Page 95 of A Bossy Surprise

“No!” he yells. “I didn’t even want to wear a stupid tie.”

I sigh.

He’s still angry at me. If I had to guess I would say he’s probably forgotten the reason he’s mad, but his feelings remain. I guess he gets that from my side of the family.

Adam walks into the room. Standing in the doorway, he says, “Brady, come here.”

At his father’s stony voice, Brady looks to me, then to Adam, and then back to me.

I shrug.

He stands up and walks over to his father.

Adam stands tall, not even attempting to get on Brady’s level. “That’s enough. You will not talk to your mother like that.”

“But —” Brady starts to say, but Adam cuts him off.

“I don’t want to hear it. You are being disrespectful to your mother and that is unacceptable.”

Brady bows his head. “I’m sorry.”

“Thank you,” Adam says. “But I’m not the one you should be apologizing to. Tell your mother you’re sorry.”

Brady turns around and walks over to me. He clasps his hands in front of him as he looks down. “I’m sorry, Mom.”

“Thank you,” I say.

I squat in front of him, fix his tie and pull him into a hug.

When I pull back, he’s smiling at me and everything is forgotten.

Brady goes back to the couch to watch his cartoons and I walk over to Adam.

“Thank you for that.”

“No problem. It was the right thing to do. Also, we didn’t need any of that tonight.”

“You’re right about that.” I chuckle.

Adam moves closer and places his hands on my upper arms. “On a scale of 1 to 10, how nervous are you?”

“Is 100 an option?”

He laughs. “I’m not going to lie to you and say that tonight is going to be easy, but you have nothing to worry about. I’m going to be here the entire time.”

“Uhuh…”

I’m sure he can tell I don’t believe him by the smile he offers me.

He looks over my shoulder, and when he sees that the TV has Brady’s full attention, he drops a kiss on my lips, then walks out of the room to continue tending to dinner.

I resume pacing behind the couch until the doorbell rings five minutes later.

My heart launches into my throat as Adam walks back into the living room.

“It’s show time,” he says.

I reach out a hand to Brady and he jumps off the couch and slides his tiny hand into mine.