Page 40 of Fool’s Gold

Matt sighed. “Yeah, but I was still part of the company. It doesn’t matter whose fault it was. And then I stepped up to try to turn things around, but it wasn’t enough. Too little too late maybe? I don’t know. Maybe it’s ridiculous to think I could have done anything.” He shrugged. “Or maybe the idle hours are getting to me.” He forced a laugh. “You know I’ve never taken a day of vacation time?”

“Gross.” Irvine tossed a wadded-up straw wrapper at him. “That’s what boyfriends are for.”

Darrow stuck his tongue out at him. “You were just as bad when you showed up.”

“Why do you think I’m chewing him out now? He needs to learn from my mistakes.”

The other guys laughed. Matt just looked down into his beer.

It was Darrow who frowned. “Matt, where’s Jack?”

“On another assignment, probably.” He feigned nonchalance because it seemed safest.

“I’ve known him for years. I’ve never seen him stick around like he did after the wreck. There’s no way he’d be on another assignment.” Irvine stared blankly into Matt’s eyes. “Where is he really?”

“It’s true.” Morales looked down. “I’m not sure what’s up, but he basically just stuck around to say goodbye after the wreck. He didn’t want to just ghost.”

“That’s not...” Kingston took a breath. “I’m not calling you a liar. I’m just saying it’s out of character, okay?”

Matt shrugged. “In or out, it’s what happened. His assignment was to play boyfriend. The board terminated his contract when they terminated my employment. He wasn’t all that interested in sticking around afterward. And it’s fine. I was a job, not anything real. I didn’t expect more.”

Irvine pursed his lips. “He was a job.” He jerked his head toward Darrow. “Now look at us.”

Darrow put his hand over Irvine’s. “Maybe we’re a special case. It’s not like we were strangers—or like it was easy.”

Matt relaxed. It hadn’t been personal.

Kingston frowned deeper. “But me and Owen, wewerestrangers. And now we’re heading off for the sunset. And you and Eric, well, that’s a special case, but you were strangers too.”

Matt contemplated his beer, and the possibilities of crawling into his pint glass and drowning in it.

“We’ve all had jobs that didn’t end like fairy tales too.” Dan cleared his throat and glanced over at Matt. “It’s okay. Sometimes things just don’t work out that way. But that doesn’t mean you’re all alone here, okay?” He scratched at his chin. “Hey, have you and your grandmother ever been to Europe?”

Matt shook his head. “No, never.”

“When you’re able to travel, why not pop on over to Corvia? Eric’s basically collecting smart people. You’ll love it.”

Matt didn’t know if Norah was feeling up to travel, but he smiled and nodded anyway. The change in topic was welcome. “I’ll talk to her about it when we chat tomorrow.”

He forced himself to fake cheer because these were good people who’d gone out of their way to make him feel welcome. He couldn’t help but feel worse about how things had ended with Jack, now that he knew they’d all found a way to make things work.

But then again, he wasn’t the kind of guy people stayed for.

CHAPTEREIGHTEEN

Jack wentto Connecticut to help out the elderly woman with the greedy descendants. Her descendants were, to a person, awful people. The ones who were actively trying to kill her were the ones living rent-free in her guest house. Apparently, they felt entitled to more than a four-bedroom, four-bath palace with their utilities and snow removal covered. Her extended family felt they were entitled to it too.

Jack helped her and her lawyer craft a will turning her estate into a cat sanctuary after her death, leaving just enough to each relative to prevent them from contesting the will. He made sure that everyone involved with the attempted murder was going to jail, in some cases to the infirmary section first. Dolores, the elderly woman in question, insisted he take two of the first cats she sheltered.

He couldn’t say no to the lady, under the circumstances. And while Jack didn’t actually have a home of his own, he did know some people who could stand to have some more life and love in their lives. He gave Ken Irvine a call.

“The client gave you cats as a tip? That’s the weirdest payment I’ve ever heard of. How do you declare it on your taxes?”

Jack snorted. “You don’t. I gave Uncle Sam most of my soul; he doesn’t get a penny extra out of me.”

Irvine cackled delightedly. “Fair enough. I hadn’t thought of it quite that way. I’ll be sure to frame it like that for the accountant. What are you going to do with the cats?”

“I don’t know. I was kind of hoping you and Sam would take them. Or at least one.” His throat stopped working for a second. “I think one of them—both of them really—would be great companions for Matt and Norah, but I’m not sure how to get them to him.”

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