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Brodie Rogan was an early riser, a habit he’d formulated in his youth, back when he’d decided he wanted to rule the business world. He was up at four thirty every morning with planned exceptions only, never later than five. He worked out for the first hour of the day, read his emails for the second, then tended to his six-month-old son. True to his routine, Thomas woke, so he changed him, and carried him to the kitchen table, where they had breakfast together. Like every morning. And he loved it..
In the gym, which was equipped with a receding panel that revealed a glass wall, so he could keep an eye on things while he worked out or find the privacy he occasionally sought, Brodie was sweating on the StairMaster when he heard someone stirring about the house. “Is everything all right?” he asked into the intercom.
Julie responded by flipping him the bird on the monitor.
Brodie smiled, happy to know there was no emergency involving Thomas and that Julie was already up and checking on him. He finished his workout, showered, dressed, and then went to fetch his little buddy for breakfast. He approached his son’s room softly and overheard a conversation that warmed his heart.
“Who’s the biggest, handsomest boy in the world?” asked Julie in an excited baby-talk voice.
Brodie looked on as his son smiled from ear to ear at the woman he hoped would someday be the boy’s mother. He slumped against the doorframe, completely unnoticed and completely mesmerized. He watched the glorious display for only a second, then sneaked off before he was detected.
He went to the kitchen, slipped on his chef’s apron, and prepared breakfast for three. Brodie loved to cook, especially for Julie. He decided egg whites and spinach were in order. He stocked the toaster with whole-grain bread and set the yogurt butter out to soften.
Julie soon appeared with her arms full of baby, but she stopped in her tracks when she saw him.
Brodie looked down, doing his best to hide his smirk. “Good morning,” he said. When she offered him no audible response, he continued, “You seem surprised to see me, Miss Corbin. Would you care to join us for breakfast?”
“Us?” she asked.
“Yes,” he replied. “I have breakfast with my son every morning. He likes to be the backseat driver for the cook.”
“Backseat driver? You’re no backseat driver, are you?” she said to Thomas, pinching his little cheek and launching into baby-talk once again. Then, she turned to Brodie with an acid stare. “What are you doing here?” she demanded.
He chuckled. “Uh...I live here.”
“Yes, I know that,” she snapped. “I mean... What are you doing here now?”
“It’s just past six a.m., Julie,” he said, arching his brow. “Surely you don’t expect me to be at work already.”
“Well, if you have any other routine,” she said, handing the baby off, “let me know.”
“Sure. Would you like to meet for lunch?” he said with a twinkle of hope in his eye.
She glared at him. “Are you trying to be a smart-ass?” she asked.
“No,” he said without missing a beat. “Why wouldn’t I call a meeting with my employee about my son’s routines? Surely you aren’t contesting the contract, are you?”
“I thought I would work on that while the baby is down for a nap,” she said.
“Well, good luck with that. For the time being, I’m making breakfast. Do you want any or not?”
“No,” she said, then walked away.
Brodie set the baby in his high chair and placed some food before him. He had a steadfast rule that no business was to be discussed during baby time, but the wheels in his head were turning, and he was growing more and more impatient. “Thomas, Daddy needs to call his IT director,” he said, talking to his son in a cutesy voice that surprised even him, something he’d obviously picked up from Julie.
Working around his no-business edict, even in a baby-voice, made him feel guilty as hell. It was also his sign that he was crazy and obsessed. His whole plan of luring Julie to San Francisco was insane, but he now had to admit to himself that he, himself, was a complete lunatic, a man gone mad.
He waited till the baby ate his last bite before he even thought about his next step on the journey to Crazytown. It was as ridiculous as the last, but even though he had a moment of clarity about how bad it all was, he had no intentions of putting the brakes on it.
“We are done with breakfast,” he texted. “Please come get the baby.”
Julie appeared in an instant to collect Thomas. “Anything else?” she asked impatiently.
“Yes. Tell Cindy to take a walk with you two later. She can show you some of the local playgrounds. One has a really great swing set with lots of baby swings. Thomas loves it.”
She didn’t respond but cuddled Thomas lovingly against her as she shuffled out of the room.
As soon as she was out of sight, he texted his IT director. “Bud,” he wrote. “I need you to disconnect cell reception and Wi-Fi in my house between the hours of say one and three, just the wireless. Can you do that? Is there way to do a work-around with modems and whatever?”
“Yes, I’ll take care of that,” replied his director.
Brodie knew the man had to be dying to ask why, but he also knew better than to offer any explanation. The less said, the better, he decided. “Just for two hours or so, then undo it,” he reiterated, then silently confessed to himself that he was officially a nutcase. He was willing to do anything and everything to keep Julie there, even preventing her from booking travel back to Washington, DC, if only on her lunch hour.
With that on his mind, he filled his travel mug with more black coffee and summoned his driver to escort him to work.
