Perfect Partners(51)
Author: Carly Phillips

The thought of Chelsie having anything to do with this slime, even long distance, made his skin crawl. Yet he admired her courage and the foresight it took for her to come up with the same plan he and Ryan had formulated together.

“Let me ask you a question, Sutton.”

The man raised defeated eyes to his.

“Doesn’t it even bother you, what you did to those two women?” The two they knew about, Griff silently added. He didn’t want to think there could be others and hoped this deal would prevent further victims.

“They asked for it. It’s not my fault they push a guy to the end of his rope. I never meant to hurt either of them.”

Figures. Griff shook his head. He just wanted Jeff out of their lives and less of a threat to womenkind. “Then do yourself a favor. Take this deal and get yourself some help.”

Without a second glance, Griff turned and walked out. Ryan followed. The easy part was behind him. The hard part was yet to come. Chelsie returned today, and Griff’s life hung in the balance.

* * *

“How was your trip?” Griff looked at his partner with hungry eyes after a weekend of deprivation.

Chelsie wore jeans, an old sweatshirt, and a pony-tail with stray strands of hair falling around her neck. Not a woman dressed for work, that much he knew. She obviously hadn’t changed her mind about severing their partnership. Nor could he ask her to.

His stomach churned with dread, but he remained calm. His perspective may have changed, but she didn’t know it, and he’d put her through hell. She deserved to make her own decisions about her future.

“Not bad if you like heat and humidity,” she said.

“Did you get much sun?”

She laughed, but it sounded strained. “Not all that much.”

“Could we move past the weather?” Otherwise they’d become exactly what he feared most. Friendly adversaries, two people who cared too much, but couldn’t get past their opposing points of view. He couldn’t live with that. In fact, he flat out refused to try.

She looked startled at his unnecessarily abrupt tone, then shrugged. “Okay. The trip was productive.”

“They’ve forgiven you?”

“Actually, they never blamed me as much as they blamed themselves. But my parents were never the warm type and they didn’t know how to show what they were feeling.”

“So they retreated to Florida to lick their wounds?”

She tilted her head, obviously assessing his sincerity. “To heal, Griff. To get over losing a daughter, to come to terms with the kind of people they’d become.”

“I know that.” Just watching the play of emotions over her face, listening to her defense of people she didn’t understand but still loved, how could he not?

“I can’t justify their attempt to bribe you, but they realize they were wrong. And now that they’ve begun to readjust their priorities and are trying to live without Shannon, they’ll come back home soon.”

She glanced up, meeting his gaze with serious, imploring eyes. “They miss Alix. They’d like to see her, and I’d like them to be her family, if you’ll let them.”

How like Chelsie to put her parents’ needs before her own, to risk his anger by pressing their case. “Of course they can see her. I never said they couldn’t.”

As Chelsie’s parents and Alix’s grandparents, he’d have to make peace with them eventually. It helped that they’d won Chelsie over, but it wasn’t a necessity. Blood bound them to his niece. He’d have given them another chance regardless. He paused before asking, “Did you tell them about your past?”

She nodded. “It was hard, but necessary—and in the end, cleansing for me. Very shocking for them. But the truth is out in the open now.” Her warm, dark eyes met his. “For all of us.”

“Speaking of truths, when were you going to tell me you’d been in touch with your ex?”

Her eyes narrowed. “At the same time you told me you’d done the same,” she said, challenge lacing her words.

Griff couldn’t help it. He burst out laughing. “I should have known you’d be one step ahead of me.”

“I’ve been in contact with Amanda. You shouldn’t have done it, Griff.”

“Neither should you. Why don’t we call it a good business decision and leave it at that?”

A smile tugged at the edges of her mouth. “It was a good plan.”

“Had to be. We both came up with it.”

“Yeah, we did.” She laughed again, and the heaviness weighting down his heart this last weekend seemed to ease.

From the side of her desk, she lifted an empty carton and placed it on top. His stomach twisted again. Once she made a decision, Chelsie obviously didn’t waste any time implementing it.

Forcing normal conversation while she packed to desert him wasn’t easy, but he managed. “How did your parents take the news?” he asked of her parents’ reaction to her abusive marriage.

“They didn’t fault me for any of my decisions.”

“That’s because you weren’t to blame.”

She smiled. “Thanks. It took me five long years to realize that, but at least it’s behind me now.” While she spoke, she transferred her books, tape dispenser, and other belongings from her desk into the large carton. When she reached for the tiny silver frames, he knew he was in trouble.

But because the distraction kept her talking without any awkward silences, Griff let her continue. Her weekend had been as cathartic as his. He wanted to hear as much as she was willing to divulge.

“Guess what?” she asked.

The pleased tone in her voice made him wary. “What?”

“I sublet my apartment, furniture and all.” Turning away, she began to collect books from the shelf behind the desk. “Before I left, I put up a sign. Someone left a message while I was away. Two law students love the area and were waiting for an opening in my building.”

“When do they want to move in?”

“The end of the month,” she said.

Two weeks away. “What made you decide to do that?”

She turned away from the bookshelves and she looked at him. “I don’t need it anymore.”

“I don’t understand.”

“It’s simple. I realized exactly why I’d chosen that apartment and decorated it the way I had—for the same reasons I pulled away from my sister and never allowed myself to get too close to Alix. All that crystal and glass told me every day that there would never be a child in my life.”