Page 81 of Stay

The applause sounds muffled in my ears as I hurry out the door to chase Charlie and Sinclair down. There’s no way I can let them leave without apologizing to them first.

“Sir!” I yell, running through the lobby. But I stop dead in my tracks when I see him talking furiously with Jaedyn, who looks like he’s just been kicked in the balls.

“We will not work with a company who is so disrespectful and disgusting. Tell Noah the deal is off.”

I freeze in the middle of the lobby.

No.

NO!

Charlie doesn’t even see me as he puts his arm protectively around his wife and escorts her out of the building.

Chapter 26

Haley

I find Cole sitting in the lobby with his face buried in his hands.

My heart drops.

“Cole?”

“Give me a minute.” His voice is ragged and deep. His knee bobs fast and he looks like he’s going to explode.

“Haley.” The head of catering heads over to me. “Last call on the open bar, in case you want to let everyone know.”

“Just break it down,” I say. No need to make another announcement. My focus is only on Cole, fuck all else. Pulling up a chair, I sit with him and fold my hands in my lap.

We don’t speak.

I don’t even know what to say. I’m not even sure what happened that would make him this devastated, but the possibilities flying through my imagination aren’t good.

“They pulled the deal,” he says gruffly. “The Marine Life building. They pulled it because of Noah.”

My heart breaks for him. “Cole, I’m so sorry.”

“Don’t apologize for shit you didn’t do.” He leans back and sighs. “I knew it was too good to be true. I knew I shouldn’t have been this happy before we broke ground.”

“This isn’t your fault, Cole. You deserve that deal. You deserve to be happy.” Hopping up, I look around, preparing to help him anyway I can. “I’m going to talk with them. It was the guy with the silver hair, right? With the woman in that purple gown?”

“Sit down, Haley.” His voice is gruff. “They already left.”

Damn. I drop back into the chair, at a loss for what to do.

He grabs my hand, squeezing it. “Thank you.”

“I didn’t do anything.”

“You were going to. That’s just as good.” His hand is warm and heavy in mine. “You know the irony of this is, I was going to quit.”

“What?”

Cole nods. “I had plans to quit at the start of the New Year. And that project made me toss those plans in the trash. I was willing to stay, to put up with Noah and his bullshit, because I wanted that success so fucking bad.”

He can still have that success without Noah.

“I didn’t know he had a drug problem.” Cole stares at the carpet. “But now that I’m looking back, the signs were there. I just didn’t notice them because I always kept my nose to the drafting board, busting my ass, hoping for my big break.”

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