For four days, Stephanie tried to pick up the pieces of her shattered life. She packed her bags, sold what furniture she could and gave the rest to charity. None of it was worth much, since she’d bought most of it secondhand. The bookcase was the most difficult to part with, and in the end she disassembled it and packed the long boards with the rest of the things she was having trucked to Colville. The expense of doing so was worth more than three similar sets of bookshelves, but this was all that she’d have to remember Jonas by, and even though she was doing everything humanly possible to purge him from her life, she wanted to hang on to the bookcase and the memory of that night together.
Late Friday afternoon, her suitcases resting in the barren apartment, Stephanie waited for Jan to pick her up and drive her to a hotel close to the airport. She half expected Maureen, Toni and Barbara to arrive with Jan, and she mentally braced herself for the drain on her emotions. Goodbyes were always difficult.
When the doorbell chimed, she took a deep breath and attempted to smile brightly.
“Hello, Stephanie.” A vital, handsome Jonas stood in the doorway.
“Jonas.” Her fingers clutched the door handle so tightly that Stephanie thought the knob would break free. All week she’d been praying for a miracle, but had given up hope; Jonas was too proud, and Stephanie knew it.
“May I come in?”
She blinked twice and stepped aside. “As you can see, I can’t offer you a seat,” she said, leaning against the closed door.
Jonas stepped into the middle of the bare room and whirled around sharply. “You’re leaving?”
“I’m expecting my ride in a few minutes—I thought you were Jan.”
“I see.”
“You wanted something?” She tried to keep the eagerness from her voice. In her dreams, he had had her in his arms by now.
“I’ve come to offer you your job back.”
Her hopeful expectations died a cruel death. “No, thank you.”
“Why not?”
“Surely you know the reason, Jonas.”
He hesitated, ambled to the other side of the room, and glanced out the window to the street below. “You’re a damn good secretary.”
Stephanie held her ground. “Then I shouldn’t have much problem finding work in Washington.”
“I’ll double your salary,” he said, not bothering to turn around.
Stephanie was incredulous, disbelieving. She could see the expression on his face and she noted that he looked weary and defeated. “Jonas, why are you really here?” she asked in a soft whisper.
He smiled then, a sad smile that didn’t reach his eyes. “I’m afraid I have a mutiny on my hands.”
“A what?”
“Five of my top female employees are threatening to walk off their jobs.”
“Five?”
“Perhaps more.”
“I... I don’t understand.”
“For that matter, I’m having a problem comprehending it myself.” He wiped a hand over his face. “This afternoon Bertha Westheimer, and four others I barely know, walked into my office.”
“Bertha Westheimer?” Every bad thought she’d ever entertained about Jonas’s secretary vanished in a flood of surprise and pleasure.
“Ms. Westheimer was in on this from the beginning?” His gaze captured Stephanie’s, but quickly released it.
“No... just Jan, Barbara, Toni and Maureen.”
His mouth formed a half-smile. “They accused me of not being hero material.”
“They didn’t mean anything by it—they’re still upset.”
“I take it that being rejected as a hero makes me the lowest of the low?” He cocked his thick brows questioningly.
“Something like that.” Despite the seriousness of the conversation, Stephanie was forced to disguise a smile. “This whole thing started because Jan and the others thought I was heroine material—they were mistaken about me as well. I did everything wrong.”
“How’s that?” He turned and leaned against the windowsill, studying her.
She shrugged, lowered her gaze and rubbed the palms of her hands together nervously. “You kissed me once in your office, and I told you never to let it happen again. I was forever saying and doing the worst possible thing.”
“But I did kiss you again.”
This was a subject Stephanie wanted to avoid. “What else did they say?”
“Just that if I let you go I would be making the biggest mistake of my life, and that they refused to stand idly by and let it happen.”
“What did they suggest you do now?”
“They said if I didn’t do something to prevent you from leaving they were handing in their resignations effective that minute.”
Looking at him was impossible; it hurt far too much. “So that’s why you offered me my old job back—you were seeking a compromise?”
“No,” he said harshly. “I figured if you agreed to that, then there’d be hope of you agreeing to more.”
“More?”
“The ring’s in my pocket, Stephanie.” He brought it out and handed it to her. “It’s yours.”
The diamond felt warm in her palm, as though he’d repeatedly run his fingers over it. She raised her eyes to his, not understanding. “Jonas,” she whispered through the tight knot that formed in her throat. “I can’t accept this ring.”
He went pale. “Why not?”
“For the same reason I refuse to go back to Lockwood Industries.”
“I love you, Stephanie.”