Page 41 of So Wrong It Must Be Right

Kayla shook her head. “I don’t like this. I don’t like thinking that you’re being . . .”

“That I’m being what?”

“You’re either being fooled by this farmer guy, fooled by yourself, or maybe just blinded by your damn ambition. Not long ago you were determined you were going to buy his land. No matterwhat. How many times did you tell me that? Then you find out he was the creepy guy you were creepy emailing and—”

“He’s not creepy. It was never creepy. A little out there maybe, but not creepy.” Why she was bothering to defend herself on this point was beyond her, but it seemed imperative. Hell, if she couldn’t convince Kayla everything was normal, she wouldn’t convince a damn board member.

“It seems creepy to me. You don’t know him. He doesn’t know you. I don’t know how you could possibly think this is a good idea.”

Dinah swallowed the lump in her throat. This was not what she had planned, that was for sure. She wasn’t sure how to deal with business stuff and emotional stuff all mixed up together. She didn’t know how to face her cousin, her best friend, sitting there telling her that everything she was doing was wrong.

Kayla had always backed her up. Always agreed and supported, and Dinah didn’t know how to feel except betrayed. “So, I take it you won’t stand with me at the board meeting,” she managed to say, though her voice was tight and scratchy.

“No, I won’t. Because I think you’re making a huge mistake, and because I quit.”

“I know you think you want to—”

“No, Dinah, you don’t understand. This morning I told Dad, Grandmother, and the board that I quit. Effective immediately. I won’t be a part of Gallagher’s anymore. I don’t want to do this anymore, so I’m not going to. I can’t wait around for the perfect job. I have to get out of here and find some semblance of sanity. It’s not you, and it’s not my dad. I can’t be a part of this anymore.”

“So you’re abandoning Gallagher’s. You’re abandoning me.” Which probably wasn’t fair, but that’s what it felt like. Their whole lives they had planned to take all this on, and now she was backing out. Quitting.

“I don’t think you’ll miss me, since you don’t tell me anything anyway.”

“I would have told you.”

“Yeah? When?”

Dinah didn’t have a good answer for that. She didn’t have an answer for any of this. It felt like her father leaving all over again. It felt like . . . She didn’t know. Things kept changing and people kept leaving. Everything that Gallagher’s was supposed to be was going all wrong, and no matter how hard she tried to fight it, everything seemed to unravel.

Kayla stood up, and that was when Dinah realized she’d been packing a box of things from her office.

“I’m sure I’ll see you around. If I’m allowed at family gatherings. Grandmother was pretty angry.”

“So we’re just . . . done. Not friends anymore. Not partners. Just ‘maybe I’ll see you at a family gathering’?” Dinah’s mouth wavered and tears threatened, but she fought them back with everything she had.

Kayla paused her uncharacteristic outburst, and Dinah held her breath. Surely Kayla would see this was all wrong. How on earth could she be quitting?

“You know what? I can’t do this now.”

“So you quit, and you leave, and you run away. How very brave of you, Kayla,” Dinah threw at her, because she didn’t know how to be hurt without pretending she wasn’t, but her pretending was failing her.

“I’ve never been brave, Dinah. If I ever have a chance of being that, I have to get out of Gallagher’s and . . .”

“And what?”

“And you. I’m sorry, but I have followed you around like a puppy and let you tell me what’s right and . . . I have to figure out who I am. Not who you want me to be.” With that, Kayla sidestepped her and walked right out of the office.

Dinah could only stand, frozen. She felt unjustly accused and angry and sad and hurt and a whole slew of things she didn’t have the emotional capacity to unravel.

She forced herself to take a breath and then another. She would not cry at work. She would not break down at work. She never had before, and she wouldn’t start now. Kayla was having a personal crisis and she needed some space. Well, Dinah would give it to her for once.

Maybe Kayla was even right. Maybe they both needed a break from each other.

The tears threatened harder but Dinah blinked them away and focused on Gallagher’s, because that was the thing that stood the test of time. People? Not so much. But a name and a place? Absolutely.

Kayla could think Dinah’s idea was a mistake, but Dinahknewthe deal with Carter was a good idea for all of them. She wouldn’t be deterred from her conviction. She would sit down and she would work on a presentation for the board, even if Carter hadn’t agreed yet.

He would. He had to. He had to understand this was the best thing for all of them—Gallagher’s, and her and him, and even Kayla and Craig, damn it. The board would understand. Her idea made business sense, and the board wouldn’t let personal bullshit cloud their vision.

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