Page 110 of Ten Rules for Faking It
They waited a beat and then started leaving the room. Stacey squeezed her arm, giving her a “You will tell me everything” look on her way by. Chris walked over, shut the door, then turned to her with a crestfallen expression.
Her lips quivered. “You lied,” she whispered.
“Everly,” he said.
She inhaled deeply, breathed out through her mouth. Standing because she couldn’t sit any longer, she paced the room as he had earlier.
“You can say you didn’t, but omitting the truth about who you really are, your purpose here, that’s the same as lying.”
He stepped in front of her, stopping her in her tracks. Shelooked at him, her body trembling. “I lied. You’re right. It was by omission, but that doesn’t make it okay. You, of all people, though, should understand.”
Her brows furrowed as she tried to figure that out. “Why?”
Moving a touch closer, his look begged for understanding. “You don’t want to be judged by your parents, Everly. I didn’t want to be judged by my father. He’s not a man I want to emulate.”
She could understand that. Resisting the urge to touch him,hughim, she asked, “Then why do you work for him? Why would you come work for a station that you’ve had to fight every step of the way for? Why do you want to please him badly enough to have hidden that from all of us?”
He swallowed audibly. Everly’s heart stuttered. There was more. He said nothing for a moment, like he was gathering his words carefully.
She clasped her hands together as she waited.
“The deal has always been that if I wanted to run a company on my own, without interference, I had to jump through his hoops. It’s the same for both of my brothers. If anything, he’s harder on us than he is on anyone else in his employ. I’m not whining or playing the poor little rich boy card. I’m just telling you, I came here to prove myself. I didn’t want to have to defend myself at the same time, so I didn’t say I was related to the owner.”
She nodded, her fingers loosening until a thought occurred to her. “You haven’t been running this company without interference, though. He tried to get rid of Stacey and me. Hedidget rid of the publishing company and now the ad company. Did he break his word?”
Even mad at him for the dishonesty, she felt bad for him because he shouldn’t have toprovehimself to his own father.
“No,” Chris said, the one word coming out harsh.
Everly stepped back. “Then what…”
Chris closed the distance between them, his hands cuppingher shoulders. “I needed to prove I could turn the station around before getting my choice of companies to run. I’m supposed to take over as executive director of communications for his company.”
“Supposed to?”
“I’m not taking it.”
She shook her head. “Why?”
He dipped his head. “Everly.”
She pushed her hands up between them, hating the shiver of need that came with touching him. “What? You’re staying at the station for me? You don’t have to do that. You can go, be the communications director or whatever. We don’t have to work together.”
“That job is in New York, Everly.”
She sucked in a breath. Chris dropped his hands.
“You’ve always intended to go back?”
“Not anymore. Things have changed.”
That was an understatement.
She let out a sharp, painful laugh. “From the beginning, this job has been a stepping-stone for you to get to where you really want to be. Now, what? You’re going to give that up because we kissed? Somehow I’m supposed to believe you won’t one day regret or resent giving up everything you’ve worked toward because we have some chemistry?” He started to answer, but she cut him off. “Did you even want to manage the station? Do you have any interest in this arena at all?”
He sighed. “No. I didn’t. But there are challenges here that I never expected that made me like it. What we have is far more than just a little chemistry. You know it. I can be happy here because I’m not staying for business. I’m staying for you.”
For some reason, that only made it worse. It was too much pressure. She’d just reached the point ofbelievingthey could work. What if they didn’t? He’d already made it clear there were no guarantees in life. She couldn’t be his reason. It wouldmake her feel like a dead end. A detour on the path to what he’d really wanted.
