LITMIR.BIZ

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bright with merriment.

      Josh grinned in agreement. “Olivia told me you got in to see Hilton the day of his heart attack, when none of us was allowed in because we’re not in his immediate family. Olivia guessed…”

      Gerrick held up his hands to stop Josh. “Don’t guess. There’s nothing happening between Gina and me. We went to Vegas that weekend to celebrate the fact that I had a new job.…”

      “A new job?” Ethan said, sounding confused and reluctant.

      Gerrick nodded. “This week is supposed to be the final week of my notice, but I’m going early. Today will be my last day. Hilton has known all along. He supported me during the interview process. He recommended me.”

      Josh swiped his hand across the back of his neck. “You can’t be telling us you’re leaving.”

      “That’s exactly what I’m telling you,” Gerrick said, rising from his seat to pace. He normally wasn’t a fidgety person, but keeping such a tight rein on his emotions filled him with impulses and urges he almost couldn’t control. But he did. He turned and smiled at the men in front of Hilton’s desk. “One of you is going to have to take over.”

      “You’re a more logical choice than I am,” Ethan said to Josh. “If only because you have to know more about the stores to promote them, but, frankly, Gerrick, I’m shocked that you’re leaving. I’m shocked that you would leave us in a lurch when Hilton is so sick.”

      “My new job is as CEO of a grocery store chain in Maine. Their stock just went public. It’s through the roof. The man who started the business is retiring, and everything is set up for this company to explode. I’m on the ground floor. A chance like this comes along once in a lifetime.”

      “And Hilton Martin has only really needed us once in a lifetime.”

      “Guys, he’s been encouraging me to go.”

      Josh peered up. “And what does Gina say?”

      Gerrick smiled at the irony. “She’s emphatic that I go. She’s also emphatic that you can handle this without me.”

      Ethan slapped his palm on the leather arm of his chair. “Then I guess you go,” he said, but he didn’t sound happy or encouraging.

      “And we’ll handle it,” Josh said, as he rose.

      The two men walked out of the office without another word and Gerrick rubbed his hands down his face. He had just lost two friends. First, he married Gina and thoroughly pushed her from his life. Then, to accommodate Gina, he had to leave Hilton-Cooper-Martin Foods, which alienated his friends. The only person he hadn’t run off was Hilton and Gerrick suspected that if he ever found out about the secret Vegas wedding, Hilton wouldn’t be his supporter anymore, either.

      He remembered the old saw: be careful what you wish for because you may get it, and knew it was right. He had wished Gina would notice him, wished he could marry her before he moved to Maine, and both had happened.

      And it had not only cost him any chance with her. It also cost his two best friends.

      After settling her father in at the hospital in Atlanta, Gina arrived home the following Wednesday, exhausted but satisfied that her dad would eventually be back to normal. She joyfully paid the taxi driver and gave him a healthy tip because he lugged her assorted bags, boxes and mismatched suitcases into the foyer of the Martin mansion.

      The first thing she saw after she turned away from the door was a note propped up against a vase on the small mahogany table beneath the large mirror. The envelope bore her name, so she reached for it and ripped it open.

      She read it and tears unexpectedly filled her eyes. It said only,

      I’m sorry,

      Gerrick

      P.S. By the way, I did love you. I might always love you.

      Overcome, Gina dropped to sit on the bottom step of the stairway that spiraled to the second floor. The funny part of it was, she believed Gerrick really did love her. Or at least he loved the woman she had been in Vegas. Gina didn’t know who that woman was but she did know she was gone for good. Particularly since she had more than a sneaking suspicion her father would begin to train her to take over the company once he returned to work, and her time would be taken up with facts, figures and negotiating strategies. So Gerrick was better off this way. The real Gina Martin wasn’t the kind to fly to Vegas on the spur of the moment, to deliberately buy shimmering lace panties and bras because she knew the man shopping with her was attracted to her and she wanted to tease him.

      The real Gina didn’t tease people. The real Gina had thrown away the red bra and thong. The real Gina had invested the money she won playing blackjack.

      Gerrick was much better off without her.

      She pressed her lips together to stop their trembling, but couldn’t stop the flood of tears that rolled down her cheeks. Though she didn’t remember a big part of it—the most important part—that weekend in Vegas had been the best, most fun weekend of her entire life. But now she had to get back to her real world.

      Chapter Three

      Between monitoring Josh’s work as temporary head of Hilton-Cooper-Martin Foods and overseeing the treatment of her sick father, Gina initially didn’t get much chance to think about Gerrick. When her thoughts did drift to him, she experienced the dull ache of missing him, but convinced herself that any thoughts she had of him were only the typical concern she would have for any co-worker who moved so far away. Particularly when weeks passed without so much as a phone call from him. The very fact that Gerrick never called—not even to check on her father—was proof any feelings he had for her were gone and any feelings she might have had for him were pointless.

      At breakfast on the Monday of the fourth week after returning to Atlanta, Gina’s father told her he was coming into the office and wanted her to call an employee meeting in the company cafeteria for ten o’clock that morning. She argued that he wasn’t allowed to come in yet, though even she had to admit both his color and his energy were back. But he told her he had cleared this trip with his doctor and he was going in. Since he still had to get dressed, he told her to feel free to leave without him.

      Gina drove to the corporate headquarters and she immediately wrote an e-mail instructing all department heads to have their employees in the cafeteria at ten. Assuming her father wanted everyone together to thank them for their cards, letters and phone calls, she had the maintenance department remove the tables from the room and arrange the chairs for theater seating, before they brought in the podium.

      A good daughter and dutiful employee, at ten o’clock Gina was sitting on one of the folding chairs with her co-workers, when her father strode into the room and up to the podium. Wearing a navy-blue suit that complemented his very white hair and pale-blue eyes, Hilton Martin turned to face the assembled crowd. As the employees scrambled to their feet in thunderous applause, Gina also rose, clapping as loudly as everyone else. Her dad was the handsomest man on the face of the earth.

      An image of Gerrick flashed in her mind contradicting that conclusion, but she shoved it aside. Not because Gerrick wasn’t attractive, but because he was gone. That was done. She might occasionally think about him and wonder how he was doing, but if Ethan or Josh had gone to Maine, she would have wondered about them, too. She certainly didn’t miss the man who had married her then never called her, and she didn’t long to see him. No matter if that thought did pop into her brain, she wouldn’t sanction it. He was gone. G-o-n-e.

      “Sit. Sit,” Hilton said, waving aside their applause, though Gina could see he was pleased by the welcome he received. “You’re gonna make me feel like you missed me,” he teased and the employees laughed. He motioned with his hand that everyone should sit and the applause stopped. The room grew quiet.

      “Okay. I know you’re wondering why I called you in this morning. Most of you are probably wondering why I’m even here.”

      “Yeah,

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