Shattered Edge (14 page)

In the middle of the month, my dad called me into his office for a chat. I wasn’t expecting the news he was about to share.

“I think I’m going to have to file Chapter Thirteen, Terri.”

“What! Why haven’t you said anything before now? I’m a senior partner here Dad!”

“Honey, I know. I was trying to shield you.”

“Dad, you don’t shield partners. You’re honest and open with them. I knew
the market was down, but you led me to believe everything was steady with Mitchell Properties.”

“I’m sorry honey. It was wrong of me.”

“I’ll say.” My heart had slammed to the floor. “Does Mom know?”

He didn’t answer immediately. Something wasn’t right here. “What? What’s going on here?”

“Your mother and I are having problems Terri.”

“What?” This was turning into a tropical shit storm of epic proportions.

“I’m sorry. We didn’t want you to know.”

“What am I...twelve? I can’t believe you two. And you with this business thing.” I got up and headed out the door.

“Terri, wait.”

“No Dad, I’ve waited long enough. I have some thinking to do. My reputation as an agent and broker is on the line and I do believe you have royally fucked me. I also have some damage control to do.”

I stormed out of his office and headed straight to mine. I picked up all my files that I needed and grabbed my computer. I looked around the office to see if there was anything else I would need for the next couple of days. This was going to be bad.

Alana was sitting at her desk and I stopped to speak with her.

“Did you know?”

“Know what?”

I looked around to make sure there wasn’t anyone around. “Look, I just had a little chat with my dad. He’s getting ready to file Chapter Thirteen.”

Her face crashed straight to her desk. “I didn’t know.”

“I’m going to try to keep my listings and open up my own place if I can set my own business up before he files. Will you come with me? Just the two of us? We might have to work out of my house for a while?”

“Hell yes. I’ll go with you.”

“You wanna be an agent?”

She smiled. “Yeah.”

“Sign up for school then. I don’t have time to waggle around here while this business crumbles and he takes everyone down with him.”

I zoomed out of the parking lot and went to work at home. By the end of the day, I had set up my own business, Terri Mitchell Real Estate, and notified everyone that had a listing with me of the change. I also sent out notifications to all the other real estate firms in the Tri-County area of my change. John Remington, the Middleton family attorney, had been most helpful.  Terri Mitchell was no longer a part of Mitchell Properties.

That night I went to my parents’ house. My mom was at home alone. My anger shot through every argument she tried to put against telling me, and when I left, I’d made it plenty clear they had messed up. I had one more thing to do and that was to hand over my letters of resignation and legal separation from Mitchell Properties to my father. I headed over to the office with the intention of leaving them on his desk.

When I pulled into the parking lot, his car was there. Good, I was fully prepared for my final showdown. Unlocking the door, I marched straight back to his office and noticed the door was shut. Not thinking anything about it, I swung it open and was greeted with the most unpleasant scene imaginable. There was my dad, sitting on his desk and there was Angela, the office whore, with her head in his lap doing the dirty to him.

I gagged. Out loud. Then I yelled, “What the fuck? Is this why you and Mom aren’t getting along? At least you could’ve had the sense to have better taste and chosen someone who’s damn ‘thingy’ hasn’t been fucked by everyone in Charleston. You disgust me. Here’s my letter of resignation and letter of separation from the organization. Have a great life Daddy.” I flung the documents at him and left.

Furious couldn’t even come close to describing how I felt. I got to my car as fast as my bionic leg would carry me. Believe me, it wasn’t fast enough either. My phone started to ring and I answered it, my voice quivering.

“Honey, what happened?”

It was Justin and I told him everything.

“I’m on my way over. Don’t drive.”

“I can’t stay in this parking lot. I’m going home.”

“Please Terri, stay there. I’ll come and get you. I don’t want you to drive with you being this upset.”

“I can’t stay here,” I screamed.

“Okay honey, then stay on the phone with me. Put it on speaker, okay?”

“Okay.” I did as he asked and started driving. I listened to his sweet voice and pretty soon I was pulling into my driveway. I just sat in my car and waited for him. Ten minutes later, he was there, unbuckling my seat belt and helping me out. Then I threw up everywhere. I couldn’t stop. I just kept throwing up. I couldn’t even make it in the house. I kept gagging and throwing up and apologizing.

He held my hair and his arm was around my waist from behind, holding me up. “Honey, don’t apologize. You’re in shock and upset. I would be doing the same damn thing.” He’d talk to me in that soothing voice of his, until finally there wasn’t anything left to throw up.

“I think I can make it inside now.”

Instead of letting me walk, he picked me up and carried me.

“Thanks for being here Justin.” He undressed me and put me in my PJ’s and brought me some ice water. Then he tucked me into bed without saying anything. He sat next to me and just held me and rubbed my back.

“What a shit show. I can’t believe he’s done this.”

“He was too proud to tell you Terri.”

I looked at him. I didn’t want Justin to defend him in any way. He knew I was angry by the way I stiffened against him.

“I don’t need for you to defend his actions right now.”

“Oh sweetheart, that’s not what I’m doing. My heart is breaking for you right now. I’m just trying to explain to you that men are different when it comes to certain things. His pride got in the way of doing what was right.”

“Yeah, right there along with his dick.”

“I can’t argue with that. His methods are far from honorable for sure. But he didn’t have the courage to tell you the truth.”

“Fucking coward.”

“I’m proud of you for thinking ahead. You did the right thing this afternoon by protecting your name and reputation. You’re going to be fine and come out ahead Terri.”

I grabbed his shirt in my fists and put my head on his chest. Next thing I knew it was morning and I was waking up to my guy’s smile.

“I gotta go babe. Coffee’s on. I have a case in forty-five. I’ll call you as soon as I’m done.”

He smoothed my hair back from my face and then bent his head to kiss me. When he pulled his face back a bit he looked at me and said, “I love you Terri. I thought you should know.”

He made to move away from me but I latched onto his hand and jerked him back to me and said, “I love you too Justin.”

CHAPTER SEVENTEEN

Justin

I finally told her. Didn’t think I’d do it that way, but it just sort of came out. And boy was I rewarded with a return I love you. Wasn’t expecting it but I twitched in my jeans and damn, I wanted to lick her all over when she said those five little words. I was running late as it was, so it would have to wait. I’d make it up to her later tonight.

That silly smile was plastered on my face as I walked into the locker room to get changed. Jackson let out a crack of laughter that scared the crap of me because I hadn’t seen him standing there.

“Damn, you must’ve had one helluva night.”

“You might say morning, my friend.”

“Well, I’m a jealous old man.”

“Ah hell, don’t be. What you have with Alice is special.”

He eyed me, and finally said, “So, our boy has finally been bitten.”

“Yeah,” I admitted as I changed.

“I never thought I’d see the day.”

“So I’ve been told,” I said wryly.

“Hey, I think it’s great. I knew it would take someone special and I think that girl is special. She’d have to be to go through what she did and come out as strong as she did.”

“I know, right?”

We discussed what was up for our next case and headed over to get scrubbed, masked, gloved, gowned and shielded.  Sometime during that day I’d decided to take Terri to dinner that night. I wanted to make it a celebration dinner of our love and her new business. I made reservations at Camellias and called her to let her know I’d pick her up at seven.

She wasn’t looking like the happy girl I expected when I got there.

“What is it?”

“I’m sorry. This whole thing with my dad has just slammed me I guess.”

“Understandably. You know Terri, it’s okay not to be happy all the time. Hey, we can stay in tonight. We don’t have to go out, you know.”

“No, I want to go. I think it will help.” She tried to give me a smile.

“You sure?”

“Yeah. I’m really glad you’re here.” She put her arms around my neck and pulled my head down so she could kiss me. I knew now wasn’t the time, but damn, that girl always had me kicking it in reaction to her touch.

“Hmm. Not nearly as glad as I,” I said against her soft lips. “We better go or I can’t promise I’ll take you anywhere.”

She let it all out over dinner and I barely said a word. It was her catharsis and I didn’t want to take that away from her. My girl was in pain and I was there to help her in every way I knew how. I wanted to pull her in my arms and hold her, but I couldn’t. She was tough as nails though. I saw her lip tremble several times but she never cried. She held it together and vowed she was going to come out of this mess in a better situation than ever.

What concerned us both was the real estate market in Charleston had taken a nosedive with the downturn of the economy. Terri had made a strong name for herself and had a good referral base. Hopefully, that would pull her through the tough times.

Later that night, after we were back at her house, we turned her third bedroom into an office. She would use her house as her place of business until she had everything set up and then she’d look for an office to rent. We took down the bed and stored it in her other bedroom closet for the time being. I did most of the work because I didn’t want her to take a chance with hurting her leg.

“I can help,” she insisted.

“You are helping. Make sure I don’t hit anything crucial. I don’t want to break anything.”

When we were done, she looked at me and smiled. “Thanks Justin. You’ve really been helpful.”

“My pleasure, ma’am.”

She laughed and it made me feel good all over to hear that sound again.

“Look, I have an early morning, so...”

“You’re not staying?” she asked. My heart leaped and did a damn cartwheel. I was hoping she wanted me to, but I didn’t want to assume.

“You sure you want me to?”

“You’re kidding right?”

I bit down on the knuckle of my index finger for a second, thinking over how I wanted to say this.

“Look Terri, I know this has been a really bad day for you. A shit of a day actually. Sometimes we need our space and I want you to know that when you feel like that, all you have to do is let me know. Of course I want to stay with you. I always want to stay with you. I love you and want to sleep next to you every night. But I also want to do the right thing where you’re concerned.”

“Stay. Don’t leave Justin.”

I grabbed her and she jumped into my arms.

“Just where you need to be babe.”

“I’m scared,” she admitted.

“I’d be shocked if you weren’t. You’ve had a lot to take in the last two days. It would be abnormal if you weren’t scared.”

“What if I fail?”

“Then you learn from your mistakes, you pick up the pieces and move on.”

She looked at me, her eyes brimming with unshed tears, and confessed, “I can’t afford to fail. I don’t have to means to fix it if I do.”

“Honey, you’re getting way ahead of yourself here. Someone once told me that the only way to eat an elephant was a bite at a time. That’s how you’re gonna have to look at this. Take it a piece at a time. Anything more than that gets too overwhelming.”

“And then there’s Alana.”

“Who’s going to be a very valuable asset to you.”

“How is it that you always know what to say?”

“I don’t. I only know what’s obvious right now.”

“Thank you...for being here.”

“Wouldn’t want to be anywhere else but here.”

I’d finally figured out what that thing poking on my chest from the inside was...it was my heart letting me know I was in the right place, with the right girl.

“Have I told you today how lovely you are and how much I love you?”

She slowly smiled and those eyes turned all soft on me. I felt myself twitch in response as I ran my tongue along my lower lip. All I wanted to do was taste her lovely skin, feel those soft lips beneath my own and let my tongue dance with hers. She must’ve read my mind because I heard her soft intake of breath and then her lips slightly parted. I turned and walked us into her bedroom, watching her expression the whole time.

Her chest rose and fell, her hand moved to her throat and her eyes became heavy lidded. She wanted me. I could tell. I set her down on the bed and stripped her clothes off. Then I removed all of mine as she watched.

“I’ve wanted nothing more all day long than to lay with you and run my tongue all over your body...to show you how much I love you. I want to do things to you Terri, that will make you scream my name.”

I did and she did...scream my name...more than once. In fairness, I screamed hers too, more than once.

My alarm went off and I slipped out of bed. After I showered and dressed, I kissed her and told her goodbye.  She told me not to reset the security system because Alana would be in very early. I promised to call her later that morning.