Chapter 34 #2
Noah had been vocal about the fact that their actions could hurt them. This deal took the risk away. And I didn’t know if I resented him for choosing that option. Look at my brother — he’d had his accident, and his life had spiraled.
Noah had stepped in front of the truck heading for all of us and taken the hit. He didn’t get to do that alone.
But he had.
And that’s what pissed me off.
How very dare he? I mean, how dare he take the hit for us?
I turned direction and went to Diana’s. She didn’t know what had happened, and ironically, she should have been one of the first to know.
I braced myself for meeting TJ Hembry, but she was alone. She had a bottle of nail polish and stuff out. I’d caught her in the middle of what looked like a home manicure.
“Hey,” she greeted. She held her fingers up. “Can I interest you in a French manicure?”
“No.” I took a seat and watched her close the door, locking it automatically. “We need to talk.”
She sighed. “Is it a lecture about sleeping with your brother? He texted me yesterday, and he said you told him about TJ. He’s fine.”
So much to unwrap there. “No. Not Mason.” Well, that wasn’t true. “Not about you and him anyway.”
I told her it all. When I finished, she didn’t look up from her nails.
“Diana?”
“Processing,” she murmured. She opened a bottle of base coat and started to do her toes. “Tell me again what they said she did.”
When Noah had told me the story, he’d been calm and direct. I didn’t have that skill. I stupidly had second-hand embarrassment.
Diana nodded when I finished. She paid attention to the other foot.
“She took his jersey, remember?” Her voice was soft. I watched her finish the base coat. She picked a pale pink polish. “She took his jersey, and I know . . . I know she gave him other things. A scarf, a hair tie once, though I can’t remember why he said she gave him that.”
“Mason told you this?”
She still didn’t look up. “Yeah. At the beginning, when it happened, and she was . . . You know, gone. He was in the garage, and he had a box, and in the box was just shit she’d given him.” She shook her head, raised her hand quickly to wipe her eyes before she kept painting her toes.
“I told him tonight,” my voice was hoarse. “He didn’t react to the panties.”
She glanced at me then. “No. He was used to it.”
Well, that was just horribly sad.
“I still believe her,” Diana said, putting the nail polish down. “It may not have been there, but I know — knew her. She had faults, Briar, but she would never have—”
I leaned forward quickly, grabbing Diana’s hand. “Hey. No one. No one doubts her. It may not have been in that building, it may not have been one of them, but it happened. I don’t doubt her.”
She didn’t look at me, but she gave a slight nod.
Diana quickly and efficiently swiped the top coat over her nails and then started to tidy up.
“I have something to tell you, this actually makes it easier.” She shook her head at the thought. “But TJ got a job. Assistant offensive coordinator. He’s moving.”
I knew what was coming.
“He asked you to go too.” And there it was. The last piece of what had brought me here, packing up its nail polish and moving to a different city.
Diana nodded, a glimmer of happiness in her face. “Yeah. I’m going to go. There’s a PT spot open there and it makes sense for me.”
I nodded. It didn’t really make sense to me, but I kept quiet.
“Have you resigned?” she asked me.
“Not yet.”
I watched her pack her nail supplies into a box. “You should. It doesn’t sound like he gave Noah much of a turnaround time. He’ll need to demonstrate he’s fulfilled his part.”
I bit back the anger.
“I guess I better go do that then.” I got to my feet. “Are you . . . happy?”
Diana looked contemplative. “I don’t know.
I don’t think I’ve known happiness since it happened.
I think I can be with TJ. I think this, even though it’s still not what we wanted, I think having this piece of the story makes it easier.
I know that even though I tried, I can’t settle here.
I can’t fit in here. I came here for Tiffany, and in a way .
. . she led me to TJ and a path away from here.
” She looked at me. “She would want me to be happy.”
“What if we never find him?” I asked her. Because why wasn’t she asking that?
“I think he’ll — they’ll, whoever — will get their comeuppance. I believe that. I do.” Diana took her box of polish over to the kitchen and put it in a cupboard. “And if I’m wrong . . . then I have to hope he’ll rot in hell eventually.”
That just wasn’t enough for me, and I doubted it would be for others as well. And I just couldn’t understand why we’d be more invested than Tiffany’s own flesh and blood.
I said my goodbye and headed home. As I let myself into my apartment, my phone buzzed.
Noah: I’m okay. You?
I didn’t have an answer for that.
Me: I’m emailing my resignation letter tonight
Noah: Thanks for letting me know
Not ‘thank you.’
Not ‘you’re doing the right thing.’
Not ‘when do you leave?’
Just thanks for letting him know. And somehow that was the most unsettling result of today. He’d made the deal to protect me.
And now he was letting me go.