Page 41 of Dearly Unbeloved (Spicy in Seattle #3)

SIERRA

“ S top, Jazz. I’m not picking sides.”

Jazz raises an eyebrow at Cal. “The fuck you’re not. I’m on Rose’s side, and as my father-in-law, you’re obligated to also be on Rose’s side. No offense,” she adds, looking at me and shrugging.

“None taken,” I say before shoving a forkful of lettuce in my mouth.

Jazz has been a little frosty for the past two weeks, but not unprofessional.

Not by our standards, anyway. I’m sure she wouldn’t willingly choose to eat lunch with me, but the three of us have had a week full of meetings, and this is the first time we’ve had a chance to sit down together and review our to-do lists before we close for the holidays.

“I’m on both of your sides,” Cal says, ever the diplomat.

“She left Rose without saying goodbye and only left a note!” Jazz protests, but Cal just chuckles.

“Yes, and Maggie did the same to me, remember? And let’s not forget that you and Liam would’ve broken up if he hadn’t refused to accept the breakup.

Life has a way of working out and giving us the future we’re supposed to have.

” He nods toward Jazz’s tummy, where she rests her hand on her tiny bump.

I wish I had that kind of optimism, but right now, I’m just trying to get through the day, and not really thinking about the future. There’s nothing worth looking forward to, anyway.

“I’m just saying, if it was—” Jazz stops speaking as the elevator door slides open and a harried-looking Maggie and Liam rush out.

“We’ve been trying to call you,” Maggie says, panting.

Cal jumps to his feet, already halfway across the room to his wife. “We turned our phones off so we’d be productive. What’s going on, love?”

“It’s Rose,” Liam answers, instead, looking between Jazz and me with an expression of dread. “There was an explosion at her lab. They called Xan. She’s been rushed to the hospital.”

I’ve never been religious, but I spent every second on the drive to the hospital wishing I had someone to pray to. Someone to beg to make sure Rose is okay.

Imogen met us here. Apparently, she tried to call me after the explosion, and when I didn’t pick up, she remembered Xan’s name and found him on Facebook.

Thank god for his shitty privacy settings, because, for some unknown reason, Rose’s employers still keep paper files, and they couldn’t get into the building to check her emergency contact.

It would’ve been hours until they’d tracked someone down.

Rose is okay. Better than expected, considering the size of the explosion. She has a broken arm, a concussion, and they’re keeping an eye on her lungs because of the smoke, but it could’ve been so much worse, and she was the only one hurt badly enough for a trip to the ER.

“She was standing closest to the door when it happened,” Imogen told us, her face stark with shock. “She should’ve been the first out, but she refused to leave until she got everyone else out. She was the last one in when the ceiling started coming down.”

Thankfully, the firefighters arrived and pulled her out before it fully collapsed, but god… she could’ve died. She could’ve been crushed, all alone in the lab. The fact that she wasn’t is a goddamn miracle.

“Can you two please stop pacing? Or at least pace together. The constant crossing back and forth is making me nauseous,” Xan says with a groan, sitting back in his chair. “I fucking hate hospitals,” he grumbles. He does look remarkably pale.

Jazz and I both pause our pacing and stare at each other. I look away first, sighing and dropping into a metal chair across the little waiting room from the rest of the Cannons and Michaelsons. I expect Jazz to take the empty seat beside Liam, but she sits beside me instead.

“She’s okay,” she says, sounding more like she’s trying to reassure herself than me.

“She is,” I confirm. “Are you okay? ”

“I just need to see her. They’ll let us in soon.”

Us . I don’t fit in here, with Rose’s family, who love her and treat her well. Not her parents, mind you. I don’t know who the hell called them, but I don’t fit with everyone else.

“Who’s here for Rose Cannon?” a doctor calls, and half the waiting room stands up: her siblings, parents, the Michaelsons, and a few of her colleagues.

Me. The doctor looks just out of med school and seriously overwhelmed by how many people are watching him expectantly.

“Um. I don’t think you’ll all fit, but I can take the family through now. ”

Rose’s parents, Xan, and Jazz all start toward the doctor, but Jazz stops when she realizes I’m not following.

“You’re not coming?”

I wring my hands. I want nothing more than to follow them, to push Rose’s parents aside and see with my own two eyes that she’s okay. But it’s not my place. “I don’t belong in there, Jazz. Not anymore.”

Jazz crosses her arms and takes a deep breath.

“Okay. We’ve all been dancing around this for months, and I’m not doing it anymore.

I don’t know why you and Rose decided to stay married.

We all know it wasn’t real, but it doesn’t matter.

That was then. This is now, and it is real.

It’s so fucking obvious, Sierra. And I trust you have your reasons for ending things like you did, but whatever reason you think is good enough to lose her over?

It’s not. I promise. So get your shit together before you lose her for good. ”

I stare, open-mouthed, at her. “What do you mean you knew it wasn’t real? What was with you telling me you knew you could trust me because marriage was so important to me that I’d never do anything to mess with that?”

“I was trying to guilt trip you into quitting while you were ahead, or committing,” she replies with a shrug. “Did it work?”

Did it ever. If it wasn’t for her getting in my head, I probably wouldn’t have gone to the bar that night, and I’d never have left because it felt wrong sleeping with someone who wasn’t my wife. Rose and I wouldn’t have hooked up, knocking our world off its axis.

“Clearly it didn’t work well enough,” I say, torn between being furious with her for trying to manipulate me and furious at myself because she saw right through me. They all saw right through me.

“Well, here’s another guilt trip,” Jazz says. “Rose could’ve died today thinking you didn’t love her. And you would’ve had to live with that for the rest of your life.”

“Jazz,” Liam chides softly from his seat.

She holds her hands up. “Hey, once upon a time, I had to hear the hard truths, too. I’m just passing the baton.”

She walks away before I can respond, and I fall back into my chair, closing my eyes and squeezing them tight so I don’t cry. I hope none of Rose’s colleagues heard that. If she lost her promotion after everything, I would never forgive myself. As it is, I don’t think I’ll ever forgive myself.

I shouldn’t be here, but I can’t bring myself to leave. I need to be close to her right now.

Maggie sits beside me and takes my hand. Her expression is softer than Jazz’s. “Sixty-one days. ”

“What?” I ask, more confused than ever.

“Sixty-one days. That’s how long Cal and I were apart after I walked out on him.

And I know it might not seem like much in the grand scheme of a long relationship, but it’s my biggest regret, Sierra.

” Her deep blue eyes are haunted. I didn’t know Maggie and Cal then—Cal hired me after he and Maggie got back together, when she decided not to return to Michaelson and Hicks.

It’s hard to imagine them as anything less than happy together.

“Time is the most precious thing we have,” she continues, and it’s like I can hear all sixty-one days of regret in her voice.

“And I know Rose is a good thirty years younger than Cal, so maybe it doesn’t feel as pressing, but the explosion is just proof that there are no guarantees.

Trust me, there is never enough time. I would burn the world to the ground to get those sixty-one days back.

You have thirteen days you’re going to regret for the rest of your life. Don’t make it fourteen.”