Chapter 22
CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO
It was a shock to learn that Maggie had been fired. Colin must have had little doubt that Maggie had done what we’d feared. It was surprising that Grant hadn’t given me this bit of information the night before.
When he saw me approaching his desk, he stood up and stuck his hand out to shake mine. I slowly and suspiciously shook his hand.
“Hiya, friend,” he said.
I laughed.
“Grant, why didn’t you tell me Maggie’s gone?”
“I didn’t know. I left early yesterday to get to you, and apparently the security team came over with Colin and escorted her out at the end of the day. I found out this morning when I came in.”
“Wow. Well, congrats, I guess. You cracked the case, though not the one you were trying to solve,” I said.
He frowned. “I don’t like this one bit. Come on. Maggie? Maggie’s incredible. There’s no way she acted alone. There has to be more to it.” He sat on the edge of my desk while I logged in.
“Now what? You’re going to clear her name?” I laughed.
“I’m convinced that guy, Landon, made her do it.”
I winced. “I forgot to tell you,” I said in a whisper. He drew in closer. “Landon is Colin’s brother. He’s Landon Gordon, and Maggie showed up at the wedding on his arm.”
His eyes widened, and guilt gnawed at me that I hadn’t shared this earlier.
“But would Landon ruin his father’s company?” he asked himself.
“There doesn’t seem to be much brotherly love. And Charles Gordon spoke with Colin for all of five minutes on a boat the entire weekend. Let’s just say that I wouldn’t be shocked if Landon is behind this and can somehow exonerate your Maggie.”
“My Maggie. If she were mine, she wouldn’t be in this mess,” he said, looking off toward the elevators.
I cocked my head to the side. Could it be that the one Grant has had a crush on this whole time is Maggie?
“Well, leave me out of it,” I said, before getting dragged into even more office drama. “I simply want to do my job and go home.”
“We have a meeting in an hour. Up in the conference room. Led by Colin.” He raised an eyebrow as if waiting for my reaction.
I had logged into my email and was now seeing the meeting invite myself.
“Well, I guess I should catch up. If you don’t mind…” I pushed him off my desk and shooed him away with my hand.
Grant left for lunch, and I took a few quick notes on new accounts and developments on existing accounts that needed to be looked at, blocking everything but what I was being paid for from my mind.
When it was time to go up to the meeting, Grant and I walked up together. By the time we walked into the conference room, I’d convinced myself I was fine. Normal. Centered. A woman immune to blue-eyed executives with devastating cheekbones.
I saw Kaitlin by the door, and I remembered what she’d been through with Kirkman.
“Hi,” I said as I walked toward her with a genuine smile. She blinked a couple of times and replied with half a smile.
Grant kept his head down until he sat next to me, where he began fidgeting with his pen and looked toward the front of the room, away from Kaitlin. We exchanged greetings with people from other departments as they arrived, and I resolved to stay in the moment. Focused.
Then I heard his voice outside the door.
The words weren’t intelligible because everyone around me was talking, but it was unmistakably Colin’s voice.
My heart rate shot up. My hands were clammy and almost as if they were not my own. I grabbed one hand with the other in an attempt to make them feel normal. My vision seemed to narrow, and I was sure I’d have to excuse myself.
Until he walked in.
Colin strode into the room as if he owned the place (which wasn’t too far off the mark). His suit looked painted on. His expression was inscrutable.
He looked around the room as he said, “Good afternoon. I’m sure you’ve all heard the sad news that Margaret Flame has left us.” When his eyes landed on me, there was an almost imperceptible slowing down of his voice before he continued on, his attention divided equally among all of us in the room.
My tunnel vision and strange sensations had disappeared when he walked in, but now my heart pounded like a jackhammer in my chest every time his blue eyes looked my way.
“And so, I will decide on the new department director in the coming weeks,” he said, ever the professional, but this time it didn’t come off as effortless. His voice was steady, his expression calm, yet there was a sense of restraint in his demeanor. “We can start with the department updates now.”
He motioned to the man on his right, who began an unnecessarily long explanation of rising costs. Colin, however, seemed absorbed with every word, not once breaking his attention from the man speaking.
I know because I watched him the entire time. He was so good-looking it hurt. To think that I’d had those hands all over me. Inside me!
I started to get hot.
I moved to take off my cardigan, not wanting sweat stains to show through my clothes when it was my turn to speak.
Maybe I should have Grant do the entire thing.
No sooner had I pulled my arm out of the second sleeve (a tad rougher than I should have), than the cardigan whipped from my hand out to my neighbor’s open cup of coffee.
The problem wasn’t merely a small spill of coffee.
It was the ensuing chaos. In my frantic reach for the cup as it was about to spill, I hit Grant’s water bottle with my hand.
Unfortunately, it did not have the cap on, and the water bottle made almost a full spin across the table before it stopped and continued shedding its contents.
Of course, I hadn’t saved the coffee, and it landed all the way across the table and onto a woman from another department’s papers.
Several people shot up to avoid getting wet, and a few even shrieked.
After my rescue attempt with the coffee, I froze, my hand suspended in midair, as I watched the rest of the scene unfold.
I wanted to crawl under the table and die, but in under two seconds, Kaitlin was throwing paper towels all over the table. I didn’t dare glance over at Colin until Kaitlin handed some to him, and I was compelled to look.
It seemed the water had reached him. He was taking off his suit jacket, dabbing it with paper towels. Some of the others were drying themselves off. To make matters worse, I didn’t have a drop on me. Grant was still sitting, snickering next to me.
“I’m so sorry, everyone,” I said, my mortification on full display.
“I believe,” Colin said, “this means Katelynn is volunteering to go next.” He’d hung his jacket over the back of his chair and took his seat again.
I was flustered and speechless, but took a deep breath and began to speak from memory, drawing on everything I’d written in my notes. As I was wrapping up, I looked at my notes to see if I’d missed anything, which I hadn’t.
I’d avoided looking at Colin the entire time, but as I finished, I made the fatal mistake of doing exactly that.
His gaze didn’t waver, his eyes bore into me, and I exploded into a thousand pieces inside.
It took everything in me not to knock down every article on that table, crawl over to him, and offer him my body.
“That’s everything for now from me,” I said, reminding myself forcibly that Colin and I were over forever. “Maybe Grant has something to add.” I looked over at Grant and his usual smug smile.
“No thanks, Kate. You’ve covered everything,” he said. He patted my back when I sat down.
A few more people presented their department updates, but I didn’t absorb a thing they said.
I kept replaying the water/coffee spillage, Colin taking off his suit jacket, and then our protracted stare into each other’s eyes in front of everyone in that conference room.
Every time I remembered it, my face warmed up, and my stomach did somersaults.
As Colin thanked us all for attending, I gathered my notes, shot Grant a wide-eyed threatening look, and stood up as soon as the first person did.
Grant followed my lead, and we were out of the conference room in seconds.
I was breathing out a sigh of relief and about to disparage Grant for laughing at my misfortune in there when Kaitlin caught up with us.
“Kate,” she started, offering me an envelope. “Mr. Slade asked me to give this to you.” There wasn’t the usual haughtiness that I’d come to expect from her.
I accepted the envelope. “Thanks. And thank you for helping so quickly with the paper towels!”
She gave me a quick smile, looked at Grant, and rolled her eyes before walking away.
“Are you two going to gang up on me now?” he asked.
“Probably,” I said. I played with the envelope in my hands as we waited for the elevator.
“Are you going to open that? The suspense is killing me. What if it’s a restraining order? Or a marriage proposal?” He pressed the elevator button again and stared at the envelope.
“You know what? You go on ahead. I’ll meet you there,” I said, walking away from him.
I stepped into the stairwell. It was empty and quiet, and the sound of the door closing behind me reverberated over the many floors beneath and above me. I sat down on the bottom step and took out the hand-written letter.
The words jumped at me (the neat handwriting was a surprise since I’d never seen it before), but the first thing I looked for was the confirmation at the bottom of the page that said his name, “Colin.”
I began reading it, my throat constricting as I read along and imagined his voice—the tone he used when we were all alone—saying the words to me.
Katelynn,
I’m writing this quickly before the meeting because I saw you logged in to your work computer. I’ve been worried about you, but Grant assured me you were well and with your mother. I’m sorry you deemed it necessary to block my calls.
I’m sorry about a lot of things, but my biggest regret is in pushing you away when I should have held you closer. It is because of this that you had to suffer so much that evening, and when I think of what could have happened, I’m afraid of what I would have done if I had Blake within my reach.
Thankfully, the police found him that night and took him in for drunk driving. I asked them to hold him longer until I could come back to my office and do more digging.
I was able to trace the faxes from Kirkman in our offices to Blake, thanks to you and Grant. I have reason to believe Landon and Maggie were also involved, though I can’t yet prove it.
As this all continues to unfold, my father wishes to deal with Maggie and Landon in his own way, but I doubt they’ll stay out of the news for long. I’m afraid even you may eventually be called upon to testify, and for that I’m sorry as well.
I hope one day you can think of me in a better light than you do now.
Colin
I raced down the stairs to my floor and snuck into the bathroom. The mirror showed that my tears had not caused my mascara to run down my face.
I hadn’t decided yet on whether to speak to Colin and ask him why he’d asked Grant if he was in love with me. Why had that mattered to him? But this letter made it all even more confusing.
There were apologies and regrets in there… concern for my welfare… warnings… but nothing more. Sure, he felt bad that I’d almost been assaulted in his house, so of course, he was experiencing some guilt.
He’d wanted to check on me after I left the island, and I’d had my phone off. Should I correct him and tell him I wasn’t specifically blocking his calls?
What was the point?
My heart sank as I realized the truth.
I’d fallen in love with Colin. Seeing him and sensing the distance between us, but knowing how it could be, solidified it. But it was cruelly one-sided.
The fact was that I’d been wined and dined as part of the investigation, and the only thing he felt now was guilt.
Suddenly I had a double pang of remorse for Kaitlin because I knew she’d liked Grant, and we’d used her. Just like I’d been used.
I couldn’t even look at myself in the mirror anymore. I turned around and walked back to my desk, folding the letter and throwing it into my bottom desk drawer as if it were dangerous.
Grant tried to get me to divulge more information about the weekend in Brightwater, but I told him I had to focus on my work.
And that’s what I did. For the next few weeks, I lived to service my accounts and follow up on any leads. I was able to rescue some of the stolen accounts and bring them back to the agency.
I was working more hours and taking fewer breaks. Meetings on weekends prevented me from visiting my mom. A few meetings I set up on my own, but whenever I needed a wingman, Grant came along to keep the expected social atmosphere going.
One Wednesday afternoon, I hung up the phone and smiled to myself.
“Grant,” I said without turning around. “What are the chances you can come with me to Chicago tonight?”
“Tonight? What are you talking about?” he asked.
We faced each other.
“I have the Sheldon & Bing Group ready to meet us again tomorrow at 8 AM at their offices in Chicago. It’s the only option they gave me, Grant, and I had to take it.”
“K, I can’t. Not tonight.” He looked down and slid his pen from one hand to the other. “I have a date.”
“Really?” I was intrigued and happy. “Who’s giving you the time of day?”
He looked around the room, stood up, sat down, stood up again, and then sat back down.
“Grant, what the hell?” I said, waving my arms around. “If you’re going to tell me something, just do it. Is it Kaitlin? You know, she’s really not as annoying as we thought. She’s been so helpful in getting me all of my reimbursements lately for the lunches and dinners.”
He shook his head and looked down again at the pen he clicked over and over.
I took the stupid pen from his hand and threatened to stab him with it.
He looked up at me with one eye closed and said, “It’s Maggie.”
Of all the answers in the universe, that was the one I least expected.