A Thousand Miles

Part 31

JoLynn sat quietly at her desk, every nerve painfully aware of Shane's presence just yards away, where he sat at his desk emptying drawers and clearing off surface clutter. Her heart had dropped to her stomach when she saw his pickup parked outside their office, and for an instant, she considered driving past and coming back later.

He had quit. Despite the penalties built into his contract for breaking it, he had done so anyway, causing Truman to pull the plug completely. She, Curtis, and Mel had been sent to put the final touches on the last shows in production, clean their personal belongings out of the office, and clear out. They had until the end of next week, but truthfully, they could be done by the end of this week. The three rode in silence from Truman's office building to theirs, arriving to find Shane packing the few things he'd moved in since June, and no one had said a word to him yet.

JoLynn pushed out an unsteady breath, lifted an empty box to her desk, and stood to face her bulletin board. When she finished here, all she had left to do was wait, and that thought drove her crazy. Her father had already made arrangements for a moving company to pack up her apartment and take all her belongings to a storage facility in Odessa. So all she had to do was pack a few suitcases, throw them in her trunk and hit the road, leaving all her time in Austin behind to become the stuff of memories.

She unpinned a photo of Mel, Curtis and her, taken at some festival they'd featured along the way. No, not just some festival. It had been the state fair. The three smiled hugely, their greasy mouths stuffed full of corn dog. They'd obviously been laughing right before someone had snapped their picture, but she couldn't remember at what. But their smiles reflected that then, as on so many other occasions, they'd been having the time of their lives together.

You Texans and your festivals...

Shane's teasing voice echoed in her mind, bringing a pang of regret. She pulled more tacks out, bringing down more pictures, memos, maps and notes into a neat stack. Then she started sorting. Pictures into the box to go home; memos, schedules, and work related notes into the garbage. Five minutes later, the board was a bare expanse of cork.

"JoLynn..."

Her eyes drifted closed at the sound of his voice, and the ache welling up in her heart threatened to undo her completely.

Why, Lord? If it was time for this season of her life to end... If it was time to move back to Odessa and work for her father... Why did this have to be the way it went? Better for the show to simply fizzle to its natural conclusion than to endure such a betrayal. This was unbearable.

No. She shook her head and opened her eyes. No, it wasn't. She would bear it and live. But the sound of her name on his lips, reminding her that she still loved him, brought an ache to her throat. She swallowed it down.

"JoLynn, I'm sorry."

She turned to face him. Remorse lined his brow and clouded his normally crystal clear blue eyes. He was sorry. She gave him a nod, and he took a hesitant step closer.

"I didn't want this—"

"Shane..." She cut him off before he could tell another lie, but let her voice trail off as exasperation and frustration finally took the edge off the grief. "At some point, you did want this. I spoke with Truman. He said he talked with you about this very thing before you even met me. He said the two of you had an understanding that the whole thing would probably end up with you replacing me."

"No." Shane's tone was desperately earnest. He took a step closer. "That's not exactly how it happened. Truman did mention the possibility in our first meeting, but I'd never done anything like this show before. I may be a proven writer...but a TV personality? Neither one of us could predict what the outcome would be. JoLynn, I thought he was just blowing smoke. And if I agreed to the possibility..." His voice trailed off, and he expelled a breath that conceded complete defeat.

"I did agree to the possibility." He spoke the words just above a whisper. "The nebulous, pie-in-the-sky possibility. But I never took it seriously. I'd seen your show. I never thought for one second that it could work without you. My taking over was never a real possibility as far as I was concerned. But I wanted this job. My dad was...my life was..." His jaw clenched hard for a moment before he continued. "I needed this job."

"Well, congratulations." JoLynn pushed the words past her constricted throat. "You got it."

"That's not what I meant."

"Maybe, Shane." She opened a drawer and pulled out her iPod and an assortment of road maps, setting them into the box on her desk. "Or maybe not. I don't know. Maybe you really thought Truman was just blowing smoke. I know as well as anyone he has a tendency to do that. Or maybe telling yourself that now is how you've justified all this."

He came around her desk and took her by the shoulders, gently turning her to face him. "I never meant for this to happen. I did not sign that contract with the intention of taking all this away from you. I may have agreed to some vague possibility in order to gain the position as your co-host. But I didn't betray you, JoLynn. I would never betray you."

"Either way..." She backed away from his touch and returned to packing. "The outcome is the same. Whether you intended to, or not...whether you take over my position, or the show is cancelled because you won't...you've taken this from me. From us."

"JoLynn..."

He sounded so pained that the urge to comfort him surfaced before she could restrain it. She turned away and opened another drawer, picking through its contents, moving some to her box and others to the trash. After a long moment, Shane turned and walked back to his desk.

The man she loved, wittingly or not, had destroyed the life she'd struck out and forged for herself, had busted up the little family of her own she'd created here with Curtis and Mel, and even Truman. She glanced past Shane to Mel's desk, and her friend's eyes met hers. Curtis, too, had stopped work on whatever he'd been editing and stood to observe the confrontation. Both of them looked like they had something to say. But that could wait until JoLynn had time to compose herself. There would be time. A few days still remained until they all went separate ways.