Page 114 of Hold Me Instead
“If it’s truly a ‘mountain,’ why should only one of us deal with it?”
“Charlie.”
“Think about it! We’ve already worked through a hell of a lot to find our rhythm, and we work really well together.” She wiggled her eyebrows, then went for it. “Besides, I like seeing you here. The thought of sharing this with you iswaynicer than it was in the beginning, when I thought you were vying for it. Wait, this isn’t all some ploy,right?” She was teasing, though there was a small part of her that worried about its truth.
“God, no. You know my plan wasn’t to stay.”
She swallowed, nodding. “Right. Right. You have a job to get back to.”
“Shit.” He shook his head. “No, I don’t. I was let go. My ex-father-in-law let me go.”
Stepping back, she asked, “Why didn’t you tell me?”
“I thought if my dad found out, he’d use it as a way to rub it in my face, how I was burned, which he’d warned me about. He felt burned by me, I know. Plus, I thought he’d try to keep me here.” He laughed, unamused. “Guess that didn’t matter, did it? Worried myself about something that happened in a way I hadn’t planned.”
“That…really sucks,” she said.
“Oh, and my replacement is Anna’s new boyfriend.”
“Seriously?”
He grumbled.
"Zachary," she said softly.
"Wasn’t an ideal situation there in the first place," he said, turning back to his desk.
“Well, okay. There are a lot of things to think about…How about you consider my offer?”
“Charlie—”
“Daniel will hear us out. He loves this place. He won’t let it crumble. And we won’t stand by and watch it become unrecognizable by a company like Neptune.” She paced a moment, desperate for time to create a solution. “Just think about it, okay? Maybe there’s another buyer out there who secretly wants to revive a struggling veterinary hospital.”
He snorted.
“I’ll think on some things we can incorporate to help alleviate the weight,” she added. “Can’t hurt to have a few more ideas in mind, right?” She forced a grin, trying to ignore the building panic.
“True.” He stood a beat, looking at her, or maybe through her. “I actually have to head out,” he said. “The kids have a holiday concert thing.”
That’s when she registered he had on jeans with his fleece.
“Oh! Right. Okay, yeah, cool.” She shuffled papers around. Without looking at him, she asked, “You want company?”
The beat of silence felt long, like a distance wedged between them in that instant.
“I would, but…They had to reserve seats, and each family only gets so many.”
She faced him, waving her hands to shove the words aside. “All good. I get it.”
He scratched his cheek. “I was going to tell you, it just didn’t seem like a big thing.”
“Or we’d be making it a big thing. If I went with you, I mean.”
“Yeah, that too,” he said softly.
“Yeah,” she said, the word barely audible. She cleared her throat. “We downloaded a lot of information. We can talk more later.”
“I’ll call you.”
