“I told you I was leaving before Christmas.”
“You did.” He smiles. “But if you thought we were going to let you go easily, you were sorely mistaken.”
“I get that. I know it’s one reason you asked Isla to come.”
“Ah.” He winces. “Yeah.”
“What’s this?” Brock asks.
“I’m guessing Noah’s told you that I was a police officer.” There’s no point in trying to sweep any of this under the rug now. “And that my partner died in an IED explosion.” When he nods, I say, “Isla is his sister.”
“Ohhh…” He looks at Noah. “You kept that quiet.”
Noah scratches the back of his neck. “I didn’t seek her out. She went to vet school with Beth. She’s… ah… having some trouble at home.”
“Trouble?” Brock asks.
I grit my teeth. “Her husband hit her a year ago. She tried to get over it, but he gave her son a backhand last week, so she walked out.”
Leon swears. “I didn’t know that.”
“Beth came to me to suggest that Isla work at the Ark for the summer,” Noah says. “She said it would give Isla the opportunity to get out of the house over Christmas, which seemed like a good idea to me. So I did a background check on her, the way I always do with new staff, and I read that her maiden name was Outlaw, and I remembered Cullen saying his partner was called Jack Outlaw—it was so unusual that itstuck. Sure enough, when I checked, I realized she was his sister. And…” He shrugs.
“You thought you’d interfere,” Brock says.
“I thought I’d try to help,” Noah corrects.
“You’re such a matchmaker,” Leon states, amused.
“That wasn’t actually on my mind,” Noah says wryly. He meets my gaze, his brows drawing together. “But I did think that meeting a member of Jack’s family might help.”
“You were lucky she didn’t hate my guts,” I say heatedly.
He lifts a brow. “Did she?”
“No…”
“Did she know who Cullen was when she came here?” Leon wants to know. He looks a little exasperated. As head of HR, I’m guessing he’s had to deal with his brother interfering on more than one occasion.
Noah nods. “I told her on the phone before she arrived.”
“Well, that’s something.”
Noah gives him the finger. Leon just gives a short laugh.
“Anyway… back to PAWS…” Brock turns his amused gaze back to me. “We mean well. It’s clear to us that you’d be perfect to help Archer run the center. I understand that you’d planned for your time up here to be temporary, and that you’ve talked about moving on. But we’d like to ask you to stay for Christmas and give yourself time to think about it.”
I don’t want to. I sit there for a moment, seething silently. I’m angry that they’ve painted me into a corner. I’d already started planning where I was going to go, heading south, maybe spending some time on the east coast around the Coromandel. If I keep moving, I told myself, I can stay ahead of the wave.
But now they want me to stay? I’m not stupid; I know that if I’m here over Christmas, it’ll give them time to work on me. The sale of the Hemsworth place will no doubt go through speedily considering there’s unlikely to be any competition, andArcher will be starting work on renovation in the New Year. He’ll be saying,Just stay and help me get it up and running.Just stay for the first month to get everyone settled in. And the first month will turn into six months, and at some point the wave will hit me slap bang in the back of the head, and I’ll have to deal with the emotional backwash and admit that if I’m staying, it means I’m not an evil person, and I’m wanted and I’m valued, and if I do that I think I’ll just crumble.
“You don’t need to make your mind up now,” Archer says, obviously spotting my emotion.
“Well, I think we’ve certainly made inroads,” Noah states. “Why don’t we call it a day there? We’ve got a busy few days ahead with the staff Christmas party and then of course we’ll be winding down for Christmas. But we’re all around if you want to talk at all. Just let us know how we can help.”
We’re being dismissed; I think Noah wants to talk to Brock and Leon alone. Archer and I stand and shake their hands, I call Ghost to me, and then we head out of the house and start walking slowly back to the Ark.
It’s a beautiful day—this summer is turning out to be a cracker.
