Playing in Shadow Page 17

  “The way I’ve been feeling this past week, I think it’s going to be sooner rather than later.” Juliet shifted uncomfortably.

  “She’s been getting false contractions. Those are so much fun in the middle of the night.”

  Juliet just grinned at her. “We’ve been in the car twice and halfway off the drive the last time. Trent is excellent at snatching the baby bag up under one arm and having me under the other.”

  “It’s a good thing I learned to drive now that you can’t fit behind the wheel.” Trent rubbed Juliet’s stomach gently. “No better incentive to get me on the road.”

  “Well, with all these false alarms we’re going to find the quickest route to the hospital before we have to go for real.” Juliet patted Trent gently on her chest. “How about you go back to your game while I grill Scarlet here about her lovefest weekend with Bryce?”

  Trent spared Scarlet a pitying glance. “She’ll have you spilling intimate details in three minutes.”

  “I might prove impervious to her interrogation techniques.”

  Trent laughed at her. “You haven’t been so far.”

  Scarlet had to concede to the truth in that. She had spilled her teenage crush on Trent to Juliet within minutes of meeting her.

  “I feel so sorry for your child. It’ll never get away with anything.”

  Juliet tucked her arm through Scarlet’s. “Come make me a cup of tea and tell me all about your weekend alone with Bryce. This is only Monday; the details should still be fresh in your mind.”

  “Like I could forget any of it. I kind of told her I was falling head over heels for her.”

  Trent’s voice sounded from her game room. “Ladies and gentlemen! It’s a new world record. You never even made it to the top of the stairs.”

  Scarlet met Juliet’s sparkling eyes.

  “Even I thought you’d hold out longer than that.” Juliet chuckled. “I want details, lots of them. The more salacious the better.”

  Chapter Nineteen

  Scarlet was making the most of a quiet lunch break outside in the company of Bryce and the landscapers. She was scouring the Internet on her phone, checking if any new vacancies had opened at the photography studios she had earmarked on her list. She’d already sent off her résumé to a few. She knew her father was only going to keep applying the pressure the longer she stayed in his employment. She’d started ignoring his daily text messages. He’d soon caught on to this and had gotten his secretary to call her instead. Scarlet was fast reaching the end of her patience.

  “Scarlet, I need you to come into the office Friday so I can have you meet some new clients we’re taking on.”

  Scarlet looked up from her lunch as her father headed her way. Bryce, seated next to her, hesitated in taking the next bite from her sandwich. Scarlet tensed as a feeling of dread filled her. Oh, Dad, please don’t do this again now.

  “I have Friday off, Dad. I’ve just booked it.” She was going to a photography exhibition and hoped to pick up some new contacts there.

  “That’s great, then we can make a day of it.”

  Scarlet stared at him. “No. I have the day off work as in I will not be working here at the site or with you in your office. I have other plans.”

  “But I’d like you to sit in on the meetings I have scheduled. They’re important.”

  “No can do,” Scarlet said shortly, her annoyance starting to grow. She felt Bryce shift by her side, obviously aware of the storm brewing.

  “You have to learn what all this entails one day, so why not Friday? Whatever you have planned can wait, surely?”

  “No, it can’t. I’ve told you, Dad, I didn’t come back here to learn the running of Tweedy Contractors. Not today, not tomorrow, nor next week. I came back because my last job finished and I wanted to come home.” She looked around her. Monica was well within hearing distance and was looking over at Scarlet with concern. “Dad, are you dying?” Scarlet asked baldly.

  He blustered. “Not that I’m aware of. What kind of question is that to ask?”

  “Then why the sudden need to have me take over your place in your company? If I’d have known you were going to constantly badger me to fill your shoes, I would have seriously thought twice about coming back.” He physically flinched at her words.

  “Maybe we should discuss this another time,” he muttered.

  “No.” Scarlet had had enough. “You’ve brought it up every time we’ve crossed paths and I’m tired of it.” She stood, laying her lunch down before she threw it. She was beginning to tremble with anger and an underlying fear. She was standing up against her father, the man who had raised her from the day her mother had died. She loved him. But she couldn’t stand being pushed into a role she didn’t want to take.

  “Tweedy’s has always been your company. It’s not my dream, Dad. I want to take my photographs and paint portraits and make a name for myself doing what I’m good at.”

  “But this business was always meant to be yours. It was always going to be passed down to you. It’s my legacy to you.”

  “But I don’t want it. It’s not my dream job. It’s not what I’ve studied for and worked hard to achieve for myself. My photography is. That’s mine. I’ve earned that by myself.” Scarlet took a shuddering breath. “I’ve got the day off Friday to try and find a new job doing what I enjoy doing best. My own work.”

  His face fell. “You’re leaving me?”

  Scarlet shook her head. There was the root of his pressing. “No, but I’m leaving your business if an offer comes up. This is what I was working toward when I was away from home, Dad. You didn’t keep pressuring me with running your company then.”

  “I was hoping you’d grow out of it and come home and take your rightful place here,” he said sheepishly.

  Scarlet’s frustration reached its boiling point. “This is not some phase I’m going through. I’m an artist, and a damn good one too.”

  “I know. I’ve seen your work. You’re fantastic. The best I know.”

  “Then don’t stand in my way to pursue that,” Scarlet pleaded. “It’s what I need to do. Because it’s what I’m going to do, whether you approve or not.”

  “You’re just like your mother. Too artistic for your own good.”

  Scarlet heard the disappointment in his voice. It broke her heart. “You should have realized then that you never stood a chance. While you let me run wild on the building site, she taught me how to do those paint-by-numbers kits.”

  “And the rest is all your own God-given talent.” He shook his head. “I recognize how good you are. I understand your need to strike out on your own. But this business is yours whether you want it or not because you’re all I have. You’re my only child. I’ve built all this for you.” He gestured around the yard. “It’s always been yours.”

  “But I don’t want any of it. I want to follow my own path, make my own name.” Scarlet forced her temper to cool. “I told you when I accepted the job here that it was only until I found something else. Decorating is my fallback job. It pays the bills, but it’s not my career.”

  “You told me you wanted to work by my side. Just you and me.”

  “I was ten years old when I told you that!” Scarlet couldn’t help but raise her voice at him. “We’d just lost Mom. All we had was each other and Grandma. I didn’t want to leave my daddy’s side. But I had to grow up eventually, Dad. I have to live my own life and you have to let me.”

  The whole yard was silent. All the workers in earshot were pretending they were going about their jobs and not listening in. Bryce had edged closer to Scarlet. She pressed her knee against Scarlet’s leg in a silent show of support.

  Scarlet watched her dad as he stared her down. He shoved his hands in his pockets and turned abruptly away.

  “Well, it’s too late now. I’ve had the lawyer draft the papers for you. You need to sign them on Friday.”

  Scarlet reared back like she’d been physically slapped. She willed her voice not to shake
when she finally spoke.

  “Then I quit.”

  His shock was plainly visible when he spun back around. “You can’t do that!”

  “Yes, I can. I’m just another employee here. I’ll work my notice and leave. You’re not having me sign away my dreams because you’re worried you’re going to lose me. You won’t ever lose me, Dad. I’m your daughter. But you’ve pushed me far enough away with this constant badgering that I just can’t take it any longer.”

  “But I won’t be able to fill your spot for at least a couple of months,” he argued weakly, desperate to use any excuse to keep her there.

  Scarlet shrugged. “That’s your problem, not mine.” She gathered up her things and began walking away. She had just one last thing to say. “After all, you run the company. I don’t.”

  *

  Bryce returned to her apartment that evening to find Scarlet in the kitchen. She followed the unearthly racket Scarlet was making banging the saucepans around. To ensure she had pans left to use, Bryce stilled Scarlet’s hands then guided her into the living area. Scarlet wrapped herself around Bryce, clinging to her tightly.

  “I quit my job today.”

  “I know.” Bryce ran a hand through Scarlet’s hair, hoping to soothe her. “You were very restrained though considering what your dad pulled. Though your leaving as you did meant you missed seeing Monica give him a piece of her mind.”

  Scarlet groaned into Bryce’s shoulder. “Oh God, she didn’t did she?”

  “Just a little, but at least she didn’t stick him with a fork, so that was a blessing.”

  “She’s seen how much he’s been expecting of me. He turned up at the apartment a few times out of the blue, just ‘dropping by’ to talk business. Why won’t he hear a word I say when I tell him I don’t want the company on my shoulders?”

  “Because he’d obviously built so much on the fact you were finally coming back home that he was damned determined to keep you here this time. He missed you, Scarlet.”

  “He’s going to end up pushing me away again. He’s smothering me. I have my own life to live.”

  “He obviously didn’t see it like that. Hopefully, he’ll come around.”

  “I’m still going to that show on Friday. I need a studio to take me on full-time. If not, then I need to look further afield.”

  The implication of those words startled Bryce. “You’d move away again?”

  Scarlet nodded against Bryce’s neck. “If the right job came up, then yes. I need to do my art. If I can’t find anywhere here then I need to start looking where there’s an opening.”

  The consequences of that and what it meant to Bryce stunned her into silence for a moment. Scarlet could be leaving. Not just her job but her.

  “Have you…” Bryce forced herself not to reveal her fears. “Have you sent your résumé out to many studios that aren’t close to home?”

  “A few,” Scarlet admitted. She lifted her head up to look at Bryce. “I had a horrible feeling this was going to happen when I got back. I was so excited to be coming home that I tried to ignore them. I’ve sent some résumés out to different cities just to test the waters.”

  “And if you get offered a job?” Bryce tried not to let the dread in her voice escape.

  “Then I’d have to consider it. I’ve worked too hard to give it all up to sit behind a desk because Dad wants me chained to his side.”

  Bryce nodded in understanding. “So, what happens now?”

  “I work my notice. I’ve already contacted the photographer I’m currently with and asked for any extra hours they can give me.” She rested her forehead against Bryce’s. “Have I just burned all my bridges, Bryce? Did I do something really stupid here?”

  Bryce’s head was still reeling at the thought that Scarlet might be leaving more than just the job behind. “No. You were being backed into a corner. Or more accurately a corner office you didn’t want.”

  Scarlet pulled back. “If I leave…would you come with me?” Bryce’s jaw dropped. “Do you really think I could just walk away from you, Bryce?”

  “I…” Bryce faltered. She didn’t know what she thought. Could she leave? She was in a job where her colleagues could look at her damaged face without flinching. She had a home where she felt reasonably safe so long as she kept the light on. Bryce honestly didn’t know how she would cope having to start over in a new environment. Not when she was only just starting to piece her life back together in this familiar one. To be taken out of her comfort zone? The feeling truly terrified her. Her breath began to escape in quick, short pants as the fear rolled over her and started to make her blind to her surroundings.

  “Hey, hey. You come back to me, lover.” Scarlet’s hands ran over Bryce’s face.

  The familiar touch brought Bryce slowly back to where she stood. She blinked rapidly at the sudden rush of tears that threatened to spill from her eyes.

  “I don’t know if I can,” she whispered. She wrapped herself around Scarlet as the silent sobs wrenched through her body and ripped open her soul.

  “It’s okay, it’s okay,” Scarlet said, feathering her fingers through Bryce’s hair to calm her.

  No, it’s not. Because you’ll be the loss I won’t ever recover from.

  Chapter Twenty

  Two weeks’ notice. Two weeks’ notice. Every stroke of paint Scarlet applied to the wall seemed to echo with the mantra. She was equal parts excited and terrified by what she had done. She’d started receiving replies from studios interested in her, so that, at least, was gratifying. It meant she had choices now. Some of the positions were just a few hours’ commute away, others were from much farther afield.

  Scarlet hated how Bryce’s already pale complexion whitened even more on the arrival of each envelope in the mail. She understood Bryce’s reluctance to leave. She was still recovering from a trauma, and Scarlet acknowledged that uprooting her would be cruel. Scarlet’s logical mind recognized that fact. But her heart wanted Bryce with her. She knew she was falling in love with Bryce. It wasn’t a passing infatuation; it was something deeper than Scarlet had ever experienced before. Walking away from her job, walking away from the responsibilities expected of her, was hard enough. Scarlet had never wanted any of that anyway. But leaving Bryce behind? That wasn’t something Scarlet wanted to imagine. The pain was a knife plunged into her chest every time she dared even contemplate going alone. The letters arriving were compounding that.

  Sooner or later, Scarlet had to make a choice. She didn’t want to not choose Bryce.

  The atmosphere on the site was oddly cautious. Ever since the very public display between Scarlet and her dad, everyone had taken to walking on eggshells around them both. Her dad rarely came on site now, and if he did, he steered clear of Scarlet’s location.

  I just want to leave, Scarlet thought, then everyone can get back to normal. Business as usual, just without the boss’s daughter casting a cloud of discontent over everything.

  Alice had been sent in as a go-between to try to talk some sense into Scarlet. Or so her dad had hoped. Instead, Alice had taken Scarlet’s side and wished her well. Along with commissioning a portrait of her grandchildren when Scarlet had the time free for a sitting.

  Scarlet knew her dad would eventually come around. She remembered him sulking for weeks when she’d initially moved away. He’d finally forgiven her, but it wasn’t easy for him to let go. She knew that was because of the loss they had suffered. It still didn’t mean he could rule her life now.

  Scarlet heard a noise at the open door and looked down from her scaffold. There stood Bryce. Two weeks’ notice. Scarlet would sorely miss seeing Bryce’s face every day. They had taken to spending most of their nights together, in one apartment or the other. Bryce was still plagued by the terrible dreams when she succumbed to sleep. Scarlet wanted to be the only one who drew her out of the nightmares and back into the comfort of her open arms.

  “Hey, handsome.” She finished up her painting and carefully picked her wa
y down the scaffold. Bryce was ready to meet her at the bottom. She reached for Scarlet’s hand to help her step down.

  “Juliet’s here. I thought you might like to come see her.” Bryce pulled Scarlet closer for a lingering kiss. “I’m going to miss being able to sneak to whatever room you’re working in and steal a kiss from you.”

  “I’d better not hear about you substituting Gregor instead.” Scarlet grinned at the horrified face Bryce made.

  “He’d need to at least shave first.” She ran her fingers along Scarlet’s cheek. “I prefer less stubble when I’m making out.”

  “I’ll be sure to remember that,” Scarlet said, pressing a kiss into Bryce’s palm. “I didn’t know Juliet was coming today. I thought she was sticking closer to home because her due date is so close.”

  “I think she was going stir crazy staring at the four walls so she staged a jail break and caught a cab here.”

  “Trent is going to kill her.”

  “Trent has no power against those sparkly blue eyes of hers.”

  “Do I wield that kind of power over you yet?” Scarlet playfully batted her eyelashes at her.

  “You know you do and have from the start. Not to mention you bewitched me with your singing.”

  Scarlet laughed and wrapped her arms around Bryce’s neck, hugging her close. “You’ll miss my warbling.”

  “I know.”

  Her heart clenched at the despondent lilt in Bryce’s voice. All Scarlet could do was hold Bryce closer, stealing a few more precious moments in her arms.

  *

  The soft silky length of Scarlet’s legs, draped over Bryce’s shoulders, muffled the sounds of Scarlet’s pleasure from Bryce’s ears. Bryce’s attention was centered on dragging her tongue through Scarlet’s arousal. She teased unmercifully as Scarlet shuddered and moaned beneath her. With the tip of her tongue, she licked around Scarlet’s now overly sensitive clit. A directing hand in Bryce’s hair tightened and pushed her closer still to where Scarlet wanted her attentions. Bryce smiled against the soft flesh she had her face pressed into and deliberately hummed. Scarlet answered with a high-pitched wail as she writhed against Bryce’s hold.