Married In The Morning. SUSAN MEIER

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      “I see,” Gerrick said coolly and rose from his chair. Where had his wonderful Gina gone? Where was the sweet passionate woman who tormented him by fingering all the red and black lace bras in the hotel store? Where was the woman who made love with passion and abandon? Where was the woman who had asked him to marry her? “I guess I should head for home, then.”

      She nodded.

      “I’ll just say goodbye to your father.”

      She nodded again. “I’ll be in in a minute.”

      Gerrick took no comfort in the fact that Gina appeared to need to collect herself before returning to her father’s room. Heeding doctor’s orders, Gerrick also didn’t tell Hilton that Gina had basically asked him to leave the company. He never lost his smile, his friendly demeanor, or even the spring in his step until he was boarding the commuter at Johnstown’s airport, then he felt as if his entire world was crumbling around him.

      He had loved her for months. Before he got the job offer in Maine he had been building up to asking her out by talking with her every chance he got. True, he hadn’t told her about his family, but she knew as much as anybody knew about him personally. And he knew absolutely everything about her. Most of her growing-up years had been documented in the company’s annual statement because it was a family-owned business. He knew her. He knew he loved her. And he knew that without her, his life would have almost no meaning.

      His heart actually hurt, and he considered not leaving, waiting around until she came back and then trying to talk to her again. But Gina had made her wishes clear. She wouldn’t be receptive to his staying. She wouldn’t see his refusal to go as tenacity born of love. She would fight him tooth and nail, if only on principle. But more than that, if she didn’t believe she knew him, if she had missed that he had been flirting with her for months, then she hadn’t been paying any attention to him and she was right. She didn’t know him.

      So she could not love him.

      No matter how many times she had said it on their wedding night, she didn’t love him.

      The realization hurt so much he stopped his thoughts. He wouldn’t let himself go any further down that road. He knew better. He knew exactly what happened when a person let grief overwhelm him. He might have been in elementary school when his father left, but he had grieved. He had spent Christmas day on a chair by the window, watching it snow, waiting for his father to return, and when he didn’t six-year-old Gerrick had fallen apart.

      Then, when he was twelve his mother took him to spend his summer vacation with her sister, Gerrick’s aunt, and simply never returned. She didn’t give a word of explanation to him or his aunt. She just never came to pick him up. Only one day beyond her scheduled arrival, Gerrick knew what had happened and this time when he fell apart it wasn’t the fear-based agony of a child, but the true grief of a boy on the brink of manhood. No one wanted him, and he knew it.

      Anger and rebellion marked the next four years of his life, but on his sixteenth birthday everything changed. He suddenly realized the only person he could count on was himself, but he also saw that wasn’t such a bad thing since he could control what he did. His life took a miraculous upturn. He got a job so he could begin to pay his own way. He made peace with his aunt and uncle and cautiously made friends at school. He didn’t spend his life avoiding relationships, but he was careful and wise beyond his years.

      Which was why he was amazed he had rolled the dice with Gina. He let his emotions overrule his common sense and now he was hurting almost as much as he had when he was twelve.

      Except this time he had chosen his fate. This time he had a plan, but he hadn’t followed it. When she proposed to him, he tossed his plan and his common sense out the window.

      In some ways that made the hurt worse, because he knew this pain was his own fault.

      He kept a tight hold on his control through the entire flight to Atlanta and on Sunday occupied himself with writing notes about his job for Josh Anderson, so he did not have time to think about Gina. He didn’t want to be reminded of the things she’d said to him, their marriage or how stupid he had been to panic and marry her before she had a chance to catch up to his level of feelings. If he did, he knew he would crumble, or, worse, do something foolish.

      On Monday morning he called Josh Anderson and Ethan McKenzie into Hilton Martin’s office, which he had been using in Hilton’s absence.

      “Good morning, Josh, Ethan,” Gerrick said with a nod to Ethan indicating he should close the office door. To look at him, no one would know the suffering of his soul. Gerrick held his emotions so tightly to his chest that even he didn’t fully comprehend the extent of his pain.

      “What’s up?” Josh asked, taking a seat across the desk from Gerrick. “I heard you went to Pennsylvania over the weekend. How was Hilton?”

      “Weak but recovering,” Gerrick said, as Ethan closed the door and took the second seat across the desk from Gerrick. “And because he’s recovering so quickly and so well, we have some more important things to talk about. First of all, I never told anyone but…”

      “But there’s something between you and Gina,” Ethan speculated, his dark eyes 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.”

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