Part 27 (1/2)
”Oh, wow.” Catherine laughed, putting her hand over her heart like she'd been moments from a heart attack.
My own heart experienced a burst of happiness at the news. I s.h.i.+fted in my seat to face her.
”Oh my G.o.d, are you serious?”
She nodded. ”It's official. Heath and I talked about it this week. I'll be on the job hunt and moving as soon as I can.”
”That's so wonderful,” Catherine said with a warm smile. Greg peppered Heath with suggestions about apartments in the city and I nudged Alli.
”I'm interviewing for marketing directors. You wouldn't happen to be interested?”
She frowned and sat back. ”Are you serious?”
”Actually, yeah. Things didn't work out with Risa. I'll fill you in on the details later, but suffice to say, we're severing ties completely and irrevocably.”
”Wow. In that case, yes.”
”Really? Are you sure that's what you'd want to do?”
”Are you kidding me? I've spent the past two months pulling twelve-hour days for prima donna designers. Coming back to Clozpin would be like being on a tropical vacation by comparison.”
”I thought you wanted a career in fas.h.i.+on though?”
She gave me a half-hearted smile. ”I thought I did too. I guess sometimes you don't realize what you have 'til it's gone. I definitely got some perspective and learned a ton, but this move feels right in every way. Heath's going to be happier here, his family's here to support him, and you're here. I couldn't think of any better reasons to make the change.”
”You won't hear any arguments from me. Obviously I've been dying to have you back since you left. And frankly, with what's going down with Risa now, I feel like I'll never be able to trust anyone in that position again who isn't you.”
”Don't worry. We'll figure it out. We built this business. No one's better suited to grow it.”
”Cheers to that.”
CHAPTER NINETEEN.
I breathed a sigh of relief as we left the bustling dinner with Blake's family and escaped to the beach below. I left my sandals on the steps, and Blake and I walked barefoot along the sh.o.r.e as the sun began to set.
”Sorry. They're completely crazy,” he mumbled.
”It's okay. They're really sweet actually.” A quiet happiness bubbled inside me at the unexpected turn this evening had taken. ”This may sound strange, but why didn't you introduce me to your parents before? You know, when things weren't so messed up between us.”
”Like Heath said, they're nosy and overwhelming. On one hand, I didn't really want to share my time with you, and on the other hand, I knew that once I let them loose on you, it was all over.”
My heart sank a little. ”All over?”
”Now that they've met you, they're going to be hounding me nonstop about you. Don't think for one second this is going to be your last Landon family dinner.”
I laughed. ”Listen to you, Mr. Angst. You make them sound so burdensome. You're incredibly lucky.”
Our eyes met and he took my hand as we walked. ”I don't mean it like that. They've always been great. I guess I was too caught up in being with you to realize that you'd probably enjoy this a lot more than I typically do.”
”I don't have much to compare it to, but I'd give anything to have a family like yours, you know? Don't ever take them for granted, Blake. Everything can change in an instant.”
”Yeah, you're right.”
Ahead of us, at the edge of the enormous property, stood a gazebo. We walked up some old wooden steps from the beach. Inside, the structure was ornately built and offered an impressive view of the skyline. Daylight was fading now, and the ocean air cooled around us. I sat close to Blake, and he wrapped an arm around me as we settled back to take in the scenery. I rested my head on his shoulder as he traced circles down my arm.
”You were right about Risa,” I said after a while.
”Yeah. Did you find what you were looking for?”
”I think so. My question is, how did you?”
He stayed silent.
”Blake.”
He sucked in a slow breath that whistled through his teeth. ”You're not going to like it.”
”So what? Tell me.”
He pushed the errant strands of hair away from his face only to have them fall back. ”I hacked your email account.”
I stilled. ”What?”
”I was worried about you.”
”That's a major invasion of privacy, Blake! Why-”
”Trust me, I wasn't the only one worried about you. Marie even reached out to me at one point to grill me about what I did to upset you so much.”
My jaw dropped. Marie. d.a.m.n it all.
”I just wanted to take a spin through your mail to see if there was anything I should be concerned about. While I was in there, I checked out Risa's and Sid's, purely out of curiosity since you'd decided to shut me out of the business for the time being.”
”And you saw her messages to Max?”
”Don't say I didn't warn you.”
”I don't understand why that specific information would be helpful to him though.”
”The investment company you told me about...the one who's sending Trevor fat checks? It took me a while to get past all the layers of corporate privacy, but I finally tracked down the people behind it.”
”And?”
”Seems like our friend Max is using the company as a front to fund Trevor's efforts. He's basically been paying Trevor to run this group and be a full time pain in my a.s.s.”
”But the attacks stopped.”