Page 36 of Two Wrongs

Something in me snaps. I stand up so fast my chair clatters to the ground. I’ve got his shirt in my fist before he even registers that I’ve come around my desk, and I’m leaning him back over his chair. “Do not fucking talk about Wren like she’s some slut I picked up in a bar.”

He knocks my hand away, and gives me a shove back. “Get a grip, Griff. You’re falling for her, and you can’t let that happen.”

I force myself to go back a few steps and lean against the filing cabinet. “How many times are you going to lecture me on what this will do to my son? I fucking get it okay? Do you want me to admit I’m falling for her? We both know I am. Hell, I think you’ve known it for longer than I have. But, do not question what I’m willing to give up for my son. If I have to cut out my heart to keep him safe, I’ll fucking do it.”

Charlie shakes his head. “Do you hear yourself? She’s your heart now?”

My teeth grind and ache with how hard I clench my jaw. “It doesn’t matter. She needs to get out of this town. I won’t hold her here like Liam did.”

“What are you talking about? They fell in love and got married. I don’t think she should have given up her scholarship just because he lost his, but that was her choice.”

“Bullshit. She wasn’t given a choice, not a real one.” I force myself to take a breath and shove down the anger bubbling up. “I’d never heard the story from her perspective before. Seems my son has lied to her for longer than the last six months. He told her he put off his scholarship to stay with her, because he didn’t want her to be alone after she lost her parents. Then when it was time to go to school he wouldn’t go with her.”

Charlie’s shoulders slump. “I didn’t know.”

“What difference would it have made if either of us had known?” I ask.

“I doubt you would have spent the last five years treating her like shit if you’d known. I don’t know if I’d have kept the boy’s secret about his cheating. She could have had an entirely different life, Griff. Liam is your boy, hell he feels like mine too, but Wren is part of this family. We both watched her change from a teenager to an adult. I was friends with her dad, so I’ve known her a lot longer.”

“The truth is, I’m not sure I would have done anything different. If I thought it would make her leave, I’d treat her the same way I did,” I admit.

“It was never about Liam, was it?”

I shake my head. “She’s always been meant for more than the life she can have in this town.”

Turning the chair I knocked over back upright, I sit back down. “That isn’t the bad news you are struggling to figure out how to tell me.”

“Our insurance won’t cover the costs of the rehab.”

It’s a good thing I’m sitting or I’d fall over. “How much?”

“Fifteen thousand, and they need half up front,” he says.

“We’re running in the negative here at the shop thanks to Liam’s creative accounting practices. Reordering all those parts at our expense, and refunding the overcharged customers is more than we had on hand. I had to take out a line of credit against the business to cover it. And in order to pay that back, I had to cancel the new equipment we ordered.”

Charlie looks over his shoulder, out the window of the door. “We’re going to have to lay off the kid, aren’t we?”

I nod. “We’re basically fucked. I am taking a pay cut to try and prevent letting Julio go, but that means—“

“You don’t have the money,” Charlie concludes. He pinches the bridge of his nose. “Shit.”

“You just realized I need to go talk to Wren, didn’t you?” I ask.

“Just don’t slip and let your dick fall into her,” he jokes.

“I make no promises. The way my kid keeps fucking up my life, she’s the only person keeping me sane.”

He holds his hands up in surrender. “I don’t like it, but I do understand. But, forget what I said about hurting Liam, don’t hurt Wren. She’s been through enough.”

* * *

I hurryover to the insurance office to catch Wren as she’s closing the office for lunch. Before she moved out, she used to head home to make herself something to save money. I don’t know what she’s been doing the last couple of weeks since Dolores lives a bit farther away from the office. Not that Harriston is a booming metropolis, but we’ve definitely mastered the art of suburban sprawl. People here like their space. It’s one of the few luxuries most of us enjoy.

She steps out of the office at exactly twelve o’clock, and is so focused on locking the door she doesn’t see me leaning against my truck. I wait for her to look over, but she’s totally oblivious.

“I know it’s pretty safe here, but you should still be more aware of your surroundings,” I say, alerting her to my presence.

Wren jumps and turns around. With her hand over her heart, she leans forward to catch her breath. “Damnit! You scared the shit out of me. I swear, I see you more now than when I was actually part of the family.”

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