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“You could tell her no.”
She chuckled. “I don’t think you’ve ever tried to tell her no. She doesn’t take it well. I mean, she’s fine hearing a no about something like ‘do you want to eat now’ or ‘did you like that movie.’ The no doesn’t work so well when it’s about her future and her career. Women tend to like to decide that stuff for themselves. This job wasn’t Tasha’s dream job. She took it on because her sisters were going in. And Lou. Those four were always together. I’m glad their cousins Devi and Daisy didn’t feel the need to save the world. Anyway, I’m not sure Tash had a dream job. I think mostly she wanted to take care of the people around her, to be part of whatever her family was doing.”
“She could have done that in the security company. She could have answered phones or something,” he muttered. It made him nervous that she was still out there. He’d thought having Zach protect her would ease his mind, but it wasn’t. He couldn’t get it out of his head that she would be in danger and he wasn’t there to protect her.
Not that he would be great at it. She knew more about physical combat than he did, but he should be there to throw his body in front of hers.
“I don’t think Tasha would like the receptionist job,” Charlotte mused. “We’ve been through a few since our last long-term receptionist left to get married. Maybe Tash should think about taking the job. It seems to be an excellent way to get married.”
“She doesn’t want to get married.” Tasha seemed to want to have fun, to have adventures. “She’s nowhere close to settling down.”
“Uh, I think I know my baby girl. Trust me. The whole Chet thing wasn’t about falling for him. She was attracted to him and convinced herself she could love him. She wanted to start her life. I told her more than once that she was being impatient. My daughter wants to start her family. Maybe now she’ll take another look at Zach.”
“Why? If she hasn’t up until now, there’s zero reason to think she’ll fall in love with him.” Hadn’t he been thinking about this scenario an hour ago? He’d tried to tell himself he would be okay with that outcome, that those two kind of belonged together.
He shouldn’t care. He should be focused on what was happening in Toronto.
“Tasha is resilient. She’ll figure it out. She’ll mourn you for a while, but my daughter will move on with her life. If you’re feeling guilty, you shouldn’t. She’ll find a way to build the family she wants. Zach is perfect, when you think about it. He knows who she is and what her work requires. He fits in well with her family. He’s a solid guy.”
He didn’t like a word coming out of Charlotte’s mouth. Every single one rankled. And he wasn’t feeling guilty. He didn’t have anything to feel guilty about. “But she doesn’t love him.”
“No, but the man she does love has chosen poorly, and there’s not a lot we can do about that.”
Ah, so Tasha’s mom was trying to put him in his place. “Chosen poorly? She lied to me. Actually, everyone lied to me.”
“I don’t recall lying.”
“You weren’t here. Would you have?”
“Absolutely. We’re on a mission, Dare. It’s an important one. I also would have given Tasha the go-ahead to bring you in after I’d studied you for a few days,” Charlotte admitted. “I would have told her to trust you. If she’d told you, how do you think you would have reacted? Would it have been different if she’d told you herself?”
“I don’t know.” He hadn’t really considered it. He’d been far too involved in what had happened to think about hypotheticals. What if Tasha had come to him of her own accord? What if she’d held his hand and told him everything and explained what she needed from him, told him she cared for him and didn’t want this to change their relationship. It would still have been a lie. He would still have felt foolish and surrounded. “I want to say it would have changed something, but I can’t. I would still have looked around and realized I was surrounded by people who lied, by predators.”
“Predators?”
“Isn’t that what you are? You’re a pack of wolves, Mrs. Taggart. As much as your husband amuses me, I recognize how dangerous he could be. I’m surprised he didn’t beat the shit out of me this afternoon.”
“For the condomless sex? You’ll catch hell for that for the rest of your life,” she admitted. “Well, you would if you stuck around. I guess that’s a good reason to go. Don’t worry about it. Tasha’s on birth control.” She looked his way. “You didn’t like that.”
