"I'm not sure. The sheik demanded Owen's immediate dismissal, but I don't know how Jack is going to take that. Owen and Jack have been locked in Jack's office for the past two days. I haven't even been able to bring Jack his hamburger today." I could practically hear Emma shrug her shoulders. "I wish I could tell you what's going to happen, but I don't have a clue myself."
"Will you let me know if anything happens?"
"Sure, but won't Owen tell you first?"
"Um, well, we haven't talked since I got back to Iowa," I said quietly.
"What? Not even a text?" Emma was shocked. I knew her eyes would be wide open and her mouth would hang open just a little.
"I told him we couldn't be together. I wish I would have known that he had confronted the sheik though." I leaned my head back and looked up at the ceiling, trying to figure out what I should do. I couldn't think of a good answer.
"Oh, KayKay," Emma said with a sigh. "I'll tell him to call you next time I see him. I've gotta go back to work now. Are you going to be okay?"
I grimaced and rubbed my eyes, emotions tumbling around inside of me. "Yeah, I'll be fine. Thanks for talking to me."
"Anytime. I'll give you a call tomorrow, okay? Love you!"
"Love you too, Emma." I hung up the phone and just stared at it in my hand.
Wave after wave of emotions washed through me, each one pummeling the one before it until I wasn't sure what I felt anymore. Awe that he had stood up for me like that. Love because he would risk so much. Anger that he hadn't told me. Fear for what would happen to him. Despair that he was gone. Hopelessness for what would never be.
I lay down on the couch, curling up into a tight ball. I didn't know what else to do, so I just closed my eyes and prayed for sleep.
Chapter 23
I awoke with a start, nearly falling off the couch as the front door buzzed. I hadn't meant to doze off and the afternoon crept up on me. I rubbed the sleep out of my eyes, glancing out the window. It was raining again, the room bathed in a gray light. The intercom buzzed again and I got up to answer it.
I hit 'answer' only to be met with static. Right, I remembered, the buzzer's broken. Have to go down and answer it in person. I pulled my hair up into a messy ponytail, not even bothering to put on shoes for the quick trip down the stairs.
I hurried down and pushed open the
locked main entrance door, not expecting the wind to rush out of my body and my heart to jump in my chest.
Owen stood in the entrance. He was wearing just simple jeans and a white button-up short-sleeved shirt, but he looked like a knight in shining armor to me. He gave me a crooked smile as I opened the door.
"Hi, Kaylee," he greeted me, running a hand through his rain soaked hair. Little droplets of water went flying, sparkling like diamonds as they fell.
"What are you doing here?" I gasped in amazement. I was sure he was going to disappear at any moment, that I was going to wake up and be back in my bed alone.
"I told you that I'd be back. I just had some things I needed to do first." His smile lit up my world. I took a step forward, afraid he would shimmer and fade like a desert mirage. He stepped forward and took my hands in his. They were wet from the rain, but still warm and strong.
"There's something I need to tell you, Kaylee." His blue eyes searched my face, their crystalline depths holding me captive. "I quit my job."
"What? Why would you do that?" I asked in surprise. He smiled down at me and brushed a tendril of hair from my face.
"Because it wasn't making me happy anymore. You make me happy. I couldn't bear the thought of taking another trip without you."
I pulled back slightly in surprise. "But you love your job!"
"No, I love the challenge of my job. The job itself is immaterial. Without you, it wasn't fun anymore. When I was away from you, all I did was miss you. I don't want the job anymore. I just want you." He said it simply, as though it were nothing but fact, but it made my heart pound in my chest.
"What about the sheik? And Jack?"
"Oh, you heard about that?" Owen flushed slightly as he shrugged. "Publicly, Jack is going to fire me. Privately, I quit. It saves face for Jack and the company, the sheik gets what he wants, and I get what I want. You."
I opened my mouth, but couldn't find any words. No one had ever made me as happy as Owen did with that one small word: You. He wanted only me.
"There is one down side, though," he said, giving me a thoughtful look. "It does mean that we will have to be slightly frugal. I won't have the paychecks from Jack's company rolling in anymore."