Fighting Our Way (Broken Tracks 2)

It’s Tris so I signal to Marina that I’ll be back in a minute, everyone staring after me as I step outside and call him.

He picks up after the second ring, growling, “Where have you been?”

“Work, Tris. It’s Wednesday.”

“I’ve been calling you all morning. I was just about ready to skip a board meeting to come and talk to you.”

He sounds mad. Has he found out about me and Amelia?

“What about?” I ask, jumping into the deep end.

“Amelia.”

Fuck.

“What about her?” I try and sound as nonchalant as I can, but it’s hard.

I hear an audible breath before he announces, “She quit.”

The laugh that escapes me is unexpected, even to myself, because the notion of Amelia not wanting to look after Izzie and Clay anymore is ridiculous.

“Why are you laughing?” he growls.

The seriousness of his tone has me calming down and a heavy feeling settling in my stomach. “What do you mean she quit?”

“Harm and I got back together at the weekend, for real this time, but—”

“About time,” I say, interrupting him.

“Seriously?”

I sigh. “Continue.”

“Before I left to see Harm on Saturday, Amelia told me she wanted to move out.” What? None of that makes sense but I don’t get a chance to say anything because he continues. “We came back to the house to talk to the kids about us and afterward Amelia handed in her notice and told me she was leaving.”

The weight in my stomach drops as my mind turns to the messages she’s been sending me. They’ve been few and f

ar between but nothing to indicate she’s moving out and quitting her job.

“I can’t… she wouldn’t quit and move out.” Would she?

“That’s what I thought until I saw her hauling a load of packing boxes into the pool house this morning.”

His voice is heavy but it’s nothing compared to the scared feeling clawing its way up my throat. Was she just going to leave without telling me?

“Nate?”

I realize I haven’t spoken so I clear the lump out of my throat. “Okay. And why are you telling me?”

There must be an explanation to all of this or it be a simple misunderstanding between them both.

“Can you get Holland on it?”

I blanch at his name; I’ve been avoiding looking into Amelia because I didn’t want to delve into her private life. But if I say no, I’ll have to tell him why.

“Look into what?”

“Why the fuck Amelia has gone from loving working with the kids to wanting to move on to ‘bigger and better things.’”