“I didn’t say that, Kate. Take the next two days, paid, and the weekend to think about your position, what you want to be doing.”
“I will.” She rose and left Bill’s office so filled with disappointment and anger that her legs trembled beneath her.
Her steps grew firmer as she approached her cubicle. She changed into her walking shoes and grabbed her bag. Bill was right about one thing. She did need to think about her future.
Think hard.
Jon should have known something was really off when Kate answered his phone call with a clipped Hello. He’d expected excitement.
“Hey,” he replied.
The phone went quiet for so long, he wondered if they’d lost their connection, until he heard background noise.
“Grandpa’s okay.” Jon broke the silence. “Home with a written clean bill of health to send my parents to get them to back off on the pressure to have Grandpa sell the farm.”
“That’s good.” Kate paused. “I have something … a lot to tell you.”
There wasn’t an ounce of animation in her voice.
“I didn’t get the Growth and Income Fund Manager position.”
“What? I turned it down flat, figuring you were next in line.”
“I had been. It doesn’t matter. I didn’t get the promotion because of us.”
“Us?”
Kate sighed. “Yes, because of us. We weren’t discreet enough. HR has given me the next two days off to think about my actions in terms of company policy and my future with DeBakker.”
A chill went through Jon. Not only was there no animation in Kate’s voice, but he couldn’t detect any anger, either. It was totally flat.
“You don’t need them.” He took care of supplying the anger for her.
“Not long-term, but I do until I find another position. I’ve thought this out and come to a decision.”
Jon’s stomach knotted without even hearing her decision.
“If I were a different person, I could imagine falling in love with you.”
The knot tightened. “Kate, you don’t have to decide anything this minute.”
“I know I don’t. I already have. We can’t see each other outside of work anymore.”
He strained to hear a break, any regret in her voice. “Until I leave DeBakker.”
“No, not at all. I need to focus on my career. It’s who I am.”
“Kate, no, you’re so much more.”
“This isn’t easy. Let me finish. I let my feelings for you get in the way of my career, and now I’m paying.”
“And making me pay, too. I thought I was in love with you.”
Kate made a strangled noise.
“But I don’t even know you.”
“Jon, please. It’s my fault for thinking I could have it all. I didn’t mean to hurt you.”
“As if your choosing your job over having anything to do with me wouldn’t hurt?” He wanted to rage at her, but he was too drained. “But I get it. And you shouldn’t have any problem avoiding me outside of or in the office. On Monday, I’m starting my new remote back-office position.”
Jon clicked off, which he knew was childish. But Kate’s words had cut deep, to the bone of his childhood. For more than half his life, he’d lived with the pain of his parents caring more for their work than for him. He’d gotten past it. He wasn’t going to live it again with Kate.
So why was he still holding his cell phone, waiting for Kate to call back? Jon jammed the phone into his jeans pocket. Because he wanted it all to be a bad dream. He punched the pillow on his bed and went downstairs to see if Dottie was still there. He had to do something physical to defuse the bomb of emotions that threatened to explode inside him. It was too late to hit the pool and swim it off. If Dottie could stay with his grandfather, he’d make due with a run.
The next morning, Jon jogged from the subway station toward the DeBakker offices. He was late. Not that it had any consequence in the greater scheme of things. Kate wouldn’t be there to notice. A stitch in his side slowed him to a fast walk for the rest of the distance. The run last night had worked off some of his aggression, although not enough for him to get much sleep. So he’d left the house super early and gotten in 45 minutes of laps at the Culinary Art Institute’s pool before coming to work.
Jon stepped out of the office building stairwell to an empty hall and hoped he could slip into his cubicle without having to talk with anyone. He only had to get through two days of sitting across from Kate’s empty cubicle, minding his own business. Five steps down the hall, the elevator doors opened and closed behind him.
“Jon, wait up.”
He stifled a curse and waited for Anthony to catch up to him.
“Sucks about Kate,” Anthony said.
How could Anthony know about him and Kate? The office grapevine was pervasive, but the only way Anthony could know about his and Kate’s breakup was if one of them had told him.
“When I got the Fixed Income Fund spot, I thought Kate had the Grown and Income one for sure. Bet she’s ticked.”
That was putting it mildly. “You’re not the one who filed the report with HR, are you?”
Confusion spread across Anthony’s face. “About you and her? That’s why she lost the promotion?”
Jon could have bit his tongue off. Now he was feeding the grapevine.
Anthony lifted his hands in mock surrender. “Not me. I’d put my bet on Gregg. Kate shot him down a couple years ago using the company policy on dating.”
“Gregg’s married,” Jon said.
Anthony gave him a look of disbelief.
“Right. When does that stop some guys?”
“And Gregg said something the other day about seeing the two of you at some carnival Upstate, near where he just moved. Said you looked pretty cozy, getting a cat or something. I didn’t pay close attention to what he was saying.”
“Close enough,” Jon muttered.
“Hey, I won’t repeat any of this.” Anthony motioned back and forth between them.
“Thanks, and congratulations on your promotion.”
The men parted ways when they entered their work area.
On his way to his cubicle, Jon went through a catalog of tortures he’d like to subject Gregg to for what he’d done to Kate—and him. But, while any one of the tortures might make him feel better, none would improve Kate’s situation here or bring them together. She’d been more than clear about cutting all connections between them.
He stopped between his desk and Kate’s. All connections, except his cat. She still had his cat. He dropped his gym bag inside his cubicle. He was something else. The cat wasn’t going to mend his heart or make Kate choose him over her work.
Kate never should have gone back to DeBakker. It hadn’t proven anything. In the three weeks since she’d broken things off with Jon, she’d grown to hate the job she used to love and dislike going home almost as much. Jon’s cat Crimson had taken to howling every night until the cat fell asleep on the loveseat where she’d spent every night when Jon was staying at Kate’s place. After a few hours sleep, Crimson would be up howling again at about four in the morning. Kate had tried to coax Crimson into joining her and Scarlet in the bedroom. But after the first night, Crimson had hidden herself behind or under furniture when she’d sensed Kate getting ready to go to bed. Kate hadn’t had the energy to seek the animal out and risk Crimson’s sharp claws to round her up before bed.
This morning Kate had joined Crimson on the love seat. She petted the cat. “You miss him. I know. I do, too,” Kate said. Deep inside, she’d been a little surprised that he had totally taken her at her word when she’d said they had no romantic future. In her experience, he’d always been someone who didn’t give up on something that he really wanted.
Her heart squeezed. “Maybe he didn’t really want me.”
Crimson gave a plaintive meow.
“Well, I want him,” Kate said. It struck her. “I want him more than anything, more than any promotion or job coul
d give me. At least one hundred … no one million times more. I’ve been such an idiot.” Scarlet joined her and Crimson on the loveseat. “What should I do, girls?”
Crimson jumped from the loveseat to the coffee table. And nudged Kate’s cell phone off the table to the floor at Kate’s feet.
She looked from Crimson to Scarlet, who meowed her agreement. “Just tell him, huh? But that’s nowhere as easy as you two may think, and not at 4 a.m.”
Kate stretched out on the loveseat with the cats and got in a couple more hours sleep before getting ready for and walking to work.
The first thing she did when she got to her cubicle was text Jon.
Crimson misses you. Can we get together and talk?
She pressed the send button. Okay, so not only was she an idiot, but she was a coward. But she could tell Jon that in person. Kate swallowed the lump in her throat. If he agreed to meet with her. The second thing she did was write a resignation letter and deliver it to Bill in person. It rankled that he made no attempt to talk her out of it, but seemed almost relieved.
“Kate, I’m sorry to see you go, but I think it’s a good career move for you.”
She stifled a giggle at the thought of what his reaction would be if she said it wasn’t a career move. She knew the guys called her the ice queen behind her back. She used to take pride in the nickname. Cool, calm, emotionless Kate. Ha!
“You know the company policy. For security purposes, you need to turn over your laptop and keycard.”
“Right here.” She placed her laptop and card on his desk.
“I’ll let HR know you’ll be in for an exit interview.”
“As soon as I have my things packed.”
“You’ll receive two week’s salary and any vacation you have accrued next payday,” Bob said, parsing out information in bits, as if he wanted to prolong the meeting. “I’m sorry about the way things turned out for you and to lose both you and Jon.”
And Jon. Kate decided not to ask Bill what he meant. She’d find out from Jon.
“Good luck, and feel free to use me as a reference for any future positions you pursue.”
“Thank you.” After the debacle of the fund manager position and Bob’s insistence all along that he supported her, she didn’t have any reason to believe him. But over the years, he had supported her ambitions, so Kate decided to give him the benefit of the doubt.
Before she began collecting her few personal things in her cubicle, she checked her cell phone. Jon hadn’t responded. He could still be doing morning chores, although she’d expect him to carry his phone with him. Kate shook her head. No. She would not entertain the possibility that he wasn’t going to answer her text.
A little sadly, the personal items she’d accumulated in her work area over her nearly five years with DeBakker easily fit in the backpack she’d brought for them. Even sadder, she didn’t really have any coworkers she wanted to stop and say goodbye to, especially since everyone’s first question would be “where are you going?”
Kate’s phone pinged while she was doing a final look around to make sure she had all of her things. She held her breath as she picked up the phone. The breath whooshed out. It was her mortgage broker, not Jon. She’d stop by the broker’s office on her way home and put a hold on her mortgage application. She might need her planned down payment for living expenses while she job hunted. Although it might have seemed so a short time ago, it wouldn’t be the end of the world if she lost her apartment.
By the time Kate had gotten everything done in HR and waited a half hour at the broker’s office to talk with her and fill out the paperwork there, it was going on 11 a.m. She still hadn’t heard anything from Jon when she hit the last block of the walk to her apartment. For an instant, she panicked. What had she done?
She’d unraveled her whole life for a man.
No, her life was already unraveling before Jon came back into it. He was the start of putting it back together.
When she got in sight of her building, Kate saw Jon pacing in front of the door. It wasn’t like the doorman to allow that. He looked over at her and she froze, her feet seemingly stuck to the sidewalk. He jogged over.
“You didn’t return my text,” she said.
“Something as urgent as Crimson missing me, seemed to warrant my personal attendance.”
“Yes, that’s true.” Jon was here. Here in person.
“We’d better go right up and fix the situation,” Jon said.
The doorman opened the door for them. “Jon, Ms. Lewis.”
“First name basis.” Kate laughed.
“Well, yeah, I had to talk him into letting me wait here for you.”
Kate let them into the apartment, and Crimson sauntered over and rubbed against Jon’s legs. Kate’s gaze locked with his.
“Jon.”
“Kate.” They spoke at once.
“Go ahead,” she said, holding her heart close in case what he had to say wasn’t what she had to say.
“Good. I’ve been practicing this all morning and don’t want to mess it up. If you hadn’t texted me this morning, I would have called you. I couldn’t go on any longer without telling you how I feel.”
She lessened the grip on her heart.
“I love you. I’ve loved you some since high school. But now I love you with all my heart.”
Kate opened her mouth to respond, and Jon put his finger over her lips.
“I should have told you that when you broke things off. But sometimes I’m so in awe of you that I regress to adolescence.”
She ran her fingertip over the faint blush that colored his cheek.
Jon took a sharp breath and continued. “I let myself think you were choosing your career over me, just like my parents. By the time I got home that day, I’d more than realized my stupidity. You are nothing like my parents. But I was afraid to push you, if you didn’t feel the same. I’m sorry. I should have pushed.”
“No apology necessary. I was as gripped in adolescence as you. On my walk home, I realized that I’d let my brother’s old taunt about me being just a girl, not as good as him, and what my friends thought—this time the No Brides Club and my vow—stand between us.”
She laced her fingers through his. “I do feel the same. I love you with my whole heart, more than anyone or anything.
Jon squeezed her hand.
Her heart hitched. “None of that stands between us anymore. I resigned from DeBakker this morning.”
“Me, too. I never even started the back-office job. I couldn’t work for a firm that treated you like DeBakker had.”
“What about the fire damage? The insurance?”
He shrugged. “The damage wasn’t as costly as I thought it would be. Grandpa and I refinanced the home improvement loan. We’ll manage. But why are we talking finances?”
“We’re math people?” Kate asked grinning.
Jon lifted her chin. “I have a better equation for us to work on. One plus one equals …”
Before Kate’s mind could click in on what Jon had said, he pressed his lips to hers in a toe-curling kiss that spoke so much love it filled her mind and everywhere else. She had no choice but to return the love with her answering kiss.
A plaintive howl from Crimson finally broke them apart but not before Kate had wrapped her arms around Jon’s neck as if for dear life and he’d lifted her to his lap to deepen their mutual kisses.
“What’s that, Crimson?” Jon asked.
At the hoarse rumble of his voice, Kate reluctantly scrambled off his lap.
“Yes, Crimson, I have it taken care of. Right here.” Jon reached into his pocket and slid down on one knee in front of Kate. The cats flanked him.
Kate stared at the velvet box in his hand. “When?”
He laughed. “Three weeks ago. I was going to ask you when we celebrated your promotion.” Jon cleared his throat. “Kate, will you do me the honor of marrying me?”
“Yes, yes, yes.”
He slid the ring on her fin
ger, and she tugged him back onto the couch.
“Now,” she said, “We need to get back to that equation you mentioned. I think the answer is one, but you’d better check my work.”
“Gladly.” He enveloped her in his strong arms and crushed his lips to hers.
Epilogue
The following Thursday
Jon somehow felt as if he was preparing to face a firing squad as he walked in the Briarwood Tavern to meet Kate and her No Brides Club friends. On the train ride down to New York, Kate had texted him that all six of the members would be here tonight. Six New York City professional women, each, he assumed, as dedicated as Kate to succeeding in their career fields. And here he was, a mere man.
“Over here,” Kate called and waved when he reached the rooftop.
The closer he got to the women’s table, the more he felt as if they were sizing him up and he was falling short. And he hadn’t stopped at the bar on the way in to grab a drink to fortify him. However, some of the guys in the bar were shooting him approving glances as the other No Brides Club members waved him over.
Kate stood when he arrived at the table and lifted her face for a kiss. He obliged with a quick peck. She touched the chair next to hers. “I ordered you a draft.”
There were so many reasons he loved this woman. He sat and chugged a mouthful.
“Let me introduce you to everyone,” Kate said.
He wiped his palms on his jeans and pasted a smile on his face as she went around the table, “Julie, you know, Kinsley, Rachel, Georgie, and Melody.” The women greeted him, friendly enough.
“This is Jon,” Kate finished.
“Nice to meet you all,” he said, looking around the table at each of them again and noticing something he hadn’t in the first round. Like Kate, all of the women, except Julie wore rings on their left-hand ring fingers. He burst out laughing, garnering him piercing looks from all of the women, particularly Kate.
“I think you ladies may need to come up with a new name for your group,” he said.
In an almost synchronized movement, the women followed his gaze to their hands and laughed with him.
No Time for Apologies (The No Brides Club Book 5) Page 16