Chapter 36      

 

Moira drove home on automatic pilot. Part of her couldn’t believe Chase was ending things between them after everything they’d experienced together. It was exactly what she’d feared, but she’d thought their love was stronger than that. She’d thought he was committed to finding a way for them to be together without compromising their careers.

After hearing how horribly his ex-wife had betrayed him, she was afraid he’d never truly be able to trust her. Hadn’t he proven that at the bar when he’d grabbed the folder from her hand? He had deep issues influencing his life, but it wasn’t her responsibility to fix them.

She wasn’t even sure she could.

When she pulled into her garage, she stayed in her car. God, Caroline was inside there with J.T. She thought about going to Natalie’s house, but this was her house, dammit. All she wanted to do was curl up in her bed.

The door to the garage opened, and she saw Caroline and J.T. in the doorway. Fully clothed, thank God. Her sister jogged forward and opened her car door.

“Moira, are you all right?”

She shook her head. “It’s over. He’s leaving. He…” Oh, God, the pain was rising over her, as unstoppable as a tide.

“Oh, honey,” Caroline said, leaning down to her level. “Come on. We’ll get you into a hot shower, and then you can tell me all about it.”

She wasn’t sure she wanted to talk about it at all. Right now she was desperate to forget the way Chase had clutched Barney to his chest while telling her they were through. How could that stupid man love a cat and not her?

“He’s a fucker,” she told Caroline, letting her sister help her out of the car.

“Of course he is,” Caroline said, putting her arm around her and leading her inside. “How could he possibly leave you if he wasn’t?”

“Tell me who he is,” J.T. said, “and I’ll beat the crap out of him.”

“Chase Parker, CFO extraordinaire, hothead, and stupidest man on the planet,” she told him.

“Consider it done,” J.T. said. “But I feel like I might have added to his bad day.”

Right now she didn’t care. “Doesn’t excuse him.”

But her rage sloughed off inside the shower, replaced by a deep sadness that sent tears cascading down her cheeks. Caroline finally pulled her from the shower and dried her off as she cried. Then she wrapped her in a fuzzy pink robe, laid her on her bed, and put her arms around her.

“He’s so stupid,” Moira repeated over and over again. “I can’t believe I fell in love with him.”

She fell asleep with everything hurting, and when she woke up in the morning, she was sure lead had filled her veins. Caroline was gone, and she felt tears pool in her eyes when she remembered her sister’s kindness the night before.

She needed coffee and another hot shower. Today, she’d take it easy and wash Chase out of her hair, so to speak. Tomorrow she’d start anew at Artemis and focus on all of the good stuff in her life.

Leaving her bedroom, she heard whispering coming from the kitchen. When she entered, J.T. and Caroline looked up. Both were still wearing their clothes from the night before. An empty bottle of wine and two glasses sat between them.

“Have you two been up all night?” she asked.

Caroline rose from her chair and hugged her, not saying anything. When Moira shifted her gaze to J.T., she caught him frowning. He’d said something last night about adding to Chase’s bad day. She wondered…no, Chase was no longer her concern.

“I’m making coffee,” she said after releasing Caroline. “Want some?”

J.T. nodded and rose. “I’m going to take a shower and change, if that’s okay. I need to leave soon as well, but I’ll take that coffee to go.”

She looked at the two of them. “You’re just going to leave too?” What was wrong with some men? Suddenly she wasn’t so sure about J.T.

“I’m going to give Chase a ride to D.C.,” J.T. told her somberly. “Evan and I have a plan. I can’t promise I’ll be able to change his mind on the personal front, but I’ll do my best. I can be pretty persuasive when I put my mind to it.”

Shocked, she watched him wink at her and then leave the kitchen.

“What in the hell?” she asked.

Caroline wrapped her arm around her waist and said, “Isn’t he wonderful?”

Moira planned to reserve judgment after her own experience with Chase.