Page 26 of So Wrong It Must Be Right

Carter smiled and pointed toward his late-season melons in the back. “Yeah. Come with me.”

Chapter 8

Dinah had felt strange all day. Distracted. Confused. Daydreamy. All things she almost never was. Though if Craig or Grandmother noticed, they didn’t say anything, which in Dinah’s estimation meant they didn’t notice.

Butshenoticed, and it was irritating the hell out of her that she could be distracted at the worst possible moment.

She raked her fingers through her hair, sitting at Kayla’s desk, scowling at Craig’s list of bitch chores for her, and far too often drifting off into memories of this morning. It was so much better than calling some distributor to turn the screws, or running to the post office.

This morning Carter had made herbegfor release. She was pretty sure she had a bite mark on her shoulder. She knew she’d left a few marks on him. She tried to fight away a smile. She was atwork. She could not be smiling over sex. Especially not over sex withthatpartner.

“This is the last thing you can be thinking about, Dinah Gallagher,” she muttered aloud, trying to kick her brain into full-focused gear.

“What is?”

Dinah jerked in her seat and made a little screech of surprise. “Kayla. You scared me.”

“I gathered,” Kayla said with a smile as she stepped into the office and closed the door behind her. “You don’t usually mutter to yourself so much unless Dad’s been by, and I know he’s been off-site all afternoon. What on earth has you so worked up?”

Oh, just fucking Carter Trask. No, not as an adjective. As a verb. No big deal. We’re two separate personalities.Dinah barely resisted the urge to groan again. “I’m . . .”

“Worried?” Kayla asked, her eyebrows drawing together, her fingers linking, everything about her expression and posture radiating concern—and something Dinah couldn’t quite put her finger on.

“No.” Which was a lie, and she did hate to lie to Kayla, but Kayla was . . . softer. She needed someone very certain and strong to hold her up. That had always been Dinah’s role.

“You don’t need to worry about my welfare, because I’ve decided to start looking for other jobs.”

“Kayla!” Dinah pushed away from Kayla’s desk, sputtering and advancing on her cousin.

But Kayla straightened her shoulders and didn’t cower at all. “This place is making me miserable, and—”

“Butwe’reGallagher’s!”

“No, Dinah. I’m . . . me. I’m tired of all this business. I’m tired of Gallagher’s and the restaurant and I’m tired of the way our family gives everything to this pile of brick and metal without ever giving anything to each other.”

“Hey, that isn’t fair. I—”

“I don’t mean you, Dinah, but . . .”

“But what?”

Kayla rubbed her fingers over her forehead. “You’re on your way. You’re on your way to giving everything to this, and I don’t like it for you, but most especially I don’t like it for me. I tried to tell you last night and . . . I can’tdothis.”

“Why are you giving him what he wants?” Dinah very nearly pounded a fist on Kayla’s desk, except just in time the gesture reminded her of her father. And Craig.

She swallowed, cradling her clenched fist instead trying to figure out how Kayla could betray her like this. “How can you walk away?”

“Because I care more about my sanity than a name on a building, Dinah. I don’t want to be them in twenty years. I don’t want to be themnow. I want . . . a life. One that doesn’t require fighting my father every step of the way.”

“That’s what he wants!”

“I don’t care,” Kayla burst out in return, flinging her arms in the air. “You don’t seem to get it, and you get to keep fighting, I’m not sayingyoushouldn’t, but I’m not going to. I don’t care who wants what, I’m tired of being miserable for abuilding.”

“It’s more than a building. It’s our family. Our birthright. Our blood and roots are in this restaurant.”

“For you,” Kayla returned, firm and somehow hurt, or something very close. “I don’t feel the same way anymore.”

“You did.”

---