Quitting this Family after Being Abandoned for Laughs novel · Chapter 20 of 24

Chapter 20: Not Welcome Here

Colin came through the glass doors of the Myria office at nine on Monday, carrying white roses.

I saw him from my desk, over the top of my monitor.

Behind him walked a thin man in a gray suit with a manila envelope held against his chest.

The whole open floor looked up.

Twenty-two people had been drinking coffee and arguing about a fiber route, and now nobody typed.

"Good morning," Colin said, in his warm, carrying voice. "I'm looking for Tara Loomis. I'm her fiance."

The receptionist half stood up.

"Sir, you can't come through. Mr. Trevellian left instructions."

"Mr. Trevellian is the man I'm here about." Colin smiled around the room. "I flew a long way to bring my fiancee home. I'm sure everyone understands."

I stood up.

Declan's office door opened behind me, and I heard his footsteps stop.

I did not look round.

I had told him on Sunday night, on my own couch, with Dani asleep in my bed: this one is mine.

He had said, "Tell me if you want me," and now he stayed where he was.

I walked down the middle aisle between the desks until I was ten feet from Colin.

"Tara." His face softened into the one he used for photographs. "There you are. Everyone has been so worried."

"Nobody here has been worried, Colin. They've been busy."

A man at the nearest desk covered his mouth, and I heard a snort from somewhere behind him.

Colin kept smiling.

"Come outside and we'll talk."

"We can talk here."

"This is a private matter."

"It stopped being private when you cut my phone in a field and told sixty people it was funny."

The thin man in the gray suit shifted his envelope to his other arm.

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