Sit...Stay...Beg(83)
“Son, listen to me.” Dad leaned forward, his eyes the color of a windy, winter sky. “We’re solvent. If every person in this room loses their FriendGroup stock, then the investments that we have planned for Waterford might stop or slow. We may have to stop flying rescues across the country. Maybe we’d up our fees on that new DOD contract. But we would certainly not go out of business.”
Garrett let out a long, slow sigh.
“We’ve all invested and divested,” Shane said. “They can’t do anything about stock we don’t own anymore.”
“I have more money than I’ll ever need,” Liam agreed.
“Waterford has withstood worse over the years,” Gramma added.
“And I don’t believe she betrayed you.” At Molly’s words, everyone looked at her. “Really, do y’all think Jessie’s a bad person? That she’d put her career above this family?”
“Frankly,” Dad said. “I do not.”
“Me neither,” Liam added. “She seemed totally legit.”
“And you’re so much nicer now, Uncle Garrett.”
He shot a look at Pru. “Nicer?”
“Well, come on, Garrett,” Darcy said. “Ever since she showed up, you were smiling and laughing. Now you’re back to, you know, Garrett.”
“And you haven’t even heard her side,” Molly added. “You said yourself you haven’t responded to her text.”
He let his shoulders drop, not able to argue with that. “We’ll hear her side in about five minutes.” He looked at Shane for support, but his older brother shrugged.
“You can’t be sure she was the actual person behind this, Garrett,” Molly said. “Her competition for the job is a ruthless woman who would stoop to anything to get the job. She might have been sabotaged.”
“Or maybe someone from FriendGroup found out and set it up,” Darcy suggested. “I know you guys did everything to hide the history, but oh my God, are there some vindictive people in HR at that company, which is why I hated it. Maybe Claudia confided in the wrong person.”
“You were really quick to blame Jessie based on circumstantial evidence,” Shane added.
“Circumstantial?” He choked the word. “Chamberlain repeated words I’d only said to her.”
“There are two sides to every story,” Gramma said. “And that’s not even an Irish saying, just a smart one.”
“And the bottom line?” Dad added. “We liked her, and we liked her influence on you.”
He looked across the table at his father, who sure had looked a little defeated since Jessie left. Of course, he’d tried hard to manipulate this relationship into happening.
“Sorry,” he muttered. “Better luck next time, Dogfather.”
“The show starts in one minute!” Pru announced as her phone alarm went off. “We’re still going to watch it, right?”
“I’d rather not,” Garrett said.
“Are you kidding?” Dad stood and gestured for everyone to do the same. “We’re all watching, and we’re all supporting you.”
“Check my website stats, Pru,” Gramma said as she walked by. “I bet our hits go through the roof tonight.”#p#分页标题#e#
“I hope they got a lot of footage of the dogs,” Molly said.
Garrett sat there, alone at the table, not sure if he wanted to laugh or cry as his family poured into the family room like it was any other Wednesday and they were going to watch a movie.
What could he do but follow them in and sit on the sofa between Molly and Darcy? Just as he settled down, the doorbell rang, and Darcy popped up. “That might be the night staff checking out,” she said. “I’ll get it.” She patted Garrett’s leg. “You don’t want to miss yourself on TV.”
Actually, he did. He really, really did.
The ITAL On Air logo came on the screen, and his gut clenched. One second, and he’d be face-to-face with those green eyes he loved so much.
Because, yes, he did still love her. He couldn’t turn that off.
A man’s face filled the screen, giving him a little kick of disappointment.
“Good evening and welcome to Inside the A List On Air. I’m Caleb Mulvany, and I will be joining the ITAL On Air anchor team with feature stories on the famous and infamous people all over this planet.”
He would be joining the anchor team?
“Tonight’s story takes us across the pond to one of the most famous homes in the world, Windsor Castle, to arguably the world’s most eligible bachelor. Prince—”