprise that the car used to belong to his grandparents, and had gone to his sister Keely originally. But when Keely moved in with her husband, he’d gotten her a new car, and Copper had taken hers over since he didn’t usually drive much.

I could see why he’d prefer his bike.

Sometimes getting anything accomplished in this overwhelming city seemed impossible.

If you wanted to get anywhere fast, you were always hitting traffic.

If you were thinking, ‘oh, I’ll just avoid this road altogether’ the road you took instead would be backed up.

I didn’t drive anywhere in town without putting the address into my GPS, if only to make sure that I got there as quick as possible and avoided an hour traffic jam.

“Today, you can hang out in my office,” he said. “I already got a daycare spot for Holt. Had Apollo send everything over that they would need last night, along with making sure that they knew that the kid belonged to the CEO.”

“He doesn’t belong to you, though,” I murmured. “Won’t they think it’s a little weird that you just appeared with a baby?”

“No,” he snorted. “Nothing that I do at the stupid place has rhyme or reason.”

“Why do you call the place stupid?” I asked.

“Because it is,” he murmured. “I hate this place with every fiber of my being. If I didn’t partially own it with my family and want to see it burn to the ground like I do, I’d have walked away a long time ago.”

That had me insanely curious. “You don’t like your job?”

“I thought I would like it, once upon a time,” he responded as he pulled the car into a parking space that had CEO PARKING ONLY on the sign in front of the space. “But that changed when I went to prison. The desire to be in the business world just isn’t there anymore.”

“Then why are you here?” I asked bluntly.

He turned to me, and his green eyes blazed as he said, “To watch it burn to the ground with every single person that was loyal to my father along for the ride.”

I didn’t get a chance to question him further because he got out of the car then leaned the seat forward to get Holt and his car seat out.

I was relieved that he didn’t make me do it.

God, I was such a piece of shit mom.

I hadn’t even checked on him today.

Copper had gotten up with him in the middle of the night. Copper had gotten him changed and dressed this morning. Copper had fed him the milk that I’d expressed in the middle of the night while I cried and listened to Copper do the work.

What kind of parent was I that I didn’t care who woke up with him in the middle of the night?

---