Coming Back To You (28 page)

When she met Lisa’s gaze again, reluctant
understanding mixed with sadness painted Lisa’s expression.

“So, basically, you’re already gone. The
decision’s been made.”

Karma nodded, twisting her fingers together.
“Yes. I can’t stay here, Lisa. Not under these circumstances.”

Lisa turned toward her computer. “You do
realize the e-mail will go out today.”

“What e-mail?”

“The personnel update. All the executives and
upper management receive a personnel update when an employee
terminates.”

Now that she thought about it, Karma did
remember hearing Don talk about the personnel report occasionally.
She’d even seen the data in presentations he’d put together for
team updates, but she’d never seen the actual e-mail.

Then her heart spasmed as realization dawned.
“Wait a minute. Mark’s going to receive it? Today?”

Lisa nodded. “While he’s at his friend’s
wedding in Chicago. Are you sure you still want to do this?”

Good timing had never been Karma’s friend,
and now was no different. Sighing, she resigned herself that this
was just how things needed to be. “Yes. Just do it. Get it over
with.”

“I’ll hold it until the end of the day, but
then I’ve gotta send it.” Lisa stood and came around her desk, arms
outstretched.

Karma stood and hugged her. “I’ll miss you,
Leese.”

“Me, too. But that’s what phones and e-mail
are for, right? And weekend getaways.” Lisa pulled away. “Daniel’s
going to be devastated, you know.”

“I know. Let me tell him, okay?”

Lisa promised she would, then Karma left and
drove to Brad’s house.

“Hey, I wasn’t expecting you,” he said,
opening the door. He was on vacation this week, too.
Unfortunately—or fortunately, as the case may be—he hadn’t planned
to spend time with her. Jade was staying the week with him. Why
would he possibly want to spend time with Karma when his daughter
wouldn’t approve?

“Yeah, this is kind of an impromptu thing.”
She followed him to the kitchen.

Jade was in the living room, sitting in a
giant, purple beanbag chair, playing video games.

“Hi, Jade.” A welcome wash of delight rushed
through her just knowing she wouldn’t have to deal with her,
anymore.

Jade grumbled under her breath, rolling her
eyes before turning her attention back toward the flat screen.

Brad gestured toward the fridge. “Can I get
you a drink?” Even though they’d been dating for months, he still
seemed so formal with her.

“Sure. I mean, no. No, thank you.” She sat at
the bar, still wearing her coat. “I just came by to return this.”
She pulled the ring out of her pocket.

Brad froze. Then frowned. Then cleared his
throat and looked away. “Why?”

“Brad, it’s just not working. We’re too
different.”

“Is this about Friday? About your cat?”

“No, it’s—”

“Jesus, it was just a cat, Karma. It’s not
like it was a person.”

“Brad, no, that’s not—”

“You’re ending our relationship over a
goddamn cat? It was
just
an animal.”

Karma shot off the barstool. “Will you shut
up and listen to me!”

Jade’s head shot around at the commotion.
“Don’t you yell at my dad, you bitch!”

Karma spun on Jade and lashed her index
finger at her. “I am so done with you disrespecting me. I’m
through. I’m finished trying to make you like me. I really don’t
care anymore, because you’re no longer my problem. So go ahead and
hate my guts. No sweat off my back.” She turned toward Brad and
gave him a look. One that expressed she could no longer compete
with his daughter when he wouldn’t even catch her back.

All he could do was stand there, frowning as
if he were stuck between warring factions.

She crossed her arms and took a step back, her glance
flitting to the ring before meeting Brad’s gaze again. With the
peanut gallery silent once more, she returned to breaking off the
engagement.

“First of all, Spookie was not just
some
cat
…not some piece of furniture that broke and can be replaced.
She was my baby. She was special to me. To me, she was just as
human as you and I are. You have Jade. I had Spookie. She was
my
daughter.
My
best friend. So how dare you make
light of my feelings for her, because I already know you would
never allow anyone to say such things about
your
daughter.”
She waved toward the living room. “Second of all, that’s not why
I’m ending our relationship, but now that you’ve made your feelings
known, it certainly confirms that I’ve made the right choice.” She
huffed and pushed the ring across the counter. “You’re a good man,
Brad, but you’re not my good man. We just don’t click. You don’t
get me. You don’t understand what I need and what I want. You never
stand up for me when your daughter starts in on me and calls me
names. Don’t you think I deserve at least that much?” She huffed
when Brad didn’t say anything. “And I don’t get you, okay? If you
think about it, you’ll see I’m right. I’m not trying to lay blame
here. We just don’t work together. We don’t. I’ll always be third
place to both Jade and your job, and I deserve to be first
occasionally.” She paused. “Okay, maybe more than occasionally. I
want
to be first once in a while, and right now, I’m
never
first.”

“Yippee,” Jade said, her voice uninspired.
“Ba-bye.” She gave a little finger wave. “Don’t let the door hit
your ass on the way out, be-yotch.”

Karma offered Brad an exasperated grin as she
gestured toward the living room. “Perfect example. She says things
like that, and you don’t say a word.”

“Screw you, skank!”

“Be quiet, Jade!” Brad turned angry eyes on
his daughter for the first time Karma had ever seen. “I’ve had
enough! You don’t talk to people that way.”

Jade appeared stunned, eyes wide, mouth open.
Then she threw down her controller, flung herself out of the
beanbag chair, and stormed down the hall. “I hate you!”

A moment later, a door slammed.

“I’m sorry,” he said. “I shouldn’t have let
her talk to you that way. From now on, I won’t. I’ll make sure
she’s nicer to you. I promise to be better.”

Karma raised her hands, palms up. “It’s too
late, Brad. I’m tapped out. And Jade was only part of the problem.
I just seem like an afterthought with you. That’s not what I
want.”

“I can try harder.” Brad moved toward her,
his eyes filling with the realization she was really leaving him.
That she was really walking away.

“No, Brad. You can’t try harder. Because if
you do, you’ll resent me the way I’ve started resenting you. If
it’s not your daughter, it’s your job. Or something else.” She
didn’t want to hit him with how dull the sex was. She wasn’t that
cruel.

His face hardened. “It’s your boss, isn’t
it?” The fury flamed back to life in Brad’s gaze. “You’re attracted
to him, aren’t you?”

Karma took a step toward the door. “Leave
Mark out of this. This has nothing to do with him.” She would have
ended their relationship regardless of whether Mark had returned or
not. It probably just would have taken longer for her to realize
she and Brad weren’t a good fit.

“I don’t want you to go,” he said as she
started for the door.

“I can’t stay.” She opened the door.
“Good-bye, Brad.”

For the first time in months, she was free.
No entanglements. No burdens.

No Jade.

Breaking up with Brad had been the easy part,
though. Now came the hard part. Now she had to start a new life in
a new city, on her own.

Without Mark.

Talk about setting herself up for an uphill
climb.

Chapter 30

His nerves calmed by Valium, Mark stood at the front
of the church, a few feet away from Rob. Memories of his own
wedding day threatened to consume him, but he cleared his throat,
shook them off, and kept his focus on holding himself together.

The ceremony lasted all of fifteen minutes,
but it felt like hours. Regardless, it did end, and finally he was
able to escape. He practically dragged the maid of honor to the
foot of the aisle and out the door to the waiting limousine, where
he immediately downed a glass of champagne. Mixing Valium with
alcohol be damned.

“Holly said you had an aversion to weddings,”
Tiffany, the maid of honor, said. She wore a crooked half smile and
one eyebrow lifted knowingly.

Mark poured another glass of champagne, took
a deep breath as he settled into his seat, and loosened his tie.
“Here’s to getting out of there.” He nodded toward the church and
lifted his glass toward Tiffany in a one-sided toasted.

She shook her head and laughed. “Men.”

It was nearly four o’clock by the time they
reached the reception, which happened to be at the same hotel where
Mark had booked his room. Most of the out-of-town guests were
staying there.

Feeling loose after two glasses of champagne
and a Valium, he strolled in with the rest of the wedding
party.

What he really wanted was to get back to
Indianapolis. Last night, lying awake in his suite, he’d finally
found time to mull over what had happened on Friday, as well as
what Rob had said to him at the bar.

He did love Karma. Wasn’t that what was
important? She didn’t belong with Brad. She belonged with him. And
now that he’d had time to think about it, he realized Rob was
right. This wasn’t the same as what had happened between him and
Carol. As far as he knew, Karma and Brad hadn’t even set a wedding
date. Mark and Carol had set the date, made the plans, shelled out
the cash, and made it all the way to the big day before the truth
came out about her involvement with Antonio.

Still, it didn’t make him feel a whole lot
better about sleeping with another man’s woman. Mark was a lot of
things, but he wasn’t the kind who purposely sought women who were
already taken.

And yet he’d pursued Karma and taken her to
bed without so much as a hint of reservation.

So he was a bastard, but lying in bed last
night, he’d decided he was going to fight for her. To hell with
propriety and his noble sensibilities. If he was going to ride this
out as the sign he’d asked the universe for last September, he
needed to get in the game. And not just as an eager bystander. He
needed to make his feelings known. He needed to confess his love.
Not to himself, not to Rob, but to Karma. She needed to know. He
needed to declare out loud…to the entire world…that he was in love
with her and that he couldn’t live without her.

“You doing okay?” Rob said as they waited
outside the reception room for the wedding party’s grand
entrance.

“Yeah.” He smiled at his best friend. “You
were right last night. Thanks for knocking some sense into me.”

“That’s what friends are for, right?”

They hugged it out then clapped each other on
the shoulders. “I’m happy for you, buddy.”

Rob nodded. “Yeah well, just return the favor
by getting your ass back to Indy and proposing to that sweet thing
you’re so crazy about. Then I can be the best man at
your
wedding. And this time we can do it right.”

“You’re getting a little ahead of yourself.”
Mark might be ready and willing to open his heart and let Karma in,
but asking her to marry him was going to take more than a Valium,
some alcohol, and a heart-to-heart conversation. “Let me cross one
bridge at a time before you start marrying me off.”

Rob grinned. “I hear you, but I think you
already know she’s the one.” His grin turned into a crooked
smirk.

Mark smiled back and narrowed his eyes. Was
she? Was Karma the one? Yes. Yes, she was. The way he felt about
her, she had to be.

The wedding coordinator shushed everyone.
“Get ready, everybody. They’re about to open the doors.”

The party fell into two lines, one for the
bridesmaids and one for the groomsmen.

Tiffany wrapped her arm around his, and then
the wedding party was ushered into the reception room. When Rob and
Holly strolled in behind him, the guests stood and applauded.

He grinned, wondering what it would be like
for him and Karma to be welcomed like that. As a married couple at
their own wedding.

Dinner was served, and then it was time for
him to make his toast.

Standing, he lifted his champagne glass. “Rob
and I have known each other…well…it seems we’ve always known each
other. We’ve been best friends forever.” He glanced around the room
then back down at Rob. “We’ve been through hell together. Through
bad times and good. Mostly good. But when things were bad, Rob was
always there. He always found the good in every bad situation and
pulled me from the fire when I couldn’t do it myself.” Emotion
clouded his words. Even Rob seemed to choke up a little. That’s how
deep their blood ran. Mark cleared his throat and looked into his
drink. “Three weeks after he met Holly, he told me he was going to
marry her.”

Holly let out a tiny gasp, and Mark heard her
whisper to Rob, “You never told me that.”

Mark turned toward her. “It was the Fourth of
July. The day I met you.” Mark addressed the room again. “When he
told me that, I thought he was crazy.” A few chuckles broke through
the gathered guests. “I thought he’d lost his mind. He’d only just
met this woman, and he already saw himself walking down the aisle
with her? The
avowed bachelor
who was my best friend had
suddenly found a woman he couldn’t live without.” More chuckles, as
well as a few
aaawwwees
. Mark paused, smiled, and looked at
Rob again. “But Rob taught me a valuable lesson that day.
Sometimes, you just know. Sometimes something good comes along, and
you just have to grab on and not let go.” He held Rob’s gaze for a
long moment. Silent meaning passed between them. Then he looked at
Rob’s bride. “Holly, you are
that something good
that came
along in my friend’s life. You’re the woman who’s made my friend
the happiest man in the world tonight, and I can only hope that
someday I’ll know exactly how he feels. Here’s to both of you.” He
lifted his glass to a room full of applause.