Chapter Twenty
Jack
Instead of burying my sorrows and trying not to face Grace at the office, I decided it was better to drown myself in work.
That and I was out of whiskey, so I had to leave the house at some point.
Monday morning, I was greeted by Fallon, sitting in her old seat, smiling.
“Morning, Jack. Thought you might have the flu like Grace.”
I froze. Just hearing her name sent my stomach bottoming out.
She couldn’t bear to face me, either. I thought the sassy girl would march in and tell me what’s what.
The woman who had let her guard down when she was in my arms was now afraid to even see me.
“I’m fine. Make sure all of my calls go directly to my office.” I barked, before slamming my door behind me.
I hung my suit coat up on the hook then sat down in my desk chair. While my computer booted up, I reached into my bottom drawer, where I knew I always had a bottle of whiskey on hand for guests, and late nights.
When I grabbed for one of my rocks glasses, my fingertips ran along the seam of a hidden drawer, one I’d almost forgotten about.
When I first moved into this office, when Da got sick, I found his whiskey bottle easily. But this hidden drawer wasn’t something I had expected.
Like a glutton for punishment, I opened the small drawer, pulled out the black velvet box, and opened the clasp. Inside was an emerald and diamond ring, set in a gold band with Celtic knots molded into the metal.
It was my grandmam’s, and when Mam passed, Da must have stored it here.
I stared at the jewelry and thought of what I’d just lost.
I’d never fallen so hard and fast for anyone.
“Brother. Good to see you’re in early as usual,” Connor said.
I didn’t hear him come in until it was too late, and I couldn’t hide the ring box.
His eyes widened as he approached my desk, slowly circling until he was looking down at me. “Is that what I think it is? You’re ready to propose?”
I shook my head. “No. I’m nowhere close to proposing to anyone. This was Grandmam’s ring and then Mam’s. I found it a while ago in Da’s drawer and almost forgot about it until I was looking for some whiskey.”
“What?” he asked, shaking his head as he leaned against my desk, crossing his arms over his chest.
I thought maybe Sean had spoken to him, but if he did, Connor wasn’t letting on.
I closed the ring box, putting it back in the drawer before I pulled out the bottle and two glasses. “This probably needs a drink for me to explain.”
“That bad that we should be drinking at eight in the morning?” he asked as I poured each of our glasses.
I quickly summed up tea at Grace’s grandparents and how it ended with her talking about a job in London and her grandmum. Once I finished, I stared at our full glasses, the liquid no longer looking enticing.
“That’s some bullshite,” he replied.
“You’re telling me.”
“So what are you going to do about it?” He asked, drumming his fingers on the desk.
I frowned. “What do you mean, ‘what am I going to do’? I really cared for the girl, and when all that came out, she didn’t deny it. She didn’t look pleased, though. Maybe I’m not meant for any of this marriage stuff. I should just find a woman to partner with so we can get the company then divorce her with a settlement. That’s all I’m meant for.”
“You know we’re not all destined to be alone like Da,” Connor said, resting his hands on his lap.
I didn’t respond and leaned back in my chair. So he was right about drinking at eight a.m., though that was the only thing that I thought could dull the pain in my head. To get me not to think about the one who got away.
“Da always talked about how important family was to him, even though he sent us off to boarding school and he never married anyone else,” Connor said. “I think he put that clause in because he wanted us to be happy. To be better than him. I think he wanted to give us that push to find love for real.”
I smirked. “Don’t go rubbing you and Fallon in my face now.”
He shook his head. “I’m just saying that when I first met Fallon, I didn’t think she was going to be my forever love. It wasn’t until it was almost too late that I realized I couldn’t be without her. After her ex showed up at our wedding, I almost did. But I couldn’t let her go. Do the same, Brother.”
“You think that I should just ignore what happened? Tell her I do have feelings for her? That I want to see if this works out and if it doesn’t, well, then screw the company?” I raised an eyebrow.
He nodded, standing up from my desk. “We all do crazy things or say stupid stuff in the moment. What matters is our actions after the fact.”
“You’re saying I should show up at her flat and grovel? Tell her all of this?” I barked.
He shrugged, already heading for the door. “That’s for you to figure out. Not me. But I can say, I know you’ve been in love with the girl since you saved her and Sean’s asses from being arrested when they were teens.”
I shook my head, the thought of that even preposterous. We had hated each other. “Are you mad?”
He laughed. “No, I think for the first time, in a long time, I’m finally seeing things. If it were any other girl Sean was calling you about to come to the rescue, you would have told him to feck off. But you didn’t because it was Grace.”
“That was years ago. I didn’t know my head from my arse back then,” I muttered, trying not to think on Connor’s words.
It was true. I remember being in the middle of a date with a fairly nice bird. But I immediately jumped in to help Sean and Grace. I told myself it was because he was my brother and she his friend. But Connor’s words made sense.
Bloody hell.
Had I really always had these feelings for her? My heart raced at the thought.
I groaned, leaning my head back against the chair. Now I knew things were more fecked up than I had originally thought.
“Call me if you need a ride to her flat or to have Fallon order flowers,” Connor said before he shut the door, leaving me in an ominous silence.
A new email notification pinged on my computer. At least work could keep my mind busy while I figured this out.
Opening up the app, my fingers froze over the keys as I read the words on the screen. The ones that would be ingrained in my memory forever.
If my chest wasn’t already aching, now it shattered into a million pieces.
I was an arse. There was no way she would have done what her grandmum had said. I should have known that.
Feck.
What the hell was I supposed to do now?
I couldn’t just show up at the airport with flowers and beg for forgiveness.
I looked again at the velvet box.
All of this started, I thought, when I approached the girl in the red dress at the gala.
But now I knew better.
This was the girl I was always supposed to be with. The one who made me a better man like Da wanted us to be when he made out that will. I just never saw it before. Until her.
But she was gone and all I had left was whiskey, memories, and a still looming deadline.
Worst of all, I missed her and that damn dog so much.
I had to fix this.
As if Fallon knew, she knocked on the door before opening it without an answer.
“Jack?” she asked tentatively.
“Whatever Connor told you to do, don’t do it,” I grumbled.
She laughed, walking the few steps to my desk. “Then it’s a good thing I don’t listen to him.”
I raised an eyebrow.
“I have a feeling by the heated discussion in here that Grace doesn’t have the flu.”
I rolled my eyes. “Fallon, I love you, but I don’t exactly want relationship advice from anyone right now.”
She plopped a white envelope on my desk and I stared from the paper back to her. “Then it’s a good thing I’m not giving it.”
“What is this?”
“I have access to your emails still, too. You know what you need to do and if you’re going to open that envelope and do it, that’s on you. I’m not giving you advice, I’m giving you the tools you need to go for what you want.”
I picked up the envelope, though it was light, the weight of it felt as heavy as my heart.
“You’re as mad as my brother,” I said, shaking my head with a whisper, pins and needles pricking my skin.
“Yeah, we may be. But we also know when we’re right.”