Chapter 35 Everything Else In Motion
EVERYTHING ELSE IN MOTION
“Ihave to ask,” Ethan overheard near the end of the week. “Are you any relation to Norris?”
He froze mid-motion, his head lifting toward the adjoining office. It was Carolyn, Mason’s assistant, who rarely spoke up, which made the question all the more startling.
“I am,” Nora said simply.
Ethan let out a breath he hadn’t realized he’d been holding, the tension draining from his neck and shoulders. So, it was finally out. The truth he’d been waiting to surface, the one thing that would set everything else in motion.
He hated to admit it, but he’d been close to letting the rumor slip himself just to get it over with. Pathetic, maybe, but the waiting had gnawed at him.
Especially after the weekend they’d spent on the island.
That spark he’d seen in her the night of the casino. Confident, teasing, real. It had been there again. And for the first time, he’d let himself believe it wasn’t an act.
He didn’t doubt her heart, not anymore. Not for a long time. But the fear still crept in when things didn’t move as quickly as he hoped.
“You’re his daughter, aren’t you?” Carolyn asked.
“I am.”
“I don’t know why I didn’t put it together before. I’ve heard the name Eleanor, but it was a long time ago. Then there have been whispers and I thought I’d just ask myself. I don’t like rumors or learning from other people.”
He grinned. That was more like it from Mason. Carolyn could have asked her boss, but wouldn’t. She wouldn’t want to get in the middle of it that way.
“It’s not something that I wanted out there right away. My father didn’t get me this job.”
Carolyn laughed. “Anyone who knows your father wouldn’t think that. Anyway, that was all. I enjoy working with you. Maybe I would have judged you unfairly if I’d known beforehand. Not sure if that eases your mind in any way, but it’s not meant to be mean.”
“Thinking I was like my father in personality?” she asked.
He heard the humor in Nora’s voice. “Yes. But you’re not.”
Carolyn walked away and he went back to work wondering if Nora would say anything to him. It’d look desperate if he got up and popped his head in.
But she didn’t. Or couldn’t because he heard her on the phone after talking to someone, then get up and leave. On the way back twenty minutes later, she leaned into his office. “You heard,” she said, smiling.
“I did. Though I doubt much will come of it. Carolyn is the last person to tell anyone else.”
“I thought that too,” she said. “But it’s out there. I just let my father know on my way back here. I told him I would. The fact that someone might have seen that could help it along.”
Which said she was ready for that to happen too.
“You know I’m here if you need me.”
They were watching their words like they normally did. She wouldn’t have said what she was if there was anyone close by, but many worked with their doors open. Sounds and voices could carry.
She went back to her desk to work.
There was a time in the past he wanted to know what she was doing or thinking over there. Early on.
Now they were two people putting separate parts of their relationship to work.
They flowed and fell into an easy rhythm. He missed Blair, but less each day. There was guilt over that too.
She was still working on projects, still looping Nora in on things, still talking to her weekly.
But their communication was more professional and less friendly. Blair was moving on with her life, he was with his.
Nora was the person he was coming to rely on. The one he went to first. The one he thought of first when it came to work.
Somehow that transition happened smoother than the one where he fell in love.
He just didn’t realize it until now.
Two hours later, his door was shut while he was on a call. He was reading emails while he half listened to a project update. He didn’t always have the time for these calls, but tried to make an appearance.
When he heard voices in the hall, he silenced the call he’d been on mute with to see what was going on.
Nora’s voice wasn’t the one he’d heard first. This was louder, more annoyance than anything.
“Sorry I’m late with these. It took longer than I thought to print them all. I’m not sure why I couldn’t just send them electronically.”
He didn’t recognize the voice behind the door other than the person didn’t seem happy.
“Thank you, Heather. I would have had to print them myself if you had sent it electronically and the file doesn’t come in formatted properly for my printer. I don’t have access to go in and change it either.”
He heard what sounded like papers being dropped on the table next to the wall separating their offices.
“Whatever,” Heather said. “So... there’s been talk for the past few weeks that you might be Norris’s daughter and that is why you’re walking around with a chip on your shoulder. Is it true?”
Jesus. Talk about blunt.
That was the woman who gave Nora a hard time before.
He stood up ready to intervene, not caring if Nora got pissed off or not.
Before he got to the door he heard another voice.
“Whether or not she is my daughter gives you no right to talk to someone that way. Least of all the assistant to an executive.”
Damn. That was Norris.
He opened his door and saw Norris standing there, but couldn’t see Nora or Heather, who were in Nora’s office.
“I was just asking a question,” Heather said, her voice not so steady or confident now.
“It was a question with a comment attached,” Nora said.
“And actually, you didn’t ask me that question.
You asked if that was the reason I had a chip on my shoulder.
Which I can assure you I don’t. I’m professional in my job, something that many should take note of and learn from.
If you want to know if Norris is my father, he is. Right, Dad?”
Norris didn’t turn his head to look at him. “She is my daughter, which has no bearing on her job or mine. We barely interact on a business level.”
Or outside of work either, but he couldn’t say that out loud. Norris didn’t know he knew those facts.
“Got it,” Heather said. “I was only curious. I should get back to work.”
Norris stepped back and Heather fled the office fast. The door shut after and he heard the sound machine go on in Nora’s office preventing him from hearing the conversation.
As much as he wanted to go in and join her, he couldn’t. He wouldn’t.
He just had to trust she’d tell him what was said.
It wasn’t even five minutes before her door opened, and the machine was off. It was a switch that Norris must have hit on and then off when he left, not even popping his head in to say hi.
Nothing new there either.
Five minutes went by. Then ten.
He buzzed her. “I’ll be there in a minute. I just need to finish this email I was working on before everyone interrupted me. Or do you need me right now?”
“When you’re done.”
So she wasn’t ignoring him.
A few minutes later, she came in, shut the door, hit the sound machine switch and then sat across from his desk.
“Come here,” he said, holding his hand out.
She moved back to the door and locked it, then came around the desk and sat on his lap.
She was anxious. It wasn’t just the look on her face or the tone of her voice when talking to Heather. She held firm, but it was more than she’d said before.
“I just need to calm my heart down.”
“I heard it.”
“I know you did. I heard your door open and appreciated that you didn’t interfere. I wondered if Carolyn had said something to get it moving again today.”
“I highly doubt she said a word. She wouldn’t have asked you if she hadn’t been hearing it also. So there is chatter and Heather has already had words with you. She felt she could flex again because she’s done it and you don’t clap back. My door was shut, she might have thought I was out.”
“I’m not sure if it’s going to be worse or not that my father was here for it. I knew I couldn’t not say what I did or I’d get crap from him about being walked all over.”
He ran a hand slowly down her back. “You be you, Nora. Not who you think someone wants you to be.”
She sighed. “I know. I was going to say something either way but maybe not as sharp as I did. Now she’ll go around telling everyone I’m a bitch.”
He didn’t give a damn about office gossip. Never had. People talked about him too.
He could have promised to handle it, but that wasn’t what she needed from him.
“You’ll deal with it if it happens,” he said softly. “But it might not. What did your father say?”
“He was on his way to see Mason when he heard. I’m honestly surprised he stopped. I expected him to keep walking.”
“But he didn’t. He backed you up. That’s what’s really getting to you, isn’t it?”
She nodded against his chest. “He’s never done that before. I tell myself he’s not trying, then he shows me just a little that he is. That tiny stand he took wasn’t warm or comforting, but it was... something. He was there.”
“Not everyone gives love the same way.”
“I know.” Her voice cracked. “But you’re doing it now. You know I need this and it’s helping. More than you realize.”
He brushed his thumb over her shoulder. “What did he say while he was in there?”
“He told me I handled it well. That there’ll be noise for a bit, but it’ll fade. He’s going to ignore it, and he expects me to do the same. Which I would have anyway.”
“You wanted him to comfort you, though,” he said quietly.
She hesitated. “He didn’t even notice I was upset. Maybe that’s on me for not saying it. He is who he is, Ethan. I can’t make him into something he’s not. I came back here to rebuild with him, but maybe I set myself up expecting more than he can give.”
“You found me,” he said gently. “That’s got to count for something.”
She looked up, meeting his eyes. He tried to hide the flicker of uncertainty he knew was there. A fucking unnatural feeling for him when it came to women and yet it’d been riding his shadow for months.
“I’m thrilled about that,” she said, her voice just a whisper. “You’re the one part of this move that feels right. Now that everyone knows, I can stop waiting for the fallout. The next few days might be awkward, but it’ll pass.”
“And you’ll tell me if you need me again?”
“I will.”
“Then stay with me tonight,” he said, voice low. “It’s Thursday and you always do on Fridays anyway.”
“I can tomorrow and Saturday like normal,” she said, climbing off his lap. “Let’s not push our luck. Too many eyes are on us already.”
He caught her hand, tugging gently until she leaned down. Her lips brushed his, soft and lingering. Then she was gone, leaving him with the ache of wanting to hold her just a little longer.
He couldn’t sit here and stew, nor could he focus.
He got up and walked out, went down the hall to his father’s office but saw it empty.
There was no one else he could talk to.
Well, he was wrong. There was one more person.
The one person who could give him more insight than his father ever would.
Back in his office, Ethan closed the door, switched on the sound machine, and sank into the chair away from his desk. Further away so there’d be no chance Nora would hear him. He stared at his phone for a second before pressing the button.
“Hello, Ethan,” his mother answered, warmth in her voice. “You never call me during the day. Everything okay?”
He exhaled slowly. “Something happened, and I’m… frustrated with how things are going.” He filled her in on the day.
“You can’t control it the way you want to,” she said, the humor coming through. “That’s always been your problem. You get an idea in your head, decide you’re ready, and dive right in. But other people’s emotions aren’t yours to steer. You can’t drive her feelings like your own.”
It was exactly the kick in the ass he needed. “But I want it that way.”
His mother laughed. “That’s you, trying to be funny to hide the hurt.
I know you. I raised you. Don’t forget, your brothers went through the same thing.
Egan had an uphill climb with Blake. Probably more than you.
She moved here to reconnect with her father, was grieving her mother, and had to process all those lies.
Nora’s path is different. She’s got her mother’s support. A foundation. Just like you.”
“She does,” he admitted. “But I want to be that person she goes to.”
“She did, Ethan.”
“No,” he said, rubbing his temples. “I had to call her.”
She sighed, that knowing, motherly kind of sigh that cut through all his bullshit and jokes. “She was working. You know she’d have come to you when she could. Stop twisting it into something it’s not.”
He leaned back, staring at the ceiling. The fact that Nora had walked into his office earlier, climbed into his lap, and let him hold her should have told him everything he needed to know. But he couldn’t get out of his own damn way.
“I just want more,” he said quietly.
“No,” his mother replied, calm but firm. “You just want it now. You’ll get more, but it has to be on her terms. Push her, and you’ll lose her.”
He smiled faintly. “Any other woman I’ve been with didn’t move this slow. Matter of fact, they moved faster than me.”
“And none of them lasted, did they? So maybe that’s something worth remembering.”