Page 20 of Room Seventeen

I bite my lip and stare at the checks in front of me. One is my normal two weeks’ salary, the other is a severance check that is more than ten times my normal pay. It would set me up for months or longer, considering I get paid double what a normal executive assistant makes in this town. “It’s not you guys. I love my job.”

“Then why did you quit?” Xander reiterates Darian’s question.

“Especially without notice.” There’s a pain in Garrett’s voice that pushes a solitary tear out of my eye.

“I scheduled some interviews and sent you potential replacements resumes. Did you interview any of them?”

“Don’t worry about your replacement and answer the question.” Xander’s hands are clenched into fists on the table.

Throughout all of this, Darian watches me and says nothing.

Swallowing the lump in my throat, I drop my chin to my chest and lean back in my chair, hoping the shadows in the room will somehow obscure my face. “I’ve been without family for a long time, so the reunion was a big deal. It was my one chance to feel wanted and cherished by a family I’ve desperately wanted for a long time. And it was… amazing.”

I press my lips together and study my hands in my lap, memories of having these men’s hands on me heating my skin and bringing a blush to my cheeks. “But when I came home, I realized that a one-time reunion wasn’t reality, and the family I’m desperate to have, the people I’m desperate to love, well… they have their own lives to live, and making space for me isn’t realistic.”

No one says a word, so I continue. “This epiphany hurt, but it also made me realize that I need to get out of here. Out of this town. Out of my own head. The only thing tethering me to this place is my job—which again, I love—so I had to quit.”

“You’re leaving town?” Xander asks.

I shrug. “I thought I’d travel across the country for a while.”

“More like run away,” Darian grits out, his jaw clenched and muscles flexing.

I glance over at him, but he’s not looking at me. Instead, his gaze is fixed on the table.

“You want family?” Garrett says, his face softening for the first time. “Why not us? Aren’t we a family?”

I can’t stop the tears from rolling down my cheeks. “You guys have been so good to me. I care about you more than you know—”

“And we care about you.” His voice softens with every word.

“I think we care about each other in different ways.” I choke out.

Garrett stands up and walks around the table, dropping to his knee beside me. “Don’t leave us, Car. We need you.”

“If she wants to leave, we have to let her go,” Darian says with cold indifference.

I drop my head, fresh tears spilling out of my eyes. I don’t know what else I expected him to say, but it hurts all the same.

Xander stands abruptly, which brings my gaze up to watch him as he turns his back to the table. To me.

“God dammit,” Garrett grumbles and stands up, also walking away from me.

We sit in an uncomfortable silence for a minute, maybe longer, before I clear my throat and put my fingers on my paycheck. I slide it off the table and stand up, dropping it into my purse. “I guess I’ll go.”

“Take the severance check too.” Darian says.

“Why? You’re not laying me off—I quit. I don’t deserve a severance check.”

“That’s right. You quit on us, not the other way around, remember that.” Darian takes a deep breath and then brings his eyes up to me. “But I don’t want to have to worry about you while you figure your life out. So, take it.”

I shake my head, refusing him for maybe the first time, and walk backwards toward the door.

Xander turns around and pins me with a gaze that screams pain and anguish.

“I can’t let it end this way,” Garrett says from behind me, spinning me around and pulling me into his chest. He claims my mouth with all the emotion I feel, and I can’t help but melt into him. I moan as he slides his fingers into my hair, and I drop my purse and bring my arms up, wrapping them around his shoulders. I can’t get him close enough. A small cry escaping my lips as he breaks our kiss and brings his mouth to my ear. “Tell us the truth, Car. Tell us how you feel. Tell us what you want.”

I meet his eyes, my lips parted as I gasp for breath. I want to. I want to tell them I’m Ivy, tell them I love them, tell them I want forever. But Darian’s words and the conversation I overheard Sunday morning plague me. I shake my head and whisper, “I can’t.”

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