Page 17 of Boss of the Year

“It’ll be fine,” Lea said, though more to herself than to us. “It’ll be fine. Now, before the gremlins realize I’m here, what were you two bickering about when I walked in? Marie, what does Joni want you to do, and why are you too chicken to do it?”

It was clearly a move to distract us. And it worked.

Nathan straightened, and Joni opened her mouth, clearly spoiling for one of our classic fights. Lea seemed to be prepping herself for her typical “momager” role in keeping the peace as well.

We were all slipping back into old habits faster than a tunnel at a water park.

Joni turned to Nathan, who was now watching the three of us like a zookeeper might watch lions about to escape their enclosure.

“Babe?” she asked sweetly. “Would you mind giving us a minute?”

With a glance laced with warning directed at me and Lea, Nathan nodded. “I’ll take a look at the stable again.”

“Come here first.”

They shared a look, and Nathan slipped a hand around Joni’s nape to deliver a kiss that wasalmostinappropriate for company.

Lea’s eyes watered as she stared at her hands. My chest tightened as I looked away too. Despite his nonplussed demeanor, Nathan turned on like a light switch whenever Jonineeded it. She’d told me once that he only ever kissed her like it was the first time.

It must have been a hell of a first time.

After the door closed behind him, Joni turned back to us, out of breath.

“What the fuck is wrong with you?” she asked me bluntly.

“And…here we go.” Lea folded her fingers together and stretched them inside out, like she was prepping for battle.

“Don’t start. Either of you.” I turned away and wrapped my arms around my waist.

I loved my family, but I hated it when they looked at me like this. Sad Marie. Poor Marie. Pathetic, ridiculously shy, socially backward Marie. My siblings had only ever seen me as a baby bird that needed to be bossed into socializing, dressed up like a mannequin, and kicked out of the nest.

I didn’t need their interference anymore. How could I explain to them in a way that made sense? Maybe it took me longer than them, and maybe I was still going to move more slowly than they would like, but I was learning to put myself out there at my own pace. And being apart from them, being in Paris, had been instrumental to figuring out how to break out of my shell.

“Someone needs to tell you what’s what.” There was a thump as Joni hopped off the island and came to stand next to Lea. “Her boss invited her to a big party tonight. Not the older one, but the brother she has been in love with for a decade.”

“Daniel?” Lea asked. “Heasked you to a party?”

God. It was like I was sixteen again, the day Joni found the notebook where I’d scribbled “Mrs. Daniel Lyons” in a million different fonts and showed it to everyone at Sunday dinner.

My face heated like an oven. “Yes. We were sitting next to each other on the plane. But he didn’t recognize me at the time. Now he knows I’m the cook.”

“So what?” Joni pushed. “You still got an invite. He likes her.”

“Yeah, but she works for him,” Lea argued.

“Exactly.” I turned back. “It’s inappropriate.”

“It’s a party, not a lap dance,” Joni retorted. “Paris was supposed to wake you up. Help you start living your life, and Iknowyou have been dreaming of this moment since you were fifteen, Mimi. No one is going to fire you for attending a party they invited you to. Is there something you need to tell me? Did you figure something out over there?”

I scowled. “What is that supposed to mean?”

“I don’t know, you tell me. You’re twenty-five, almost twenty-six, and you still haven’t kissed anyone other than Carmine Mottola in your fourth-grade play. Unless you got up to something in Paris and never told me.”

Lea’s mouth fell open.

Mine followed suit. “That isnoneof your business?—”

“Oh, stop. It’s me.” Joni waved away my concerns. So typically Zola of her. None of my family members had ever cared about something as basic as privacy.