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“I accepted a job offer.”
CHAPTERSEVENTEEN
Her own wordsechoed in Katrina’s head. The silence surrounding them pressed in on her and her legs shook. This wasn’t how her announcement was supposed to go. She’d wanted to show him the room and tell him about this amazing job opportunity while assuring him that she had no intention of breaking things off.
Only now, she realized what a stupid decision that had been.
Everything was about to change. She’d just been too blind to see it.
She didn’t know what she’d expected might happen. Perhaps there was a small part of her that had anticipated he would be willing to pick up and follow her even though he’d just inherited the farm. It was still so new.
But Simon had proved her wrong.
With his new business venture, there was now a zero percent chance that he would ever leave this place. Not for her, not for anyone. He was officially rooted.
And she felt utterly sick to her stomach. That was why she’d settled onto the edge of his bed.
Simon paced back and forth in front of her. There had been a folder in his hand and now it lay on the floor, having slipped from his grasp. She kept looking at it as if it were the sole reason she was in this mess.
“How could you do this? I thought we had an understanding,” Simon muttered.
Her eyes snapped up to stare at him. “How could I do what? Follow my dreams? Do you even hear yourself?” She shot to her feet and placed her hands on her hips. “And what understanding was that? You never told me to stop applying for jobs.”
“No,” he muttered, “but I didn’t think I had to. I figured it made sense that we were both here and both interested.” Simon ran a rough hand down his face and groaned. “Where?”
“Where?”
He took a deep breath like it was almost painful for him to do something that should have been second nature. “Yes, where are you taking a job? How far away will you be?”
She looked away.
The sound that came from him next was more of a growl than anything else.
“It’s not that bad,” she mumbled. “We can still see each other.”
“Based on the way you just reacted, forgive me if I don’t have much faith in that statement.”
She flinched. His tone wasn’t sharp; there was no bite to it. But those words caused her grief regardless. “One of the big companies has recently relocated to Salt Lake City.”
“Utah?”
Again, Katrina flinched. “That would be the one.”
“You realize that’s, like, a day’s drive, right? How is that any better than when you were living in California?”
“It’sten hours, Simon. And if we fly, it’s only an hour and a half.”
He stopped and stared at her. She could practically feel the judgment pouring off him. She couldn’t stand the way he was looking at her; it made her skin itch and her muscles tense. They were supposed to be celebrating and planning how to make things work.
Instead, he was angry and she was defensive.
Katrina stormed through the room and out of the house before he had a chance to tell her his true feelings. She could already hear him arguing with her, insisting she tell that company she couldn’t take the job. He’d demand that she stay here because there was more at stake if he were to leave.
Simon would probably point out that losing his farm and his business was a bigger loss than her potential career and happiness.
As if she’d turned on autopilot, Katrina found herself back at her place. She didn’t know how she’d made it in one piece. She couldn’t even remember driving the whole way home.
Her face was flushed and her stomach was in uproar, threatening to release all of its contents. Katrina barely made it to her room, slamming the door behind her as soon as she crossed the threshold.
