Ah. That. “I love him so much that I’m willing to risk all our jobs to prove it to him.”
“That’s great!” William said. “I’m so— Wait, I thought you said you were going to take care of all of us.”
“Gah! I will! Don’t worry. I have to go.” She disconnected and tossed her phone down on the seat next to her as she neared the series of badly timed stoplights stationed at every one-way downtown street. She could see the damn Digham building blocks in the distance, but the stupid traffic laws were keeping her from the love of her life.
Her phone chirped again. Thea. She scooped it up.
“Leo’sgoing toquit?”
Her friend’s agitated voice punched her eardrums, and Faith was almost too surprised to respond. “How on earth do you know about that?”
“One of Leo’s sisters is a paralegal for Reynolds and Routh, and apparently one of the junior associates was at Olive Twist and saw the whole thing go down.”
Faith accelerated, then had to stop immediately at another red. “Still not clear how you found out that he decided to quit.Ijust found out.”
A burst of male laughter crackled over the line, which meant Thea was at the front desk of Murdoch Construction as the guys all drank coffee and gossiped and got ready for the day. She raised her voice to be heard over the noise.
“Aiden’s redoing the kitchen at their firm. He’s there taking measurements right now and overheard the lawyer asking Vanessa about it. She said when she called Leo this morning, he told her that the safest thing to do was resign to make sure your funding stayed put.”
“No,” Faith moaned, both because she’d hit yet another light and because she didn’t want him to make this sacrifice for her.
“So yeah, I just wanted to let you know.”
“I appreciate it, babes. I’m gonna go get my man back and make sure we both have jobs by the end of the day.”
“If anybody can it’s you,” Thea said. “Love you. Call me when it’s done.”
She hung up as she reached the Big Dig parking garage, thank God. She whipped the car into the entrance, snatched the ticket from the machine, and wound her way up the structure until she found a spot. She tossed herself out of the car and jogged for the elevator, groaning when she looked down at herself.
Again. She was braving Big Dig HQ in the worst possible outfitagain. If nothing else, maybe he’d see that her love for him was bigger than her vanity. She just had to make it to the eighteenth floor before he did something he couldn’t take back.
THIRTY-ONE
Leo was already sweating, and the meeting hadn’t even started.
Carlisle’s door was shut, but he was in there. Enjoying making him wait, no doubt.
Darla met his eyes for the five hundredth time since he’d arrived, but this time she actually said something.
“I am so, so sorry,” she said softly. “When he asked me where you’d gone, I had no idea he’d dothat.”
She pressed her lips together, the groove between her brows deepening. She was wearing her usual pale pink lipstick, and her hair was styled into its usual hard hat, but she looked pale and upset.
“It’s okay. This was inevitable.” His attempt to be reassuring missed the mark, and instead he sounded tired. Sleep hadn’t come at all last night, and he was the kind of exhausted that coffee couldn’t touch.
“Well, for what it’s worth, I—”
Whatever Darla was about to say was lost when Carlisle threw his door open. He didn’t say a word, just stared Leo down before turning and walking back into his office.
He sucked in a deep breath and stood. Was today the last day he’d put on a suit and tie to go into the office? Weird; he might actually miss that daily ritual of suiting up.
Darla leaned to the right as he walked by so she was close enough to whisper, “Good luck.”
He smiled wanly. “Thanks.” At least he had a friendly face to send him off. Nobody else was in yet this morning, but maybe that was for the best. Nobody’d be around to witness whatever was about to go down.
“Shut the door,” Carlisle said crisply when he entered the room. “Have a seat.”
Leo did as instructed. The back of his neck was hot, but his hands were cold. Carlisle was unruffled though, sitting across his enormous desk with a pleased look on his Spam-colored face.
