What You Need(103)
How was I supposed to respond to that?
“Annika spoke to me about you.” She sighed. “She and I are what you call . . . Polaroid opposites.”
“Polar opposites?”
“Yes, that. Anyway, my daughter and I fight. Hard. But it’s never mean. And it doesn’t mean we don’t love each other fiercely, like tigers.”
I held my breath, afraid where this was going.
“Annika . . . told me about your mother and all the horrible things she said.” Then I watched as Selka Lund’s eyes filled with tears. “I am broken up for you. I don’t understand how love for a child could ever be soured. It’s been bitter for you, yes?”
“Yes.”
“And yet, you’re not bitter person.”
I shook my head. “Some days I am. Annika caught me on one of those days.”
Selka reached for my hand. “What you said to my daughter had her calling me in tears. She thanked me for loving her and for not being cruel to her. She shouldn’t have to thank me because that is a mother’s job. To love without conditioners.”
“Conditions,” I corrected.
She waved aside my correction. “And after hearing that, I realized why kindness is important to you. Why you picked that word above all others to describe Brady. Because you haven’t had much kindness in your life, have you?”
My eyes welled up because I’d wanted this from her, and I was getting it only now that things were over between me and Brady.
“My son, he will be good for you. And I see that you are good for him. He opens his home and his heart to you.”
“Mrs. Lund, as much as I want that, I’m afraid that Brady and I are done.” At her blank look, I said, “We’re over. Finished.”
“Why in the hell would you think that, Lennox?” Brady said behind me.
Chapter Twenty-Three
Brady
‡
Lennox stared at me as if she was seeing a ghost. “Brady? What are you doing here?”
“I work here.” I glanced over at my mother. “The better question is what are you doing here, Mom?”
“Visiting my daughter and I ran over Lennox.”
“Ran into,” I corrected.
“Yah, whatever,” she waved her hand. “We were—”
“Finished,” I said, running my hand down Lennox’s bare arm. Why’d she pick today to let her tats show? And she’d worn her lip piercing. I made a low noise. For some reason I felt possessive of that damn piercing and didn’t want anyone—especially other men—to see how sexy she looked with it. “Lennox, I need to speak with you privately.”
Panic flashed on her face.
Why on earth was she scared of me? I reached for her hand.
She stood, but she tugged her hand free. “I’m a big girl. I don’t need hand-holding for this.”
That was a strange thing for her to say and so I stuck close behind her as we left the break room. But instead of heading for the bank of elevators, she cut down a side hallway and walked through the open door of a conference room. “What are we doing in here?”
Lennox spun around and took two steps back from me. “I don’t particularly want to do the walk of shame through your suite of offices, in front of your admin and her secretary, and then have to do it again on my own floor. Just get it out of the way so I can get my shit packed up and get out of here.”
I moved in close enough to smell her breath.
“Omigod you’ve got to be kidding me! You think I’ve been drinking?”
“You are acting irrationally.”
“Under the circumstances, who would blame me? Maybe it would’ve been easier if you’d done this over the phone.”
“Done what?”
She tossed up her hands. “Fired me!”
“Why would I fire you?” I searched her eyes for some answers to her behavior. “I’m not your boss.”
Confusion darkened her gaze. “But . . . I heard you. Yesterday afternoon. I came up to talk to you and you were ranting in your office about me and how I was misleading and ambitious and you planned to fire me yourself.”
“Why would you assume I was talking about you?”
“Because Lola was in your office, Brady. She is my boss. And since I gave her my notice yesterday—”
“Whoa. What do you mean, you gave her your notice yesterday? You’re quitting LI?”
Lennox appeared even more confused. “Lola didn’t tell you?”
“Lola was in my office pertaining to another matter. I purposely asked her to keep you out of the things she and I discussed, unless it was relevant to our fact-finding mission. Now tell me why’re quitting LI?”