by Nina Lindsey
Rory paled. “You created the position just for me?”
His parents didn’t respond. Grant got to his feet and paced to the other side of the room, his hands flexing. “Mom, none of this excuses what you did.”
“I didn’t do it to be excused.” Joanna flung her hand toward Rory. “I did it to help get Rory out of a terrible situation and into a safe one. Do you think for one second that she would be exposed to that kind of treatment anywhere at Intellix?”
“No, of course not.” Grant pulled a heavy breath into his lungs. “But if Rory had wanted your help or my help, she’d have asked for it. She’s been in this business for over ten years on her own, and she doesn’t need you interfering. No one does.”
“One would think that you would be appreciative as well.” Edward pierced Grant with a glare. “You couldn’t do anything about Rory’s situation, could you? If you’d been working for me and knew what the hell was—”
“Dad, don’t you get it?” Grant spun to confront his father. “If I’d been working for you, I’d never have met Rory. I wouldn’t have the life I want. I wouldn’t have the woman I love. Did it fucking kill me that I couldn’t do anything to help her? Yeah, but you know what? She’s smart. Hell, she’s brilliant. She’s strong. Even if you hadn’t made the offer, she’d have figured out what she was going to do. And I guarantee it wouldn’t have involved her coming to you.”
“Well, then, it’s a good thing I stepped in, isn’t it?” Joanna lifted her chin in defiance. “Your father is giving Rory an excellent opportunity, and while I acknowledge I could have handled the situation differently, I won’t apologize for taking action.”
“It wasn’t your situation to handle,” Grant snapped.
“You’ve never wanted our help.” Edward set his glass on a table with a hard thunk. “That was one of the reasons you moved away, isn’t it? Now, you can’t stand that your mother and I can rectify a problem where you have no power whatsoever.”
“Excuse me.” Rory stood, her hands fisting at her sides. “My issues at Digicore have nothing to do with your relationship with your son. I meant it when I said I appreciate the offer and your efforts to help, but I have to say no.”
“No?” Joanna looked as if she’d never heard that word before. “No to what?”
“To working at Intellix.” Rory turned to Edward. “I’m not diminishing the extent of what you’re doing to try and help me, but I can’t justify working for Intellix under these circumstances. I can’t pretend that I earned the position legitimately when I didn’t. And not for anything will I cause more trouble between you and Grant.”
Her eyes glittered. “Grant is the best man I know. The best man all of Bliss Cove knows. Even if he doesn’t want people to recognize it, he’s smart, talented, loyal to a fault, and so incredibly kind. He knows how to treat people the way they deserve to be treated. He would do anything for anyone. He doesn’t even realize how much power he has.”
Grant’s heart hammered so hard he could hear it in his head. His mother opened and closed her mouth.
Edward cleared his throat. “I will admit, Rory, that Grant is right in saying he wouldn’t have met you if he hadn’t made the choices he did. And it has become abundantly clear that he couldn’t have made a better choice than you.”
A tight part of Grant unlocked, like a door opening a crack to let in fresh air and light. Rory wiped her eyes with the back of her hand.
“Thank you,” she told his father. “I chose him, too.”
She picked up her handbag and looked at Joanna. “I know you did what you thought was right, but I really wish you’d talked to me about it first.”
Joanna pressed her lips together, her eyes shiny. “I’m sorry, Rory.”
Rory hesitated for a second before she turned and hurried out the door. Grant started after her.
“Grant, I was just trying to help.” A plea colored his mother’s voice.
“I know, Mom.” He dragged his hands over his face. “But you can’t keep doing this. When you go too far, you push people away. Now you might end up losing Rory. If you lose her…you’ll lose me, too.”
He left the room and went outside, where Rory was halfway down the porch steps. He caught up with her at the bottom of the steps and reached for her hand. She stopped to face him, but pulled away from his touch.
Unease cut through him. The spotlights cast an eerie glow on her face. She zipped up her coat. Her hand trembled slightly.
“I love you.” His voice came out rough. “Don’t turn the job down because of me.”
“He offered me the job because of you.” She twisted the strap of her handbag around her fingers. “But that’s not the only reason I’m turning it down. I didn’t earn the job legitimately, and I meant it when I said I won’t pretend anymore.”
“You wouldn’t be. You’ve already proven yourself a thousand times over.”
“And you? You’d be okay with me working for your father?”
The word yes pushed up into his throat and stopped. He would be okay with it because he knew she would be respected at Intellix. But—
“I once told you that you can do anything.” He reached out to tuck a lock of hair behind her ear. “That you can be anything. I’ll always believe that. I want you to believe it, too.”
Her eyes clouded. She paced a few feet away, her spine rigid. She spun back around and extended her hands.
“It’s so fucking embarrassing, Grant. This harassment crap is what everyone is going to remember when they look at me, not the programs I designed or the articles I’ve written. Your father probably doesn’t even know about my ideas for merging artificial intelligence with virtual and augmented reality. How can I be anything when I’m dragging around all this garbage? I don’t even know how to get rid of it.”
“You don’t have to.” Pain cracked through him, along with a sudden sense that everything was about to change. “Just like you don’t have to be stuck in a job where you’re either invisible or humiliated. No one should be.”
“So, the alternatives are to work at Intellix at a job I didn’t earn or to quit tech altogether.” Her mouth tightened. “Maybe it is time for me to leave. I’ve tried and failed to get to where I’d always hoped I would be, so…”
“You’re not going to quit. It’s not in you to quit.”
“But this time, I’m out of options.” She held up her hand when he stepped toward her. “Look, I…I’m going to need some time to think.”
“Okay. We’ll go back to your place and—”
“No.” She shook her head and skidded her gaze away from him. “I need to be alone, Grant.”
The edge to her voice sliced right through him. He stepped back.
He knew her. From the moment they first met, he’d sensed what she’d needed. Over the years at the Mousehole, he’d learned when to give her space, when she wanted to talk, when her snarkiness was hiding something more. He knew exactly how crispy she liked fried cheese curds and that cherry gummy worms were her favorite.
Now, he also knew that she needed three pillows to sleep, that she liked mint-flavored dental floss, and where to kiss her to make her giggle. He knew that the crease between her eyebrows meant she was struggling with a design problem and that when she unconsciously licked her lower lip, she was thinking about sex.
He knew how to touch her. He knew how to love her.
But he didn’t, for the life of him, know how to walk away from her.
“Take these.” He handed her his car keys. “I’ll borrow one of Nathan’s cars to drive home.”
After a brief hesitation, she got into his car. Seconds later, the taillights disappeared into the darkness.
Chapter 25
“Isn’t Grant joining us?” Eleanor stirred the mashed potatoes on the stove and glanced at the clock. “The turkey should be done in less than half an hour.”
“He’s…um, working.” Rory leaned her elbows on the counter and fiddled with her phone.
“Th
e Mousehole is open on Thanksgiving Day?” Henry, Eleanor’s significant other, popped the cork of a wine bottle. “I didn’t know that.”
“No, Grant makes dinner over at the soup kitchen.” Aria took a bunch of silverware from a drawer. “He’s usually there cooking and serving all day.”
“Rory said he was planning to leave a bit early today so he could be here.” Eleanor set the spoon down, her brow furrowing as she looked at her middle daughter. “Did I get that wrong?”
“He’s not coming, Mom.” Rory reached for a piece of cheese from the appetizer platter. “He’s busy.”
Eleanor opened her mouth to speak, then closed it again and turned to check on the turkey. Aria and Callie exchanged glances across the central island.
Rory hitched herself off the stool and went into the living room, where a football game blared from the TV. She flopped down in an easy chair and put her feet on the coffee table.
She’d been looking forward to the refuge of Thanksgiving for days, but now she felt like stone, as if her guard had somehow penetrated to her bones and her heart. Though she knew Grant would be right over there for as long as she needed, she had to navigate this new chaos without him at her side as her partner-in-crime, her support system, her kindred spirit. She also had no idea how she ever would.
Anyone would call her a fool for turning down the Intellix job. Maybe she was. On the surface, it would have been so easy—out with the old, in with the new.
Joanna was right. She’d have been valued and productive at Edward Taylor’s company. Yes, she’d have had to get past Joanna’s snooping, but that would have been a small price to pay.
Or not. If Grant had submitted to his mother’s interference, he never would have carved his own path or created his own life.
She sighed and rested her head against the back of the chair. She wanted to do the same thing. She’d always known she was an exceptional programmer and tech expert. She could dream up and design innovative programs for many different spaces—medical, home, education—but she’d never believed she could do “anything.” She was too practical for that. She worked, paid her bills, and was grateful for good health benefits.
What did “anything” mean, anyway? She didn’t want to be a different person—she liked being Rory Prescott—but had she kept her life too focused and narrow? Could she have looked beyond a full-time software engineering job to something bigger?
Maybe she’d done that once when she’d created the MedCure program in an effort to strike out on her own, but after the scumbag venture capitalist had shut her down and another company beat her to the market with their software, she’d retreated back into the relative stability of the corporate world.
“You okay?” Callie entered the room with a glass of wine, which she set on the table beside Rory. “You’ve been kind of quiet.”
Rory shrugged. She hadn’t wanted to burden her family with the sordid details of what was going down at Digicore, but she’d told them about the toxic culture and Edward’s offer. “The job has just been more of a challenge than I was anticipating.”
Callie sat on the arm of the sofa, her forehead creasing. “You’ve never backed away from a challenge.”
Rory looked at her older sister, whose path in life had always seemed easy. She knew it hadn’t been—Callie had worked her ass off to get a tenured professor position—but Rory had always admired her sister’s confidence and commitment. In fact, she’d used Callie as an example for how to structure her own career. But the hallowed halls of academia were a lot different from the Wild West of the tech industry.
“The work is the best part,” she finally said. “Unfortunately, the environment can be the worst.”
Callie’s mouth twisted. “All the assholes, huh?”
“Yeah.” Rory plucked at a loose thread on the hem of her T-shirt. “They’ve never made me dislike what I do, but they’ve made me doubt myself. Which I fucking hate.”
“Is that why you stayed in Bliss Cove for so long?”
“Maybe. I don’t know. I liked the contract work and being in charge of my own schedule. If I could have gotten benefits and a good, steady salary doing that, then I’d probably still be living here. But the only way I can make a reliable living and advance my career is to work for a corporation. Start-ups are exciting and a lot of fun, but so unpredictable. And stupid as it sounds, ageism hits in the tech industry before forty. I’m a thirty-year-old woman still trying to find the right fit.”
She pushed to her feet in frustration. “So why the hell didn’t I take the job Grant’s father offered me?”
“Because it wasn’t the right fit.” Callie lifted her shoulders. “When I was first looking for jobs out of grad school, I had offers from several universities, including Skyline and Duke. Duke would have been a better career track, but I always knew I wanted to come back to Bliss Cove. So, for me, the right fit wasn’t the more prestigious job.”
Aria came into the room, munching on a raw carrot stick. “Last summer, I found this super cute dress with spaghetti straps on sale for, like, five bucks. First time I wore it, one of the straps broke. Half the bodice slipped down, and I flashed all of Mariposa Street before I managed to pull it back up. So not the right fit.”
Rory and Callie both grinned.
“Remember how Dad used to call us Rock, Paper, and Scissors?” Callie stood and squeezed Rory’s arm. “You’re the sharp one who can slice through anything to create something new. So, maybe the reason you haven’t found the right fit is because you shouldn’t be looking for one. Maybe you need to cut your own pattern or material, or…um…”
“Make your own snowflake design out of construction paper,” Aria suggested.
Rory smiled faintly. “I don’t think I remember how.”
“Well, if anyone can figure it out, you can.” Aria started out of the room. “Come on, let’s eat. I’m starving.”
Rory followed her sisters into the kitchen as Jake and Hunter stomped in the front door, their hair tousled and faces flushed with cold. Hunter carried a jug of apple cider, and Jake was bearing three different kinds of pie.
“Parade clean-up completed.” He set the pies on the counter and turned to plant a kiss on Callie. “Turkey Tom should last one more year, though his tail feathers are getting a little droopy.”
“Better his than yours.” Callie patted his rear.
“Mrs. Higgins says Happy Thanksgiving.” Hunter put the cider in the fridge. “She wants everyone to stop by for cookies later. Damn, that turkey smells amazing.” He pulled Aria in for a hug. “So do you.”
“It’s all ready.” Eleanor waved them toward the dining room with a potholder. “Go sit down. Henry and I will bring everything in.”
As the group started out of the kitchen, Rory tugged Hunter to a halt.
“Hey, do you have a minute later tonight?” she asked. “I want to talk to you about something.”
“Sure. I’m planning on eating everything twice, so I’ll be at the table for a few hours.” He patted his flat stomach in anticipation. “What do you want to talk about?”
“I’m not sure yet.” Rory walked beside him into the dining room. “But it has something to do with scissors, a snowflake, and Aria flashing her boobs.”
He laughed. “Well, then. I’m definitely in.”
Going back to SJ. Will LYK when I get in.
Rory’s text was followed by a little turkey emoji.
Without responding, Grant shoved his phone into his pocket and shut the car door. He hadn’t seen her on Thanksgiving, and over the past few days, they’d been keeping in touch via text.
While he’d never liked texting, he’d been grateful for it as a way to quickly contact her. But now, the shorthand messages they exchanged were like bones stripped of meat. He avoided asking questions and struggled to respect her need to “be alone.”
He hated forcing himself to back off. He hated that she wanted to keep him at a distance. After years of being accustomed to his own priv
acy, to not having anyone around, there was now a Rory-shaped hole in his life. He had no idea how, or if, it would be filled again.
He rang the bell of his parents’ house, and his mother welcomed him with a smile that held a hint of nervousness. They hadn’t spoken since the fight.
“Did Nathan tell you that Alice wants to visit Bliss Cove?” Joanna poured a scotch and handed it to him. “She was so intrigued by my descriptions that she’s anxious to see the town for herself. Nathan is going to call you to work out the details.”
“Good to know.”
“So, how is everything?” Joanna smiled brightly. “Did you spend Thanksgiving with Rory’s family?”
“No.” He rubbed a hand over his hair. “I haven’t seen her in a few days.”
“Oh, dear.” Dismay crinkled her forehead. “I really botched things up for you, didn’t I?”
“Honestly, Rory wanted to handle the situation by herself before you…did what you did,” he admitted, setting the glass on a table. “She’d never want anyone to rescue her.”
Joanna lifted an eyebrow. “That must be hard on you.”
“Yeah. But it’s also one of the reasons I love her. She’s so strong. Sometimes I have to do what she wants instead of what I want.”
A shadow crossed his mother’s face. She spread out her hand and studied her fingernails. “Sounds like a lesson I need to learn.”
Grant’s heart softened. “I know you have good intentions, Mom. But instead of your behind-the-scenes plotting, maybe straightforward talking would have better results.”
“All right, then.” She pressed her lips together and lifted her gaze to his. “I understand that you chose a different path in life, and I know you love being a chef and restaurant owner. After our visit, I can even appreciate it. I like your town, and clearly everyone there loves you. But even though you’ve said you didn’t turn your back on this family, it took your brother’s wedding to bring you back even for an overnight visit.”
She held up a hand when he started to speak. “I know. Your father has often been cutting and cruel. There was no reason for you to subject yourself to that. But I’ve missed you. I’ve missed us being a family. If I promise to curb my meddling, will you please make an effort to visit us more? It’s not as if you live across the country. Can you manage to have dinner with us once a month?”