She paced forward. Stopped. Turned around. “I’m not quitting LI. I’m resigning my position in the temp department because Annika offered me a better position in PR.”
Although I wish I’d heard the news under better circumstances, I couldn’t help but smile. “Lennox, that is awesome. Congratulations. You will thrive there.”
“Thanks. So I’m not fired?”
“Not that I’m aware of.”
“Then who is? Because when I heard, ‘I don’t care who signed off on her. She doesn’t get to move to a different department without answering to me,’ it sure sounded like it could’ve been me. And then you went on to indicate that she wouldn’t get immunity or sympathy because we’re—” She frowned. “You didn’t actually finish that train of thought. Then you mentioned, ‘She’s been to Lund family functions,’ which I also took to mean me because I went to the football game.”
Where had my admin been while Lennox was listening at the door?
She answered my question next as if she’d read my mind. “Then Jenna showed up and told me I shouldn’t be there. So I left and spent all night and this morning waiting for the summons to get the ax.”
“First off, even if I was your boss and there was an issue with your job performance, is my reputation as a ruthless bastard so cemented that even after being intimately involved with me, you believe I wouldn’t have given you a chance to tell your side of the story?”
“I . . . don’t know.”
“That’s bullshit, Lennox. You do too know.”
“You were so angry, Brady. I’ve never heard you speak like that. It scared me. It made me think that I didn’t know you like I thought I did.”
“Wrong. You know me better than anyone has in a long time. And after I’ve continually reassured you throughout our relationship that nothing that happens between us personally will affect your job, you still doubt me.”
She closed her eyes. “I doubt me. And once those doubts creep in, or they’re pointed out, I cannot get them out of my head.”
“So that’s why you’re showing off your ink today? Because you figured you didn’t have anything else to lose since you thought you were getting fired?”
Her eyes flew open. “I hate that you read me so well.”
“You’re the only one I can do that with.” I slowly erased the distance between us. “I’m sorry you had a rough night.” I kissed the top of her head. “I know it’s not a good excuse, but I had a very tight deadline. We worked until two a.m. and then I sent Jenna and Lola home. I had phone conferences this morning and a meeting at—”
She briefly put her fingers over my mouth. “You don’t have to explain or justify your schedule to me, CFO Lund. You are a very busy, very important man to LI.”
“Just to LI?”
“No.” She looked me square in the eyes so I could see everything in hers. “You’re very important to me.”
I pressed my forehead to hers. “Lennox. Please tell me you know that we’re not finished. That you understand there wasn’t even a chance of us being over.”
“I’d hoped. But things don’t usually go the way I want. I tried to prepare myself.”
“For what?” Please don’t say the worst.
“For what came next.” She disentangled from me and stepped away. “I’ve had two days of pure crap, thinking I’d lost my job, and probably my boyfriend, plus the added bonus of dealing with my mother.”
Her mother? Then it clicked. “Wait. The woman I saw you with that day downstairs—?”
“Yes, that was her.”
“I’m so sorry. I didn’t know, or I would have—”
“I didn’t want you to know, Brady—that’s why I acted like you were my boss, not my—”
Anger flared through me at her inability to say the word, but I forced it down. “If I had known, then I would have had the right to be there for you as your boyfriend. But instead you didn’t tell me a damn thing.”
“You texted me that you were busy. I’ve never been the type to unburden myself where I’m not wanted.”
“That’s what you think? That I don’t want you?”
Lennox briefly closed her eyes. “Can we please not do this here?”
“Tell me why your mother came to see you.”
“She showed up for a multitude of reasons.” Her jaw tightened. “The only one regarding me was that she’d ‘heard’ I was involved with a man who was well-off and she wanted to see for herself.” Her eyes narrowed on mine. “You want to know how she ‘heard’ that? Your brother Walker got chatty with Maxie at the bar. He filled Maxie in—Maxie, who is my mother’s best friend—and she reported to my mother the good fortune that I’d landed myself a guy with cash to spare.”