Chapter 18

CHAPTER 18

Evie

I’d been looking forward to my Friday-morning patient all week for a few reasons. First, there were far more male traders than women, and I had only met with one other female trader so far. But secondly, Merrick had said Colette Archwood hated him. So I was curious what insight today’s session might bring.

My sessions were forty-five minutes, and for the first forty of Colette’s, we made small talk and I collected background. I hadn’t picked up on any discord with her job or Merrick, at least not until now.

“So how did you come to work at Crawford Investments?” I asked her. “I feel like just about everyone I’ve spoken to so far had a connection to Merrick or one of the managers.”

Colette frowned. “One of my close friends brought me on…Amelia Evans.”

“Oh.”

Colette sighed. “I take it you’ve heard about Amelia.”

I usually prided myself on not showing a reaction or judgment during sessions, but apparently, I’d let my mask slip. I shook my head. “Only that she was one of the founders and that she passed away.”

Colette harrumphed. “Passed away. That’s a nice way of putting it.”

My brows pulled together. “She didn’t pass away?”

“Oh, no. She’s dead alright. But passed away makes it sound…I don’t know, peaceful. Like she was sick and when her time came, a sweet angel walked her to the Pearly Gates.”

“Was she not sick?”

Colette shook her head. “Amelia died in an accident.”

“I’m sorry.”

“Actually, I wish she would have died in the accident. Then maybe she would’ve had some peace. But she lived for months after the crash. It was horrible. And the man you work for, whom we both work for, didn’t give her one minute of peace.”

“Merrick was in the accident, too?”

“No. He—”

My phone interrupted with a light chime to signify the end of our session. I grabbed it and turned it off. “I’m sorry about that. Go on…”

But the moment had passed. Colette straightened in her seat. “It’s fine. I’ve learned over the years that I need to focus on good memories with Amelia and not her death. She was a very good friend—imperfect like all of us, but a woman I admired and loved.” Colette stood. “It was very nice to meet you. I wish you the best of luck here at Crawford. Since our chat is confidential, there’s no harm in telling you this will probably be our only session. I’m leaving the firm soon. I have a little more than five weeks left.”

“Oh, I didn’t realize that.”

She smiled. “That’s because you’re the only one who knows. I’m not giving notice. The day my employment contract expires will be my last day here. I’ve spent four years waiting for this day to come. Well, that’s not true. I’ve only hated it here for three. But I do believe adding your position is a step in the right direction for the employees, many of whom I care about. So I mean it when I wish you good luck.” Colette extended her hand before I could say anything else. “Take care, doc.”

• • •

The first thing I did when we landed was turn on my phone. I’d taken an evening flight down to Atlanta after work, and we’d taken off a few minutes late, so it was eleven now that we were on the ground. It had been a long day, but it was important to me that I’d completed all of my appointments before heading to the airport at five.

By the time I grabbed my luggage and got an Uber, it would probably be midnight when I arrived at Kitty’s. But she hadn’t been discharged yet, so I wouldn’t be interrupting her sleep by arriving so late. Merrick had offered to pick me up, but I’d declined, not wanting to put him out. Yet when my phone finished booting back up, the first thing I saw was a message from him. I swiped to read.

Merrick: I’m at the airport. Text me when you’re walking out and I’ll pull around.

Okay…well, so much for needing an Uber.

My bag came down the carousel pretty quickly, so I texted Merrick to let him know I’d be out in a minute. He was already waiting at the curb when I arrived. He stood next to the car, leaning against Kitty’s hot rod wearing a black T-shirt and jeans—and dammit, if he didn’t look sexier than ever.

He squinted at me as I approached. “What’s going on in that head of yours? That’s one hell of a mischievous smile you’re wearing.”

“I was just thinking how funny you look standing in front of Kitty’s souped-up Charger.”

“What? I can’t pull off a hot rod?”

I smirked. “Definitely not.”

Merrick took my luggage and lifted it into the trunk before opening the passenger door. “Listen, Prius, don’t judge.”

I pulled my seatbelt across my lap as he climbed in. “I told you I’d take an Uber. You didn’t have to come out at close to midnight.”

Merrick shrugged. “I don’t mind. You’re doing me a favor by coming. It’s the least I can do.”

“It’s not a favor at all. Kitty is my friend.”

He looked over and smiled warmly before returning his eyes to the road. “I know she is. That’s one of the things I like about you. You’re very loyal.”

“One of the things, huh? That must mean there are others?”

Merrick chuckled. “How was the office this week?”

“Well, no fist fights broke out, so you being offsite must have a positive impact on the stress level,” I teased.

“It was one fist fight.”

I smiled. “The office was pretty quiet. I got to see a lot of new people, and I had lunch with Will one day.”

“You had lunch with Will?”

“Yeah. He said he ordered the same Chinese food he always orders, but they arrived with your usual, too. So he had an extra meal. I guess they know you guys pretty well.”

“How did that go?”

“Lunch with Will? It was fun. He makes me laugh.”

Merrick had been smiling since I walked up to the car, but now his face wilted. His lips were pursed, and it seemed like he was jealous. I couldn’t resist screwing with him.

“Will’s single, right?”

The muscle in Merrick’s jaw ticked. “Depends on the day of the week. Why?”

I shrugged. “Just curious.”

His eyes narrowed. “I wouldn’t go there.”

“Go where?”

“It’s not a good idea to get a crush on Will.”

There was no mistaking the angry set of his jaw. “Oh? Is there a policy against office romances? I read the employee manual cover to cover, and I thought only supervisor-and-subordinate relationships were prohibited—like us, for example.”

Merrick’s grip on the steering wheel visibly tightened. “Will’s not looking for anything serious.”

“Maybe I’m not looking for anything serious, either. In fact, it’s been a while, and a hookup sounds sort of appealing.” At this point, I could barely keep myself from laughing. Merrick’s face was red. He was so mad. What had started as a light and happy trip to Kitty’s suddenly became heavy and quiet. I felt bad and cracked, laughing as I spoke. “I’m teasing. I’m not interested in Will in that way.”

“Why the hell did you say all that?”

“It looked like it was pissing you off. I thought it was funny. Were you…jealous, Merrick?”

Merrick cleared his throat. “No.”

I smiled. “Uh-huh.”

“Why would I be jealous?”

“I don’t know. Why would you be jealous?”

“I think you’re misreading the situation.”

“Mmm-hmmm.”

Merrick rolled his eyes. But he was also no longer white-knuckling the steering wheel.

“How’s Kitty?” I asked.

“The nurse told me that right before she went under the anesthesia, she asked the doctor if he could fix her up to belike a fifteen-year-old virgin again.”

I covered my mouth and laughed. “She’s such a trip.”

“I think it’s probably funnier when she isn’t your grandmother.”

“I’m sure. But she sounded great when I spoke to her. Although she’s definitely very anxious to come home.”

He nodded. “I wish they would keep her longer. She’ll probably be released tomorrow morning.”

It was after midnight when we got back to Kitty’s house. The house was dark except for the light streaming from the hallway, but it was enough to illuminate the living room.

Merrick tossed the keys in the bowl on the table by the door and put his hands on his hips. “You gonna turn in? I’m going to have a glass of wine first, if you want to join me.”

I set down my purse. “I’d love that.”

Neither of us turned on any more lights, so when we sat together on the little couch in the dim room with our wine, it felt intimate. I traced my finger around the top of my glass, thinking how long it had been since I’d enjoyed this feeling.

“Thanks again for picking me up,” I said.

Merrick smiled. “My pleasure.”

I tilted my head. “We’ve come a long way from our first meeting, if you’re saying it’s a pleasure to be in my company.”

He smiled again. “I guess we have.”

I sipped my wine and stared into the glass. “Want to know a secret?”

“Do I have to share one too?”

I laughed. “No.”

“Then sure.”

“You used to make me nervous.” I shrugged. “Not just during my interview when I wasn’t sure if you recognized me or not. But even after that.”

“How come?”

“I guess because I wanted to prove you wrong—that I wasn’t incompetent. And part of me wasn’t sure I could.”

“You’re good at your job. You’ve already given me things I can do to improve the work environment, and everyone seems to love you.”

“Thank you. I feel like I’m good at my job again. I don’t think I realized how much the events of the last six months had shaken my confidence. It’s logical that finding out your fiancé is cheating would make you doubt relationships and the opposite sex, but it did so much more than that. It made me doubt things I’d been so certain of—like my professional abilities and my ability to make simple decisions. I think I felt like, if I had been so sure of my relationship that I was going to marry someone, what else could I be wrong about? Does that make sense?”

“It does.” Merrick was quiet for a minute. “So I don’t make you nervous anymore?”

I shook my head. “Not really.”

He winked. “I’ll have to try harder.”

I smiled. “Give it your best shot, bossman.”

Merrick chuckled. He leaned down and took off his shoes before kicking his feet onto the coffee table. “So who did you see this week?”

I rattled off my appointments in order as I mentally went through my schedule. I knew I’d met with sixteen people, so I counted on my fingers. At fourteen, I tapped my pointer to my lip, trying to figure out who I was missing. “Oh, I know. I forgot John McGrath. He was my first appointment when I got back. And Colette Archwood. She was my last session before I left today.”

Merrick frowned. “How did things go with Colette?”

Confidentiality kept me from telling him that her days with Crawford Investments were numbered, and it also kept me from mentioning what she’d said about him and Amelia. So I answered vaguely.

“She was actually pretty open and forthcoming.”

Merrick hung his head. “Oh boy. I guess I should be grateful you came back tonight if she was open with you.”

I smiled and sipped my wine. “You’ve mentioned that you think she hates you.”

“Not think, know. Mostly because she’s told me as much. If I remember correctly, that was right before she spit in my face.”

My eyes widened. “She spit in your face? Or do you mean she was so upset when she was yelling at you that she spittled?”

Merrick shook his head. “Spit. As in hock-choo. Coughed it up and all.”

“And she still works for you? Is that because she has a contract?”

“All of my employment contracts have an insubordination clause that allows me to terminate anyone for being unprofessional or disrespectful.”

“So why didn’t you fire her?”

“It’s complicated. At the time, emotions were running high. She was close with my ex and didn’t know all the facts about what was going on. Trust me, I wanted to fire her. But what she did had nothing to do with business. It didn’t even happen at the office, so I waited to see how she acted when I saw her at work the next time. I wasn’t sure she’d show up the next day. But she did. She was frosty, but did her job, and she does her job well. And I was too caught up for months in other things to let it bother me much. By the time I had my head screwed back on, Colette and I had fallen into a speak-when-spoken-to relationship and mostly ignored each other. There’s always been a management level between us at work, so we don’t need to interact one-on-one much anyway.” Merrick paused and looked down for a long time. “My ex, Amelia, had an accident. She was in the hospital for a long time. Colette didn’t agree with some of the decisions I made as time progressed.”

I nodded. “I’m sorry. I heard she was in an accident. But I didn’t know any of the details. That must’ve been tough.”

Merrick nodded and gulped back the rest of the wine in his glass. “Do you want some more?”

“No, thanks. I actually had two on the flight. I’ll wind up with a headache in the morning if I have any more.”

“Lightweight.” He smiled and got up to refill his glass.

When he sat back down, it looked like his mind was elsewhere. He stared off at nothing in particular with wrinkles in his forehead. Eventually he drank down half of his new glass of wine and turned to face me. “You want to know a secret now?”

I rubbed my hands together. “Absolutely. I love secrets. My mom always teases that it’s the reason I became a therapist.”

Merrick smiled. “Well, don’t get too excited. My secret isn’t that thrilling.”

“I’ll take it anyway.”

“I may have been biased against bringing on a therapist at the office for more reasons than I originally indicated.”

“Oh?”

“Amelia and I were having some problems before her accident. We went to a therapist a few times. It didn’t go well, so I might’ve been prejudiced by that.”

“Wow. Okay. Well, that makes sense. If you didn’t have success with it, it’s no wonder you thought it was a waste of time.”

Merrick nodded.

“Thank you for sharing that with me.”

He smiled sort of sadly. “Thank Kitty.”

“She encouraged you to tell me you’d been to counseling?”

He looked down into his glass. “Something like that.”

There were so many questions spinning in my mind. Like why did they go to counseling? What decisions didn’t Colette agree with after Amelia’s accident? But I wasn’t sure how long Merrick’s openness might last, so I chose to ask the question I’d been most curious about, just in case it was the only question he answered.

“I hope you don’t mind me being nosy, but could I ask how Amelia died? What kind of an accident was it?”

Merrick rubbed the back of his neck. “She died after a plane crash. She was taking lessons to get her small-craft pilot’s license.”

“Oh my God. That’s awful. You weren’t with her, were you?”

He finished off his second glass of wine and was quiet for a long moment before setting the glass on the table and shaking his head. “No, I wasn’t with her. The other guy she was sleeping with was.”