“So you both compromise.”
“Being here for six weeks, you all see the guy I am here. It’s like being on vacation, but I’m not this guy when I’m not here. I’m focused on my work and I travel constantly and I live out of suitcases. And I like it. One of us would have to give up too much and things would go downhill from here. The truth is, we have two totally different lives that just happened to intersect for a few weeks.”
“If you want her enough, you’ll find a way to make it work.”
Mitch stared at the table for a long time, then slowly shook his head in a way that broke Rosie’s heart. “Trying to make it work and failing would just hurt her more. It’s better if I do what she asked and walk away now before we get any deeper.”
“Honey, love isn’t like rappelling into a cave, where you can control your descent and how deep you go. It’s just falling into the hole.”
“Well, right now it’s probably a shallow hole, so we’ll both get out a little skinned up but with nothing broken.”
Nothing but their hearts, Rosie thought as Mitch got up and went out the back door. She’d known him all but the first few years of his life and, whether he wanted to admit it or not, the hole he’d fallen into wasn’t as shallow as he thought.
*
It was the big day. Mitch tossed Josh’s crutches in the back of the truck and they headed to the clinic to get his cast off.
“You’re still going to have to take it easy for a while,” Mitch said once they were checked in and hanging out in the waiting room.
“Which I know because you’ve reminded me of that a dozen times. And I’m pretty sure Rosie’s cross-stitching it on a pillow for me right this very minute.”
“Now that we have a plan for the lodge, I don’t want you to overdo it trying to get everything done. Ryan’s going to be coming up for a while next month, so leave the heavy lifting to him and most of the other stuff to Andy.”
Josh gave him a lazy salute. “Yes, sir.”
“Smart-ass.”
A woman with a clipboard poked her head into the waiting room. “Josh? We’re ready for you now.”
Once the nurse led Josh away, Mitch leaned his head back against the wall and closed his eyes. If all went well back there, he’d be free to leave. He could go back to his apartment, pack his suitcases and head to wherever Northern Star Demolition took him.
Chicago, probably. It was a big job and he’d feel better if he checked on Scott’s prep work, without looking as if he was checking up on him. Then he’d head to Philadelphia to finalize the contracts to drop some old tenement buildings and then head to Miami for a while. He had excellent people working for him, but his fingers itched to hold the reins again.
He wasn’t worried about things having gone to hell while he was gone. He was worried about the possibility—no, the probability—that once he was back, his fingers would itch to hold Paige again. He’d never worried about that before. A kiss goodbye and a smile and that was that.
He was going to miss Paige. He knew it already and he was trying like hell not to think about it. But every time he closed his eyes, he saw her tears. He heard her coming so close to telling him she loved him, and he lay awake at night wondering if she had said those words, whether he would have thrown everything else away for the chance to hear her say them every day for the rest of his life.
In the harsh light of day, though, he remembered the responsibilities and the people who worked for him and the satisfaction of being damn good at what he did. And he could picture Paige in her diner or in her trailer, not only happy with her life, but proud of the fact she’d done it all herself. And he knew it was time to walk away.
Everything went smoothly with the doctor, and Mitch spent the next couple of days getting ready to go. He boxed up everything but the necessities that fit in the bike’s saddlebags and shipped the boxes back to his apartment. He spent a lot of time talking to Josh, with Ryan on speakerphone, about how they’d proceed with the lodge. They’d decided Josh would talk to Sean and Liz about the possibility of selling and then they’d see how Rosie felt about it.
Though he was still supposed to use the crutches as much as possible, Josh was back on his feet, emotionally and mentally as much as physically, and much too soon Mitch found himself sitting on the porch with his cell phone in his hand.
He dialed Paige’s number, trying not to hold his breath as he waited to hear her voice for the first time in days. It was a good thing he didn’t, because all he got was the bland, stock voice telling him he could leave a message.