Page 62 of So Wrong It Must Be Right

That was the tricky part, and she hadn’t quite worked out everything. With more time to think and plan she could make it sound better. She worried her hands together, trying to find the right words. The not-insulting words.

“You don’t have a plan, do you?” he said, his voice so quiet and so final. How could he be so easily discouraged?

“Yes, I do. I’m just working out how to explain it.”

He narrowed his eyes at her suspiciously, and she almost couldn’t blame him for that. It didn’t exactly sound good. Maybe she should just say it instead of trying to find the perfect combination of words. “I guess the bottom line is that there’s no reason Grandmother has to know we’re together.”

“How is that a plan?”

“All we have to do is hide our relationship for little while. It doesn’t mean we actually have to be apart. She just has to think we are.”

“Your uncle followed you. I actually think we would very much have to be apart to convince anyone of our being apart.”

“But once I replace Craig, it won’t matter. They won’t re-replace me with him.”

“Why not?”

Frustration was starting to mount. It seemed he had a question for everything. Couldn’t he trust her? Couldn’t hebelieve? “Because they will see what an excellent job I’m doing and how much better I am than he was.”

“That is so incredibly optimistic.”

“You don’t understand the family dynamics here, and you don’t understand how important Gallagher’s is. Once they see what I can do in that position, they won’t want anyone else in it.”

“So, just to get this all straight, your plan as to how to get both things you want is to pretend like you don’t have one of them. And I’m supposed to go along with being your dirty little secret?”

She frowned. She wasn’t sure she’d ever get used to how easy it was for him to hurt her. She usually had a thick skin, but something about him, or love, made everything seem pointed. Harsh. “It’s not like that.”

Still, she couldn’t give in to that hurt, because that would be admitting some kind of defeat, and she refused. She kneeled in front of him, because he had to see. “It’s not about being a dirty little secret. It’s not about being ashamed. It’s just working around them because they’re wrong. Grandmother is wrong.”

He rubbed a hand over his face before looking down at her, and she knew that even though he wasn’t falling into line quite as she’d like, he was feeling all this too. It wasn’t easy for him.

“Is she?”

Another few words that seemed to lance hard and sharp, right where it would hurt most. “How can you tell me you love me and ask me that at the same time?”

He shook his head and looked away, and panic bubbled up, but she wasn’t going to let panic win. She was right. All of the things she’d accomplished were because she wasright, because she had believed without a shadow of a doubt she was the correct party. If it had worked her whole life so far, how could she stop believing that if she felt it was right, she just had to keep pushing?

“I know my grandmother seems like this crazy and perhaps formidable person. But she’s just . . . wrong. She doesn’t understand everything. You don’t understand Gallagher’s itself, but you understand me. And how much it means. I wouldn’t be talking about compromise if you didn’t mean so much.”

“I know. I’d go so far as to say your dedication to that place is one of the things I love about you. But, Dinah, if everyone there is going keep putting us at odds, I don’t know how we keep doing this. Eventually you’re going to have to choose. One or the other.”

He was so earnest, so sure in his defeat, but she refused to be. She refused to acknowledge defeat. “No, I do not. I’ll keep finding compromises and ways around it. I know I will.”

“I appreciate your optimism, I do, but I don’t know that I can match it. I don’t know that I can be . . . You’re asking me to believe our relationship is something you’re never going to walk away from. But I know the thing you’re never going to walk away from is Gallagher’s, and I wouldn’twantyou to. But, eventually, you’ll come to that point. That’s how life works. You’ll have to choose between this life you always planned and this,” he said, gesturing to the distance between them.

He was so earnest, and she knew he was being honest and open, but he waswrong. Why couldn’t he see he was wrong?

“I’ve been where you are, Dinah. Maybe not with a romantic relationship, but I know what it’s like to go up against people you love and work with. You want to believe you can handle whatever comes, and I want to believe too, but I’ve been down the road too many times to actually think . . .”

She rested her hand on his knee and squeezed, hoping some physical contact would get through to him. “I will be in charge once this all goes through, and then I can do whatever I want.”

“You really think so?”

“Why are you being such a pessimist?” she demanded in frustration, letting her hand slide off his knee. She needed to ball it into a fist to try to keep her irritation at bay.

“Because that is who I am.” He reached out and touched her face and she leaned into that rough, gentle touch.

“I’m not giving up on this.” She couldn’t. It was . . . so wonderful to be in love. It was scary, but exhilarating. Hard, but just . . . the moments like this, leaning into him, talking, it was more than she’d imagined that love would be. It was big. It was a challenge, but damn, she was good with a challenge.

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