Jonah shook his head with a weary smile. “I don’t want you to worry about it, Lexi. It’s in the past now.”
Which meant she absolutely had made his childhood a misery. God, I hated that woman.
“Speaking of Cora, do you know why she was here today?”
Jonah’s brows drew together. “What do you mean?”
“I saw her here today. She was on my floor, using the restrooms there. She smiled at me when she saw me, like she wasn’t surprised. But I was shocked. And that was a good few minutes before I spotted your thermos.”
Jonah put his head in his hands. “Did Cora see you coming up here?”
I shook my head, remembering how I’d felt the older woman’s eyes follow me while I walked back to my desk alone. “No, she didn’t.”
“Fuck,” Jonah growled.
“What’s going on?” I asked, worried.
“Lexi,” Jonah said, his voice quieter now, “Cora’s been trying to push me out of the CEO role at my Dad’s company. She’s subtle about it, but it’s constant. She wants her nephew to be CEO instead, and won’t waste an opportunity to drop these little comments in front of the board. Jabs about me being too emotional or too personally involved.”
A knot rose in my throat, sharp and aching. Damn. I hated that someone was working so deliberately to unsettle him.
And she’d zeroed in on our … attraction?
“If she was here, digging up details about you, it means she’s going to try to use it against me to push me out of my job. She’s friendly with the board of directors. She’s figured out that we’re seeing each other, and she knows you’re an employee. She has all the ammo she needs. The question is, when she will act on it.”
I felt my heart race. My job would be done for if news of our date got out. And going by Jonah’s assessment of Cora, she would do everything she could to take him down with it.
“The only saving grace is that Cora just saw us together once,” Jonah continued, his mind clearly working through the angles. “I can spin that as a one-time dinner that won’t repeat. We’re lucky she didn’t see you coming up here. Because then we’d definitely be in trouble.”
“What does this mean for us?” I asked, realizing as I asked it, that now that I was finally willing to embrace the idea of us, there might no longer be a possibility of it.
The silence stretched between us, heavy with everything we couldn’t say.
Jonah ran a hand through his hair, his expression pained. His hand reached out, hesitating for just a moment before his fingers gently brushed my cheek.
“What this means is,” he said slowly, his voice rough with frustration and something deeper. “I need to get to the bottom of this. To understand what Cora wants and undo whatever leverage she thinks she has. And we need to keep our distance at work until I can handle this.”
I stood up, backing away from him a few steps, and he followed reluctantly, as if it physically pained him to put distance between us.
I turned and made for the door. When I reached for the handle, I hesitated. I turned back, and his jaw was still tight, his eyes fixed on me with an intensity that made my breath catch.
“Lexi, I—” He started, then stopped himself, his throat working as he swallowed whatever he’d been about to say. “Trust me. Give me a few days. I’ll take care of this. I promise.” The dejection in his eyes told me how much this cost him. “You’re not something I’m willing to lose. Not to Cora, not to anyone.”
I stared at him for a moment, unable to process his words. I had spent a considerable amount of time with Dylan and my mom, both of whom were people I couldn’t trust. With Jonah, I trusted him completely—I believed he wanted to fix this. But unfortunately for me, he was the wrong person for me at this time. The world wouldn’t approve of us. And even with the best intentions, some things couldn’t be fixed.
What if Cora’s threat was too big? What if even after my internship ended, the damage would already be done?
I didn’t know what to believe anymore, and I didn’t want to stay around watching him try to solve the unsolvable. I didn’twant to ruin myself further emotionally by hoping for something impossible.
I opened the door and strode out, past a startled Kacie as I raced for the stairwell, where I let the tears fall freely.
24
LEXI
After my meeting with Jonah, I spent ten minutes in the stairwell, crying frustrated tears.
I was angry at myself for crying. Jonah had only asked for a few days, not forever. But something about the way he’d looked at me, the way he’d promised to fix this, reminded me too much of Dylan’s empty promises. Of my mother’s assurances that things would get better. I knew Jonah was different, but my body didn’t care about logic. It just knew the sick feeling of waiting for someone to choose you, and the crushing disappointment when they couldn’t.
