30. Declan
Declan
“ T hese are nice digs.” Carter does another loop of the office, his nosy stare taking everything in. “Bigger than what you had at Nexus. You’re moving up in the world.” He leans against the massive walnut desk, and when I glare at him, he shoots me a smarmy smile.
“You know this isn’t my office.”
He trails his fingers against the smoothed edge of the desk, pausing in front of the silver frame perched on one side.
I don’t follow his gaze. I know exactly what he’s looking at…
Lily’s beaming smile, graduate cap on her head and black gown draped over a blue sundress.
I didn’t know Lily back then, but sweetness shines out of her, even from a glossy photograph.
He taps his fingers near Grant’s nameplate. “Of course, of course.” He pauses intentionally. “So, uh…where is your office?”
“You’re an asshole,” I mutter, not quite able to hide a thread of amusement.
Carter’s been taking great pleasure in my ‘fall from grace’, as he calls it, ignoring the fact that my resignation was my choice.
A financial investment firm ruthlessly headhunted him as soon as the news broke that we’d both left Nexus, and that had only inflated his already swelling ego.
“You walked past my desk on your way in,” I say shortly .
He hums thoughtfully, eyes glinting. “I did? Are you sure? Was there even space out there for a desk?”
I tap the brown manila folder I’m holding against my thigh. “Well, thanks for this,” I say pointedly. “You can see yourself out now.”
“Mm, not yet. I’m savoring this moment. Taking a snapshot in my mind and cementing it in my memory, so I can break it out and treasure it in my low moments.
” He puts his hands up in front of his face like he’s reading off of a sign, “Declan Masters, the Intern.” He grins, ignoring my scowl.
“You didn’t even have to intern at Nexus, did you? ”
“I did not,” I grit out, and his grin widens.
“See? I can’t just brush past this. How often do I really get to beat you at something?
It’s never gonna happen again, so I’m just”—he inhales deeply through his nose, eyes closed and shoulders lifting—“taking it all in.” I don’t bother responding, but he doesn’t seem to need me to.
“So, since you are now gainfully employed and no longer classed as a hobo, what’re your plans?
” He pulls out Grant’s chair and sits down, getting comfortable.
“How long is the intern gig lasting for? Because, man, it’s not a good look on you.
What do you even do? Grab coffee? Grab his dry-cleaning? ”
“I’m not a personal assistant,” I protest. “And I wasn’t a goddamn hobo. Have you been talking to Darcy?”
He shivers dramatically. “Absolutely not. Your sister terrifies me. And you kind of were a hobo. Unemployed.” He flicks up a finger. “Transient.” Another finger. “Homeless.” A third finger.
I stare back at him. “I was only one of those things.”
“Then why does my couch have an imprint of your ass? I know you slept there last night.”
“How would you know?” I counter. “It’s not like you were there.” I’m not admitting that after dropping Lily off, the last thing I wanted to do was go back to the condo that was supposed to have been our home. “Who were you with last night, anyway?”
He shrugs. “Just someone I picked up at a bar.”
He seems disinclined to leave, so I drop into a chair facing the desk, eyeing him in annoyance. “Shouldn’t you be at work right now?”
“Told them I had an early meeting.” He flicks up an eyebrow at my expression. “I did not tell a lie. Here I am, meeting with you. ”
“How is it over at Betham Investments?”
This was his first official week with them, after negotiating a delayed start, taking some time for himself after the shit-show at Nexus.
He leans back, the leather of the chair creaking slightly under his weight. “It’s fine. It’s a different culture over there, though.”
“How so?”
He looks away. “It’s just somber, I guess. Even when people are eating lunch, the place is deadly silent. It’s depressing as hell.” He flicks a look at me. “Where did Adam land?”
I flatten my mouth, hiding my smile. It’s taken longer for him to cave than I had thought. “He was snatched up fairly quickly,” I tell him. “Not surprising, considering the references I gave him.”
I didn’t actually answer his question, and his expression tells me he’s very much aware of it.
He looks down at the folder resting on my knees. “You sure about that?” he asks pointedly. “You’ve been friends your whole life.”
“That used to be my argument,” I muse. “But now I’m realizing that I’m not sure what friends really are.”
He blinks rapidly. “I’m not sure if I should take offense or not.”
“You know I don’t mean you. I accepted it a long time ago; that I’m stuck with you.”
“Yep, definitely offended.”
I ignore that. “I’ve had some time to think over the past few weeks, and I’ve been going over the relationship my family had with the Huntingtons, trying to figure out where it all went wrong. Whether she’s just a product of her parenting.”
“Like you?”
I lift one shoulder, not quite meeting his eyes.
“I’ve acknowledged that while I might be a product of Donald Masters, my choices have still been mine.
” I tap the folder. “Silvia’s choices are also hers, and that’s what she’s going to have to deal with.
I was prepared to give her some grace because of the history between our families?—”
“I sense a but.”
“But,” I continue, “she’s gone after Lily again, even when I warned her to stay away.”
“That”—he points at the folder—“isn’t just about Silvia, though. ”
“I’m aware.” I stare back at him impassively.
Not long after that, Carter declares that he really should head into work before his new assistant sends out a search party for him.
I see him out, listening to his amused jabs about my desk and how low I’ve fallen, before heading back and working my way through the to-do list that Grant left for me that morning.
It was always an interesting range of tasks, and could be anything from spell checking simple reports, or conducting an in-depth analysis of the engineering team’s quarterly budget. Definitely not an intern’s work, but I wasn’t questioning the boss.
About mid-morning, my phone buzzes with a text, distracting me.
Darcy: Mom is demanding your presence at lunch. She says it’s non-negotiable.
Declan: Why? What’s happened?
Darcy: She went to the country club last night. She heard some things.
I’d come clean to Mom about everything that happened between me and Lily, not wanting her to be blindsided when the annulment became public knowledge, so I know exactly what new gossip must have dribbled into her ears.
I thought I’d have more time to formalize the plan that I’d come up with last night, but clearly the gossip mill was churning faster than I had anticipated.
Darcy: If you don’t show up, I will hunt you down.
That threat was immediately followed by another message with the name of the restaurant and the time, leaving me with exactly ten minutes to get out of here to make it in time.
Rolling my eyes, I get up and knock on Grant’s office door, heading in when he calls out. He lifts his head, his smile of greeting falling away when he catches sight of my expression.
“You okay, Declan?”
“I need a long lunch today,” I tell him, the words feeling strange on my tongue.
It’s been a weird change in our relationship, this internship.
It’s forced us to find a new way to interact with each other, one where we pretend I didn’t completely fuck over his daughter, and he didn’t plant a well-deserved fist in my face. “Mom needs to talk to me.”
He drops his pen, leaning back and aiming a speculative look at me. “Is she okay?”
I’m not quite ready to come clean about this development and how it involves Lily, so I just smile tightly. “She’s struggling with the gossip, I think.”
“Understandable. Nothing quite like when a respectable pillar of society crumbles. Never liked how it meant that society paints the family with the same tarnished brush, though.”
There’s something…empathetic in his voice that has me asking, “You don’t blame her for her part in it all?”
He cocks his head to the side. “What was her part?”
I step further into the office, partially shutting the door behind me. “She wasn’t completely innocent.”
“No one is,” he agrees. “But she also wasn’t responsible for her husband’s actions. Do you blame me for Gloria’s decision to keep up the affair?”
I shake my head. “That’s different. Mom didn’t know he was a murderer, but she’s always looked the other way with him, pretending his behavior was completely normal and acceptable.
” My tone is slightly bitter, and a flush creeps into my cheeks, hating myself for it.
I don’t blame my mother, not really. But I did wonder what life might have looked like if she had stepped in when I was younger.
Grant’s tone gentles, and I avert my eyes from him, looking at a spot on the wall above his head, unable to hold his stare.
“I don’t know your mother. We never spent time in the same circles, for obvious reasons.
But living with a man like Donald Masters can’t have been easy for her.
You know how he treated you, but do you know how he treated her?
” Arguments burst into my mind, but Grant carries on before I can get any words out.
“I don’t mean in front of you, Declan. There’s a lot that would have happened behind closed doors.
Just because you think you know what went on in that house, doesn’t mean you actually do.
You know a lot of Donald’s secrets, but a man like that?
He’s got more than one skeleton buried in his closet, so don’t assume you know anything, especially when it comes to his relationship with his wife. ”