Snowed In For Christmas: A Fun Feel-Good Holiday Romance Novel - Kimberly Krey Page 0,42

muscles tense. Had there been a new development?

The knot in her gut began to throb. A knot that had long since passed once Ivy broke the news. Sure, Marsha had been upset that Easton backed out, refusing to—in Ivy’s words—do the interview or sign the contract, but she hadn’t pushed the topic.

“Close the door,” Marsha said once they stepped inside.

Ivy did just that as Nancy lowered herself into one of the white leather chairs across from Marsha’s desk. Ivy took a seat beside her and tried not to look at the massive mural behind Marsha featuring a great white shark with razor sharp teeth.

“Nancy, please explain how you got hold of Easton Spark’s interview and contract.”

Ivy fought back a gasp as those words rearranged themselves in her head. The interview! And the contract too?

“Ivy and I upload our data into the same cloud,” Nancy explained. “We know whose is whose, of course, and don’t normally bother with one another’s, but when Ivy didn’t check in with us before Christmas, I figured she got caught in the storm, so I sent hers in for her.” Nancy glanced over to Ivy. “For you, I should say.” She shrugged innocently.

Ivy pulled in a shallow breath, the heated air like lava in her lungs. She wanted to think that Nancy wasn’t innocent at all, but she couldn’t possibly have known that Ivy planned to delete both files. Or that she’d made an agreement with Easton to say he’d changed his mind instead.

“So…” Marsha said, dragging out the word and resting her elbows on her desk. “Imagine my confusion, Ivy. Because earlier, you flew back to LA with news that Easton had changed his mind and that you didn’t get the interview or signature at all.”

It felt like fists were tightening around Ivy’s throat. Was it her turn to speak yet? And if so, what would she possibly say for herself? She’d told a bold-faced lie and there was no getting around it.

“We take a few days off for the new year,” Marsha continued, “and I step back into my office to see an email from Nancy that contains both of the files you said didn’t exist.”

Now. Now it was her turn. Another rush of fire-hot heat moved from her chest to her neck and then settled into her face. She could only fess up at this point and hope her explanation would save her.

“I’m…very sorry for not being upfront with you,” Ivy started. “I did get the interview and signature, in the very beginning. But then after being with Easton all that time, he opened up to me and said that he really didn’t want to do it and that he was just doing it for his sister because he lost a bet.”

“So what?” Marsha sat up tall in her chair once more and narrowed a hard look at her. “Do you know how many people get cold feet at the altar? Or nauseously nervous before a first date? Should we encourage everyone to simply cave to their fears, Ivy?”

She shook her head. “No.”

“I say that to show that you weren’t, in fact, doing him a favor at all. But that’s beside the point. Because you don’t work for Easton Sparks, you work for me. Not only was it not your job to cater to his misgivings, it was completely out of line and a breach of your employment contract.” She drummed her fingers on the desk while her lips pinched shut.

Ivy dropped her gaze to the woman’s manicured nails, feeling each audible clank like tiny stabs in her heart. The heat that had rushed to her face had officially gone south because suddenly her head was cased in a cool sweat.

“You can leave now, Nancy,” Marsha said.

Nancy sucked the neglected wad of gum off her finger with an audible slurp. “Thank you.”

Ivy kept her gaze locked on the desk while her traitorous coworker snuck out. Of course Nancy had to be the hero of the day, ruining everything for Ivy in the process. And what about Easton? Would Marsha make him hold up his end of the contract now that she had a signed copy? Ivy cursed that unyielding part of herself that, in her moments of rescue, thought only of getting the promotion. She’d risked draining her phone battery with no known way of recharging it and insisted also on uploading it to the storage cloud in the midst of a blizzard. Of course, that was specifically what she’d been paid to