Page 50 of Third Time is the Charm (Passion and Perseverance #3)

“After seeing that, even she agreed that something wasn’t right.

Honestly, whatever happened doesn’t exactly matter at this point, the permits that we submitted have been destroyed and the most current record of them in their system has them marked as denied.

The woman was pretty flustered about the whole thing.

She said she would talk to her supervisor on Monday and she would have him give me a call.

In the meantime, she offered to let me speak to the person who had filed in the computer that the documents hadn’t been completed properly to see if that person had any more answers. ”

“How can I help? Do you want me to try and talk to her? Or whomever it was that reviewed the permits?” Beth asked.

“I already spoke with the woman. I went down there today to get to the bottom of this. It was a younger girl. She hasn’t been working there for very long reviewing permits, but all she does it make sure that the required areas on the paperwork are completed,” he continued as the waiter removed their dinner plates.

“So, I asked her to pull up our application and see if she remembered anything about it. At first, she denied it, but once she saw the name come up on the screen, and she saw the sequence of the filed permits being approved, then changed by her to ‘In Review’, and finally, ‘Denied,’ her face turned beet red.”

“Did she do it on purpose?” Beth asked, aghast, wondering why someone would do something like that. A pit of dread forming in her stomach.

“I could see she was afraid. I told her that I didn’t care about punishing her or anything like that, I just needed to know what happened,” Col said.

“She looked like she was about to break down in tears so I wasn’t about to berate her for it.

Anyway, she apologized profusely and said that she’d gotten a call on Monday from someone who offered her twenty-thousand dollars to deny our permits. ”

Beth felt her mouth fall open.

“She’s in school and her mom is sick, so she took the money, not even looking up what they were; she just went in and denied them, thinking that it was for some minor thing and not a huge event for the city.

She kept apologizing and said that once she did it and realized, she was afraid what would happen if she changed it back.

She said the woman who called knew about her and her family; she knew that the girl’s mother was sick and in the hospital.

Even though she hadn’t been blackmailed, she was petrified that changing the status back and having the money would get her into bigger trouble. ”

“Oh my God. You have to go to the police, Col. You have to find out who did this and why,” Beth interjected. “Who would do this? It’s a fundraiser for charity – why would anyone want to harm that? Why would anyone want to harm you?”

“Hold your horses,” he said, his hand coming up, motioning for her to slow down. “I don’t want to go to the police; it’s only going to get this girl in major trouble – and trust me, she’s never going to do something like this again. I also don’t need to go to the police because I know who did it.”

Beth held her breath. The pit in her stomach growing. Her mind heard his answer before his lips moved.

“The woman on the phone introduced herself as Caroline Bingley.”

The room disappeared around her. Beth saw his lips moving in slow-motion, pronouncing the name of the woman who still somehow managed to disrupt her life. She felt like the floor had fallen out from underneath her.

Yes, she’d expected Caroline to reappear at some point, after seeing what had happened at the wedding, after talking to Anne and knowing that continuing a relationship with Darcy meant delving back into this psycho’s crosshairs.

But, she hadn’t expected Caroline to claw her way into Beth’s professional life to try and hurt her at the expense of Col and all of the others who benefited from this fundraiser.

Col sighed, draining the last of his wine.

“Now, you see where I’m going with this.

Do you have any idea why she would do that?

I haven’t given up yet; I have friends in high places in that office from doing this for so many years, so I’m sure that we’ll be able to get everything back up and running, but if this woman is out to ruin the Contest, I need to be prepared and I need to know why. ”

Beth nodded abruptly. “Of course,” she managed to rasp out of her parched mouth. Reaching for her cup of water she took a long sip.

“I know you must have some history with her because of Charles. I saw what happened at the wedding, what she was like, some of the things that she said,” he continued. “Do you know why she is doing this? What does she have against me?”

Beth shook her head frantically. “Not you. Me.” She met his gaze; hers laden with guilt and sorrow for where this conversation was heading.

She’d wanted to break it to him gently, not kick him when he was down, but Caroline had given her no choice.

“She’s trying to get to me. She’s trying to punish me for taking Darcy from her. ”

There, she’d said it.

The words fell heavy like rocks between them, slowly building up a wall between amidst the easy friendship that they had formed.

“What do you mean?”

Beth felt tears forming in her eyes. “I’m sorry, Col.

I didn’t want to tell you this way, but you started on this story and now it’s the only way for me to explain why this is all happening.

” She brushed a tear off her cheek. “After Jane’s wedding, I talked to Darcy.

For a lot of reasons – Jane’s insistence, my anger, my confusion – there were things that I needed to know, but the biggest was that you and I had started something and I needed to know if it was possible for me to finally let him go. ”

She saw the torrent of emotions cross his face – some anger at Darcy for what he had done, but mostly the heartbreak that she was causing him mixed with the confusion at why she was doing it.

“I don’t understand,” he bit out softly.

Beth nodded, more tears beginning to fall.

“I’m sorry, Col. It’s not you. This is all my fault.

I should have never agreed to going on a date with you knowing that I had all of these unresolved feelings; I just so wanted to put them behind me, but seeing him and talking to him at the wedding has made me realize that I can’t put them behind me because they are inside of me; he is a part of me. ”

“But after what he did to you, how could you…” he trailed off in sincere concern.

“I was wrong,” she said, shaking her head.

“I was wrong about what I thought happened and I could go into details with you, but it doesn’t matter.

What he did or didn’t do doesn’t really matter.

What matters is that no matter how much I wanted to and how hard I tried to feel more for you, I couldn’t and I was ok with that until I saw him again and realized why I couldn’t and more importantly, what I could feel. ”

Col just nodded in silence. Beth saw the shock that was still registering over him, trying to process the second bomb that had been dropped on him in a week.

“I am so, so sorry, Col. You are such a great guy, but it wouldn’t be right for me or fair to you to continue this knowing that I don’t feel for you what I feel for him and I don’t feel for you what you feel for me.”

Beth stopped, twisting her napkin in her lap, willing herself to stay quiet for long enough for him to say something. Finally, after a minute, he looked up and met her gaze.

“I see.”

She felt more tears stream down her face; she’d never seen him so dejected before.

“Please, Col. I care about you. I don’t want this to ruin our friendship. Please,” she begged softly.

He let out a loud sigh, running his hand through his hair. “I think you’re making a big mistake.”

“Col, believe me, I tried to find those kinds of feelings for you, I really—”

“No,” he cut her off. “I don’t mean about me. I don’t care about me. I mean trying to make things work with him. Even if you were wrong about what happened, I know how he treated you and I know that you deserve so much more.”

“I do, Col, and I wouldn’t be here right now telling you this, hurting you in this way, if I wasn’t convinced that he is not the same man that he was,” she said sincerely; it was the first statement that confidently left her mouth.

“Are you sure?”

“You know me; you know how I felt. It would be a lie to tell you that I’m completely sure that he has changed because I’m not – I don’t know how I could be.

But, I will tell you what I am sure about is that if I don’t take this chance with him, if I don’t give him this chance, I will regret it for the rest of my life. ”

Col’s eyes widened slightly at her words, his lips thinning momentarily before he nodded in resignation. “Then what else can I do but hope, for your sake, that you are right.”

She bit her lip feeling like she deserved so much more of his anger for leading him on. “Are you ok?”

His eyebrows raised at her as though saying ‘are you really asking me that?’

It was a pretty dumb question.

“No,” he admitted anyway. “But I will be.” His gaze tunneled into her as she chewed on her lip. “What did you think I was going to do? Freak out? Fire you?”

“No! Yes. Maybe,” she mumbled. “I don’t know.”

“Well, I’m not,” he reassured her. “Honestly, it was wishful thinking on my part. I should have known, seeing you two at the wedding. Even before that, really; there is something in the way you look at him that I so desperately wanted to see when you looked at me. I guess I thought it would come with time, but I don’t think I was being realistic. ”

“I’m sorry, Col,” Beth offered, unsure of what else to say; there was nothing that could make this easier for him.

“Stop apologizing,” he said with a sad smile. “Don’t apologize for admitting to what you want and pursuing it; I’ll be fine.”

Whether he said the words to convince her or himself, she wasn’t sure so she just nodded in response.

“So, what does this mean for me?” he asked, then clarified with, “In terms of Caroline Bingley.”

“I… ahh… I’m honestly not sure. I would do whatever you have to do – talk to whomever you know, but I doubt her reach extends further than the bribe that she paid that girl. If I had to guess, it was only done as a message, that even here she can still get to me.”

“Should you go to the police?” Even though it was a question, it sounded more like a highly-encouraged suggestion.

“I will,” she nodded. “Darcy said that I should go last weekend; I guess he got a restraining order against her already and wants me to get one. Well, not just him, I want to get one, too. I just didn’t think I would need to do it so urgently.

I figured she was moving on with her life in New York, but she must have learned that Darcy came up here on Monday—” She stopped abruptly, blushing when she realized that she’d revealed that Darcy had stayed with her.

“And… ahh… that is what probably set this all in motion,” she finished quickly, trying to ignore that awkwardness between them.

But, ignoring an elephant isn’t exactly the easiest thing.

“Whatever she does next, I think will be aimed directly at me. I’ll go to the police on Monday and handle it,” she assured him.

“Ok.” His reply was fraught with worry.

“I would just try to make sure all of the guest lists for the private parties and events are monitored tightly. Even though I’m her target, I don’t think she cares about any collateral damage when it comes to getting what she wants,” she warned him even though he probably had a good idea what lengths this woman would go to.

Col let out a long sigh, closing his eyes for a split second before turning back to her. “Alright, let’s get going and get you home.” He stood from his chair and she followed his lead, trailing quietly behind him as they left the hotel.

There were things that she could say, but nothing that would ease the pain that she had caused him .

She knew – she was intimately familiar with that pain; as much as she wanted to try and make it better, the only thing that would help was peace and solitude to recover.

They rode in silence back to her apartment, the car stopping out front. This time, Col helped her out of the car and walked her to her door, but made no move to follow her inside.

“Be careful, Beth,” he said softly. His plea likely in reference to both Caroline and to Darcy, just in very different ways.

“I will. Thank you.” She bit her lip to stop another apology from escaping. “You, too. And let me know if there is anything else I can do.”

He just nodded sadly. Her breath caught as his head dipped towards hers and he placed a soft, platonic kiss on her cheek.

She gave him a sad smile that in no way matched the extent of his and watched him take a few steps back to the car before turning to open the door to her building.

Darcy was waiting.

She didn’t need to check at the desk to know that.

She’d felt his stare as soon as she stepped out of the car, her body drawn towards him.

She moved up the steps quickly, anxious for his embrace, his comfort, and his protection.

As she stepped into the hall, the door to her apartment opened, Darcy standing in the frame.

Their eyes locked and she walked towards him.

For the first time since she’d moved, the thought ‘ I’m home’ came to her mind.

Because with him, she was.