Page 73 of The Law of Attraction
The was a beat of silence on Gavin’s end. “Is Cortinas there?”
“Yeah, he’s standing right here.” Adam’s eyes hadn’t left her the whole time she’d been talking.
“I wanna talk to him,” Gavin said. “Hand him the phone.”
He could have asked her to put Adam on speaker so the three of them could all talk together, but he hadn’t. He wanted to talk to Adam without her being part of the conversation.
Olivia held the phone out. “Gavin wants to talk to you.”
Adam took it from her and paced a few steps away, turning his back on her. “Hey, Gavin.”
She could hear the faint murmur of Gavin’s voice on the other end, but not well enough to make out what he was saying. She could imagine it though. He was second-guessing her. Double-checking to make sure Adam was in agreement with her assessment of the situation.
Which he wasn’t.
All Adam had to do to get his way was say the word, and Gavin would do whatever he recommended. Olivia’s opinion wouldn’t count for anything, just like it hadn’t counted for anything in the meeting with the CIO on Monday. Not when rock star Adam Cortinas was there to give them exactly what they wanted. So what if they hadn’t finished half the testing? No one wanted to hear things like that. They wanted to hear good news.
Once again, Olivia had been forced into the role of Cassandra with her gloom and doom predictions. Her warnings would go unheeded, and when things blew up in their faces later, you could bet they’d find a way to lay the blame at her feet.
Adam answered Gavin in mumbled monosyllables that didn’t tell her much. “I know,” she heard him say, followed by more of Gavin’s murmured voice. “Yes… No…” There was a long pause on Adam’s end while Gavin spoke again, and then, “No, I don’t think that’s necessary.”
There it was. He was totally throwing her under the bus.
Olivia sank down in front of her laptop.
“I understand completely,” Adam said behind her. “Sure… Yep. You got it… Will do. Okay. Bye.”
Adam came over and laid her phone down on the desk in front of her. He was standing behind her, so close his stomach brushed against her hair. “We’ve got another day for testing,” he said. “Gavin’s smoothing it over with the CIO.”
“Wait—really?” She swiveled her chair around and Adam backed out of the path of her knees as they spun toward him.
“Yes.” Furrows sprouted across his brow. “What did you think he’d say? No?”
“No, I just…” She stopped, unable to force the rest of the words out, because they suddenly seemed unfair. Worse than that, they were unkind. Adam hadn’t thrown her under any buses, and based on the look on his face, he never would have. She probably should have known that.
“You thought I wouldn’t back you up.” His posture could have been an illustration next to the word defensive in the dictionary—arms crossed, spine ramrod straight, glaring down at her. But it was what she saw in his eyes that made her feel sick. He looked hurt.
“Well…” She couldn’t lie to him, but she also didn’t want to admit that it was true.
She didn’t have to. He’d already sussed it out.
She stood up and took a step toward him. Her gut twisted when he edged backward in response. “I’m sorry,” she said.
“For what?”
“For not trusting you.”
“Why should you?” There was a flatness in his expression that made her feel sick.
She reached for his hand, and to her relief he didn’t back away this time. He let her fingers twine around his, but he didn’t squeeze back. That was okay. She could do enough squeezing for the both of them.
The door to the control shack flew open and Kurt stomped in, scuffing his muddy boots on the mat in front of the door.
Adam pulled his hand out of hers and went to sit down in front of his laptop.
“Whew, it’s mucky out there,” Kurt announced. “All this rain’s washed away half our gravel. Gonna need to get a crew out here to fill in the low spots.”
Olivia sat back down and stared at her laptop screen. She could feel Adam behind her, putting off waves of unhappiness that burned the surface of her skin like a heat lamp.
