Chapter 12
Matt wasn’t even thinking as he got in his car and started for Belle Maison. He just knew he needed to get there. He needed to get to Tamryn. Before he did anything else, he needed to explain to her why he’d deliberately kept the diary from her.
But he’d done that already. There wasn’t much more he could add to the reasons he’d given her before she stormed out of his family’s library.
He’d kept the thing she’d spent years searching for from her to save his own ass, even though he knew how much it meant to her. Maybe if he’d asked her to keep the other stories hidden within the pages of the diary a secret, she would have honored his request. He hadn’t given her the chance.
Matt briefly shut his eyes. He was so overwhelmed with self-disgust that he could hardly stand to be around himself.
He pulled up to Belle Maison and climbed out of the car, taking the four porch steps in two strides. He knocked once before opening the door he knew Phil kept unlocked most of the day. He bounded up the stairs, but Phil’s yell stopped him halfway to the top.
“Hey, where are you going?” she called from the base of the stairs. She had a dish towel slung over her shoulder and a juice glass in her hand.
“I need to talk to Tamryn,” he said.
“She isn’t here,” she replied.
Her words sucked all the wind from his sails. Matt trudged down the stairs and stopped in front of Phil. “Where is she?”
“I’m not sure I should say anything. It would be bad business practice.”
He eyed her. “Don’t do that to me, Phil. I need to know where she is.”
“She went to Boston.”
Matt’s chest felt as if it was caving in. “Boston?” he choked out.
“About an hour ago. She left most of her things, so she’ll be back.”
“Did she say how long she would be gone?”
She shook her head. “Sorry.”
Matt dragged both hands down his face.
“You messed up, didn’t you?” Phil asked.
“More than I’ve ever messed up before,” he admitted.
“Well, you probably have a few days to figure out a way to make up for it. I suggest you start working on it right now.” She patted him on the arm and headed toward the back of the Victorian, where the kitchen was located.
Having no reason to linger at Belle Maison, Matt got into his car and started back toward his house.
He took the scenic route home, driving through downtown Gauthier, past Heritage Park and his law firm.
As he meandered through the residential neighborhood south of Main Street, he thought about all the chances he’d had to tell Tamryn about the diary.
He should have trusted her with the information.
But he’d chosen to lie instead. Even though he knew how much it would hurt her. Even though he knew how much that diary had meant to her. He’d deliberately kept it from her. He felt like the world’s worst bastard.
The deception reminded him too much of his father. So much that Matt could feel the nausea building in his belly.
The thought of being no better than Leroy Gauthier was enough to suffocate him. He would give anything not to turn out like the man who’d fathered him.
Even if it meant giving up his shot at state senate.
A sharp ache pierced his chest, but Matt did his best to ignore it.
If that was the price he had to pay for the sins he’d committed against this town, against the woman he’d grown to love, then he would pay it. It was only fair after what he’d done.
Tamryn stopped just before the thick wooden doors that led to the History Department’s suite of offices in McNamara Hall on the small, elegant campus of Brimley College. She pulled in a deep breath, trying to get her chaotic emotions under control.
She wasn’t even sure what she should be feeling right now: anger, fear, disappointment? They were all swirling around in her gut.
When Victoria called to tell her about rumors she’d heard circulating around campus, it had put Tamryn on edge.
But ever since reading the email Reid had sent late last night, letting her know that her position at Brimley was being vacated, Tamryn’s emotions had run the gamut.
The fact that the bastard hadn’t had the courtesy to call her to tell her she was being let go had spurred her strongest feeling. Rage.
There was a special meeting today between several members of the Board of Regents, the dean, and the History Department chair.
She had not been invited, but Tamryn refused to go down without a fight, especially now that she had the proof she needed to complete the book about Adeline West. But before she met with Brimley’s powers that be, she and Reid had business they needed to settle.
After another deep, calming, mind-clearing breath, Tamryn walked through the History Department’s double doors.
She was greeted by the receptionist, Lydia, who waved to her while she spoke directions to McNamara Hall into the phone.
For a moment, Tamryn wondered if she was giving directions to whomever had been hired to replace her.
Tamryn bypassed her office—which she vowed would remain her office—and headed down the hallway to the room at the very end of the suite. It was the office that every professor aspired to one day occupy. The fact that Reid Hayes now occupied it made Tamryn’s lip curl in distaste.
She applauded herself for knocking like a civilized human being when she got to the door, when what she really wanted to do was tear into the office and run her fingernails down his face.
Reid’s laconic voice called for her to enter.
When she did, he looked up and a sarcastic smile surfaced on his lips.
“A simple reply to my email would have sufficed, Tamryn. You didn’t have to fly all the way here just to say goodbye.”
“If you think I’m giving up my job without a fight, you must be out of your mind. I know why you’re doing this,” she said.
“Hmm…” He leaned back in his chair and tapped his ink pen against his lips. “Could it be because your classes barely hit the minimum number of students required to maintain eligibility, or is it because you’ve spent years doing research that’s led to nowhere?”
“You mean after the year I spent conducting your research without getting any credit for it?”
“We never discussed your being coauthor,” he said. “You’re the one who made assumptions you shouldn’t have made.”
“You are such a bastard.”
He stretched his hands out. “And look what being a bastard got me. Not bad.”
Tamryn stared at the man she’d spent nearly two years of her life with. The thought of sleeping with him made her stomach turn. The thought of working with him in any capacity whatsoever sickened her even more. Why was she fighting for a job that would put her in close proximity to this asshole?
She thought about Ezekiel Marsh and how enthusiastic he was about her research. She knew she had a job waiting for her in Louisiana if she wanted one. And if Zeke wasn’t ready to hire her just yet, she could take the time off to finally finish her grandmother’s book.
She didn’t need Brimley, and she sure as hell didn’t need to grovel at Reid’s feet. The diary tucked away in the drawer of the chest back at Belle Maison had opened up a whole new world for her.
“You know what, Reid? I flew to Boston to fight for my job, but you just reminded me of why I would be crazy to come back here. I don’t need this. Now that I have proof that Adeline West started the first school for slave children—”
“Proof?” Reid cut her off, sitting up straight in his chair.
“Yes,” Tamryn said, unable to stop the smug smile that drew across her face. “Remember that diary that you told me was just an old family legend? I have it. I’ve touched it. And I’ve read everything that Nicolette Fortier Gauthier wrote regarding the school that she and Adeline West started.
“I don’t need you, Reid. And despite what you think, I never did.
I am an amazing teacher who comes from a long line of amazing teachers.
However, to show that there are no hard feelings, when my book is published and I’m on the speaker circuit, I’ll give Brimley a nice discount when you bring me in to give a lecture on my book. ”
Tamryn gave him a saccharine smile and walked out of the office.
She stopped at Lydia’s desk on her way out of the suite of offices. The receptionist looked at her with pity in her eyes.
“Hello, Dr. West. I’m sorry,” she said.
“I’m not,” Tamryn said. The realization that she wasn’t sorry, that she was, in fact, ecstatic, caused a huge smile to break out across her face.
“I don’t have much in my office. Can you see that my things are boxed up and delivered to my condo?
I need to get back down to Louisiana and just don’t have time to waste clearing things out at Brimley. ”
“I will,” Lydia said with a hint of awe in her voice. “You look amazing, Dr. West. Happy.”
“I am,” Tamryn said. “I can’t remember when I’ve been happier.” She smiled again. “I’ll make sure I stop back in a couple of weeks when I return to pack up my condo.”
“You’re leaving Boston altogether?”
Tamryn nodded.
“But I thought they just made the decision to let you go yesterday,” Lydia said.
“Yeah, but I think I made the decision to let them go a while ago. I just hadn’t realized it.”
Tamryn gave Lydia a little goodbye wave and walked out of the History Department, feeling freer than she had in her entire life.
Matt stood against the wall of the back room of Morning Star Baptist Church’s fellowship hall in Maplesville, his eyes closed, his heart beating like a drum against the walls of his chest. He was resolved in what he had to do, but it still made him ill.
He would give anything not to give up his run for state senate, but he was done with the deceit.
Not just his own, but of the entire Gauthier family.
It was time for people to learn the truth.