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Derelie’s hands were on Jack’s back, her face pressed into his shoulders. He could feel her shaking. “It’s over. You’re safe.” He moved to take her into his arms. All the wind-whipped color in her face had fled and her eyes were large with shock.
She put her hands over her face and stifled a sob. Their groceries were all over the sidewalk: eggs broken, fruit bruised, vegetables trampled, but it was Derelie he was worried about. Her safety was compromised because she was with him.
“It’s over, baby. He’s gone.” He wrapped his arms around her and felt her shuddering sigh before her hands were everywhere.
“He hit you.” She took his chin and moved his head. She smoothed a hand over his jaw. “A stranger on the street hit you.”
He caught her hands. “I’m fine, but the bastard smashed my glasses and trashed our groceries.”
“Over Keepsafe, because his wife wasn’t going to leave him. That’s unbelievable. Oh, Jack.” She was shaking, but not from fear—she was furious.
That night in bed, Derelie clung to him as if she was broken, as if the violence had undone her affair with the city in a way that was permanently damaging. He should’ve done a better job of comforting her, but he didn’t trust the promises he could make would be what she’d need to hear. He no longer had anything to offer her. He had no control over how people reacted to his public profile. No job, no money, no place in a city that’d taken everything he had to give and thrown it in his face. He couldn’t even prevent her from being attacked for being at his side.
A week later his precarious future began a death spiral. He interviewed poorly for the corporate job. Not enthusiastic enough about the role, the recruiter said. He also had a letter from Keepsafe’s lawyers notifying him of their intention to sue, and still no response from Roscoe.
Derelie compounded his problems by announcing she was letting her apartment go.
She said it casually, as if it was nothing, while she dangled a shoelace for Martha to play with. “I’m almost all here anyway.”
“You can’t.”
She took her eyes off Martha and got claws in her hand. “Ouch, Martha, no fair.”
“We can’t both be homeless.”
She swabbed her hand with a tissue. “What do you mean?”
“I can’t keep this place.”
“I’ll share the rent, that’s no problem.”
It would help, but it wasn’t the point. “Derelie, I can’t hold on to this place without an income.”
She came to sit beside him on the couch. “Okay, so we find something cheaper a little farther out that works for both of us.”
Farther out was New York, Los Angeles, Philly, Dallas, Frisco, Washington, Atlanta, anywhere he might find another reporting job. “I’m going to have to look for work in other cities.”
“Other cities. Oh.” She took that in. Her hand would be stinging, three torn blood lines decorating it. “I’ve never lived anywhere outside of the state. It would be a new adventure.”
“You’d leave the Courier to follow me?”
She blinked; it was the tiniest moment of hesitation, but it was everything.
He stood, needing a little distance from her, because now that they were here, it was time to stop deluding himself, time to recognize the fight for what it was and up the violence. “Don’t give up your place.”
“We work this out together, Jack. You and me, we’re together.”
They were together because of an experiment and all the conditions for success had changed. If they stayed together they’d be a new experiment. One where they had no jobs, no home, no financial security. One where Derelie’s life was compromised because Jack’s had been beaten to a pulp in a street fight and there was no guarantee he’d recover. She would see it and she would leave him, but not until her faith in him ground her down to nothing.
There was only one humane way to do this. Quickly.
“We can’t be together anymore.”
“It makes sense that you get settled first. We could both squeeze into my shoebox for a while.”
“Honeywell, we’re done.”
She reacted to the way he used her name, eyes narrowing. “What are you doing, Haley?”
