Chapter Twenty

Leah

I didn’t go to visit Sean at the hospital, but I received a mass of texts when he woke up.

But I couldn’t go see him.

Not just because it was pretty damn late, but after all of the emotions of the day, I just needed some time by myself.

To go forward with my plan.

Ma and Abuela didn’t have any airline miles that would work for the trip, so I used my last paycheck and bought a one-way ticket home, set for later in that week.

Packing my life up was different than the first time around.

I may not have lived in the flat very long, but there was something about it that was now a part of me.

This was where Sean used my shoes to explain rugby to me. It was the first place I lived without a million roommates, outside of my mother’s basement.

Tears welled in my eyes as I thought about what I was leaving.

No, not what, but who.

Dammit, Sean, why did you have to make me like you?

But was liking him enough to look past his faults?

He wanted rugby and an obedient wife. I was neither.

Even if we were having a child together, it wasn’t enough to stay.

That was the thought that constantly raked through me and brought me to the brink of tears just about every waking moment.

There was a knock at the door, kicking me out of my own thoughts. Before I could even turn, the door opened.

I cursed myself for not locking it.

In walked my wide-eyed best friend, flanked by Jack and Grace, two people who I’d never seen at my place.

“If this is some sort of intervention to get me to stay, it’s not going to work,” I muttered. Still, I let them in the apartment. After all, they did kind of own it.

“Wait, what? You’re leaving?” Fallon asked, her eyes widening as she walked into the flat. The others followed and shut the door behind them.

I nodded, looking at the ground instead of my friend and the two Murphys next to her. “Yeah. I was going to message you…”

“You know, you don’t have to leave because of what Sean said in his angry delirium because the man just broke several parts of his body. He’s not the only reason to stay,” Grace said, and I looked up to see her fidgeting from one foot to the other then looking at Jack.

He cleared his throat. “Grace and I were just in the area to look at some investment properties. New business endeavors.”

I raised an eyebrow, wondering what this had to do with Sean. Or me, for that matter. “The Murphys are becoming flippers?”

“I’m not exactly sure what you mean by that, but, no, we aren’t flipping anything. Just looking at a possible office for Grace’s small press.”

I stood up straight, clasping my hands, and I tried to muster excitement when my world was literally falling apart around me. “Oh, awesome. Fal said you guys were doing that. Congrats. Murphys really are entrepreneurs.”

Jack laughed, but it was short. “I guess you can say that. But that was all Grace before she met me. She’s always been a fighter, going for what she wants, no matter what.”

I forced a smile on the outside, but inside I was screaming.

I was always a fighter.

When my business floundered without a backer, I fought to save it, even started selling stuff online, hoping I could run it out of my mom’s basement as a virtual boutique.

But it still failed.

Then I came all the way across the ocean for a clean start, and look how that turned out. Now I was going to be right back where I started.

The fighter was now just another washed up, Southside girl. What a freaking cliché.

“Leah,” Jack started, folding his hands in front of him, his jaw tensing so his dimples poked out under those high cheek bones. If he didn’t scare me so damn much, he might be attractive.

“I don’t know if you actually put in your notice as Sean’s assistant. I’m guessing it’s a given after all that has happened.”

I let out a deep breath. Well, at least he wasn’t here just to check out the apartment. He was here to fire me, too, if I already hadn’t quit. Guess that might get me some unemployment.

If they had that in Ireland.

I froze, realizing this was the first time I’d been without a job. Without a real plan. Now it just wasn’t me taking care of myself, either.

How was I going to work, support a baby, and do this all out of my mother’s basement?

Jack raked his fingers over his meticulously styled hair. “There are other options in the company. If you want to stay, that is, which we’d like you to. No matter what happens with you and my brother…and…”

His dark blue eyes trailed over my crepe ruffle blouse and down to my pregnant stomach. But only for a second. So brief that I might not caught it if I hadn’t already noticed how often he kept glancing at her since we’d been there. Like, all of a sudden, his future niece of nephew might just pop out of me and say hi.

He eyed his wife, and they shared a knowing look before Grace nodded and softened her voice, turning back toward me. “You do know about the clause, am I right?”

I nodded, the thought of it sinking in my gut. Did these two think I was just a gold digger who was after his money? Well, I wasn’t. That’s why I was leaving.

“I’m not just going to marry a guy to get the company and a payout.”

And I wasn’t going to go for an agreement like Fallon and Connor’s, even though that had turned out better than my situation.

They were having a baby and their happily ever after.

The right way.

Of course I’d fuck it up and go about everything wrong, as usual.

“Leah,” Grace said calmly, walking toward me and lightly putting her hand on my shoulder as if she were afraid she’d break me.

“I know you’re unsure about everything with Sean and your future, but an opportunity has come up—if you’d be willing to work with me at the publishing company. I could use a graphic person, and I know you have a flair for design.”

I raised an eyebrow, my heart racing as I tried to process everything. “So you’re offering me a new job, away from Sean, to keep me around so I’ll maybe eventually forgive him or come to an agreement, then everyone gets the company and is happy?”

“Exactly,” Jack exclaimed, a little too excitedly, and I almost jumped out of my heels.

“Jack,” Grace hissed, glaring at him over her shoulder.

“What? Why dance around the subject? Once Sean is out of the hospital, he’ll go to physical therapy. Then once he’s on his feet, if he doesn’t just go right back to practice, they can elope to Vegas or wherever, and we announce it to the board before the office gets wind that she has more than the flu,” Jack said as if everything was that simple.

As if I would just go along with this plan.

As if I didn’t have a say in this.

“You know, as great as that all sounds, I think I’m going to have to pass.”

“Pardon?” Jack asked, tilting his head like he hadn’t heard me right, but I knew damn well he had.

I smiled at Grace, but the sour feeling in my stomach made it hard to do even that. “The job offer is lovely, no offense, but I think I’m going to see what job I can find on my own back in Chicago. One that doesn’t come with a marriage clause.”

“Leah, they didn’t mean it like that,” Fallon said.

I let out a breath. I should have been pissed at Jack’s words. But instead of rage, an overwhelming sadness seemed to have permanently settled over me. “I mean, you all kind of did. You just tried to say it in a nicer way, and I appreciate the pity. And I understand that you guys need this company. But I don’t think I’m the girl to help you with that.”

Fallon crossed her arms over her chest. “We’re not telling you to do anything. You’ve made up your mind, and once you’ve figured out you want something, you’ve always found a way to make it happen, from getting grants and scholarships for college with only a 2.0 GPA, to running your own business when everything you knew about fashion and boutiques came from your mom’s old magazines.”

“Yeah. And those two things didn’t end well, did they? Failing out of college. Failing at—because I obviously suck at picking business partners,” I muttered.

I wasn’t usually a girl to wallow in self-pity, but if this wasn’t the time, then when?

I’d lost all of the fight in me. Now it was just time to go home.

Fallon nodded. “That may be true, but I also wonder what would have happened if you had accepted help when offered.”

I cocked my head and glared as the hair on the back of my neck stood on end. What the hell was she getting at? Was this because I wouldn’t take Grace’s offer of employment? I didn’t need another pity job, this last one had turned out with me pregnant. I had to just go back home and figure out what to do next.

Fallon took a few steps closer. “We were roommates freshman year. I offered to tutor you. I even said I could talk with some of our professors about writing you a recommendation so you wouldn’t get kicked out. And as for the business, did you even look at getting a loan? A Latina woman starting a boutique in that area would have probably gotten you enough that you didn’t have to use that North Shore princess’s money.”

She let out a breath. “Now? You could stay here and do amazing work for Grace. We’d all be around to help you. No one says you have to stay with Sean romantically, but at least give us all a chance to help you.”

I looked up, holding back tears as my entire body trembled. “Thank you, Fal.” Including Grace and Jack, I said, “Thanks to all of you for trying. But I think it’s better if I go home, be with my mom, who can help me figure this all out.”

Jack was the first one to nod and speak. “I respect your decision. But I really do wish you’d reconsider. We’re all just a phone call away.”

“Thanks,” I managed to squeak out.

I might have meant that, but everything else? I didn’t need any more of the Murphys’ help. I couldn’t stay here in Ireland any longer.

It was time to go home.