79. Chapter 79
Graham,
Don’t be mad.
I have to go back to Austin. If I don’t, I’m going to lose my job. I know I won’t need my job once we have the money—if we ever get it—but I love what I do. And I love you. I don’t want to have to choose.
I’ll be back tonight, and we’ll talk. I’m sorry and I love you. Always.
Helen.
“She’s gone,” Graham repeated.
Lindsey and Jase pedaled across the pond and met him on the bank. Graham pulled her out of the boat with less finesse than when he’d helped her into it.
“Hold on,” Lindsey said after reading the letter in Helen’s handwriting. “She’s coming back.”
“Was she here this morning?” Graham asked.
“I…” Lindsey paused. She hadn’t seen Helen but it was early. She assumed everyone was sleeping. “I don’t know.”
“Can I see that?” Jase asked, stepping up beside her. Lindsey handed him the letter and the beautiful mouth she wished she was still kissing fell open as he read.
“She’ll be back. Everyone just relax,” she said.
“I can’t believe she left this way,” Graham said. “Leaves me a note and turns off her phone.”
“Graham, you’re focusing on all the wrong things here. She didn’t leave you,” Lindsey said. “She made a choice that’s best for her, and she’s coming back tonight.”
“Best for her? We’re supposed to be partners, aren’t we? We’re engaged. Isn’t this something we should’ve decided together?”
“Probably,” Lindsey admitted. “Unless she thought you wouldn’t let her go.”
“Let her go? As if I could keep her here.”
“What if something happens and she can’t get back?” Jase looked up from the letter. “What the hell is she thinking?”
“It’s her career. Her passion,” Lindsey argued.
“You know what I’m passionate about?” Graham asked. “I’m passionate about that woman who still, after all this time, thought it was fine to pick up and leave without telling me.”
“She did tell you,” Lindsey interjected.
“And I’m passionate about our inheritance, which she decided was worth risking for a job.”
“If you worked somewhere other than insurance, you might understand,” Lindsey said, despite not knowing the first thing about passionate work herself. “She did what she needed to do.”
Graham’s eyes narrowed on her. “You knew about this, didn’t you?”
“I didn’t know she was leaving,” Lindsey said.
“You’re kidding me,” Graham moaned. “She tells you, her new best friend, and not me.”
“I knew she was going to lose her job, and she was trying to decide how to tell you. That’s it.”
Graham plucked the letter from Jase’s hands. “And this is what she decided? It’s a cop-out. It doesn’t even give me a choice.”
“What kind of choice do you think you have here? You don’t get to tell her to leave her job just because you’re going to be a millionaire.”
“Were. We were going to be millionaires,“ Jase corrected. “Now we’re going to be homeless, broke fucks in three days, and to top it off, I might have a baby on the way.”
“I forgot about the baby,” Lindsey muttered.
“Well, that makes one of us,” Jase said.
“I wouldn’t have told her to leave her job,” Graham said. He shook his head, squinting into the sun that had completely crested the horizon. “I just wanted to be part of the conversation. I would’ve driven her to the airport. I would’ve…”
“I’m sorry, Graham.” Lindsey reached out to touch him, and he threw up his hands.
“It’s the same as last time,” he said. “She made the decision for both of us then too, no matter how she wants to frame it. She’s the one saying she wants to be better this time, and what does she do?
She makes another decision about our future without me, and here I sit—the idiot who thought things would be different. ”
He shook his head and turned back to the house.
“It’s over,” Graham said. “This whole thing.”
“Where are you going?” Lindsey demanded.
“To start packing.”
“Might as well,” Jase said, trailing after his brother.
Might as well.
It’s over.
This whole thing.
It’s all—
“Stop!”
She didn’t mean to scream.
With their shoulders up around their ears, Jase and Graham stopped their trek to the house and turned to Lindsey.
“I’m so sick of trying to hold this shit-show together,” she said. “What’s the worst that’s going to happen, Graham? If Helen doesn’t get back in time and you lose the money, you still get the girl if you’re not too stupid to throw it away a second time.”
“I didn’t—”
“Shut up,” she snapped, throwing up a hand and focusing her fury on Jase. “And you. Just where do you think you’re going? You think you’re running away from this too?”
“Lindsey, without the money, I have nothing.”
“Oh, bullshit. That’s the cop-out. Your worst-case scenario is you’re a new dad with no money—and that’s if this kid is even yours. It sucks, but it’s survivable. It isn’t something you’re going to outrun on your bike. Your dad taught you better than that.”
“I’m not my father. We’ve been over this.”
“Clearly you’ve forgotten where I stand.”
“I have nothing to give a baby. Without the money, I have nothing to give anyone.”
“Keep telling yourself that, and I’m still standing here without a dime in my pocket, swinging from one idiot brother to the next, neither one of you smart enough to see how lucky you both are—with or without the money—because your ego is bruised”—she pointed at Graham—“and you’re scared to death,” she said to Jase.
“Yeah, I am scared. My life just got thrown on its head again and I can’t do anything about it,” Jase shot back.
“Nothing has changed. Not yet.”
“It has for me,” Graham said.
“Graham,” Lindsey groaned. “Have you heard anything I’ve said?”
“Okay, so, you’re right.” Jase shrugged. “We don’t deserve the money or either of you.”
It wasn’t as much what he said—though it was irritating—as the arrogant, off-the-cuff way he said it, and the twitch in his cheek as if he’d finally found his way out, and it was enough to snap the last vestige of control she had over the blind rage that started welling up when the two idiots tried skulking off to pack.
She stormed up to Jase, who stumbled back a step, and shoved a finger into his chest.
“You don’t get to do that. Not today,” she seethed.
“Last night you chose me, and I think that scares you more than losing three million dollars. Good. You know what’s terrifying?
Falling for some idiot who could disappear the second I look the other way.
Well, not this time. You don’t get to run away, no matter what happens with Helen. ”
He swallowed hard and she took her finger out of the dent she made in his chest.
“Don’t you dare.” Lindsey stepped back to look at both of the Young brothers before pushing between them. “I’m going to go clear my head.”
“Lindsey,” Jase called out.
“You’d both better be here when I get back,” she said over her shoulder, then continued to mutter obscenities under her breath until she exploded into the too-quiet house and slammed the front door behind her.
It’s over.
This whole thing.
Not if she could help it.
Not today.