“Wow. I wasn’t expecting you guys so early.” She smiled when her gaze landed on Allie. “Katie’s in the backyard. It’s a beautiful morning. Let me show you the way.”
Allie bounced and gave her a hug before running around her to get inside.
“It’s okay,” she called over her shoulder. “I’ll find her. It’ll be a surprise.”
Laurie chuckled, stepping back to open the door wider to let me in.
“Sorry about the mess and the clothes.” The tops of her cheeks got a rosy hue. “I’d have put on something more appropriate if I thought you’d be here this early.”
“It’s no problem. I did some research for your case last night, and I might’ve gotten overeager about discussing it. I also made the mistake of telling Allie we were coming by your place sometime today, and she basically dragged me to the car right away.”
It was really difficult to keep my eyes on hers with so many other things on display that I’d rather have been looking at—like her long legs in those shorts and the way her sweater hung a little off her one shoulder—but I managed it okay.
Perks of having an excellent poker face.
“Come on in. Can I get you some coffee?” She closed the door once I’d followed her into their entrance hall.
“Yes. Please.” I peeked past her, expecting mountains of boxes and bubble wrap. While it was easy to see they weren’t all the way moved in yet, it wasn’t nearly as bad as I’d expected. “Did you get some more unpacking done?”
“No.” She waved her hand as she led me to the kitchen. “I’ve just become more organized in my procrastination. I moved all the rest of the stuff to the empty rooms and the garage a couple of weeks ago.”
Katie must have come inside before even I had because I heard Allie giggling and then saw the girls running onto the lawn in the back when I caught a glimpse of it through the living-room windows ahead of me.
There was a laptop on the couch and a steaming mug on the coffee table beside it. A blank document was open on the screen, and I frowned. “Did we interrupt you while you were trying to write?”
She laughed but there wasn’t much humor in the sound. “Trying is the operative word in that sentence. You can’t interrupt something that’s not happening anyway.”
My jaw tightened and I let out a string of curses in my head. “Let’s hope we’ll have you writing again soon.”
Laurie made me coffee before going to collect hers, and motioned me into the breakfast nook in the kitchen when she was done. I set my backpack with my laptop and a surprise for her in it down on the floor before wrapping my fingers around my mug.
“Okay, so like I said, I’ve been doing some research about your case. You mentioned yesterday that the movie is being made about the first book you wrote. Is that correct?”
She startled a bit at my tone but nodded while I vowed to dial it back a notch. I sipped my coffee and forced myself to switch up my mindset. I wasn’t there to cross-examine her, and she wasn’t a client I’d had in my office many times who was used to the drill.
We were in her house on a Saturday morning, and our girls were playing together outside. “I need to know what happened from your perspective. You wrote the book and then saw the trailer. Do you know if the script is verbatim your novel? Who wrote the screenplay?”
“I haven’t seen the script, but I’ve been keeping an eye on the trailers, and a lot of what I’ve seen is verbatim. When I first hired a lawyer, I did as much research as I could about the movie and I wrote a basic summary for him. Would you like me to send it to you?”
“Yes. Please.”
As we went over everything, her walls started coming down. She told me about her story and the world it was set in, and I saw a light in her eyes that I’d never seen before.
Her passion was clear as day, but when she started talking about the similarities between her book and the movie, I saw her folding in on herself. The light went back out, and the woman in front of me seemed to physically shrink.
My own reaction surprised me more than hers. It was immediate and visceral, the need to demolish the fuckers who’d stolen her words and her fiery spirit with my bare hands rising up in me almost unabated.
Get it together, Jacob. You’re no good to her if you’re just as emotional. I heard the familiar words in my head, but it was more difficult to let it go this time. I hadn’t felt such a strong wave of emotion about a case in a long time—if ever.
Time for a break. For both of us.
“I’ve got something for you,” I said when she fell silent after telling me about how the final fight scene she’d crafted had played out before her eyes in one of the trailers. Reaching down to lift my backpack, I unzipped it at the top and pulled out my surprise.
She frowned when she saw the doll we’d both gone shopping for on Black Friday. “Why would you bring that?”
“I wanted you to have it. I managed to get my hands on another one.” The last part was a lie. I’d tried to track down another one, but I hadn’t had any luck so far. I doubted I would find one before Christmas.
Ultimately, though, I told myself that Allie would be happy to know she’d made her best friend that happy. Sometimes, that was what it was all about. I had no idea whether it was true that she would agree, but it helped me lessen my guilt about not keeping the toy for my own kid.
A blinding smile spread across Laurie’s face when she reached for it, and seeing it made my heart soar. “Thank you so much. I tried a few more places, but they’re all out. You have no idea how happy this is going to make Katie.”
“I have a bit of an idea.” Which was why I felt guilty about not keeping it for Allie, but after the year she’d had, I figured Katie’s mom needed the win a little bit more than I did. “Has Katie been collecting these for long?”
“As long as I can remember,” she said, and she suddenly got all choked up. “She’s such a unique girl with such a big heart. She never asks for anything. I know I can’t give her what she really wants, but when she actually asked for this, I swore I would go to the ends of the earth to find it.”
“What do you mean ‘you can’t give her what she really wants’?” When I looked at Laurie again, really looked at her, there was such a well of pain in her expression that I felt an echo of it in my soul.
She sighed heavily, swallowing as she stared into her coffee like it held the answers to all her questions. “Nothing I can do to bring her mother back. I’m a poor substitute for my sister and I know it. It doesn’t matter how hard I try. I’ll never be as good of a mother to Katie as she was.”
Those few short sentences made all my preconceived ideas about her fall like the houses of cards they were. So many things suddenly made even more sense, and though I only felt that echo of her pain in my soul, it suddenly seemed to radiate from me.
“What happened to her?” I asked before clearing my throat and clarifying. “Your sister.”
I couldn’t believe the story that unfolded. Even though I knew I had no right to do it, I reached for her hands across the table and wound our fingers together while she told me about it.
“That must have been so incredibly fucking hard,” I whispered when she was done. Somehow, it felt like it would be a disruption or disrespectful to speak at my normal volume. “Hell, not even past tense. It still has to be so fucking hard.”
She shrugged. Maybe I didn’t know her very well, but even I could see the shrug was a big fat lie. I didn’t call her on it, though. I was too busy trying to sort through my own rampant thoughts and emotions.
There was no way I could even begin to know or understand what she’d been through. Not only with her sister’s sudden passing or having to step into her shoes as a mother, but by having her life so suddenly and completely overturned. And then having it happen again just a year later when she found out about the movie.
The injustice of it all, of everything she’d been through and how completely shitty she’d been treated by her previous lawyer,
churned in my stomach. I couldn’t bring her sister back either, but I was more determined than ever that I would win this case for her.
She might still hate my guts, but the least I could do was to make sure that the jerks who stole her story paid her what it was worth and gave her the credit for it.
“We’re going to get you what you deserve, and then you’re going to get your career back,” I promised. “You could explode after a big-budget film like this.”
“Do you really think so?” she asked, seemingly relieved that I’d changed the topic back to business.
“I’m positive.” John would kill me if he heard me talking this way, but it was a risk I was willing to take. “When I was researching your work last night, I saw firsthand that you’re extremely talented. I read some of the blogs too. Those novels were a really good influence on young readers. I want to play a part in making sure you continue to share your stories with the world.”
“You talk a big game, Mr. Parker,” she said after a long pause, her green eyes curious and intent on mine. “Are you as confident as you seem that you can make all this happen?”
Chapter 19
Laurie
What am I doing? I screamed at myself even while I calmly looked into Jacob’s eyes, waiting for his answer. Why am I getting so vulnerable in front of him? He’s my lawyer, not my friend.
This was a business relationship. The last thing I wanted or needed was to start feeling chummy with him. He was a pompous jerk who cut people off and didn’t even consider those around him—except for single moms—even at an elementary school play.
Sure, he said he wanted to help me, and he seemed genuine about it, but it had to be the big payout at the end of the day he was after. Right?
Potentially, this could be a really big lawsuit if he was to be believed. He’d even called it a dream case. It had to be about that.
So why wouldn’t the nagging voice in my head quit?
He’d asked about Katie, he listened when I talked about Katherine, and he didn’t offer any platitudes. He didn’t even look at me with any pity in his eyes.
There was some amusement there now, but mostly, all I still saw was resolute determination. “I can walk the walk just as well, if not better, than I talk the talk. Trust me. I won’t let you down.”
“Okay,” I said, but I was still trying hard not to let those threads of hope become too bright or rooted too deeply. The last few months had made me into a skeptic, especially when it came to lawyers. “I’ll forward you that email I sent to Eric with my notes. What else will you need from me?”
He groaned, lowering his head into his upturned palm. “Eric? Do you mean Eric Starkey?”
“Yes. Why?” My heart sank. He’s going to pull out.
“Nothing major.” He scrunched up his nose in a way that I really didn’t expect from him, given how cocky he usually was. “I’ve just had dealings with him before, and I need to be transparent with you. Getting your files from him so I can get familiar with your case won’t be as easy as knocking on his door and asking for them. He’s stubborn that way.”
“Tell me about it.” I felt a knot forming in the pit of my stomach. “How much can he still hurt us or hold us back?”
Jacob’s perfect bow of an upper lip twitched. I’d have bet anything that he wanted to smirk before he remembered he had a new client with him. “It might take me a couple of days longer to get the files, but I’ll get them. Eric likes to make a lot of noise, but he doesn’t actually do much. If I threaten to go to court to get the files, he’ll dump them on my doorstep the next day.”
I had to admit I was impressed by this new lawyer of mine so far. As a person, he hadn’t really made the best first impression, but as a lawyer? I was pretty sure my lawsuit was falling in love with him.
That makes no sense. I shoved the thought back, trying not to look as swoony as I felt. “I appreciate that you’re communicating so clearly with me. Eric never did. He just left me hanging and assumed I knew what he was doing, which I didn’t.”
“Neither did he.” Jacob winked, seemingly before he could stop himself. Then he cleared his throat and finished the rest of his coffee in one long gulp. “Right, well, we’ve taken up enough of your time for a Saturday. We’d better be on our way.”
“Are you sure? You’re welcome to stay for more coffee. The girls are still playing and they’ll be disappointed if we tell them it’s time for you to leave.”
“I wish we could stay.” He flashed me a smile as he pushed to his feet. “I have a new case I need to get stuck into, remember? I wouldn’t want you to think I’m slacking. Allie has a date with her grandmother. They’re going to some ice-skating show. My own mother has threatened my masculinity if her granddaughter is late.”
I winced before I burst out laughing. “Sounds serious. I guess we’d better let you go. Good luck with this new case of yours.”
“I don’t need luck. I just need patience to deal with Eric fucking Starkey, and then I’ll be golden.” He smirked, and that cocky attitude I knew so well wrapped around him like an aura now that the serious part was over.
Still, it made me smile to hear someone refer to Eric out loud in the same way I referred to him in my head. “In that case, I wish you all the patience you need. Let me grab the girls after I hide this present.”
Both of them pouted when I went outside to tell them Allie needed to go. They accepted it without too much argument, though.
Jacob reminded Allie she was going out with her grandmother, and my mother called to speak to Katie at almost exactly the same time. It was uncanny.
I walked the Parkers out while Katie took the call, and Jacob got Allie buckled into the back. After he closed the door, he paused to take my hand.
His skin was warmer than I thought it would be. If I’d let myself think about it at all. Which I hadn’t. Not once. Not even late at night when I was alone.
It was also softer but with calluses I couldn’t imagine how he might’ve gotten. My breath hitched at the feeling of having his hand in mine. More specifically, over how well our hands fit together.
“You don’t have to worry anymore,” he said, the cocky smirk gone again. In its place, there was comfort, warmth, and the kind of earnest sincerity I wouldn’t have thought him capable of.
Although it was starting to become clear he was capable of a lot of things I wouldn’t have thought. Oblivious to where my thoughts had gone, he continued with his own train of thought—which was a hell of a lot more strictly professional than my own.
“I know you’ve been jerked around by Eric, but I don’t fuck around. You’re in good hands now. I’ll take care of you.” My eyes met his, and my stomach did an involuntary flip. “Just give me a couple of days, okay?”
“Okay.” The word was the barest whisper, but he must have heard it because he nodded.
Once again, neither of us moved away. He lingered where he was, and I gazed up at him, into those eyes I saw in my dreams and at that ruggedly handsome face that kept popping up everywhere.
I wished this feeling inside me would go away. I wished I could stand there with his hand in mine, not willing him to kiss me. But I couldn’t.
Because what I wanted more than anything else was for him to lower his head those last few inches to close the distance between us. I wanted to taste the coffee on his lips and see whether his body moved as gracefully between the sheets as it did outside of them.
As if he’d heard my thoughts, Jacob slowly started leaning in. It was nothing big. No mind-melting moment during which I heard angels sing. It simply was what it was, and what it was made my lips tingle and set my skin on fire.
Jacob and I were this close to kissing—again—and the electricity between us was even more charged than it had been before. It crackled with the promise to take my breath away. It popped with the promise to become that mind-melting moment I’d only ever written about in one of my new-adult novels.
But as much as I wanted it to become all
that and more, I shuffled back before he could come much closer. Releasing his hand, I retreated to a safer distance and tucked a strand of hair behind my ear.
“I’ll see you around, Jacob,” I said, trying my best to ignore the moment and to go back to casual. Strictly professional.
A flicker of disappointment, so brief I would’ve missed it if I hadn’t been so focused on him, flashed in his eyes. “I’ll be in touch as soon as I’ve got something for you.”
He opened his door, disappeared inside his fancy, horrid Mercedes, and took off. I watched him drive away, hugging myself to keep from chasing after him.
Stupid, silly, reckless Laurie. I had to stop seeing Jacob as someone I potentially wanted to kiss and start seeing him as my lawyer. Because that’s what he is.
I couldn’t risk complicating things by kissing him. Why would I want to kiss him anyway?
He’s a jerk, I shouted in my head. But almost immediately, a quieter voice came back with the question, Isn’t he?
In all the time I’d known him, I’d been so darn sure. There was no reason to start questioning myself now.
If only I could believe that.
Because all of a sudden, I realized there was every reason to question myself. I just had to start doing it.
Chapter 20
Jacob
“You were an idiot to let this one slip through the cracks,” I said to Eric on Monday morning. When I’d tried to get an appointment with the man, his assistant had told me he was too busy with meetings out of the office and to try again in a week or so.
Since I’d been expecting a response like that, I’d already been on my way to his offices when I received the reply. It came as no surprise when I arrived and the man himself was not only at his office but also not currently occupied.
Eric lifted his jaw defiantly, grinding his teeth together so hard I could almost hear it. He sat behind his desk, looking up at me standing in the middle of the room with annoyance in the way his nostrils were flaring and his eyes were narrowed.
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