Noah held up his left hand and waggled his ring finger. “Give her everything she could possibly want from you in a two-pronged approach—restore her job and her reputation at work, and then restore her personal reputation and faith in you by declaring your love for her and asking for her hand in marriage. If she’s that concerned about what people think of her at work, how does she feel about the fact that she’s having your baby out of wedlock?”
“I already asked her to marry me. She said no.”
“Well, ask again. And not because of the baby, but because you love her and you want to spend the rest of your life with her.”
Once again, Noah was right. Jonah wouldn’t say it out loud, though. Instead, he turned to his computer and looked up a few numbers. He had quite a few calls to make to put all this to rights.
“Who are you calling?” Noah asked as Jonah picked up his office phone.
“Everyone.”
* * *
Emma was moping and she knew it. It had been a week since she’d been fired. At least she thought it was. She’d honestly lost track of time spent wallowing. She was pretty certain she’d worn the same cartoon-clad pajama pants three days in a row and hadn’t washed her hair. She couldn’t work up the enthusiasm to care. What did it matter? She had nowhere to go. No one to see. She was unemployed, single, pregnant and miserable.
Her phone rang just then, but she ignored it. She knew who it was just by the ringtone. Harper, Lucy and Violet all seemed to be taking turns checking in on her unsuccessfully. This time it happened to be Lucy calling. Emma had no doubt that before too long, they would show up at the door. They were on the visitor list and Violet had a key, so there would be no putting them off in that scenario.
It didn’t matter. It felt almost as though little did. At least for now. After a few more days, she’d have no choice but to pick herself up, dust herself off and move on with life. There were bills to pay and soon, a baby to feed. She could borrow money from her parents, she supposed, but that would require her to confess what a mess her life had become lately. She wasn’t ready for that yet.
That meant she had to work.
Emma had been looking at jobs online. Her only hope was that perhaps she could find another position before word got out about why she
’d left her last one. They would eventually call a reference and her company would disclose that she was terminated and ineligible for rehire—she couldn’t help that—but that would be better than the rumors that would build as they circulated. Especially once she could no longer hide her baby bump.
So far, she hadn’t run across much of interest. There was a financial analyst position at Sandlin-Kline. That was probably a demotion, but she’d take it if they offered because they were a big firm where she could grow. They even had a day care for employees, which she would need before too long. There was also a CPA position at a large tax firm, which she could do, but it was a last resort. Taxes were not her favorite.
The only other job that had piqued her interest was the finance director at FlynnSoft. She’d giggled with hysteria when she saw the posting. Obviously she was a masochist for that to catch her eye. There was no other excuse as working with Jonah on a daily basis would be pure torture.
As it was, she would have to deal with him where the baby was concerned. Seeing him day in and day out, having him as her actual boss this time... That was out of the question. She was qualified for the position, and he’d already offered her the job twice, but that door had closed for them both when he lied to her. She would bag groceries at the corner market before she’d go crawling back to him for a job.
George and Pauline Dempsey would have a stroke if they caught their pregnant, single daughter bagging fruits and vegetables. But she’d do it, because if nothing else, she still had her pride and she would work to support her child. At least once she got out of this funk and moved on.
Emma was pondering eating ice cream for dinner when her phone rang again. This time it was Tim’s number. She frowned as she picked it up and studied the screen. Why would Tim be calling? Her last check was coming via direct deposit. She’d already cleaned out everything from the office. If he thought she’d be willing to answer questions about her accounts after he fired her, he would be sadly mistaken.
Unable to resist finding out what was behind the call, she broke down and answered. “Hello.” She tried to hide the displeasure in her voice, but failed.
“Emma! Hey, this is Tim.”
“I know.”
“Do you have a second to chat?”
Emma sighed. “Not really, Tim. I’ve got an interview with Sandlin-Kline Financials first thing in the morning. I’ve got to pick up my suits from the cleaners before they close,” she lied. She hadn’t even submitted her résumé anywhere yet. She wasn’t about to let Tim know that, though.
“Well, then I’ll be brief, Emma. The truth of the matter is that I think I acted prematurely the other day in firing you. I was upset about being left out of the loop and I came down too hard. I shouldn’t have let you go for that.”
Emma slowly lowered herself down onto her living room sofa. Was Tim apologizing? Tim never apologized. There was something fishy about this. “I’m glad you recognize that,” she said. She wasn’t about to read any more into it, though. She hadn’t known of a single person cut from the company that ever returned.
“Things have been pretty chaotic the last few days. I think I underestimated how much work you actually managed here. There’s no way we can handle this workload without you. I know I’ve made a terrible mistake. I’d like you to come back, Emma.”
Her jaw dropped silently as she tried to absorb the information. He was giving her the chance to come back. “Are you serious?”
“I am. I really shouldn’t have blamed you for Flynn’s actions. There’s no way you could’ve known what he was doing. He’s a very charismatic and persuasive man. You did everything I’d asked you to do.”
Emma paused. This didn’t sound like the manager she knew. “Tim, did Jonah talk you into giving me my job back?”
There was a long silence on the line.