“Dylan…were you drinking? Were you under the influence of any alcohol that morning?”
“I haven’t been under the influence of alcohol in almost a year,” he said firmly. “I successfully completed my time in a rehabilitation center, I go to weekly AA meetings. I’ve met every term of my community service, and I find it painful that people refuse to see who I am now because they want to keep looking at my past.”
“It’s a very colorful past,” Julie said. “You have to admit, it’s hard to believe that in a year’s time, you’ve become a pillar of the community.”
Dylan chuckled. “I’d hardly call myself that. I know what I am and I know what I’ve done. But the accident was the fault of the driver who was speeding and ran a red light. He managed to walk away with very few injuries. Paige and I were less fortunate.”
Hearing him say her name had her tearing up.
“Tell us about your injuries,” Julie said sympathetically, and Paige wanted to punch her. Her words were sympathetic, but the way she was openly admiring Dylan was pissing Paige off.
“I had a concussion and cut my head open,” he said and pushed his hair back to show the scar. “I broke my wrist, so I haven’t been able to play any music and won’t be able to for another month or so. I’ve got bruised ribs and the impact really banged me up from head to toe.”
“And your girlfriend? Is she all right?”
He shook his head. He was visibly shaken up and took a moment to compose himself. “When I woke up, no one would tell me where she was or what had happened to her. I had to wait for hours before someone would tell me. She ended up needing surgery for internal injuries, and she broke her ankle and was bruised and banged up pretty bad. The passenger side took the hit so…” He stopped and shook his head. “It was awful.”
“Did she blame you?” Julie asked, and Paige wanted to jump up and scream at the TV. Why would she ask something like that? She wanted to cry out for Dylan not to answer, but she knew this wasn’t live TV.
“I don’t know,” he said honestly. “Her family did. I know I blamed myself for it, even though I know it was someone else’s bad decision that caused the accident, I blame myself because I couldn’t keep her safe.”
“What’s next for you, Dylan?”
Paige found herself leaning forward a little in anticipation. What was next for him?
“I need to finish healing,” he said. “I’m taking life one day at a time. And I plan on proving a lot of people wrong—I’m not the same man I was a year ago. I’m not even the same man I was three months ago.”
“What happened three months ago?”
He gave a small smile—it was the kind he used to give to her when they were in a meeting or in a crowd, and she knew it was private and meant for her.
“That was when I first met Paige,” he replied. “She was the first person to believe in me.” He stopped and laughed softly. “Although, at first she didn’t like me. Like so many other people, she took one look at me and thought she had me all figured out.”
“And she didn’t?” Julie asked with amusement.
Dylan shook his head. “No. She didn’t. And I was okay with it because I did the same thing to her. Then we started spending time together, and…well…she makes me want to be a better man. She’s shown me how good my life can be, and I can’t imagine what I did to be lucky enough to have her in my life.”
“But you don’t,” Paige whispered. Her hand instantly flew to her mouth to cover it, but not before Kathy turned to her.
“So…wait…you’re the Paige he’s talking about? You were in the accident with Dylan Anders?”
Paige never looked away from the television screen as she nodded. “I was.”
“But…he’s talking as if you’re still together.”
Tears welled up in her eyes. “I know.”
Both women sat in silence as Julie Mize thanked Dylan for his time and the show went to a commercial break. Paige hated how she couldn’t see his face or hear his voice. She began to look frantically around for her phone because she knew she had to call him, had to find out what he meant by what he’d said. If he still felt that way about her, why was he staying away?
Kathy jumped up and grabbed Paige’s phone from the coffee table and handed it to her. “Oh, this is so exciting! You’re calling him, right? You’re going to call him!”
With trembling hands, she pulled up his number and called.
It went directly to voicemail. Again.
“Hey, this is Dylan. You know what to do.”
“Son of a bitch!” she hissed.
This time, however, she left a message.
“Dylan, it’s Paige. I want to talk to you. I saw your interview on TV and…well…I think we… I mean… We should … Dammit.” She paused. “I miss you. Call me. Please.”
And then she hung up and placed the phone on the sofa beside her.
Kathy sat and sighed. “I’m sorry, Paige.”
“Yeah, me too. It didn’t even ring. It went directly to voicemail again.”
“How many times have you tried to call him since the accident?”
“A couple of times.” She shook her head. “I know I should have tried harder but…I was hurt and I thought he’d come to me. I don’t understand—how can he say all that on national TV and not call me?” she asked with dismay. “How could he sound so believable when it’s all a lie?”
“Oh, sweetie, I don’t think it’s all a lie. Maybe he thinks you’re mad at him because of the accident.”
“If he answered his phone, he’d know that I wasn’t!”
Rather than say anything, Kathy changed the channel, and they ended up on HGTV. Tonight’s marathon was on tiny houses.
And suddenly, they didn’t seem like a bad idea. If she could hitch her house to a pickup and drive away right now, Paige knew she’d do it in a heartbeat.
* * *
“Keep the faith.”
That was the text she had received from Dylan, and for the life of her, she had no idea what it meant. She wanted to take it as a good sign, but when he didn’t respond to her texts or her repeated voicemails, it was hard to.
On Monday, Paige asked Kathy to drive her to the PRW offices. She wanted to get out of the house a bit and had finally come to some hard decisions. For starters, she didn’t want to go back to work for her father. She had always loved doing PR work, but if she stayed with PRW, she knew she’d end up hating it. Right now, she almost did. Her creativity was being stifled, and even more than that, she was being stifled. Paige knew she deserved more—had more in her to give—and this wasn’t the right fit for her any longer.
Kathy had not been one hundred percent on board—she thought the stress of a confrontation would be too taxing on Paige—but she’d eventually caved and agreed to take her. As they rode up to the sixth floor in the elevator, she seemed ill at ease.
“If you want, there’s a coffee shop on the corner. You could go and wait there,” Paige suggested. “I don’t know how long I’ll be, but I promise not to make this an all-day event.”
“No, no, no…I want to be supportive. I egged you on about this and I’m excited to see how it all plays out. Plus, I need to know you’re okay. I know I’m a temporary part of your life, just an aide helping you during your recovery, but I’ve come to think of you as a friend too.”
“Thanks, Kathy,” Paige said as she balanced on her crutches and reached over to squeeze one of Kathy’s hands.
“I picture you going all badass on your dad and making him grovel a little,” Kathy said with a hint of amusement.
“I think you’re going to be disappointed,” she replied with a small laugh. “We don’t make scenes in the Walters family. My father will give me a disapproving look and try to intimidate me by saying we’ll talk about this when I’m better, but Daisy’s already packing up my
office for me.”
“Maybe I’ll help her with that, so I’m not in the way.”
“I’m sure she’d appreciate it. She’s supposed to get someone to assist us. We’ll probably need a hand truck or something to get everything to the car.”
Kathy nodded. “I’ll be sure to help her with that too.”
When they arrived on their floor, Paige made her way out into the hallway and took a steadying breath.
“Do you want me to walk with you to your dad’s office?”
Paige shook her head. “No. I’ll be okay.” Then she gave Kathy directions to her office, where she’d find Daisy. “I’ll text you when I’m done.”
“Okay. Good luck!”
It took Paige a little longer to finally get to her father’s office because so many people stopped to talk to her. It was so good to see everyone and she appreciated all their well-wishes, but for every minute she was delayed, the more she began to second-guess herself. When she finally had a clear path, she made it all of ten feet before Ariel spotted her.
“Paige! What are you doing here? Are you ready to come back to work, because there are some things you need to look at—”
“I’m not here to work, Ariel,” she said with a sweet smile and kept on hobbling. “I’m here to see Dad.”
“So…that’s kind of like work. I know he’s going to want you to look at this stuff and—”
Paige stopped in her tracks and looked at her sister. “I’m not here to work,” she said slowly, carefully enunciating each word. “There is nothing I have to look at. Now I really need to go.”
“Oh,” Ariel said as she took a step back—almost contritely. “Okay.”
And as Paige started moving away, she couldn’t help but marvel at how quickly her sister backed down. “Must be pregnancy hormones,” she murmured.
She was immediately ushered into her father’s office, and he stood and smiled at her as she made her way in.
“There’s my baby girl,” he said as he came around the desk to kiss her on the cheek.
“Hi, Dad.” She smiled and was relieved to ease into a chair.
Robert walked around the desk and sat. “You sounded pretty serious on the phone, Paige. Is everything all right? Are you feeling better? Will you need Kathy to stay with you another week?”
“Kathy has been wonderful but I think I’m going to be okay from here on out. I’m feeling so much better and stronger, and I’m able to get around fine. I still can’t drive, but I don’t think I’m going to have a problem finding a ride if I need one.”
“Well…if you’re sure. I don’t mind paying for her to stay for another week.”
“It’s fine, Dad. Really.”
“Then what’s on your mind? Are you anxious to get back to work?” he asked with a small, and somewhat awkward, laugh.
“Work is on my mind, but not in the way you think,” she began slowly.
Robert looked at her and some of his jovial and relaxed manner slipped. “Meaning?”
Taking a steadying breath, she let it out and looked him square in the eye. “Dad…I’m leaving PRW. I won’t be coming back after I get clearance from my doctor.”
“I see.” He paused. “Is this because of Dylan Anders?”
“What?” she asked incredulously. “No! No, Dylan has nothing to do with my decision. Why would you ask that? I haven’t talked to him since the accident.” It did seem like an odd comment for him to make. Since the crash, Dylan’s name had never come up in any conversation with her family, so it was weird that her father would choose now to mention him.
“You’ve never been defiant before, Paige. Suddenly you get involved with this musician and you’re taking time off and refusing to work and—”
“I was in a car accident, for crying out loud! It’s not like I took off to go backpacking through Europe or something! God, do you even hear yourself?”
Robert held up a hand to stop her. “You’re right. You’re right. I’m sorry. That was a complete misrepresentation of the situation.”
She rolled her eyes. “Dad, can you please talk to me like a normal person? I’m leaving because I’m not happy here. It’s obvious I don’t fit in with what you’re looking for at PRW, and honestly, I’m tired of trying to prove myself.”
“What on earth are you talking about?”
“Let’s start with my appearance. I’m never going to dress like Ariel,” she said, her heart beating like mad in her chest. “This is the person I am. I don’t think being someone else’s clone makes me a better employee.”
“Paige, honey, I honestly don’t know what you’re talking about. I don’t have an issue with how you dress.” He shrugged. “And no one’s ever said that they did.”
Figures, she thought. Yet another way her sister was trying to undermine her.
“Okay, never mind. I know where that one came from. But I’m also talking about how you never let me lead a campaign, how you think it’s okay to pass me over time and time again, how you put Ariel in charge of everything and then she dumps all the work on me and she still manages to get the credit!”
He sighed. “Are we back to this again? Sweetheart, this jealousy thing you have with your sister is getting old.”
If she didn’t have a cast on her foot, she would have stormed out. Now she had no choice but to stay put and see this thing through to the end. “This isn’t about jealousy, Dad. This is about what is fair. I work very hard for you, and you have yet to acknowledge that. I have so much to offer, and I need to work someplace where that is appreciated. I am more than someone’s assistant and gofer.” She paused. “And I think it’s time—”
Ariel came bustling through the door. “We have a problem,” she said nervously.
“What’s going on?” Robert asked.
Frustration boiled up in Paige. Awkwardly, she got to her feet and reached for her crutches. “Is it really too much to ask to have five freaking minutes with Dad without you having to come in and demand the attention?”
“Paige!” Robert admonished. “Is that kind of language necessary?”
“As a matter of fact, it is,” she snapped. “This is exactly the kind of thing I was talking about. This kind of behavior! Why can’t I have a private conversation with you without Ariel being here?”
“It’s not like she knew—”
“Yes, she did!” Paige cried. “I ran into her out in the hall and she was trying to get me to work and I told her no! And now here she is having—surprise, surprise—some crisis! Why can’t she manage to handle anything for herself? I always have to!”
Her father and sister were both silent for a moment, looking at her as if she’d grown a second head.
She looked directly at her sister and figured she’s already opened Pandora’s box, so she might as well go all the way with it. “And you,” she snapped, “go ahead and tell me again how Dad asked you to talk to me about my wardrobe because I’m not management material. Please.”
Ariel’s eyes went wide and she stared at Paige and then their father.
“Ariel?” Robert asked. “Why would you tell your sister something like that? I never asked you to—”
“Dad, we have a problem,” Ariel quickly interrupted. “I got a call from legal about the Literacy Now concert and—”
“Wasn’t that supposed to take place a week ago?” Paige asked, but neither of them were listening to her.
“There was a problem with the contracts, and everything else is ready to go for Friday night.”
“So what’s the problem, Ariel? Whatever it is, tell Darren and the team down in legal to handle it!” Robert said with frustration.
“That’s just it,” Ariel said with a sob. “They can’t handle it!”
“Why not?”
“Because we don’t have any bands to perform at the concert!” she cried. “Th
e contracts were never signed and—”
“What?!” he roared.
“I…I thought someone else was handling getting the revised signatures from the bands, and now they’ve all backed out, and we don’t have any way of making them—”
“How is that possible?” Robert yelled. “How could you have forgotten to get the contracts signed? That was the first thing you had to do! What on earth were you thinking, Ariel?”
“Paige was supposed to—”
“Oh, no!” Paige quickly interrupted. “Don’t you dare put this on me! I was completely out of the concert talks and I’ve been away from the office for almost a month. This is your fault, Ariel. For once in your life, take responsibility for your own screwups.”
Ariel looked at her and then their father and began to cry. “I’m sorry, Daddy! This pregnancy has been so hard on me. And…and…I don’t know how to fix this.”
“We’ll see about this,” Robert growled as he walked around his desk to pick up the phone. “We had a verbal agreement, dammit, and that bastard will honor it or else.”
“Or else what?”
Paige turned at the sound of Dylan’s voice. He was standing in the doorway and looking sexier than anything she’d ever seen in her life. His eyes met hers, and she saw all the emotion she was feeling too. He walked over to her and gently caressed her face.
“Hey, beautiful,” he said softly.
“Hey, you,” she said, sighing at how good it felt to be near him again.
“Give me five minutes,” he said, “and then I want to talk to you. Okay?”
Nodding, she took a careful step back and watched in fascination as Dylan walked up to her father’s desk. A sound from the doorway drew her attention away, and she spotted Riley and Mick and about a half-dozen other people standing there. What in the world?
“Or else what?” Dylan repeated, looking at her father sternly.
“You were to finish the terms of your community service,” Robert said snidely. “And that includes the benefit concert.”
Dylan shook his head. “That’s where you’re wrong. You see, the contract for my community service did not include the benefit concert. I think Ariel was supposed to draw that one up too and dropped the ball on it. Again. Now if Paige had been in charge, I’m sure this would be an entirely different scenario.”
One More Promise Page 27