Kirk anymore. Your friends, your sister—they don’t use that name for you ever. How was I to know?”
Alex spun away on one heel. Paced down the hallway to where it branched off into separate wings, but immediately came back. “There was a ton of public backlash. Someone must’ve reached out to you for a comment, for follow-up.”
Good. Another chance to explain how much in the dark she’d been about it all.
Sydney shook her head yet again. “My team protected me from it. It was happening at the same time that Gram got her diagnosis. All of a sudden, instead of a promotion, I had to scramble to keep even a semblance of my job. They were not okay with me taking a sabbatical to help her. Insisted that I finish out the three cities left on our filming schedule before coming home. It was messy and awful.”
“Hang on.” Alex put his hand up to stop her, palm toward her. “Back up. I just processed what you said. You found out that you were responsible for getting me fired a whole month ago?”
“Everleigh mentioned that you’d been unjustly fired. A few hints as to the details. Enough to make me uneasy when I remembered you moved here from Pittsburgh. From there, I put it together once I reached out to my former crew for corroboration.”
“A month?” he repeated in an almost growl. “You’ve known that you ruined my life for a month and didn’t tell me?”
Sydney hadn’t been sure which part he’d take hardest. The fact that she’d cost him his job, or that she’d hidden it from him.
She had not, however, bargained on him being equally furious about both things. She had not counted on him being so focused on what she’d done wrong that he overlooked the why. And that it hadn’t been personal.
And she was starting to run out of different ways to express that.
“Again, I’m truly sorry. I certainly didn’t know I’d end up dating you. I didn’t target my future boyfriend and then vanish with a cackle of evil glee. If I could go back and change things, I would. Except…I don’t need to. You came out the other side better than ever. You’re living your dream here with the inn. It all worked out.”
Alex thrust his hand into his hair. “I have almost no savings left. No backup plan. No safety net. This is not living the dream. Not by a long shot.”
“Not yet. But it will be. In a few months.”
His harsh bark of a laugh bit off quickly. “Sydney, in my dream world, my girlfriend doesn’t lie to me. She doesn’t cost me my entire life, even if unwittingly, and then hide it from me. That’s a betrayal.”
“Telling you would’ve just hurt you. At least, that’s what I thought. Since there is no way for me to fix it, I didn’t want to make you miserable reliving it. I wanted to protect you.”
He shot an accusing finger–thumb combo toward her in the shape of a gun. “Like you wanted to protect your crew. Without thinking through the ramifications.”
“I did decide I couldn’t hide it from you anymore. That’s why I’m here, today.” Sydney circled her hands in the small space between them. “To clear the air. To make things right.”
“Can’t hide it anymore, huh? Is that what your new job offer’s about? Are you going to do a follow-up on the story?”
Sydney reeled back a few steps at the accusation. “What? Of course not. I meant that I realized that no secret ever stays hidden. It was better for me to tell you than you find out some other way.”
Alex jabbed at his sternum with both hands. “My sordid, scarred reputation could make this place fail. It could make people unwilling to stay. Who wants to risk a getaway under the roof of a manager who’s so lax with security? Your article not only ruined by last job, but it could have long-reaching implications on this one, if I’m tied back to the Orion incident.”
Yet another complication that hadn’t occurred to her. She’d have to do something to fix that, too. Beg, plead, do whatever it took to get the article taken off their website. If it meant going back to work for Excursions 365 and giving up the potential slot at Wanderlust, she’d do it. For him.
“I won’t breathe a word. I won’t do anything to cause you any more harm.” Sydney wanted to reach out, to offer him comfort with her