“So he might give it to you, especially if it’s because of his son that you couldn’t get it.”
“No, he won’t. Salazar sticks to his contracts, no matter what. I’ve seen him in action.” And that’s why I still respect the man. Despite all his crazy antics and entitled attitude, he’s scrupulous about certain things.
Wyatt drums his fingers on the table for a couple of moments. “What if I give you the money? Technically, I’m partially responsible for the problem. You wouldn’t have helped me if you knew I never had the statue. You would’ve looked for another way, instead of wasting time going off in the wrong direction.”
My face twists as though he just offered me a dead mouse on a plate. “I don’t want your money,” I say, doing my best to ensure my voice is calm even though I’m seriously unhappy that he’s even offering. He’s just trying to make things better without realizing how his solution is making me feel.
“Half a million is half a million, wherever it comes from,” he says. “And it’s not like I can’t afford—”
“But I didn’t earn it.” The money I was supposed to get is Salazar’s, paying me for doing my job. This isn’t about who’s rich enough to give me the money out of pity.
“Yes, you did,” he says. “If Dane had given me the statue like he was supposed to, you’d be getting your bonus.”
“Yeah, but the fact is he didn’t.” I don’t want to argue about this. I’m afraid I’m going to burst into frustrated tears if we keep talking about it. “I know it’s hard to understand because you’ve never had to live in a situation like I did, but I don’t want to just take things. That’s how my mom’s life. She never worked to achieve what she wanted on her own. Succeed or fail, I want to do it myself. Does that make sense?”
I hope it does, because I don’t have the heart to keep talking about this. I already told him about my mom. He also heard Geneva accusing me of staying with him just for his money. Although I didn’t show it, that little jab did find its mark. It’s just that I was too upset over Geneva’s attack on Vi to really process it.
“Anyway,” I add, “don’t worry about it. It’s my fault for not checking every detail.” Because I should’ve never assumed. That’s what makes me good at my job. I don’t know why I didn’t do my due diligence on this latest task.
“You know why I have broad shoulders?” Wyatt says after a moment.
“Um.” I look at him, unsure why he’s suddenly talking about his shoulders. “Because you work out…?”
He laughs a little. “Yeah, that, but they’re here so I can lend one to a pretty girl who’s doing her best not to show how upset she is.”
My chin trembles for a moment. He pulls me closer and kisses me on my forehead, offering silent comfort.
* * *
Wyatt
I hold Kim, watching her sleep. She finally relaxed after a few orgasms, then quickly dropped off.
She opened up so much over dinner. Now that she isn’t emotionally falling apart in disappointment over the bonus, I’m free to think about everything more clearly.
Her relationship with her mother must be worse than I thought. I knew her mom was a little weird. Hell, everyone in Corn Meadows knew. She was too brash, trying too hard to appear young and fashionable. She even seemed to want to compete against Kim from time to time.
Geneva saying that Kim’s only with me for my financial assets probably galled her, too. So if Kim was to take half a million bucks from me to make
up for the bonus she lost out on, it really would look like she’s with me for money, even though I know the truth. And that’d be unacceptable to her pride. Her mom’s already hounding her to marry somebody rich—me, in this case—from what Kim said.
Is my money actually something that detracts from our relationship? I’ve never thought of it that way. To be honest, I’m proud of the fact that I created something so valuable and worthwhile that I was able to sell it for enough to live well, provide for my daughter and still have a lot left over to help other people out.
Kim rejected my help because she thinks I’m just going to wire five hundred thousand into her bank account. That’s not the plan, though.
Dane’s going to give me the damned statue, and I’ll make sure Kim gets it to her boss. She’s worked too hard to lose out on my account.
Chapter Forty-Two
Kim
The next day is horrible. I try to come up with a solution to the statue problem, but there doesn’t seem to be one. And it makes me feel like a horrible failure. Salazar, of course, has no idea. He’s glowing, probably imagining giving the statue to Ceinlys and earning Brownie points. Maybe he’s planning on using it as an engagement statue. After all, he’s given her a ring already, and he does hate to repeat himself.
If he thinks I’m the reason he can’t grandly re-propose to his ex-wife, he might just fire me without reference. He might even put the word out not to hire me because I suck.
Stop. Being. Negative.
Easier said than done. Maybe I should hire a team of Navy SEALs to extract the statue from Dane. Things like that happen all the time in Hollywood movies and it always works out great. And the fact that I’m willing to even entertain such an idea means…I need to stop obsessing about it for the moment, because I’m not going to come up with a real-world solution like this.