Chapter 23
CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE
Imade several confused facial expressions, contorting my features in ways that showed I was trying to think, process, explain, justify, accept, deny… I couldn’t land on any of them.
“Excuse me?” I asked.
Grant ran a hand through his hair and grunted. “I didn’t really want to tell you like this.”
“Tell me what? You can’t be serious!”
He took a loud breath in and started, “When you told me everything about the wedding weekend, I realized that there was no way Maggie managed all that on her own. Something didn’t make sense. I tried calling her, but her phone was disconnected. So I went to her apartment. Just showed up.”
He shook his head, remembering. “She wasn’t good, Kate. I’ve never seen her like that. Completely shut down. I convinced her to shower, made her tea, and we talked for hours. And I was right. She didn’t do it out of greed.”
My arms crossed defensively. “So she did it for… what? Charity?”
“She’d started dating Landon, and it turned out that he wanted her to give Kirkman the leads and new accounts, and afterward Kirkman would fax the information on to Blake.
She did it for Landon, but she didn’t realize the information was leaving the company.
He told her he was using the accounts to help him join the Gordon Agency and have his father finally give him a chance instead of seeing him as good for only one thing—baseball.
But that was a lie, and by the time she realized it, she had to keep doing it or Landon said Kirkman would turn her in. ”
I gasped.
“That Monday she disappeared? Kirkman cornered her in the parking lot after he’d been fired.
He assumed she’d turned him in, not knowing yet that he’d been let go over Kaitlin’s accusations.
That’s probably when he dropped his keys.
She panicked and called Landon, and he hauled her off to Brightwater Island to hide out.
Later, Landon found out the real reason Kirkman was let go had nothing to do with the accounts being leaked.
He warned Kirkman never to approach Maggie again, and she decided to return home after she considered it safe enough.
But Landon and Blake wanted her to continue what they’d started. ”
“And she refused, which is what you overheard,” I murmured.
He nodded. “Their relationship, if you can call it that, had turned into them arguing all the time. She tried to end it, but he wouldn’t let her. He threatened her with telling his father what she was doing.”
I listened with healthy skepticism, but everything Grant was relaying made sense with what Grant had overheard between Maggie and Landon. It also gave a convincing justification for her disappearance.
“I guess we were right,” I said. “Maggie did disappear because of something bad. We sadly didn’t figure out what it was until much later. But Grant, how the hell did you two start dating?”
“I kept checking on her every day after work. Then I helped her with the deposition,” he said.
“Deposition? Wow, I really have disconnected from everything. Is there a trial?” I asked.
“Probably not. Kirkman and Blake left a paper trail. The lawyers will push for a settlement. Landon’s situation is harder—his father won’t press charges, and without him cooperating, the DA won’t have much.
Maggie won’t be charged; she never personally transferred accounts.
But…” He sighed. “She won’t get her job back. ”
“That must be a blow to her. And her father, who’s on the board of directors.”
“He’s never been very involved in her life, so his silence now doesn’t bother her. She’s had a few interviews, but having been fired at the same time that her boss is being charged… It doesn’t look good.”
“And you’re only there to be a shoulder to cry on?” I laughed.
“You can laugh all you want. If you would look up from that computer every once in a while, you might try to be happy too.”
“You’re happy? With Maggie? This is too weird.”
“You might be happy with Colin,” he said.
I laughed again. “A very happy, very sneaky foursome we’d be.”
“It’s not like that. We’re honest with each other. I’ve told her things I’ve never told anyone before,” he said solemnly.
I was floored.
“In that case, Grant, I hope your date tonight goes well.”
He smiled, the light returning to his eyes. “Thanks.”
“And now I get to go to Chicago alone and somehow win a massive client without you.”
He winced. “Yeah… good luck with that.”
I arrived at the airport early enough to buy a snack. I bought one of those yogurt parfaits and mixed it up as I sat in a chair by the gate. While lifting my spoon for the last bite, I stopped my hand in midair.
Approaching me was none other than Colin, sporting a pair of jeans and a white T-shirt. He had a sweater thrown coolly over one shoulder with his other arm dragging his suitcase with him. His eyes zeroed in on me, and the slightest smile played on his lips.
My spoon dropped into the plastic cup.
“No,” I said aloud.
It was impossible for him to have heard me from the distance he was still at, but my expression must have warned him of my mood. When he was but mere feet away, his smile grew, and it resembled the carefree ones of those times after we’d gotten familiar with one another.
“Hello, Kate,” his voice rumbled toward me, dissipating all other sounds in the noisy airport.
“Hi,” I said defiantly. “Why wasn’t I told you’d be here?”
“I intended to surprise you,” he said.
“You said you didn’t like surprises,” I reminded him.
“I don’t like receiving bad surprises. Am I a bad surprise?” he asked.
I looked away, seething. Was he trying to flirt with me? After all this time? He’d barely looked at me, except when I gave our department updates in the conference room, and even then, all I’d gotten from him was polite indifference.
The one deviation was after one of my stolen accounts I’d successfully retrieved for the agency. I could have sworn that his face had betrayed a look of pride at that moment, but I told myself that was impossible for someone he’d alleged to be a fake.
“I’m surprised that you would care to get on an airplane with me, seeing as you can barely even be in my presence.” I kept my eyes on the gate signage, avoiding his soft gaze.
“If I thought there was a chance you held magical powers and sought to bring down the plane, I might avoid this particular flight.”
“You’re being obtuse,” I said.
“You’re correct.” He sat down next to me.
I flashed my eyes at him. “Why are you here?”
“To do the job we were meant to do months ago,” he said.
“I could have gone on my own.”
He shook his head. “I needed you last time, but we didn’t get the chance. This is a two-person pitch. And I’m not risking it.”
“So you doubt my work, too.”
“I’ve seen nothing but greatness from you since Maggie left, which only confirms what I already suspected from your long tenure at the company. But I’m not lying when I say that this will be a two-person effort.”
His admiration for my successes shocked me. I decided then to tone down my irritation at his tagging along, and we sat in silence until the flight was called to board.
Of course, Kaitlin had booked us next to each other in first class, and when the flight attendant asked if we wanted to drink anything, he ordered a glass of champagne.
“A little early to be celebrating our victory,” I pointed out as I took a book out of my purse.
“I have a personal victory I’m celebrating,” he said cryptically.
“And what might that be?”
Colin breathed out slowly and tapped his fingers on his armrest, almost as if bracing himself for something.
“Getting over myself to tell you I’ve missed you,” he said.
My book slid from my hands and onto my lap.
“What?” I breathed the words out.
He leaned closer, his voice low enough that it was for me alone. “If I have to continue to suffer the way I’ve been suffering without you these past weeks, you can let the plane go down now.”
“Oh, don’t say that!” I said, looking around to see if anyone had heard.
His hand was instantly on mine. “I don’t want a life that doesn’t have you in it.”
My breath hitched.
“Kate,” he said softly, “you are more than a goddess of beauty. You are the reason I want to wake up and come to work every morning, the life in my bland existence. I’ve seen color now, and I can’t go back to gray and black and white.
I have no idea how I can apologize to you for how I mistrusted you—mistrusted us—for the way we began, but I can only say that I hope I can make it up to you. ”
I choked, unable to form words.
He squeezed my hand and continued, “I understand why you did things the way you did them. You have a big heart. You were worried about Maggie. You weren’t sure if you could trust me.
You didn’t know me then. I pushed you away.
And at your darkest hour. I don’t deserve you or your forgiveness.
And yet, I ask it of you. And for a second chance. ”
My head was spinning.
My heart was pounding.
My hands were shaking.
“Colin,” I managed to say. I’d had a moment to temper my first reaction. “I appreciate your apology, but I’m not sure of what to say or if I’m even thinking clearly right now.”
“I understand. It’s not what you were expecting on your flight to Chicago.”
I gave a nervous little laugh. “No, it wasn’t.”
“Think about everything I said. And consider how it would be if we were to start over, this time with truth, vulnerability, and no secrets from each other.”
“You speak so beautifully,” I whispered.
“You inspire me.”
I was amazed that this was the same man who charged into conference rooms with the command of a general. His fingers caressed mine, his eyes lingering on my lips for several seconds until he sat back and drank from his champagne glass.
I’d planned to read on the flight, but my head and heart were uncooperative. I held the book in front of me, open, but I didn’t turn the page during the entire flight.
My mind kept going over his words. He wanted a second chance for us. He wasn’t unfeeling. I hadn’t been a means to an end. He said I inspire him.
It was no use. No matter how much I tried to harden my heart to what it had been the past few weeks out of necessity for my sanity, Colin had just cracked it wide open. Everything I’d suppressed was fighting for my attention, and I was in complete inner turmoil.
Colin had been the only one to make me feel wanted, desired, cherished… until he stopped.
Tell me what to do! I shouted mentally at whatever higher being was toying with me.
We said little in the car on the way to the hotel. We checked in and walked to our rooms, which happened to be (although now I guessed why) next door to each other.
“Goodnight,” I said as I quickly pressed my keycard to the sensor and pushed at the door.
“Goodnight,” he replied.
But my door didn’t open. I tried again. Nothing. Colin took my card and tried, and still the door wouldn’t open. The light turned green, but no amount of his shoving on the door would open it.
“Here,” he said, opening his own door. “You take this room, and I’ll sort this out downstairs.”
“Are you sure?” I asked, knowing he’d be a gentleman and do as he said.
“Yes, you get some rest. We have a big morning.”
“Okay, thank you,” I said, watching him drag his suitcase back.
I walked into my room, grateful to be alone to process everything. I took out my outfit for the next morning right away and plugged in the iron, deciding every single little crease needed to be ironed away.
A few minutes later, there were various thuds and a conversation outside my door. I looked out the peephole and saw that Colin was with the hotel worker who had checked us in.
I opened the door.
“What’s wrong?” I asked.
“My door isn’t opening, and they have no other rooms. The maintenance worker won’t be here until tomorrow,” Colin said, a note of exasperation in his voice.
The worker apologized profusely and offered to call the hotel next door to see if they had availability.
I rolled my eyes. “We’ll share,” I said.
Colin’s eyes flew to mine.
I nodded. “We can share,” I reiterated. Then I spoke directly to the hotel worker, who looked like he might die of embarrassment. “Cancel that room. Thanks for trying.”
Colin thanked the worker and followed me into what was now our room.
Suddenly, the air felt different in there.