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She couldn’t say she was looking forward to that confrontation, but she did anticipate seeing the look in his eyes when she presented him with the excellently documented evidence Andrew had put together for her. And when she left Herb’s office, she intended to head straight for Thad’s.
“You’ll call me after you talk to them, right? I want to know everything they say.”
She nodded. “I’ll call you.”
She had offered to pay Andrew for his services at the going rate for a private investigator, but he’d refused, telling her he owed her this for his earlier, unauthorized invasion of her privacy. It wasn’t even as if it had been all that difficult a case to solve, he’d added bluntly, making her feel a little stupid for letting Beecham dupe her for so long.
Like Casey, Andrew had expressed curiosity about what Herb said when she showed him what Andrew had found. He had also offered to talk to Herb personally if Natalie had any problems convincing the senior partner of the validity of her evidence. The reputation of his family firm back in Dallas was impeccable, and nationally respected, he’d added. He didn’t expect any trouble from her bosses once they heard who she’d had on her side.
Casey placed his hands on her arms, rubbing slowly up and down as he gazed into her face. “I know you said you didn’t want to talk about us until after your meeting with Schroeder…”
“Casey—”
“Is this really goodbye?” he insisted. “You’re just going to go back to Nashville and forget about me?”
“I’m not going to forget about you,” she told him quietly. “Ever. You got me through a very rough time. I will always appreciate that.”
“You still think of me as a nice diversion?” he asked roughly.
She couldn’t quite meet his eyes. “You know it was more than that.”
“But you’re still leaving.”
“I have to, Casey. You know I have to clear my name. And you have a career to get back to in Dallas.”
His hands gripped her shoulders. “You were more than a diversion to me, Natalie. A hell of a lot more.”
She moistened her lips. “You said yourself you’ve been going through a tough time. You’ve been questioning your career and your goals, and you’ve recently broken up with your girlfriend.”
“You’re not a rebound affair, either,” he said roughly. “Damn it.”
“It’s just not a good time for either of us to try to make this into more than we’ve had,” she whispered.
She was sure that when he got home, back with his family and friends and the career he wanted despite the doubts he’d encountered lately, he would be relieved she hadn’t tried to hold on to him. Besides, she knew herself too well. If she succeeded in getting her position back, or even if she found a job with another firm, it wouldn’t be long until she was right back to her old ways of working too long and too hard, letting everything else in her life take second place to her career. That was no way to maintain any relationship, much less a long-distance one.
All of which sounded very logical. Very believable. But she suspected that the main reason she was running from Casey was fear—as much as she hated admitting that, even to herself. She’d been let down by too many people she had trusted lately. She wasn’t ready to take the risk of being hurt that way again while she was still stinging from the last time.
It would hurt less to break it off now than to wait until his passion fizzled in the reality of too much distance and too little time.
“I’ve got to go,” she said, steeling her resolve. “I’ll call you tomorrow, I promise.”
He nodded grimly. “Drive carefully.”
“I will.”
He lowered his head and kissed her until it was all she could do not to melt into a puddle at his feet. She had to put a hand on the car to steady herself when he finally drew away. “It wasn’t a diversion,” he said again, gruffly.
She looked into the rearview mirror as she drove away. Casey stood there watching her leave, his hand on the head of the dog who sat rather forlornly at his side.
For only the second time since she had been fired from her job, Natalie felt tears escape her eyes and trickle slowly down her cheeks.
Chapter Fourteen
A s far as Casey was concerned, January was the cruelest month of the year. The holidays were over, leaving only scattered, once-festive, now-droopy decorations behind. The weather was almost unrelentingly gloomy, with gray skies, cold rain, occasional thunderstorms. Night fell early, so that it was usually dark by the time he got home from work.
Since his return from Tennessee seven weeks earlier, he’d thrown himself into the job with a renewed dedication, putting in long hours, showing up at the office for at least part of every day of the week to make up for all his time away. His superiors seemed reassured now that he had gotten his personal issues settled and he was prepared to be the valuable asset to the firm that they’d always expected him to become.Even in the relatively short time that had passed since he’d returned, he’d accomplished a great deal in billable hours and out-of-court settlements. Because money had a way of soothing all fears in this business, he figured any remaining concerns about him would soon dissipate.
Tugging at the silk power-tie knotted at the throat of his tailored dress shirt, he walked off the elevator on his condo floor and sighed wearily. He’d had a great day, work-wise. Accomplished a real coup of a settlement with a case that could have stretched on for months. He should have been celebrating, but instead he was just…empty.
