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“You decided I would stay here and carry tomorrow with Rosie beside me. I was the last person to hear what you had decided I would do.”

“I was trying to bring you a solution instead of dumping another problem on you.”

“That is the problem.”

“I asked for the bad news the day it came. I did not ask you to solve everything before I got a say.”

“Then tell me what you need.”

“A voice before the decision. Not another plan after it.”

“I’ll call Owen now. I’ll give Rosie the council presentation, join by video until the bank meeting starts, and charter back the moment it ends⁠—”

“You’re still doing it.”

“Doing what?”

“Offering me a better version of the decision you already made.”

The last man who said he loved me had chosen the restaurant, ordered the champagne, and planned where we would live, the practical job I would find, and the holidays I would spend with my parents. He had left me one task: say yes. Griffin knew that story. He was not Thomas. That was why this hurt. “I’m not a line item you fund after the important choices are made.”

“That isn’t what you are.”

“It is where you put me tonight.”

“I had ten minutes, Nora. Don’t turn an emergency into a verdict on everything I am.”

He was right. Under the hurt, I felt relief, and that was worse. If I stopped whatever this was now, I could stop waiting for the next decision he made without me. “We finish the festival as co-chairs. Whatever else we were starting stops here.”

“That’s not fair.”

“No. It isn’t.” My voice cracked, and there was no point pretending otherwise. “But it’s honest. You asked me to tell you when you got something wrong instead of shutting you out. I’m telling you, and I’m still shutting you out. This is me failing out loud.”

“I’m coming back.”

“I know.”

Through the tall windows, the garland crew had stopped moving. One of the high schoolers held a loop of pine in front of his face, which did not make him invisible.

At the door, I looked back once. Griffin stood beneath the parking lot light with his flight confirmation glowing on his phone. He had booked a round trip. I had still heard goodbye. Knowing the difference did not make me walk back to him.

CHAPTER 14

GRIFFIN

At twenty past two, I set my phone on the hotel nightstand without calling. My flight had landed less than an hour ago. Nora would be asleep, and two kisses did not give me the right to wake her because I couldn’t stop thinking about her.

I could still feel her fingers in my jacket and her mouth under mine. Every part of me wanted to hear her voice.

The hotel lobby had a twelve-foot Christmas tree covered in white lights. Gold presents sat beneath it, except they weren’t presents. They were painted foam with seams down the sides.

Even the generosity was fake. I had noticed the seams while the night clerk searched for my reservation. Twenty minutes later, I was still thinking about them—and about everything I had made Nora question before I left.

I ran the numbers because numbers were the only thing I knew how to hold.

I could have stayed. The bank would have reviewed Crane’s report without me, and the construction draws would have remained on hold. Thirty-two people on my direct crews might have missed Friday payroll while subcontractors waited for checks on both Portland sites. Frank Donnelly would have been right about me on the record, permanently, with documentation.

I went to San Francisco because payroll was the problem I knew how to solve.