Janet Nye - The Littlest Boss

Her daughter always comes first

Successful ER nurse Tiana Nelson has sacrificed a lot to provide for her daughter, Lily. She won’t let anything, or anyone, jeopardize all she’s accomplished. Not even handsome and charming engineer DeShawn Adams. But she’s running into him everywhere, and when he connects with Lily, ignoring their attraction is impossible.

After an unexpected visit from DeShawn’s past, it’s clear that his life isn’t as settled as it seems. Tiana can’t expose Lily to danger, but walking away from DeShawn isn’t easy. Not when Tiana is beginning to suspect that the best thing she can give Lily—and herself—is a future with him.

“Nice to meet you, Lily. I’m DeShawn.”

“Are you friends with my momma?”

He looked at Tiana, who was trying to scowl, but the effort of keeping a six-year-old balanced on her hip in the jostling crowd required too much effort. “DeShawn and I are acquaintances, Lily. That means we know each other but aren’t friends.”

“Can we still go watch the dogs with him?”

“It’s a great spot,” DeShawn said with a smile.

Tiana huffed out a breath. “Fine. For Lily.”

“Absolutely. Completely for Lily’s sake,” he replied. He held his hands out and Tiana let him take Lily. Swinging her easily up to his shoulders, he laughed at Lily’s excited squeal. “Hold on tight,” he said. “And, Momma, follow close. We’re going in.”

“Do not drop her,” she snapped.

Tiana grabbed a handful of his jacket and the feeling of her fingers brushing against the muscles of his back, even through the layers of fabric, sent a rush of heat down his spine.

Dear Reader,

This is a story I hadn’t planned to tell. DeShawn was such a popular character from Spying on the Boss and Boss on Notice. Then Tiana showed up, as some characters do. I needed a friend for Mickie in Boss on Notice, and there she was. No planning. No notice. She was a character who pushed me aside and said, “I’ve got something to say here.”

The chemistry between Tiana and DeShawn was unplanned, just one of those happy writer moments when your characters come alive and surprise you. So of course they needed a happily-ever-after.

Many, many thanks to my prereaders: Vera H., Gabriella Brown, RN, Yashica Green, RN, and Djuanna B. Thank you for your input! I appreciate your time and support!

As a white woman, I hope I have done justice to my characters and their experiences. Any errors are mine and mine alone.

I hope you enjoy this conclusion to The Cleaning Crew miniseries.

Janet Lee Nye

The Littlest Boss

Janet Lee Nye

www.millsandboon.co.uk

JANET LEE NYE is a writer by day and a neonatal nurse by night. She lives in Charleston, South Carolina, with her fella and her felines. She spends too much time on Twitter and too little time on housework and has no plans to remedy this.

This is for all the nurses and caregivers out there. And to my WIC crew, who have cheered me on through every disappointment and every success. Thank you. Club 1035 rocks!

Contents

Cover

Back Cover Text

Introduction

Dear Reader

Title Page

About the Author

Dedication

CHAPTER ONE

CHAPTER TWO

CHAPTER THREE

CHAPTER FOUR

CHAPTER FIVE

CHAPTER SIX

CHAPTER SEVEN

CHAPTER EIGHT

CHAPTER NINE

CHAPTER TEN

CHAPTER ELEVEN

CHAPTER TWELVE

CHAPTER THIRTEEN

CHAPTER FOURTEEN

CHAPTER FIFTEEN

CHAPTER SIXTEEN

CHAPTER SEVENTEEN

CHAPTER EIGHTEEN

CHAPTER NINETEEN

CHAPTER TWENTY

Extract

Copyright

CHAPTER ONE

THE GUY IN the produce section of Publix was about to make an amateur mistake with the avocados. He had two of them in his hands, ripe and ready to eat by the look of them. The way to do it, Tiana Nelson knew, was to buy one for now and one for later. Swap one of those for one a bit more green, she thought. You’ll be glad you did a few days from now. What to do? Approach and tell him? She was tempted. That arm. He wasn’t even flexing it, just had it angled enough so he could give the lush fruit a little squeeze, and Wow. Okay. That’s a well-built fella. The jacket he was wearing didn’t conceal his muscles at all, did it? Hard curves moved beneath the fabric.

She maneuvered her shopping cart, trying to get closer without being conspicuous, dodging a flustered mom who was trying to snag a singing child in an Adventure Time sweatshirt pirouetting between the apples and the bananas. There was something about the guy with the avocados—besides the fact that he was exceptionally easy on the eyes—but it wasn’t until he glanced over at her and she caught a spark of recognition in his expression that she understood.

I know him. He knows me.

She was running all the possibilities through her mind—work, school, gym, here—when he grinned at her and it clicked. That grin. She knew that smug, snarky grin. Sugar sticks! That smart-alecky maid. What was his name?

“Nurse Ratched!” he said, setting the avocados in his basket and looking entirely too pleased with himself. “I’d recognize that scowl anywhere.”

And then she did actually scowl, and frowned at the realization that she’d done so, and immediately tried to cool her expression into a kind of bemused grin. Oh, that guy. One of Josh’s guys from the Cleaning Crew. She waved a hand toward the juice aisle and said, “Did they call for a cleanup in aisle two, Man Maid?” She felt a flush of heat in her neck and cheeks as she said it.

He laughed and strolled closer to her with a purely casual confidence that irked her. All at once she was acutely aware of how she must look, straight off the end of a long, crazy shift in the ER, in wrinkled blue scrubs and beat-up Asics that probably should have been swapped out six months ago. Wait, there isn’t vomit on my pants or anything, is there? Random bodily fluid stains were always a possibility on her shift. Tiana pulled her coat closed and tried to keep her expression casual, amused but disinterested. But darn if he wasn’t a fine-looking man.

“They actually let you take care of people now?” he said. His grin had reappeared—big, wide and goofy, making everything feel like it was all in fun.

“Take care,” she said, reverting to Stern Nurse Mode. “More like save lives, Mr. Maid. Why are you here? I thought you were joining the army or something.”

“Or something,” he repeated, putting a hand over his heart. The grin faded a bit—just a bit—as if those words had hit him a little too hard.

Uh-oh. There’s a story there, she thought.

But he bounced back right away. “You do remember me,” he said. “I’m touched.”

“Tetched maybe,” Tiana said with a laugh.

The grin may have faded but the mischievous gleam in his eyes had not. “Life. You know. You have a plan and sometimes it falls through.” He paused, just for a beat or two, then added, “I went with Army National Guard instead of active duty. Got a great job as a civilian here at the Corps of Engineers.”

“Oh. Okay,” she said. “Well. That’s good.” She put her hands back on the shopping cart handle and felt something brush by her at hip level. The whirling child had reappeared, the pirouettes now alternating with mini jetés, and his flustered mom gave Tiana a glance of apology as she scooped her budding ballet dancer up into her arms. She needed to get home. Wednesday night was some prime Netflix watching.

“Sorry,” the boy’s mother said as he thrust a sticky handful of Gummi Bears toward Tiana. “Caleb, I swear...”