Page 66 of So Wrong It Must Be Right

“Because I’ve been where you are, had to make the decisions you have to make, and I know how to make it work. I’m taking an active role, because my inactive role with my sons was not sufficient.”

“You said you and Grandpa grew to love each other.” Dinah didn’t know why she kept circling back to that, but she’d seen their love. Recognized it.

“That happens when you marry someone. You live with them for years and have their children. Love can be grown, Dinah. It doesn’t have to exist from the second you meet someone.”

Dinah let that sit. The thing was . . . love had grown between her and Carter from that first email to their first meeting and everything in between. It felt fast, but it had been a surprisingly slow and careful process.

One that had given her what Gallagher’s and her family never had: comfort and care. Someone who concerned himself with what she was feeling—not just what was best for Gallagher’s.

It was weird to think about having kids in this moment, but she did want kids in the future. She wanted them to feel the same connection to Gallagher’s that she did, but now she wasn’t so sure she wanted to force these kinds of expectations on her future children. She wasn’t sure she wanted to fall in love with someoneaftershe’d had his children.

She just wasn’t sure about anything. She sat next to her grandmother and took a deep breath. “Are you happy, Grandmother? Is this what you dreamed of when you married someone you didn’t love and had kids and worked relentlessly for Gallagher’s? Is this what you pictured and wanted?”

“Oh, Dinah, life is never what we picture or imagine. Even when it is.”

Those words hit. Hard. So much like what Kayla and Carter had been saying to her lately. That plans don’t always work out, and maybe they shouldn’t.

She would never walk away from Gallagher’s. Itwasher soul, but did that mean things needed to go exactly according to plan? Did she really have to be director of operations to be happy here?

Her hands shook, her eyes pricking with tears at the thought, but there was a kind oflightnesswith this question. A heavy weight lifted.

She glanced at her grandmother, who was watching Gallagher’s with a certain reverence Dinah understood. She felt it too.

But it hit her with a certain clarity that she didn’t want to be in her eighties looking at a building like it was her child. She wanted to be looking at her children and her grandchildren, feeling like she’d done right by them, like she’d done right by herself.

She wanted relationships that fulfilled her heart,andthis place that was her soul. But not one at the cost of the other.

“I’m going to keep seeing Carter. I’m in love with him, and if that means I don’t get the director of operations job, that’s fine. I’ll stay on in whatever role you and Craig allow me.” In the silent aftermath of that blurting of information, an odd noise came out of her. Fear shot through her, but she didn’t open her mouth to retract her words.

She didn’t want to.

“And if I threatened to fire you if you continue to see him?”

Dinah hadn’t seen that threat coming, though she probably should have. But the answer was simple. It was always her answer. “I’ll fight you. I’ll take it to the board. To anyone who’ll listen. This is my rightful place. If my choice of romantic partner is your only reason for keeping me away from here, then I will do everything in my power to fight you, because that is wrong. I know it’s wrong.” A belief. A certainty. No one could take those things away from her.

She was sure. She just had to have someflexiblesurety. She had to step away from the life she’d always planned, and work on the life shewanted.

“You’ll lose, Dinah.”

“I won’t stop fighting, Grandmother. And you can’t live forever.”

Grandmother eyed her and Dinah couldn’t read her expression, but she didn’t back down. She would fight for Gallagher’s. And she would fight for Carter. They couldn’t make her choose, because she would never give up on Gallagher’s even if they fired her. She would never give up on Carter even if he hated her.

Because she loved them both, and even if it took her whole damn life, she wouldn’t give them up.

* * *

Carter had a lot of regrets in his life. Mostly ones that he hadn’t really been able to control or do anything about. There was a weird kind of freedom in those regrets. He hadn’t been able to do anything about them. They were what they were, and that was life.

His regrets about Dinah were far different, and he couldn’t brush them aside as though there was nothing he could do. There was no doubt in his mind he was at least a little bit to blame in this whole situation.

Maybe if he’d needed less from her, or healed that hurt he’d lived so many times, he would’ve been able to do the things she asked. He could’ve had a secret relationship, he could have believed, he could love, even knowing he’d never be the one she chose.

But what would it hurt him to pretend? What would it hurt him to have a secret relationship with her? All it would hurt was his pride and, well, maybe a little bit more than that. But was pride so important? He could have her if he wanted her.

Somehow he couldn’t get over the feeling that it would all be pointless someday. Because he knew choices came whether you wanted them to or not, and ultimatums were made, and life didn’t always make compromise possible. Sometimes life kicked you in the balls and made you take the hard way out.

He didn’t want to be the carnage in her hard way out someday. Maybe it wasn’t fair, but he couldn’t get over what he felt. As much as he loved her, he understood the love she had for Gallagher’s. It would always be a threat to their relationship.

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