Page 39 of Save Me the Trouble
“Mrs. Crown.”
“Diane,” she addressed and then swung her large, white-framed eyes to me. Killian’s eyes were the same color. “And you must be Miss Johnson.”
I stood. “Yes, I’m?—”
“Miss Johnson, this is Mrs. Loretta Crown,” Diane interrupted again, like she didn’t even want me to speak in the woman’s presence for the offense I’d caused by falling in love with her grandson.
“It’s a pleasure to meet you,” I said anyway, watching those crystal-studded glasses give me a good, long once-over like she was inspecting a gem for cut, quality, and clarity.
Part of me wondered how I’d measured up compared to the women Killian’s profile was matching with. The other part of me—still sore from the way he’d irreparably marked my body and my heart last night—didn’t care.
“Mrs. Crown, I was just about to make it very clear how I and Embers feel about her actions toward your grandson and the necessary measures we will take?—”
“Please, let me spare you the measures.” This time, I interrupted her. “I came here to resign. I’m grateful for the opportunity I had here, but if there’s one thing I’ve learned, it’s that love can’t be…calculated or predicted. No matter how hard I tried.”
Diane let out a loud scoff of disbelief, but I felt it roll right off my shoulders and the promise Killian had made me.
I’ve got you.
“I’m sorry for letting you down, Ms. Close.” I turned. “Mrs. Crown. I went into this job fully prepared to find someone to fall in love with your grandson. I just wasn’t prepared for that person to be me.”
I spun and headed for the door, stopping when Mrs. Crown’s voice rang out, “Wait.”
I turned slowly, for the first time feeling my heart start to thud in the middle of my throat. Again, she looked me over like she was preparing to dismember me, and I tried to reconcile that with the woman who’d given Killian a second chance when he’d almost lost everything.
“Miss Johnson.” She slid an envelope from her purse. “I looked into you. Your family. Your past.”
My eyes widened.
“In this envelope, you’ll find a check in the amount of double what you still owe in student loans.”
Double? But that was?—
Hopefully, I was the only one who heard my jaw hit the floor.
Mrs. Crown extended the envelope to me to take, so I did, but my hands were shaking too badly to open it.
“I don’t understand,” I stammered and looked to Diane, but she seemed just as surprised as I did. “Why are you doing this—giving me this?”
“It’s not a gift, it’s an offer,” she clarified sharply. “You’ll be free of your loans and able to complete your program. On me.”
“And what do you want in return?”
Her chin lifted. “I want you to never see my grandson again.”
Suddenly, the weight of the paper envelope felt as heavy as a two-ton stone.
“You’ll be debt-free. You’ll be able to get your degree—get whatever job you want with no financial strain hanging over you.”
But without Killian.
“Everything you’d dreamed of and more before you took this position. It’ll be like this blip never happened.”
Never happened.
Like dancing the YMCA in Killian’s office never happened. Like jogging through Seattle never happened. Like talking into the midnight hours never happened. Like last night…like falling in love had never happened.
I lifted my gaze to her shrewd one. “Someone once told me that to the caterpillar, building his cocoon must, in that moment, feel like he or she is digging her own grave. That it’s the end.” I swallowed, watching the old woman’s eyes turn wide as I returned her own tale to her. “Eventually, she sees that the cocoon wasn’t the end, but the path to a new beginning.”
