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That was a lot harder to say than I thought it would be.
“Yeah, you were,” he said.
That was fair. Not the warm forgiveness I’d been hoping for. Then again, I didn’t deserve it.
“I didn’t mean—” I looked away, all the words I needed to say jumbled in my head. Finally, I figured some out. “I love you.”
He crossed his arms. Definitely not the response I’d been looking for. “I love you too.” The phrase was spoken tightly, framed by his hurt. Hurt that I’d caused.
“I just needed—” I closed my eyes. I was screwing this up royally. “Never mind.” I forced myself to look at him, so he could see I was telling the truth. “I’m not speaking toheranymore.”
His face was like a stone. “Only time will prove that.”
“I swear I didn’t tell her about the wedding,” I said, almost pleading. “I know I’m the reason for our problems.” Even now, I was so incredibly angry at myself for choosing to believe our mother’s lies. How she pretended to love me, want me, yet was screwing up everyone else’s lives. And eventually my own too.
My brother appeared stunned. I rarely apologized. “I said my fair share of awful things too.”
We looked at one another for a long time and came to a silent truce, just like we’d done as kids. It gave me the courage to do what I’d come here to do.
“Heard you were in the market for a receptionist.” She glanced down at Blake. “How about two for the price of one?”
Holt blinked at me. Baker’s lips parted. He looked at his girlfriend, and she lifted her shoulder in a helpless shrug.
I clamped my mouth shut. I tossed him the ball, now it was up to him.
“You want to work here? For me?” He spoke as if it were the first time, each word a test.
I brushed imaginary lint off the canopy of the stroller.
“You’re starting a new business. You need cheap labor, right?”
“You already have a job. Why would you give up steady income when you have Blake—”
“I got fired,” I barked as shame filled me.
He stared at me in horror. I couldn’t even look at Baker’s reaction. I’d worked hard to become a medical transcriptionist. It had been way easier to blow it.
“What happened?” Holt asked carefully.
I straightened. “After . . . I couldn’t handle it.” I’d forced myself to go back to work for Blake. Maybe it had been too soon.
“Marlow, I’m sorry. We’ve tried to be understanding about your . . . situation. If you show up at all, you’re making too many mistakes. We have to let you go.”
I hadn’t had it in me to be humiliated. I didn’t care about anything except that my son didn’t have a father. Would never know him.
“Why didn’t you tell us?”
I glared at him. “Why do you think?” I shouldn’t have snapped, but this was hard enough to admit in the first place.
“When did this happen?”
“Almost two years ago.”
He was quiet for a minute. I shifted in the uncomfortable silence. Maybe it had been a mistake to come here.
“I need dependable employees,” he said far too patiently. “Ones that aren’t liars.”
Ouch. I pretended not to hear the dig.
