“You assumed I’dquit?”
She blinked at his outrage. “Well, yes.” She held up a hand when he started to growl. “You’re good at everything I’ve seen you do! Digham, POR, hiking and camping, Dig Greener. You’d land on your feet!”
“And you wouldn’t?” he snapped.
“Probably,” she snapped back. “But it’s not just me, is it? It’s William and Jonah and my other employees. It’s all those kids, Leo. Big Dig will be fine without you, and you can find another community organization to work for. But without that grant, BUILD goes away, and those kids lose all those programs. Do you want that?”
“No!” He plunged his hands into his hair, ruining his careful wave. “Of course not. But…”
Her breaths were starting to come faster. “Without the grant, I can’t keep BUILD going. God knows I never would’ve worked with you in the first place if I’d had any other options.”
He turned liquid eyes on her, hurt and anger rolling off him, and she shook her head sharply. “I don’t mean it like that, but Leo,come on. You know I was desperate.”
A gust of wind caught a strand of her hair, whipping it across her cheek. She impatiently batted it back, noticing as she did that people were openly staring. Leo noticed too, and a dull flush crept over his cheeks. He wrapped a hand around her elbow and started to pull her toward the exit, but she yanked free, grabbing her purse and clutching it to her chest with a glare. He stepped back and gestured for her to lead the way out, which she did with a lift of her chin. Once they were in the hallway, he glanced up and down until he spotted that same storage room door.
“Don’t even think about it,” she snapped, digging in her heels when he tried to guide her toward it with a hand on the small of her back.
Her chest ached. What if she’d said no to being manhandled into that closet all those months ago? If they’d never had that anonymous-yet-not encounter, maybe they could’ve avoided this moment. The feelings and the fallout. Then again, maybe this moment was always inevitable once they were back in each other’s worlds.
“You want to talk in the hallway, fine,” Leo said.
“Fine,” she spat back.
“I know how you feel about BUILD. Of course I do, and I’ll do everything I can to protect it.” He reached for her hand, and in a moment of weakness she let him take it. Let herself enjoy his warm, strong fingers wrapped around hers. “But Faith, my job’s important too.”
His touch turned from comforting to restrictive. “Your job? You said it yourself, you’ve barely been there for six months!” She pulled her hand back to stare at him incredulously.
“Which means if I quit now, I failed. And they were right. Everybody who…” He clenched his jaw as he fell silent.
“Everybody whowhat?” Her voice was sharp, but she wasn’t feeling particularly soft-hearted at the moment.
“Everybody who told me I’d never survive in an office. Who didn’t think I was… smart enough.”
He mumbled the last two words, and her anger dropped. “No.” She rested her hand on his arm. “You’ve always been smart enough. You’re great at your job. It’s just—”
“Just nothing.” He shook her hand off, engaged in the fight again. “Didn’t you once say you were the reason I graduated from high school? Don’t tell me I don’t have anything to prove. To you. To people like your dad. I’m not quitting.”
All she could do was stare at him, her heart pumping like she was running a race.
“Besides,” he added, “I’m the only one of us who’s paying rent at the moment, aren’t I, duchess?”
He was going there? He was goddamn going there?
Kind. Calm. Motherfucking enraged.
Any trace of sympathy fled as she accepted that he was never going to forgive her for her upbringing. That daddy’s money shit was going to come up over and over and over until his resentment poisoned everything. For a moment, all she wanted to do was collapse onto the polished concrete floor and weep at the unfairness of it all. Instead, she lifted herself to her full height and pushed all the ice in her veins into her voice so she’d cut him the way he’d just cut her.
“Fine. Don’t worry about me or my grant. You can keep your precious job.” She watched with satisfaction as the blood drained from his face.
She turned and made it two steps before he called after her. “Dutch, wait.”
Hope leaped in her chest. He was reconsidering. He was willing to save her life’s work. But she almost crumbled when she saw his bleak expression.
“Let me at least drive you home.” He lifted his hand, then let it fall when she stared at it in disgust.
He wasn’t going to change his mind. She was on her own.
“No, thanks.” A bitter taste coated her tongue. “I’ll figure something out. I always do.”
