“Is this personal or professional?”
“In or out,” he repeats. “No matter how dirty it gets.”
I blanch and do a double-take. “You know why his father hates him.”
“Do you?” he challenges.
“I’m asking if you do.”
His eyes sharpen. “In other words, you don’t know, at least not everything.” He picks up his coffee. “Let’s talk about the auction.”
“She loved you.”
“I know,” he says, his voice without emotion, but his eyes burn with a hint of anger and I’m not sure that anger is directed at me.
“You loved her,” I dare.
“The auction.”
I draw in a breath and fight anger at his implication that Dash is selfish to stay with me. I want to tell him that he’s selfish for the words he’s saying to me, but I’m not sure that’s where this comes from. I’m not sure of a lot of things and won’t be until I have time to think. Alone. So I tell him about the auction. When I’m done, he says, “It’s sound like you’ve done an exceptional job for us, Riptide, and the cause.”
“Does that mean you want me to stay on?”
“I want a lot of things with you, Allie.”
There is a pop of tension between us that feels sexual, and I’d accuse him of trying to hurt Dash, but there’s more to this. I feel it. I sense it. “Because I remind you of her.”
He just looks at me—he’s doing way too much of that—before he says, “I want you to work for Hawk Legal, not Riptide. I’ll give you a twenty percent raise and a twenty-thousand-dollar signing bonus.”
“Why would you do that? You have me for free.”
“You don’t need the money when you’re with Dash, but then, you don’t need the money anyway. If Dash’s money motivated you, so would your father’s.”
“Okay,” I say cautiously. “If you know that, then again, why, Tyler?”
“Because the minute something goes wrong with Dash, you’re back in New York, and I’m starting over. You don’t get to have one foot in the door and one foot out. If you want to be here, be here. For me and for him.”
“My job doesn’t change if something happens between me and Dash. I like what I’m doing. I want to be here.”
“Good. Then I’ll have human resources draw up the paperwork.”
“No.”
He arches a brow. “No?”
“I promised Mark loyalty.”
“And what do you promise me?”
“Loyalty in this partnership. I’m not going to leave. And why would you tell Mark this was okay if it wasn’t?”
“I told Mark the opportunity to work with Riptide makes sense for us. I didn’t agree to the terms he presented. You have my terms. Mark and I agreed you’d finish this year on my payroll. You have until December thirty-first to make your decision.”
He stands up. I do the same. “Tyler—”
“My offer stands.”
“And what do I tell Mark?”
“I plan to call and tell him myself.”
“If you tell him now, he’ll force my decision immediately. Don’t do that to me.”
“Now would be better than later.”
“And you could end up with an auction that flounders, fails, or doesn’t happen.”
“December thirty-first,” he says tightly.
“I don’t understand why you’re doing this.”
“You should. Maybe if you think a little harder, you will.”
I don’t know what is happening here, but it’s clearly not exactly what I think. I draw in a breath and turn and walk toward the door, but then I turn and face him. “She didn’t leave you. You sent her away. You weren’t willing to be vulnerable with her.”
“And Dash is with you?”
“Yes.”
“You sure about that? Because if you’d made your decision about him, really made it, you wouldn’t leave an open door. Think about it.”
He’s wrong, but there’s no explaining myself to him and I’m not sure I can try. There’s more to this meeting than meets the eye. “She didn’t leave you,” I repeat. “You left her while you were still standing right in front of her. Call her. I know you love her.”
“I have called her, Allie.” His voice vibrates. “She won’t call me back.”
I hurry back toward him. “I’m worried about her. Aren’t you worried?”
“She hates me, Allie.”
“There’s a fine line between love and hate. Nothing about her leaving and ghosting everyone makes sense. I’m worried. Worry with me and let’s find her.”
“And then what?”
“Then you get on your damn knees and you beg her to forgive you. Think about it. You may not have until December thirty-first. Maybe she doesn’t, either.” I whirl on my heel and march for the door, hoping he’ll stop me. He doesn’t.
CHAPTER TWENTY-NINE
I walk into my office, or at least, the office I’m using, and shut the door before I sit down. My first instinct is to call Dash. I dig my phone from my pocket, but I pause with a second thought. Dash already knows Tyler was involved with all that happened this weekend. I have to tell him about this, but doing it when I’m fired up and emotional isn’t the best idea. I’ll talk to him over lunch. I set my phone aside and my mind is on Allison. How can it not be? Everything that just happened has something to do with her. That was fairly obvious, at least to me.