Taming the Boss

Chapter 4

Kris was packing up when Dixon stuck his head into her office. “Done for the day?”

“Yes, you?” Kris smiled up at him.

“Yeah, we’re going over to the pub, you coming tonight?”

“Nah, my weekend at my sisters,” Kris said.

“Ah, okay, I’ll see you Monday then.”

“Yes, have fun.”

“Always do.” He said and with a wave left her.

When someone walked in again, she was under her desk tugging out her last cord. “Dixon, man, come on you know if you insist, I’ll come over, and then I’ll be driving out in the dark.” She said without looking, a grin on her face.

“Not Dixon,” Alexi said. And peered around the desk to where Kris sat on the floor.

“Oh, hey, sorry, I thought you were…”

“Dixon, I heard.” Alexi stood back, then looked down at Kris, a strange look in her eyes. “Uh, I want to ask you, maybe if you were serious, I mean the offer this morning, if you meant it…”

“Alexi, if you want me to kidnap you, just say the word.” Kris grinned.

“I don’t even know where you’re going, I don’t want to intrude.”

“You won’t, my sister loves company and there’s more than enough room.” Kris stood. “No one has to know.” She knew how much Alexi wanted personal relationships out of the building. She grabbed a notepad and pen, write your address down, and I’ll pick you up in an hour.”

“Kris, I don’t know…”

“Address and be ready,” Kris said, she took the pad from Alexi, tore off the paper, and stuffed it in her back pocket. “See you later.” She left before Alexi could say anything else.

Kris was packed so she just wrote Amanda a note before she left the apartment. Then took the paper out of her pocket and looked at the address. She didn’t know why she’d offered, but she was glad that Alexi accepted her offer. Maybe they could become friends. She threw her duffel on the back seat and drove to Alexi’s house. She got out and made her way up the drive, the house was smaller than she’d expected, it looked homey from the outside, and she wondered if Alexi was as stiff as she led the staff to believe. She lifted her hand to knock but the door flew open.

“I can’t do this,” Alexi said. She spun around, leaving a shocked Kris in the doorway. Kris shrugged and followed her in. The inside was warm and cozy, just like the outside of her home suggested. “I’m sorry I made you drive all this way, but I can’t just disappear.”

“Where’s your bag?”

“There, but you’re not listening.”

“I am, I’m just not going to let you back out.” She walked to where the one bag stood, bent, and picked it up. “Come on.”

“Kris, I can’t go.”

“Why not?”

“My mother is having that party, and she’s expecting me. All those people she invited.” Alexi shook her head. “They’re going to be there for me.”

“What’s the party for?”

“What?”

“The party, what’s it for?”

“Oh, my birthday.”

“Did you want a pony for your birthday when you were little?” Kris asked, still making her way to the door, Alexi on her heels, her eyes darting between the bag and Kris’s face.

“What does that have to do with anything?”

“Did you?”

“Yes, but we…”

“I’ll give you a pony, well not give you, but you can ride a pony this weekend if you come with me.”

“Kris, that’s ridiculous.” But she felt herself smile. Her resolve fading. “I still can’t.”

“Do you have your phone and keys?” Kris asked.

“Yes, but…”

“Good, she pulled the door closed behind Alexi and after taking the keys from her, locked up. “Come on.”

“Kris.”

“I don’t think you understand the concept of a kidnapping,” Kris said. “You don’t really have a choice.” She threw Alexi’s bag on the back seat with hers. Then opened the door for Alexi. “Get in, before I tie you up and gag you.”

Alexi coughed, choking on her own saliva, the image that popped into her head, had nothing to do with the kidnapping. “Uh, Kris, I don’t know.”

“Look, get in, come with me, if by tonight you want to come home, I’ll pack us up and we’ll drive back in the morning. You’ll have plenty of time to go to your party.”

“You would do that?”

“Yes. That’s what friends do. And before you say we’re not, we are.” Kris gestured to the open door. “Get in.” Alexi looked back up at her house, then at Kris. She gave in and settled inside the jeep.

“Okay, let’s do this.” She caught Kris’s grin as the door closed and Kris ran around to the driver’s side. She waited for Kris to start the car and pull out. “I still get the pony, right?” Kris’s laughter lifted her spirits and she felt herself relax as the city became smaller behind them.

Kris stopped at the last gas station before they hit the dirt road to the ranch to pick up sodas and beer for the weekend, she looked over at Alexi and smiled at the sleeping woman. Alexi had passed out just as they’d hit the highway, and she’d let her. Glad that Alexi trusted her enough at least, to let herself sleep. She had no intention of driving her back to the city tomorrow, but Alexi didn’t have to know that. She got out and took her phone out to call Joss.

“Hey, you, how far are you?”

“Hey, at the gas station, I wanted to let you know I was bringing a friend.”

“A friend?”

“Yes, well, my boss actually, but I’m hoping a friend too.” She looked back at her jeep, Alexi was still sleeping. “I hope that’s okay?”

“You’re bringing Alexi Roan to my home?”

“Yes, is that a problem?”

“Of course, it is! This place is a mess!”

“Your house is never a mess, just relax, she’s okay, and why are you acting like this anyway, she’s not the famous one, her mother is?”

“Still, she’s a classy woman, and I need to go fix her room, goodbye.” The phone clicked off and Kris stared at it. “What the hell?”

“What?” The clerk asked.

“Nothing, sorry.”

“That it?”

“Yes, thanks, Joe.”

“Your friend looks panicked.” He said and pointed to her jeep, where Alexi was sitting bold upright her eyes wide and scared. He rang up her things and she dashed out after paying.

“Hey, you, okay?” Kris asked as she put her bags in the back with their bags.

“Yes, sorry, I just woke up and you were gone.”

“Sorry, just needed some things.” She looked at Alexi before starting the jeep. “Sure, you’re, okay?”

“Yes, I’m fine.”

“Okay, we’re almost there.” Kris pulled out of the lot. “My sister is a bit star-struck, so don’t be alarmed if she acts goofy, she gets flustered quite easily. And apparently, the name Roan flusters her.”

“My mother has that effect,” Alexi said stiffly. “I’m just me.”

“Just you,” Kris said. Out of the corner of her eye, she saw Alexi look around as she drove off the tar road onto the dirt road. “Worried you let a serial killer drive off with you into the night?”

“I wasn’t, but now that you mention it, yes.” Alexi let out a nervous laugh. “You’re not, right?”

“No, but that’s what a serial killer would say, isn’t it?”

Alexi’s head snapped her way, and Kris couldn’t help it, she laughed. “I’m not, see those lights there?”

“Yes?” Alexi wasn’t convinced yet and wondered at the ease Kris had gotten her into the car with.

“That’s the ranch, Mark inherited it from his dad when he died, his mom stays just a little way away, on her own little piece of land, she helps take care of the twins now. Mark has cattle and horses, but the horses are more for the girls and getting around the ranch.”

“Mark is your sisters’ husband?”

“Yes, Regi and Roxy are the twins, not his, but he’s raising them as his, their dad is a scum bag.”

“He sounds like a good man.”

“He is, he’d have to be to be with my sister,” Kris said.

“They might pepper you with questions, the twins, they love people, and getting to know girls I bring to the ranch is their favorite pastime. Amanda almost packed up the same night the first time I brought her.”

“Amanda?” Alexi asked. “A girlfriend?”

“Oh, no! Amanda is a girl and a friend, but just a friend, the best.”

“You said when we went out for the burgers that your parents died when you were young, did you take care of your sister alone?”

“No, we stayed with my grandmother, and then I stayed with Joss a while, she’s the oldest, but she’s the only family I have left, so I get a bit overprotective sometimes. And after the twin’s dad, a little more so.”

“Oh.” Alexi knew more about Kris than anyone else in her company, and she wanted to know more. She wanted to know what it would be like to have Kris as a friend, a true friend and wondered what was stopping her. Why was she so afraid to let this woman be the friend she obviously wanted to be to Alexi?

“What are you thinking?” Kris asked.

“I want to try to be your friend,” Alexi said honestly. “I don’t know how, or if I’ll be any good at it, and at work…”

“At work, we keep it professional. I know how important that rule is to you. And I’d like to give being your friend a try. Everyone needs a friend.”

“I haven’t, not until you.”

“You did, you just didn’t know it, and no one was brave enough to push you to it.” Kris gave her a sideways glance as she parked her jeep. “You’re pretty scary, most of your staff pee themselves if you just walk into the room.”

“But not you?”

“I only do when you have your dragon lady face on, then I pray that I’m not the one that f****d up.” Kris got out of the jeep and Alexi did so too before she could come around to open the door. “Now let’s forget work, and you try to relax. Can I have your phone?” Kris knew she was pushing it now, but she had to try.

“My phone?” Alexi clutched it to her chest. “Why do you want my phone?”

“So that when your mother realizes tomorrow that you’re not coming, you don’t feel obligated to answer.”

“Oh, well, I won’t. But I need this for work, I don’t go off-grid on a Friday, clients have to be able to get hold of me, all the time.”

“Okay, but if I hear you talking to your mother, I’m throwing it in the toilet.”

“You would not!”

“Would too.”

“Oh, she would, she once threw mine in there because I dared tell her b***h ex that she was a bitch.” Joss said from behind them. Kris grinned at her sister and Alexi stared. Joss looked nothing like Kris, she was blond, skinny, bright blue eyes shone with pleasure, and the naughty glint that Kris had was not in Joss’s eyes. “You must be Alexi. I’m Joss.”

“Hello, thank you for allowing me to join Kris this weekend.”

“Any friend of Kris’s is a friend of ours. Come inside, we have been waiting for you guys, dinner is ready unless you want to freshen up first.” She looked at Alexi. “That one won’t but you might want to.”

“Yes please,” Alexi said and was surprised when Joss grabbed her arm, linked with her, and started walking toward the house. “We should help her with the bags.”

“No, she’s big and strong enough to do it herself.” Joss gave Kris a grin over her shoulder and kept walking. Mark met them on the porch and after a quick word, came down to help her.

“Thanks, man, those two just left me hanging.”

“Your sister’s been faffing since the phone call, took our good plates out, I didn’t even know we had those.” He laughed.

“Yeah?” Kris grinned too. “Let’s go have dinner out of good plates, maybe it tastes different.” They laughed as they made their way inside. The twins were peppering Alexi with questions and Kris was surprised to hear her calmly answering them. Alexi looked up at her as she came in the door and there was a smile on her face, and for the first time, since Kris met her, in her eyes too.