“Oh right. I remember her now. And you said she works for you?”
She nodded and released a heavy breath. “She has been my right hand since Gary died. She handles all the financial details of the business and so much more. She’s the office manager, she does the payroll, she keeps my calendar. I’ve talked to her nearly every single day of the last ten years. How could she come in day after day, month after month, year after year without revealing one hint that she wanted my husband?”
Rosie curled her fingers in his. Pam had grieved after Gary died, she remembered. She had seemed lost for months. At the time, she had been recently divorced from her second husband and Rosie had assumed it was a combination of losing her marriage and losing her boss, a man she respected.
“For a few years after Gary died, I was too battered by grief to pay much attention to the construction company. I didn’t care about any of it. Pam basically ran things, along with Gary’s second-in-command at the time of his death.”
Had Vic Blackwood known Pam and Gary were having an affair? How deep had the betrayal run?
She felt another sob threaten and was almost successful in swallowing them down. He heard, though, and pulled her back into his arms.
“I’m sorry,” she said again after a few more minutes. “I bet you’re wishing you had driven yourself to the book club.”
“Not at all. I’m glad I could be here when you needed someone. Better me than someone else.”
“Why is that?”
“I don’t know any of the parties involved, so I don’t have any preconceived ideas about what is or is not true.”
“I think it must be true,” she whispered. “I could tell Emma was keeping something from me, even back then. She was hurting so badly after Gary died, and I didn’t know how to comfort her.”
“I’m sure you did your best.”
She shook her head as a fresh wave of pain washed over her. “I didn’t. I was so lost in my own grief, I wasn’t the mother she needed. I thought she blamed me for that, but now I wonder if there was more to her anger.”
“You won’t know until you talk to her.”
She didn’t want to. She wanted to get back in her car, drive up the coast, and keep on going. Washington State was lovely this time of year. So was Canada. She would drive and drive until the road ran out.
It was a wildly tempting idea, impossible as it might be. She wanted to escape all of this.
Another horrible thought occurred to her. “How am I supposed to face Pam in the office tomorrow?”
The idea of it made her feel nauseated.
“You can always fire her. Send her an email and tell her to pack up her things and get out.”
Much to her shock, since she wasn’t sure she would find anything funny ever again, she gave a rough laugh at his firm response. “I’m not sure I can do that. She’s the human resources manager, too.”
“Fine. Give her two weeks’ notice, along with two weeks’ paid leave so you don’t have to see her disgusting face.”
This time her laugh sounded more genuine. She squeezed his fingers again, grateful beyond words for this man she had dragged into the emotional tornado of her life right now.
“Thank you for talking me down off the ledge.”
“What are you going to do?”
She looked out the windshield at the raindrops making rivulets against the glass. Beyond them, she could see the crescent moon like Emma’s tattoo, shining through the clouds.
Love you to the moon and back.
She drew in a breath and eased back to the driver’s seat.
“I suppose I need to talk to Emma first to find out what she knows. Then I need to figure out if I can ever stand to see Pam again.”
Chapter Thirty
Andrew