Jake took a deep breath.
Then he went into the house and packed a bag.
CHAPTER THIRTEEN
ADDISON was almost finished packing up her office.
Just a couple more drawers to empty and she’d be done.
Actually, there hadn’t been all that much to pack.
A couple of pens. A notebook she’d promised herself she’d use as a diary but never had. A photo of her father and her mother, she a smiling toddler in her father’s arms. A photo of Charlie, and one of herself at her law school graduation.
A photo of the Chambers ranch.
That was how she thought of it.
Charlie hadn’t owned the place long enough for her to be able to connect his name to those endless acres.
She hadn’t, either.
Only a crotchety old man had left his mark on the place. Pretty sad, when she thought about it.
Addison sighed, shut the middle drawer of her desk and opened the bottom one.
Maybe the new owner would hang on to the land long enough to make it truly his. Or hers. She had no idea who’d bought it; why would it matter? Just because she was foolish enough to have felt a whisper of sentiment when the Realtor phoned to say they had a buyer …
Sentiment over what? She’d only lived on the ranch for a few weeks, put her own imprint on one room….
Shared that room with Jacob, with Jacob, oh, God, would she ever stop remembering …?
“Ms. McDowell?”
Addison swung around. One of the clerks from HR stood in the open doorway, a professional smile on her face.
“Will you be done soon, Ms. McDowell? I’m sorry to bother you but we have some papers for you to sign.”
More papers. Addison tried not to roll her eyes. It seemed as if she’d been signing stuff for days, ever since she’d come awake one morning and realized she needed to change her life.
“Five more minutes,” she said brightly. “I’ll stop by at HR on my way out.”
“Oh, that’s not necessary. I have the papers with me. And I’ll escort you out.”
Addison raised an eyebrow. The clerk had the good grace to blush.
“Just to help you with your things,” she said.
A lie, and they both knew it. Addison had quit; she hadn’t been fired—”terminated,” would have been Human Resources’ way of putting it—but Kalich, Kalich and Kalich was still worried she might abscond with company information.
All she wanted to abscond with was herself.
A long time ago—at least, it seemed a long time ago—Charlie had surprised her by saying that someday, she’d realize she wasn’t cut out for corporate life.
; She’d laughed.
“You’re so wrong,” she’d replied. “I’ve always dreamed of this. A big Manhattan law firm. Important clients. Complex cases—”