“Can’t you see, it wouldn’t have made a difference!”
“Yes, it would’ve. It would’ve made a d-difference to me. I would’ve stayed away and not made a to-to-total st-st-stuttering idiot of myself on camera. I would have retracted the entry, st-st-stopped it from going into that warehouse. I would have b-begged and b-borrowed fifty grand to post as bail to get out of this co-co-competition. I would have stopped all of this from happening, because you know what, right now I look like the mo-mo-moron that can’t talk, can’t read, and can’t follow simple rules. How can I be tr-trusted with anything?”
I take two steps back, shocked at my own fury. The words just unleashed themselves. I clench my fists. Georgiana is deathly pale, but how can she be surprised? Unless she doesn’t know me and understand me like I thought she did.
“Raiden—”
“I want to start my own business. I need money. B-big money. The type only b-banks hand out. A loan. You might not have put this p-p-puzzle together yet, but I’m a high school dropout. I haven’t gone beyond tenth grade and even that was a push. I’ll be stuck in a m-m-minimum wage situation for the rest of my life unless I keep banging on Cash’s door.” That red carpet fork in the road I rolled out this morning rolls back into itself. “Nobody on this p-planet is going to lend me a single c-c-cent. This competition was my way out and this…this situation clipped my wings.”
Her eyes are wide, but where her gaze initially pleaded, it now shoots arrows. “You just can’t think beyond that, can you? You’d have some wing left if the chip on your shoulder wasn’t so freaking big.”
“Well said.” I throw my hands up. She can shoot bullets? So can I. “Thank you for being my cheap labor s-s-sidekick on this project. You’ve been worth every cent.” I need to leave before this gets totally out of hand and she cuts me to the bone. “I’m out of here. Let go of the idea of us, George. I told you, this is how it ends. So, make peace with it. It was good while it lasted.”
I turn and walk off. By the time I reach my truck, I’m broken, dismayed, and not at all relieved that her footsteps aren’t following in my wake.
35
GEORGIANA
Did he just break up with me? Were we even together? As a couple? By the way he walked away just now, all those weeks might have been just fun and games to him. Some light summer entertainment. My heart cracks and I sag against the nearest car, my legs wanting to fold, my knees weak and shaky.
I try to hold my tears in, but all I want to do is weep. For us, for him, for my poor battered heart that fell in love with a man who gave up on life in the tenth grade and has regretted it ever since. I finally get to read the last pages he’s been clutching close, and all his complex pieces fall into place.
Raiden doesn’t want money—for that he only needs to ask. Between Cash and Hunter, there’s enough security for him to get all the loans he wants to start his own business. But that’s not the point. Raiden wants affirmation that he is worth something in a world that is stuck in an archaic value system that measures people’s worth with a ruler. He needs to check the boxes. The only problem is, not everybody can be measured in feet and inches. Sometimes people are more out of those little boxes than in.
I dig in my purse for a tissue and take a minute to get a grip. The parking lot is starting to fill up and I can’t stand here forever, looking like I’ve just been dumped.
Raiden might think this is over, but it isn’t. Georgiana Wess might be cheap labor, but she’s about to take the stage and play her final role in the Wess & Rover series.
As for the convention, we might be disqualified from the competition, but I’m not done here. I have a business to kickstart this weekend, whether Raiden wants it or not. He might have dumped me, but I’m not giving up on him and his dream—our dream. Weeks ago, I made a promise, quietly, to myself, with May sitting next to me that night on her porch, holding my hand. I’m not one to break my promises.
With new purpose, I make my way back to the convention center, all fired up and ready to seek out Veronique Wess, also known as my mother. She’s easy to spot with John Wallis and Jack and his team, where they’re still hovering in the area cordoned off for the tiny houses. With Jack and his keen eye for filming drama at the back of my head, I approach the group with caution. Rover spots me first and gets up from where he’s been lounging at my mom’s feet.
“Down, boy,” I say, and reach for my mom’s elbow. “Can I speak to you in private? I only need a few minutes.”
Veronique glances around the group, then nods. “Sure. Can you propose where?”
“Our tiny house. It’s quite soundproof once it’s all closed up, and I’m mentioning that for your sake, not mine.”
I walk off in the direction of our tiny house, not even caring if she follows or not, but Rover is at my heels, his tail wagging and eyes staring at me with complete adoration. “I’d save you too if I could, my boy.”
Once my mom is in the house, I close the door and make sure the windows are shut. “Make yourself at home.”
Our tiny living room area is a perfect place for two to get cozy, but nothing about this is going to be warm and relaxing.
My mom sits down, elegance itself as she crosses her legs just so, hands in her lap, smiling at me as if she’s posing for a photo. “You’ve done a good job here, George.”
“I know. I worked with an amazing man who had a lot riding on this competition. I can appreciate that you’d want to ruin me from afar and forever, but you ruined this for him too and it has to stop. Today. Now.”
“George!” She widens her eyes at me, usually a first indication that she doesn’t approve of something.
I don’t sit. Instead, I lean against the counter so I can at least have the advantage of staring down at her. “You destroyed Raiden’s one chance to win this competition. I don’t care what you do to me, but I can’t stand that you did this to him! Can you honestly tell me that you didn’t know I was involved in this competition?”
“No. I didn’t know. When you went off in a huff in July, I thought I’d get involved and see what all the hype is with these tiny houses. I had no idea you were building a house for this competition.”
“There are no other competitions over the Labor Day weekend, Mom, and you never even checked in with me. If you’d checked in with me, if Dad had checked in with me, you would have known.”
A quiet stretch follows, in which we only stare at each other, but I’ve had Raiden Logan training, and she’s the first to drop her gaze.