Unbreakable (36 page)

The guests departed slowly, nearly all stopping to speak a word to us, and the engagement party became like a receiving line at a funeral. The Posse gathered around me, gabbling and asking me questions in hushed voices, their eyes wide with the excitement at the intrigue of it all.

I waved them all off, assuring them that I’d tell them everything at the Belvedere on Monday—an appointment I had no intention of keeping.

Jon Lawson and Michael Dooney approached, the former kissing my cheek, the latter standing stiffly, arms behind his back.

“My condolences,” Mr. Dooney said gruffly. “You seemed a good match.”

“I’m sorry, sweetheart,” Jon said. “And I know this is not the time or place to talk business, so I’m just going to leave this with you…”

He started to hand me the portfolio that contained the details of an extremely lucrative partnership, but I pressed it back. “I quit.”

Mr. Dooney sucked air between his teeth. “I beg your pardon?”

“I’m sorry, Jon. Mr. Dooney. I’ll write a formal resignation and have it couriered to you by Monday.”

Jon Lawson looked betrayed. “But Alex…Munro…”

“What an utter waste of time.” Mr. Dooney turned on his heel and strode out.

“I’m very sorry,” I said. “Not for quitting, but for leaving you to deal with Munro. And Mr. Dooney.”

“Can I ask why? Not as a boss, but as a friend?”

I smiled. “My head’s not in the game. Not anymore. At least not the way you need it to be.”

Jon sighed, tucking the portfolio under his arm. “Well, that’s business, right? I can’t say that I’m thrilled to lose an attorney of your caliber, but I’ve always admired your courage.” He kissed me lightly on the hand and let me go. “You know who I really feel sorry for is Christopher. If Munro doesn’t fire us, he’s going to have to get back in it.”

I laughed, but my heart ached to say goodbye to my boss. Dooney was flapping his hands impatiently from the front of the restaurant.

“Let’s keep in touch,” Jon said, turning to go. “Oh, and if you need references,” he added with a wink, “make sure you tell HR to get them from
me
.”

#

The private room had cleared out for all but Lilah, Drew, his parents and mine. Matthew, Lilah’s date, was discreet and slipped out to get their car from valet.

Lilah embraced me. “I’m proud of you.”

“I’m proud of Drew,” I said, watching him talk to our parents, calming my distraught mother with a hug. “He pulled it off, dignity intact.”

“Yes, he did. And now what? For you?”

“Now I have to find out how much I owe my parents for tonight, and the dress, and wedding deposits… It’s all going to cost a fortune.” I heaved a sigh and laughed ruefully. “Good thing I quit my job!”

Lilah laughed incredulously. “You did? When?”

“Tonight. Because when you’re imploding your life, I find it’s best to do it all at once.”

“That’s best,” Lilah agreed and hugged me again. “Now I’m
really
proud of you. Does this mean you’re going to come work in my firm?”

“We’ll see. I have some things to work out. With…him.” The thought of seeing Cory now filled me with equal parts dread and heart-bursting joy. Did he want what I wanted? Or did he mourn what he lost with Georgia? I forced a smile. “But whatever happens, you’re going to be seeing a whole lot more of me.”

“I’d better.”

Lilah embraced me a final time and left, and my mother descended on me.

“Well, I can’t say I’m thrilled with this turn of events, Alexandra. Are you really throwing away your life with that wonderful man—” she pointed at Drew who was talking to Craft’s manager—“so you can be with some…construction worker?”

“Marilyn…” my father warned. “That man you disparage saved our daughter’s life. And she loves him, don’t you, sweetheart?”

I started to speak, but my mother flapped her hands, her eyes filled with angry tears. “It was going to be a such beautiful wedding.”

“I don’t want a beautiful wedding, Mom,” I said gently. “I want a beautiful marriage.”

“And what? Now you’re going to
marry
that strange man?”

“I don’t know what’s going to happen,” I said.
And that’s the damn truth.
“But whatever I do, whomever I’m with…from now on, I want to be happy.”

My mother dabbed her eyes. “Oh, Alexandra. I’m a mess. I’m going to the ladies’ room. I need a moment…”

“And that’s what we want for you too,” my father said. “For you to be happy.”

“I hope so, Daddy. Because I quit my job tonight. I don’t want to be the Shark Lady.”

A wide smile split my father’s face. “Oh, honey, I’m so relieved.”

“Relieved? You’re not disappointed?”

“Honey, I couldn’t be more proud. I learned that all those hours I put in the courtroom weren’t worth the time I spent away from you and your mother. I’m just so happy that you learned the same lesson so much sooner than I did.”

“Geez, you could have told me,” I laughed.

“I could. But you weren’t ready to hear it. Were you?”

He pulled me close and I rested my cheek against his chest for a moment. “No. You’re right. But I still want to work hard. I still want to be a lawyer and I still want to argue the hell out of a case. I just want it to mean something, and I don’t want it to be my whole life. That should be easy enough to find, right?”

My father laughed. “I have no doubt that if you can’t find that sort of job, you can talk your way into one.”

“I hope you’re right, because this was a very expensive non-wedding. I’m going to pay you and Mom back for everything—”

“That’s not necessary…”

“Yes, it is. It’s important to me.”

“We’ll talk about it later.” He raised a brow, his smile gentle. “Don’t you have somewhere you need to be?”

I nodded. “Yes. I do.”

Alex

It was close to midnight by the time I arrived at my house on California Avenue. I approached the front door with my heart in my throat. I unlocked it with my second key, and opened it slowly, hoping not to wake Callie. If she slept at all.

I found Cory sitting on the couch his arms dangling between his knees. He looked up when I came in, his face haggard and drawn.

“Hey.”

I eased the door shut and sat on the short leg of the L-shaped couch, hunched in the silky black jacket I wore over my dress. “Hey. How is she?”

“Sleeping, but not heavily. She’s been pretty restless.”

“What
happened
?”

He shook his head, still incredulous. “Georgia wants a break, apparently, from being a mother. For how long…I don’t know. Forever, I think. Which is good, because if I see her again, I don’t know what I’ll do.”

“How did Callie take it?” I asked, not sure I wanted to hear the answer.

Cory looked away, his eyes shining. “She thinks it’s her fault, of course. I knew she would. I don’t know what to tell her that she’ll believe. I said her mom needed to be by herself of a little while, but Callie kept asking me questions that I didn’t have answers for. But she’s a smart kid and she got it. I watched that horrible truth sink its teeth in her and she just kept saying, how long? How long? Like, getting hysterical. Because she already knew. She knew it was forever, and ah Christ, my little girl…”

Cory covered his face with both hands, his shoulders shuddering. I moved to sit beside him and held him as best I could. He brought himself under control quickly, wiped his eyes in the crook of his arm and looked at me, his beautiful eyes bright with hope and shining with pain and full of love. Love. Not softness or care or any other word I had tried to call it. It was love.

“It’s terrible, what Georgia did to Callie,” he said. “And my heart breaks for her. But now I’m also sitting here,
relieved
, that it happened, for my sake. Because Alaska would have wrecked me. I know it. I would have warped into someone I wouldn’t recognize, trying to do the impossible.”

“What’s that?”

“Trying to forget you.”

“Oh, Cory…”

“Wait,” he said, cutting me off. “I’ve been too silent for too long. Too cowardly to just say what I should have said even before we got out of that damn bank.”

I felt a warmth glow in my heart and it seemed an eternity between Cory’s words and those that followed.

“I don’t give up on anything,” he said. “But I did the moment I told Georgia I’d marry her. I gave up on us. You and me. I thought I was going to build something there, something strong for Callie, but you can’t build something from nothing. Not even good intentions. So I’m sorry, Alex. I should have fought for you and I don’t even care what happened tonight at your party. I don’t expect anything in return. This situation with Callie…I don’t expect you to take it all on. I don’t expect you to take
us
on.”

“Cory—”

“I’m not done yet.” He swallowed hard, took my face in his hands, that crooked smile dancing nervously over his lips. “What I’m trying to say, and what I should have told you that night in the bank, after we christened that desk…”

I sniffed a little laugh.

“I love you, Alex. I’m crazy in love with you and I will be, for the rest of my life.”

I held his hands that held me, letting the words wash over me. I knew it already, of course I did. I had seen it in his eyes a hundred times, and I felt it the night he made love to me, but to hear it…

I opened my mouth to reply when the door to the guest room opened and Callie stepped out. She clutched her doll to her chest and watched us with red-rimmed eyes. “Alex?”

Cory released me, his face suddenly drawn and pained. I gave his hand a reassuring squeeze and went to Callie, knelt before her.

“Hi, honey. Can’t sleep?”

Callie shook her head. “I heard you guys talking. And I keep having bad dreams.” Her dark eyes looked up to Cory, who moved to stand behind me. “I wanted to make sure you’re still here, Daddy.”

I looked up and watched the words strike him, saw the effort it took him to smile.

“I’m not going anywhere, honey. Never. I swear it.”

Callie nodded and looked back at me. “You look so pretty in that dress. Was that your birthday party we saw?”

“No, honey. Let’s get you back in bed. It’s late.”

I took her by the hand and led her to her room, tucked her into her bed. Cory lingered at the door, watching.

“My mommy left,” Callie said, her lower lip trembling. “We were supposed to go to Alaska together but she left without me.”

“I know, baby.”

“Do you know why? I asked Daddy but I don’t think he knows.”

“I don’t know your mom, Callie, so I can’t say I know for sure. I can tell you what I think.”

“Okay.”

If you ever had a talent for making convincing speeches, now is the time. This is the moment.
I drew a deep breath.

“I think your mommy is looking for something that she lost a long time ago.”

“What did she lose?”

“Only she knows that. It’s something inside her that we can’t see. But it’s very important to her that she find it, and no one can come with her while she looks. Not her friends, not your daddy, and…not you.”

Tears leaked from Callie’s dark eyes but she was listening intently, desperately.
“Why not?”

“Because it’s something she has to do by herself. For a long time, she wanted to go and look, but she didn’t want to leave you. She tried to stay to take care of you because she loves you so very much, but the need to find what she had lost was too strong. She had to go, no matter how much it hurt her. Or you.”

“It does hurt,” Callie said, looking away. “They all know her at my school. All the kids are going to make fun of me when they find out. They’ll laugh at me for having a mom who left.”

“
No one
is going to make fun of you,” I said with sudden fierceness, pain squeezing my heart. “You’re going to live here from now on and that means you get to go to a brand new school.”

“I’m going to live here? A…a new school?”

“That’s right. No one has to know anything but what you tell them. That will be up to you.”

“Are you going to be my new mommy, Alex?” she asked, so hopeful, so guileless.

I sucked in a breath, willing myself not to cry, afraid she’d mistake my tears for sadness instead of joy. “I’m going to be here for you, Callie, however you need me to be. How’s that sound?”

“Really good,” Callie said. Tears rolled down her cheeks, but her eyes were getting heavy. “That sounds really good.”

I sat with her, stroking her hair, until her breathing was deep and even. When I was sure she was asleep I slipped out, left the door cracked, and joined Cory in the living room.

He leaned against the couch, his eyes full as he watched me move to him. “It’s not the same, you know. Having a little kid around all the time. Not just weekends or over a holiday…It’s a big change. And God, Alex, you’ve already given me so much.”

I slipped into his arms. “Not everything. Not enough. And I want her here. I want you here. I want all of it.”

“You do?”

I nodded. “You saved my life…”

“Alex—”

“No, I’m not talking about the bank. You saved my life there, true, but then you did it again. And again. Over and over. Every day since, you saved my life, rescued me from my old one, and I…” My voice cracked, and I clutched him tightly. “I love you. I love you so much. I tried to tell myself it was anything and everything else because I was scared, because what I feel for you has no end. I didn’t fall in love with you, Cory, I’m still falling, deeper and deeper, every day. So thank you. Thank you for saving my life and giving me a new one that is so rich. So full of love.”

He brushed the hair from my eyes. “Of all your speeches, that one is my favorite.”

I laughed through a sob, and then his lips were warm and sweet on mine and I melted against him, and that sense of pure contentment washed over me.
And to think I almost lost this.

Cory gently broke our kiss. “You look so beautiful tonight.”

“Oh, this dress?” I smoothed down the red satin. “Yeah, it’s a bit much—”

“Not the dress. When you were talking to my girl, comforting her, easing her pain. I’ve never seen anything so beautiful in my life.”

He kissed me again and a sweeping joy filled me with the realization that he was my life now, and I could kiss him any time I wanted, with no guilt, no doubt. Just love.

We settled on the couch, in case Callie needed us. He lay down and pulled me to him, engulfing me in his strong arms. My head rested on his chest, the steady rhythm of his heart beat in my ear, counting the moments of his life. I wanted to sleep every night with that steady pulse in my ear, and wake up every morning to his beautiful face, and kiss him, and tell him I loved him. Him and no one else.

He stroked my hair and took my hand in his. Our fingers entwined in a bond of fragile flesh and bone, so easily torn apart. Only we knew otherwise.

He and I, we were unbreakable.