The Wedding Pact Box Set - Denise Grover Swank Page 0,363

matter. It’s done.”

“So how long are you going to stay out here?”

“I don’t know. It’s quiet. Lets me think.”

“About going back to work with Josh? Or about Libby?”

“Both.” Libby was an easy choice. He couldn’t have her, so it really wasn’t any choice at all. But the business was another matter. He couldn’t deny that he’d found a sense of accomplishment over the last few months, but he wasn’t in any shape to go back to work yet. He still needed more time to nurse his wounds. And he sure couldn’t handle going back to Kansas City, knowing Libby was there. He’d consider opening his own firm, but he would never want to be in direct competition with his brother, which left him where he was. Jobless.

“Josh and I are moving to Kansas City in a few weeks and I’d really like him to spend most of his time at home,” she said quietly. “Which means he needs someone to run Seattle. He wouldn’t be back much. The entire thing would be yours. Like it was supposed to be from the start.”

He turned to look at her.

She gave him a weak smile. “I’m not above begging. I want you to be happy, Noah, but I think working for the business does make you happy. It’s Josh’s micromanagement that drives you crazy.” She laughed and took a sip of her beer. “Yes, I know my husband very well.”

He grinned.

“So what I’m saying is, we can both get what we want. Josh will stay home with me in Kansas City with occasional trips to Seattle, and you can run the Seattle office with no interference. It’s a win/win, don’t you think?”

He sucked in a breath and blew it out. “I don’t think I can handle it.”

“Bullshit,” she said with a grin. “You handled it until Josh graduated from college. You just let him take over because you didn’t believe in yourself. But you are capable and we both know it. And I know someone else who believes in you too.”

His grin fell. “I don’t want to talk about Libby.”

“Fair enough, but tell me this: Do you love her?”

Tears filled his eyes, which pissed him off. He’d never been a crier before the last week. How did he answer that question? It was like she’d asked if he needed air to breathe, or water to survive. The answer was so obvious, yet a simple yes seemed so inadequate.

Megan stood. “Let me make you lunch.”

She made them sandwiches and helped him clean up the kitchen before she left. She pulled him into a hug after he walked her out to the car. “Don’t give up on yourself, Noah. And please don’t give up on Libby. She misses you just as much as you miss her.”

He’d spent nearly every minute after she left thinking about Libby and fighting his desire to run to her. The knowledge that he might never see her again was more than he could bear.

In addition to the stockpile of food Megan had left him, there was a bottle of champagne with a sticky note on it.

Save this for when you know it’s time to open it.

Fat chance of that.

Now here he was, a day later, still just as bereft, holding a piece of wood in his hands that begged to be shaped into something useful. It struck him that he had something in common with the block. This was how he’d been before meeting Libby—unformed. From the very beginning, she’d helped him determine what type of man he wanted to be. It might be too late for him, but he could shape the wood into something functional and beautiful.

He set the piece of hickory on his grandfather’s workshop table and examined the grain in the block. The day before he’d used the lathe to make a spindle out of a piece of pine. When he examined the piece of hickory, he could see the promise of a candlestick.

Then it hit him.

He could make the candlestick and give it to Libby as a peace offering. On the surface, it seemed lame, no contesting that, but if anyone would appreciate a handmade gift, it was Libby. And if he told her his analogy . . . maybe it would work. Besides, now he could tell her in person that he’d just gotten the results of his tests, and they had come back clean. Maybe that was reason enough to go to her.

At least it gave him the ghost of a plan.

He worked