Chapter 16
Garrett came home twenty-three minutes later, fast enough that he must have left the office as soon as Dennis released him. The garage door rose beneath the kitchen, followed by the abrupt thud of his car door and the heavier sound of the interior door striking the rubber stop.
Claire remained at the dining table with Nolan’s proposal open between them. She had moved Owen into the activity gym, where he lay on his back batting at the blue ring with such concentration that every successful strike startled him.
Garrett entered without taking off his jacket. His face was flushed along the cheekbones, and his phone remained clenched in one hand as though the conversation he had left at Halcyon might continue through it.
“Dennis sent me home,” he said. He looked at Miranda first, then at Claire, then at the papers spread across the table. “He said HR wants everyone to stop discussing the meeting until they review what happened.”
Miranda rested one hand on the proposal. “What happened after I left?”
“Willa said Lauren misunderstood what she heard about the consultant role. Dennis said the title was only one option and no decision had been final before this morning.” Garrett dropped his keys beside the legal pad and pulled out a chair.
“They both claim the meeting was supposed to start a conversation, not present you with a finished position.”
Claire looked at the printed role description lying near Miranda’s elbow. “They brought salary terms and a signature page to a conversation.”
“I know.” Garrett rubbed one hand over his mouth, exhaustion interrupting the certainty he usually carried into explanations. “That is why Dennis ended the discussion. Paula told him to stop talking.”
The account contained no revelation, only the first retreat of people who had expected Miranda to accept what they placed in front of her. She looked down at Nolan’s letter rather than ask Garrett which parts he believed.
“I found something in the mail Lauren gave me,” she said.
Garrett’s attention moved to the cream envelope. “What?”
“A consulting proposal.”
He reached for the first page, then stopped before touching it. “From who?”
“Nolan Sanders.”
The name produced no recognition. Garrett looked toward Claire as though she might provide context, then back at Miranda.
“Who is Nolan Sanders?”
“He was the marketing director at Bellmont Hospitality. I managed the expansion campaign when Halcyon had the account.”
Garrett sat slowly. “The hotel group.”
“Yes.”
“You mentioned someone leaving Bellmont last year. Was that him?”
Miranda nodded. The memory meant little beyond proving Garrett had once listened while she discussed work, though he had filed the name beneath a company rather than a person.
She slid the proposal across the table. “He started his own consultancy. He wants me to lead strategy on a regional launch.”
Garrett read the first page in silence. His eyes stopped at the fee, then returned to the project dates and scope.
“When did this arrive?”
“Six weeks ago. It was sitting in my accumulated mail.”
“And no one forwarded it.”
“No.”
His expression tightened with anger that required no interpretation. “That is unbelievable.”
“He also emailed my Halcyon address twice.”
Garrett looked up. “Did the emails bounce?”
“I can’t find them.”
“Maybe they were caught by the filter.”
“Maybe.”
The possibility remained neutral until Miranda decided what to do with it. She did not mention Nolan’s account of Willa answering from the old thread yet. The information belonged in the attorney’s file before it became another fact Garrett divided into innocent and suspicious parts.
He returned to the proposal. “Thirty-two thousand for four months.”
Miranda set down her coffee. “Sixteen weeks.”
“That is four months.”
“I know.”
Garrett turned to the second page, his jacket still on, one thumb pressed against the margin as he read. “Two overnight trips, weekly client sessions, three market launches. This is a lot of work.”
“It is.”
He closed the proposal without replacing it in the envelope. “You would need childcare.”
“We would need childcare.”
The questions came in the order Miranda expected. Garrett registered the amount, then the demands, then the effect on the household. He had not yet asked whether she wanted the project or whether it was good.
Claire rose and lifted Owen from the rug. “I’m going to change him before he destroys the romper. I’ll be upstairs.”
Garrett watched her leave, aware that the privacy was deliberate. When her footsteps faded, he set the proposal down with both hands resting on either side of it.
Garrett turned the proposal over and set it face-down on the table. “You’re considering this.”
“I am.”
He left the proposal where it was. “While you’re still employed at Halcyon.”
“I’m having the agreement reviewed this afternoon.”
The flush along his cheekbones deepened. His eyebrows drew together. “You already called an attorney.”
“Yes.”
Owen’s voice rose briefly from upstairs, then settled. Garrett’s phone screen lit against the table between them and went dark.
“When?”
“After the meeting.”
Garrett leaned back, his jacket creasing against the chair. “You made a lot of decisions in two hours.”
“I made one phone call and scheduled a consultation,” Miranda said, her voice flat as she watched his face.
Garrett’s eyes narrowed slightly. “You also called this man.”
“Nolan.” She watched his reaction to the name, the way his gaze dropped to the letterhead.
He picked up the proposal, his thumb pressing into the paper. “You called Nolan,” he repeated, the words measured.
“He had been waiting six weeks for an answer.” She could still hear the patient surprise in Nolan’s voice when she’d finally reached him.
Garrett set the pages down without looking at her. “And the offer is still open.”
“Yes.” The word hung between them, simple and absolute.
The fact unsettled him, though not because Nolan was a man he knew enough to distrust. What disturbed Garrett was that Nolan had waited for her and the speed with which Miranda’s professional life had begun moving without him.
He had come home prepared to explain Halcyon, perhaps to help decide what she should do next, and found an alternative already sitting on the table.
“What did you tell him?” he asked.
“That I needed a week to review the terms.”
“You did not say yes.”
“No.”
Garrett nodded, but relief appeared too clearly for the gesture to seem neutral. “Good. We should think about it.”
Miranda looked at him. “I will think about it.”
His mouth tightened. “That is what I meant.”
“No it isn’t.”
“We are married, Miranda. A four-month consulting contract with travel and no benefits affects both of us.” He said it the way he said most things he believed were reasonable—evenly, with the slight forward lean that meant he expected her to follow him there.
“So did my job being dismantled.”
“I know that.”
“You knew yesterday that Willa had my title and my accounts. You still wanted me to wait, calm down, and hear everyone’s explanation.” She did not raise her voice. There was no need to.
“This is different.”
“How?”
“Because now you are talking about leaving stable employment for a short-term contract while our finances are already tighter.” Garrett tapped one finger against the fee page. “Thirty-two thousand sounds like a lot until you subtract taxes, insurance, travel, and childcare.”
“Nolan’s company covers travel.”
Garrett’s jaw shifted. He looked at the proposal rather than at her, his finger tracing the margin of the fee page without reading it.
“We would still need someone with Owen.”
“We already need childcare if I return to Halcyon.”
He set the proposal down and straightened it against the table’s edge, aligning it with a precision that had nothing to do with the paper. “That was part of a plan we had months to prepare for.”
Miranda looked at the side of his face. He did not look back. “The plan in which my job was waiting.”
The correction landed, but not deeply enough to stop him from continuing. “I am not defending Halcyon,” he said. “I am saying you should not build your next move around proving you do not need them.”
“This offer existed before I knew I had anything to prove.”
“You did not know about it.”
“That does not change why Nolan sent it.”
Garrett exhaled and opened the proposal again. “Why you?”
The question was not insulting in itself. His tone made it one.
Miranda watched him scan the letter for the answer he had overlooked. “Because he liked my work.”
“I can read that.”
“Then why are you asking?”
“Because he could contract through Halcyon. He says that himself.” Garrett tapped the paragraph with one finger. “Why does he prefer working with you independently?”
“Because Dennis would assign Willa.”
The answer came more sharply than Miranda intended. Garrett’s expression changed at the name, defensive habit rising before he had considered the logic.
“You do not know that.”
“Nolan spoke with her after she answered his email. He did not want her.”
Garrett went still. “She answered him?”
Miranda nodded. “She told him I had stepped away from client work indefinitely and offered to discuss the project herself.”
For several seconds, Garrett said nothing. This was the first time he had heard it, and Miranda watched the information move through him without supplying an interpretation.
“When did he tell you that?” he asked.
“On the phone.”
“And you did not mention it when I came in.”
“You were telling me what Dennis and Willa claimed. I wanted to hear it before adding another explanation for you to assess.”
His face hardened. “That is unfair.”
“It is accurate.”
“No. You withheld something because you had already decided how I would react.”
“I watched how you reacted to everything else.”
Garrett looked down at the letter again. Anger had entered his face, but Miranda could not tell where it was directed. He seemed offended by Willa’s interference, by Nolan’s refusal to work with her, and by Miranda’s assumption that he would still search for fairness.