Destiny Undone: The Complete Series Box Set (55 page)

“Like I got hit by a truck.”

“I’m not sure which would have been worse, truck or shark? Either way, not good.”

He sputtered out a laugh. “Ya think? Although, since meeting you, I’ve been in a car accident, and now this. Maybe you’re bad luck.”

“What?”

“I’m kidding. Sorry, bad joke. I’m not thinking straight.” He flipped our hands so he was holding onto mine instead. “I’m not letting you go anywhere.”

I smiled. “That’s good to hear, although, I think the nurse will eventually give me the boot. I’m technically not supposed to be in here right now.”

“You know what I mean, Pepper. We need to talk.”

My smile faded and I knew he wasn’t going to let me tease my way out of having this conversation. “I do, but listen, Gabe. The whole marriage talk thing, I know you weren’t serious out there on the boat. You were obviously talking crazy. I’m not going to hold you to it, if that’s what you’re worried about.”

He looked at me like I was from another planet. “That’s not what I meant, at all. I um… I actually went and looked at rings,” he confessed, “days ago, when I bought your anklet.”

My heart swelled and I could hardly contain my excitement. “You did?”

He nodded slightly. “I just didn’t find one that was you—but, I will.”

I held my breath for a moment and nodded down at him with a huge smile on my face. “Okay.”

“Pepper, I know this isn’t the perfect place, but I can’t let you leave here tonight before I ask you a very important question—”

“Oh, my God, Gabe,” I gasped and the tears slipped past my lashes and rolled slowly down my make-up free cheeks.

His eyes were dark and deadly serious as he stared up at me. He lifted his free hand and brushed away the tears. “I love you, so much. Our relationship hasn’t always been easy, but I wouldn’t change a thing. Pepper, you challenge me, stretch me, and push my boundaries, and frankly, drive me crazy sometimes,” he paused, and I giggled softly.

“I need you. I want to marry you… if you’ll have me. Please, be my wife and make me the happiest guy in the world.”

The tears streamed down my cheeks and I nodded.

“Yes, Gabe. I’ll marry you. ”

Overall, it took nearly six weeks of rehab and physical therapy to get me back to the way I was before the attack. My leg had healed, except for my ‘pirate scar’ as Pepper liked to call it whenever she saw it. As long as she was running her soft, pretty hands all over my thighs, I really couldn’t care less what she nicknamed it…

Things had been slow at certain points during my recovery. There had been plenty of times where I’d fallen or chucked my crutches aside, collapsed on the floor, and fought back frustrated tears, but, every time, Pepper had been right by my side to help me up and encourage me to carry on. I honestly couldn’t have imagined doing it without her.

I glanced over at my fiancée, who had a sparkling, three carat, princess cut diamond on her left hand. I smiled as she held onto my arm as we walked into the main office at Sea Lab to meet with my team. I’d been working from home as much as I could, and held video conferences and long phone calls, to keep things running as smoothly as possible. Up until now, I hadn’t been fit enough to return to Sea Lab in person since the grounds were uneven, there were a lot of steps, and mainly because I hated the idea of going back to work there before I could walk in on my own.

I hadn’t heard anything about my job, so I assumed I still had one to come back to. Bobbie Jo and I had emailed each other as necessary, but she hadn’t mentioned anything more about her plans to replace me. Regardless, I had to assume she was still after my job, but she wasn’t being so in my face about it. Maybe she was being considerate towards me because of my injury. I guessed she didn’t want to look like that big of a bitch.

Pepper was on one side to offer support if I needed it, but I was standing on my own two feet as we rode up the elevator to walk to my office. I blushed when we stepped out of it to find the lobby packed with what seemed like the entire staff of Sea Lab, who all erupted with a standing ovation when they saw me emerge.

“I’m really touched but come on, guys, cut that out.” I said.

No one listened and they all kept clapping for another two or three minutes and some of them whooped, whistled or hollered as I walked through and shook hands with those nearest to me on the way to my office.

“Thanks, guys, really! I appreciate the welcome back and I’ll see you all downstairs in a few minutes,” I called over the noise, waving at them as Pepper and I went inside and shut the door.

I sank into the well-worn leather seat behind my desk, and basked in the familiar, comfortable feel of it all.

“That was sweet of them,” Pepper commented as she sat on the couch with her wedding planner book.

I nodded. “Let me get some notes printed off, and then we can go down to the meeting.”

She smiled at me as she dialed a number on her phone and before I could get the spreadsheets pulled up on my computer, I heard her sweet voice talking to someone about our wedding cake tasting session. I smiled over at her as she chattered excitedly about butter cream, fondant, and edible pearls. I was amazed at how much was involved in getting married and it was great that she was throwing herself into the planning to take the pressure off me. It had only been six weeks, but at this point I’d have loved to have eloped and got hitched on a beach somewhere. Doug and Charlotte had done just that on their Hawaiian vacation, turned honeymoon. They’d held a massive party when they got back, but the wedding itself had been small and private and to me, sounded ideal. However, Pepper had other ideas. She was on an all-out mission to have her dream wedding and I would never want to deny her that.

I turned my attention back to my desk and sighed at the stack of paperwork that had accumulated while I’d been gone. I thought I’d been keeping on top of things from home but the sheer volume of folders and papers stacked in front of me told a different story.

While I waited for the computer to finish printing off the notes for my presentation, I thumbed through one stack of folders and was surprised to find that they were pending employee reviews. I could have sworn I’d had an email from Bobbie Jo stating she’d take care of these but then again, she probably been too busy campaigning for my job to be bothered by such petty things as employee review paperwork. I turned back to my computer and searched through my email ‘Sent’ folder to find the message I was thinking of but I couldn’t find it and I was getting frustrated. My leg started to ache and I knew I needed to hurry up and get downstairs for the staff meeting. I absently flipped through the folders and stumbled upon a photo of someone I didn’t recognize pinned to the inside.
Hmm…someone new. Haven’t met him yet
then I punched the button on the desk phone and called the receptionist desk.

“This is Mr. Gregory. I need to see Bobbie Jo. Is she in the park?”

“Um, I guess you haven’t heard. Bobbie Jo cleared out her office last week, Mr. Gregory. She doesn’t work here anymore.”

I stared at the phone like she’d lost her mind.

“Excuse me? Could you repeat that, please?”

“She’s not here anymore. She left last week. I thought you knew. We all thought you knew.”

“No… no I didn’t. Okay. Thanks, Penny.”

“It’s Patty.”

“Sorry. Thanks, Patty.”

I hung up the phone, confused by the conversation. Surely the newbie receptionist had it wrong. I knew I’d been hopped up on some pretty strong painkillers while I was at home, but I was sure I’d have remembered a bombshell like that. Besides, why would Bobbie Jo leave? I scoured my email box and found that the last time Bobbie Jo and I had exchanged messages had been nearly two weeks ago, but the last message didn’t mention anything about quitting or going on vacation.

Pepper was still in the middle of her call. I knew I had a few more minutes, so I made a call to Kim, Sea Lab’s HR manager.

“Hey Kim, it’s Gabriel.”

“Gabe! How are you? Glad to have you back.”

“Thanks, and I’m as good as can be expected, I guess,” I replied as I massaged the pinching pain on the outside of my thigh.

“Well, I sure was glad to hear you were coming in today. Now, be honest, are you here against doctors orders?”

I laughed. “No, I swear. I have a note. My doctor says I can only do a couple of hours a day and build up slowly. Obviously nothing too strenuous to start with, but judging by the mountain of papers on my desk, I’m not going anywhere anytime soon. I’ve got to get this under control.”

“All right, but don’t push it.”

“I promise, I’ll be good. Hey, listen, I was actually calling to see what’s going on with Bobbie Jo. The receptionist said she cleared her desk last week. Can you tell me why?”

Kim paused on the other end of the line. “Oh, wow. I thought you knew. Um, Bobbie Jo resigned last week. You should have a copy of her resignation letter and my notes from her exit interview.”

Wow. So it is really true!

I shuffled the papers around, trying to find the documents she’d sent, but it was a hopeless mess. At least one of the people who’d been picking up and dropping off paperwork to me at home hadn’t seemed to care much for keeping things in order on my desk.

“I’ll look for it but can you tell me why she left so suddenly? I just didn’t see this one coming.”

“Truthfully, none of us did. I wish I had a good answer, but she didn’t really give one, Mr. Gregory. She’s young. Maybe she just wanted to try something new?”

I leaned back in my leather chair and stared out the window in disbelief. “That just doesn’t sound like Bobbie Jo at all. She loved her job here so there has to be more to it than that. I’ll take a look at those emails later on but in the meantime, have we begun the process to fill her position?”

“Yes, we have some candidates but I haven’t scheduled any interviews yet since I wasn’t sure when you’d be back and I knew you’d want to meet with them personally. Would you like me to set them up? What days will you be in?”

We talked schedule for a while, then I hung up and decided to take a gamble and dialed Bobbie Jo’s personal number from my cell phone. The phone rang and rang, but no answer. I banged my phone back on my desk, a little louder than I’d intended. I didn’t get it. Why would she have just left? And why wouldn’t she have told me about it after all the time we’d worked together? I was puzzled and frustrated over it, but even more so, I had no idea if I’d be able to find someone who could even come close to replacing her. She’d been at Sea Lab such a long time. She knew the place inside and out, every procedure, policy, and emergency plan. On the other hand, I had to admit that it was a relief to know that my position at the facility was safe and that I wouldn’t have to constantly be looking over my shoulder to see if she was still trying to steal my job right out from under me.

Pepper finished her call and looked over at me. “What’s up, babe? You look like you’ve got something on your mind.”

“Bobbie Jo quit last week.” That’s all I said and waited for Pepper’s own shock and surprise to validate my own feelings. However, her gaze dropped from me down at her hands and a sick feeling swirled in my stomach. She knew something.

“There’s something I should probably tell you.” Pepper set her wedding planner on the couch next to her then she clasped her hands nervously and pressed her lips together. “Um, when you were in the hospital…”

My phone rang and I looked at it. “That’s her now. Hold that thought.”

“Hello? Bobbie Jo?”

“You called me?” she answered.

“Well, yeah! What the hell is going on? I came into the office today and they tell me you quit last week. Why?”

She let out a sharp laugh. “You’re kidding me, right?”

My stomach flipped again and I looked over at Pepper, who fidgeted nervously in her seat. “No, I’m not kidding. Last thing I knew, you were ready to take over Sea Lab management and then, next thing, you’re gone. I don’t get it. What happened?”

“I can’t believe you’re pretending like you don’t know what happened. Is someone watching you so you have to act like the good guy?”

My mouth dropped open. I really didn’t know what to say then she gave another sarcastic laugh. “Fine, whatever. I’ll play your game. I gave you the courtesy of a head’s up that I thought it was time for some internal restructuring. Despite what you may have thought or told other people, I wasn’t trying to get you fired. I just felt that for Sea Lab to flourish, it was time for some changes. Anyways, whatever, after that, you went whining to your rich girlfriend and now I’m out of a job. I was forced out, Gregory. I dealt straight with you—I told you how I felt and what I wanted to do. I didn’t backstab you or run behind your back, but I guess you don’t play by the same rules.”

My eyes narrowed on Pepper who still wasn’t looking at me. “I know nothing about this, Bobbie Jo. What do you mean you were forced out?”

“God, this is so pathetic. About two weeks ago, a big donation came in from your soon-to-be father-in-law, Mr. Doug Anderson himself. It was more than enough to finish up the funding for the new wing and to get the whales secured from the rescue facility.”