Page 40 of Never and Always
Chapter 9
Mia thoughtshe’d make herself a healthy vegetable soup to make up for all the chocolate indulgence she’d had with Claire lastnight.
Today was a good day. She’d had her interview at The Body Cove, the clinic in town that she had her eyes on. She’d truly impressed Sasha, the owner, who gave her the job straightaway after her test run. Mia had to do a manicure, pedicure and a deep tissue massage on one of their regularclients.
Mia would start next week, which was fab. It made her feel a little better, as if she was taking a step in the right direction. Mostly it would be good to have money coming in that was hers, and not from some crazy job likestripping.
She couldn’t believe that she even considered that. But Glenn had made her feel so bad that day that she just wanted to fix the problem however shecould.
He came into the kitchen just as she added the rest of the vegetables into the pot. He was dressed like he was going back to work even though it was six o’clock in the evening. He had a travel case withhim.
Glenn stopped by the counter and stared at her. “I have to go to L.A. for a fewdays.”
Wow, that was the first time he’d spoken to her like she was a human being in more than twoweeks.
“Big case?” sheasked.
“Kind of. My clients are there and I have to go through documents and meet with a fewpeople.”
“Cool, your job always sounds so interesting. I guess that’s why you love it so much.” She wished she could have said that with more enthusiasm, but shecouldn’t.
“It has its perks. Are you going to be okayhere?”
“Yep, and don’t worry, I’ll be out of your hair soon. I got a job in town. I’ll move out sometime next week.” She already knew where she would look for an apartment. She’d get something small and nice, just to get by on until she had enoughmoney.
She’d get a car,too.
He looked at her for a few seconds, holding her gaze. “You can stay here for as long as you want, Mia. This is your house,too.”
“Glenn, thank you, but I would rather go and fend for myself. It’s been awful here. You have been awful to me. I know I messed up, but if the situation was reversed I wouldn’t have treated you the way you treated me.” She’d never spoken up for herself before to him, and he seemed a littlesurprised.
But he nodded. “I know. You’re right. I was out of line for a lot of what I said to you and I’msorry.”
She pressed her lips together and looked him over, wanting to feel happy that they were talking and he was apologizing, but somehow she couldn’t. She couldn’t get what he’d said to her out of her head. Especially that last argument when he told her she always disappointed him. That washorrible.
“I’m sorry, Mia,” he saidagain.
“Okay.”
“We’ll talk properly when I get back. You can tell me more about the job.” He offered a smallsmile.
“When will you beback?”
“Hopefully in the next two to three days,” Glennanswered.
Nick came into the kitchen just as she was about to say something else. He was smiling; she smiled back at him, remembering lastnight.
Glenn turned to face him and looked a little uneasy. “Hey, we’ve hardly seen you aroundhere.”
To Mia’s surprise Nick gave him a sort of off-key look that bordered onsarcasm.
“I’ve been working hard. I got good news,” Nickreplied.
“What is it?” Mia asked eager to hear. She was praying that it was a lead of some sorts to the paintings, the money, orboth.
Maybe more so the paintings because of the pricelessvalue.
“I found the paintings. They are being returned to the storage facility as wespeak.”
