Page 11

chapter six

Graham

“ C an we skip the part where you interrogate me and try to fix my problems?”

I’d been back in the car for two seconds, and I hadn’t even opened my mouth.

Olivia, having taken Jillian’s spot in the front seat, cranked up the A/C and pointed one of the vents toward her face.

I sat still for a moment, sneaking a glance at her phone screen, where she was scrolling through some long text messages.

I sighed as I shifted the car back into drive. “You call me crying your eyes out, and I find you sitting on a curb in the dark alone? I’m your dad. It’s only natural for me to have a few concerns about that.”

“I just wasn’t having a good time. That’s all this is, okay?” She held her phone down between her knees. “It was a bad night, and I wanted to leave. End of story.”

“Whose house did I just pick you up from?”

“Here we go.” With her elbow against the window and her head in her hand, she let out a long, frustrated sigh. I squeezed the steering wheel, willing myself to rein it in. She was safe, and she was with me.

And she would never, ever open up to me if I continued to annoy her with questions.

I only asked one more.

“Just answer me this, then: are you okay?”

“Yes,” she said, but her voice wavered, and she wouldn’t look at me. It prompted a dozen follow-up questions, but I pressed my lips together tightly, forcing myself to hold them all in. At least for now.

“Good. That’s all that matters.” I slid my hands to the bottom of the steering wheel and focused on the road up ahead, remembering what Jillian had just said about a girl always needing her dad.

And in that moment, my girl just needed me to fucking relax.

Rein it in, Harlowe. Dial it back. “So… are you hungry? There’s pizza at home, unless your brother ate it all. ”

“Dominos or Moretti’s?”

“Moretti’s,” I replied, praying that was the correct answer.

To my relief, Olivia nodded and rubbed her stomach. “If Caleb didn’t save me any, I’m going to punch him in the face.”

“I’ll allow it. Just this once.”

***

When Silas Brown took over the Woodvale News Network, he slashed budgets with no regard for the people or the purpose behind them. He crammed us into this repurposed school building, gutted entire departments, and laid people off left and right.

I sat in the tall, sleek desk chair that was once his, trying to imagine what kind of man could believe he was entitled to wielding that kind of power.

Tapping my fingers on the shiny desk, I watched the oversized TV screen make its slow descent from the ceiling—a remnant of Silas’s need for extravagance, even as he stripped everything else away.

I reached for the remote while looking at my watch, realizing I’d probably missed the first couple minutes of the morning news.

Jillian was already on, giving a report about the library receiving a state grant. She was in a red dress that morning, with red lipstick to match. Even her fingernails were red, I noticed, as both hands gripped the edge of the desk while she spoke. Like she was bracing herself.

I scowled, leaning onto my elbows to get a closer look.

Jill sounded just as cheerful as she always did, but there was something…

off. There was a longer hesitation than necessary before she switched to the next story.

And then, just before the camera cut to Bernard for the weekly weather forecast, she winced .

It was so fast that most of our viewers wouldn’t have caught it. But I did.

She was doing her best to hold it together.

But she was hurting.

“Mr. Harlowe?” There was a light knock at my open door, and Elaine, our outreach coordinator, took a careful step into my office like she might be interrupting something. I grabbed the remote and turned the TV down. “Sorry to interrupt.”

“You’re fine, Elaine. What’s up?” And then I remembered something she’d mentioned on Friday about a weekend road trip with her family. “How was Indiana Dunes?”

Her eyes widened like she was surprised I’d remembered. “Oh. Um, the trails were beautiful, but Lake Michigan was ice cold. We barely dipped our toes in.”

Her discomfort was apparent in the way she crossed her arms and remained just inside my office door. I could only imagine how Silas had treated her. Everyone was still walking around on eggshells like he might still be lurking around the corner.

I gestured for Elaine to come all the way into my office, swiveling my chair back and forth to appear casual. “Knowing my son, Caleb, he’d still insist on swimming until he turned blue.” I gave her a warm smile. “I’m guessing you didn’t come in here to tell me about your weekend, though.”

“Well,” she said, looking down at the paper in her hand.

I had a feeling I knew what this about. Elaine was in charge of the internship program, and if I had to guess, the email I’d sent her last night was a bit of a surprise.

“I got your email about Jillian requesting your daughter for the internship program.

" She cleared her throat, glancing at me carefully. "I just wanted to make sure I have the green light before finalizing assignments. There was another student slotted for that position, and if Olivia gets it, he’s…. out.”

Just like that, my stomach twisted.

Shit.

I’d told myself it wasn’t a big deal. Olivia was a good kid, she was smart, she wanted to be in the program.

But she’d also turned in her application late.

And now, because of me, some other kid—a kid who didn’t miss the due date for the application—was losing out on an opportunity that probably meant a lot to him.

Am I any better than Silas?

“Do we have somewhere else we can stick him?”

“It’s not in the budget. We’re at capacity,” she said, and my heart sank. This was going to upset Olivia, and maybe Jill, but I couldn’t do this. “Although…”

Elaine’s voice sounded hopeful as she shifted through the papers in the manilla folder. I sat up a little straighter. “Yes?”

“The student we planned to place in the ads department is having some scheduling conflicts. He’s working as a lifeguard at the public pool this summer, and it’s been a nightmare trying to coordinate around his shifts. His mother’s been giving me a lot of grief over the phone.”

“So… maybe he’s not the best fit?”

“Maybe not. Do you want me to drop him, move this other boy to the ads department, and put Olivia at WWTV instead?”

I gripped the armrests of my chair and inhaled.

Decisions like this weren’t supposed to be mine.

How the fuck did I get here? I held Elaine’s gaze for a few more seconds, fully aware that, at the end of the day, I was still giving my daughter the spot that plenty of other interns had probably been hoping for.

Who wouldn’t want to work alongside Jillian Taylor?

I knew exactly how this looked.

I almost told Elaine to forget about Olivia altogether, but then I imagined the summer ahead; driving her to work with me in the mornings, having her under the same roof day after day, and watching her develop a passion for journalism. Maybe .

I cleared my throat. “Yeah, that sounds fine. Thank you, Elaine.”

The second she left my office, I started drafting a text to Olivia, making sure she understood how important this internship was. I didn’t want to guilt her, but she needed to know I’d gone out on a limb to make this happen—I was trusting her to take it seriously.

In other words, don’t embarrass me .

Jill’s voice cut through my thoughts, and I turned the volume up on the TV.

“And city officials say Grissom Elementary School, one of the hardest-hit buildings in the tornado, is still undergoing major repairs. But the district is optimistic that renovations will be completed before the start of the new school year.”

She turned to her right, shifting her attention to Bernard at the weather map, casually asking about his predictions for tornadic activity in the coming months. I pushed up from my chair to get closer to the TV, slipping my hands into my back pockets as I watched her more closely on the screen.

It was difficult to get past the stiff way she held herself, like she was trying to mask her discomfort. She still laughed at one of Bernard’s silly weather puns, but her eyes didn’t light up like they usually did. This wasn’t just exhaustion or a bad morning—something was definitely off.

I needed to talk to Meghan about this.

The Woodvale Times newsroom was one of my favorite places to lurk when I didn’t know what else to do with my time.

I often wandered up there to check on my old team, sticking around until Meghan made it known I was disrupting her from her work.

She wasn’t exactly subtle about it, either.

Just last week, she’d told me I was fucking up her workflow and that if I didn’t get out, she’d start giving me assignments just to make my presence useful.

Meghan gave zero shits that I was the interim CEO now, and honestly, I respected her for it.

She was working on her laptop at the long table at the front of the room when I popped in, putting together the next day’s layout in InDesign.

Without pulling her eyes from the computer as she dragged a headline across the screen, she sighed and said, “Let me guess. You got bored pretending to be in charge and came here to bother me for a little bit?”

“Sounds accurate.” I pulled up a chair to sit beside her and watched her work in silence for a moment. I resisted the urge to suggest she change the lead story from three columns to two to give the words some breathing room.

But that wasn’t my job anymore. It was hers. And I had to trust she knew what she was doing.

So, I cut right to the chase. “What’s going on with Jill?”

Her eyes shot up in my direction. “What do you mean?”

Xander emerged from his cubicle, rolling his desk chair into view to ask the very same thing. “What do you mean?”

I glanced back and forth from the two of them, sputtering out my next few words.

“Well, she just… she didn’t really seem like herself on-air.

Like maybe she was in pain.” I had to downplay this and put on my CEO hat and sound a little less like a loser with a pathetic crush.

“If I’m noticing it, our viewers are probably picking up on it, too, and that can’t be good. ”

Xander’s brows furrowed. “She’s fine.”

“She’s not fine,” Meghan argued, giving him a severe look. “I keep telling her to go to the doctor about this, but she’s being a stubborn little bitch about it.”

I thought I caught Xander’s jaw twitching. He seemed puzzled, and maybe even a little embarrassed—a rarity for him. His eyes were laser-focused on Meghan. “What are you talking about?”

“Her chronic pain. It’s not normal,” Meghan said in exasperation.

“She said it was her old mattress causing it,” I said, crossing my arms. “But that doesn’t seem right.”

It was hard not to notice the paleness of Xander’s face, or the way his nostrils flared. He hadn’t been privy to this information, it seemed. Leaning forward in his chair, he looked down at the floor between his legs. “I knew she wasn’t feeling well Friday night, but she didn’t mention it again.”

“This has been going on for a while, Xan,” Meghan said, her tone unusually gentle, like she was delivering bad news. She nudged her laptop screen down to a 45-degree angle to see Xander’s face better. “It comes and goes.”

Xander stared at his twiddling thumbs and mumbled, “Well, she hasn’t talked to me about it. Obviously.”

I swallowed, almost feeling some sympathy for the guy. “I’m sure she just doesn’t want you to fuss over her.”

He brought his eyes up to mine, and his features almost seemed to darken. I’d only been trying to help, but apparently Xander didn’t want to hear it. I licked my lips and turned back to Meghan.

To cover up my interest in Jillian, I continued speaking as though I was simply a CEO concerned about the bottom line. “Well, I don’t know about you, but I don’t want to see her wince in pain on live television. Maybe between the two of you, you could convince her to go to the doctor?”

“I’ll drag her there if I have to,” Meghan said, squinting at her computer screen. I watched her remove a word from a headline, feeling Xander’s eyes boring into my skin. Ignoring him, I rose to my feet and pushed in my chair, leaning over so I could get a better look at tomorrow’s layout.

“Have you considered—”

“I’ll consider stapling your mouth shut if you critique my layout, Graham.”

“Right,” I said, holding in a laugh as I backed away. I gave a little nod. “Keep up the good work, guys.”

Had to end this conversation on a positive note.

As I made my way back to the first floor, I felt a brooding presence behind me on the landing. Xander outpaced me, muttering under his breath as he passed, “Seems like you were watching her pretty damn closely.”

His words were quiet, almost inaudible. In fact, maybe I hadn’t even heard him correctly.

I stopped on the next step. “What?”

He tossed a glance over his shoulder. “Nothing. Just admiring your keen observation skills.”

The guy was embarrassed, that much was obvious. He’d just been blindsided, realizing he knew less about his own girlfriend than I did. That had to sting. If he needed to let off a little steam, fine. I wasn’t going to take it personally.

I held back the sarcastic response on the tip of my tongue, deciding to keep it professional as I walked down the stairs after him. “I guess all those years of investigative reporting taught me how to read people.”

I half-expected him to turn around and say, “Oh yeah? Read this!” before flipping me off. I’d set myself up for that, after all. But thankfully, he just ducked into the WWTV newsroom without acknowledging I’d said anything at all.

When I got to my office, I wandered over to the window, where Sarah Gardner and another Grissom employee were tending to the garden they’d planted with their students there in the spring. I absentmindedly stared until my eyes unfocused and the colors of the garden blurred together.

Why didn’t Jill tell him?

Why was I the one noticing, and not her own damn boyfriend?