Page 103 of Love Around the Corner
“But you picked Adams because of Finch,” Gemma pointed out.
“That’s true.” She swallowed hard. Admitting it to herself had been hard enough. Admitting it to her sisters? Brutal. “But I also picked it because I was scared. Because I didn’t want to leave.”
Jess and Gemma both looked back at her in silence. Then Gemma’s eyes filled with tears. “Oh, babe, why would you do that to yourself?”
“I didn’t realize I was.” She didn’t want to tell her sisters that it was Nick’s accusations that sparked her revelation. They hated him enough already. “We lost Mom so quickly. And our whole family changed overnight.”
Gemma swiped at her nose and Jess sniffed loudly.
“But once we were past the worst, and we were still standing, Dad and the three of us, I didn’t want it to change any more. I wasafraidof it changing again.”
Jess reached for her hand, squeezing hard. “Livie, you’re too smart to hold yourself back this way.”
“I know. I know that now. Janet gave me the reason I was looking for to stay. But she’s...well, she’s gone now. And I need to do what’s best for me.”
Jess and Gemma exchanged a glance. It hung there, unspoken in the quiet kitchen. Livie missed them so much already, and she hadn’t even left yet.
Then Gemma set a hand on her shoulder. “Then that means you have to go, babe.”
Chapter Forty-Two
Nick ended up staying three more days in San Jose. He wanted to leave the instant his feelings had flattened him like a bulldozer, but as much as he hated it, he’d committed to getting the stupid site up, and bailing on Luke would have been a dick move. The minute they launched their first successful test, though, he packed up and left, leaving Luke to clean up the rest of the little details.
In the cab at JFK, he gave the driver the Romanos’ address first, forgetting for a second that he didn’t live there anymore. He had to retrieve the address of his new place from his email.
Once he arrived, he dumped his backpack and surveyed it. He didn’t know shit about interior design, but the place looked amazing—transformed. The furniture was all neutral and plush, with colorful rugs and throw pillows to keep it from looking too sterile. Unlike that hard leather couch in his old place—the one Poppy was in love with—this one looked actually comfortable to sit on. He still couldn’t tell if it was taupe or sand, but he liked it.
The thing he liked best was that it undeniably looked like his place, even though he’d had no idea what his home would look like.Hecouldn’t figure out what that looked like, but somehow those Romanos had. There was a time perceptiveness like that would have had him frantically searching for an exit, desperate to put some distance between him and anybody who might get close enough to really know him. But he was done with running.
Only one thing gave him pause. When he opened the door to what would be his office, expecting it to be empty, all his computer equipment was already there and set up. He’d left it all at the Romanos’. And apparently, they’d brought it back, severing his last tie with them. It was a punch to the gut, another reminder that he might have broken things beyond repair, on many fronts.
Well, the beautifully decorated apartment gave him exactly the opening he needed. He’d been trying to call Livie for three days to no avail. Either she was ignoring his calls or she’d blocked him.
But if he couldn’t reach one Romano sister, he’d try another, and now he had a perfect excuse.
Gemma didn’t pick up right away, and for a second, he was afraid she might have blocked him, too, but right before it rolled to voice mail, she spoke.
“What the hell do you want?”
“The apartment looks great, Gemma. Thank you.”
She snorted in disgust. “How’s California?”
“Over. I’m back. That’s why I called. I’m looking for Livie, but I think she blocked my number.”
Gemma’s voice was steely with fury. “Oh, that’s just great. You ditch my sister and fly away to California without a second thought and think you can sail back in and pick right back up where you left off. Meanwhile Livie’s been here handling all this shit on her own—”
“Handling what shit? What’s happened?”
“Nothing that has anything to do with you.”
“Gemma, come on. Is she okay?”
“The professor she was building her career around is never coming back, her entire PhD is hanging in the balance, and some jackass who’s got it out for her is stealing the grant money she busted her ass off to get. But it’s nothing you need to worry about. Herfamilyhas her back.”
“Are you talking about Langley? He’sstealingthe grant money?”
She huffed, muttering, “Not that she can prove it.”
