“That a girl.” Paula smiled proudly.
In her downtown office, Pen sat at her desk and jotted a quick list of phone calls to make, pausing to mourn the space. She’d have to abandon her office to work at home. Start having meetings in coffee shops and her clients’ offices again. She could no longer afford both Brand Consulting’s shingle and her daughter.
Hand on her tummy, she closed her eyes and reminded herself of what was important.
Then she picked up her desk phone and called the mayor of Dallas.
* * *
Chase showed up in Zach’s office five minutes before five o’clock, a shadow of the same hour decorating his jaw.
“You look like shit,” Zach offered. “Rough day?”
Chase held his gaze but didn’t cop to the status of his day, instead returning, “I’d talk. You look like your rough days had friends who came by to beat the hell out of you at night.”
“Wonder why that is.” Zach blinked tired eyes. He hadn’t been sleeping well. Or eating well. Or thinking well, either. Suffering from a breakup would do that. And he did mean suffering.
“Penelope called me this afternoon,” Chase said.
That snapped Zach awake. “You? Why?”
“She let me know she was announcing your amicable breakup via a blogger. Duchess something. Pen asked me to pass it on. In person.”
“That was bold.” No one told the mayor of Dallas what to do. “And you agreed.”
“I came to tell you that and one more thing.”
“Which is?” Zach asked as he typed in the URL for the Dallas Duchess. No news about himself was on the front page, but an ad for Love & Tumble caught his eye and snagged his heart.
“Penelope misses you.”
Zach tore his eyes from the screen. “Did she say that?”
“She didn’t have to. She sounded...sad.” Chase’s eyes skated over Zach’s rumpled shirt. “I wonder if she looks as bad as you do. I doubt it. She’s a helluva lot prettier.”
No arguing that finer point.
“I can’t go by your gut, Chase.” But even as he said it, Zach’s mind was turning. He’d been racking his brain all week for ways to win her back.
His eyes on the blog in front of him, he considered a new possibility. Maybe he could out-PR the PR maven.
“I’m not giving up,” Zach told his brother.
“It’s hard to know when to give up and when to dig in.” Chase’s tone was contemplative. He sucked in a breath and expelled such a personal comment, Zach stared at him in shock. “Like when Mimi and I unraveled. Mom and Dad were right. She wasn’t a good fit for a political partner, but at the time, I struggled. I didn’t know my future. I didn’t know if I’d actually make it to mayor when she left. But I knew if I did, I’d be better off without her.”
Despite Chase’s assuredness as he recited the tale of the decay of his past relationship, Zach had been there when it happened. He remembered his older brother’s state when he lost Mimi. He’d been devastated for months. Then again, devastation on Chase looked different than it did on other people. Chase had dug his heels in and honed his focus on world domination.
He’d fallen just short of the world, but he’d landed Dallas. Zach wasn’t sure if his stiff-lipped older brother was a good template with which to map out his own future or not.
“The point is you need to figure out what you want your life to look like in five, ten, twenty years,” Chase said. “What role does Penelope play? She’s the mother of your child, but is marrying her really what’s best for you? Or is the best thing for you to back away from her and let the future fall into place?”
As Chase spoke, Zach rose from his chair.
“Are you kidding me right now? This is the advice you’re offering? You don’t know what Pen and I were like together. When she was in my house. In my life.” When she was settled across from him in a restaurant, laughing over her wine. Or in the doctor’s office, with tears of joy shining in her eyes. Or when she’d moved out of his house with such resolve, that Zach questioned whether or not he’d imagined her every reaction beforehand.
“Simple question,” Chase said in his typical ubercalm state. “She misses you. Do you miss her?”
More than anyone knew.
“Yes.”
“Do you love her?” Since the inflection and volume of Chase’s voice hadn’t changed even a little, Zach had to let that question settle into the pit of his gut.
His churning, uncertain, fear-filled gut.
“There’s your answer,” Chase said. “Let her go, Zach. Love, even when it’s real and lasting, isn’t a sure thing. But when it’s not there, you’re betting on a loss. The longer you let a loveless relationship go on, the bigger that loss is.”
On that note, Chase gave him a curt nod and left the office.