The Law and Ginny Marlow

by Marie Ferrarella

  “Yes, I know I left a pretty strange message on Cliff’s machine, but I’ve managed to iron some of that out.” She sighed. “No, I’m not under arrest.” She was sure that David would like nothing better than to tell the senior partners that she was being held in a cell. “But I won’t be able to come back to the office for a few days. Ten to be exact.” She answered the question fired at her.

  She closed her eyes as she listened to the barrage of annoyed words that followed. David Fontaine was her direct superior, a fact he never allowed her to forget for even a moment. Especially when he had tried to hit on her.

  “Because I need to be here, that’s why.” She struggled not to lose her temper. The man was a complete jackass. It wasn’t easy letting him into her personal affairs, even a little. “My sister ran afoul of the law here, and she’s working off her debt. No, I can’t just leave her and come back.” She’d known before he said it that David wouldn’t understand why she had to remain here with Jenny. The man didn’t understand the meaning of the word family. “I’ve left her too much as it is. She’s seventeen.” She answered his question. “But that doesn’t make a difference and lately, neither have I.”

  Ginny leaned back in the rickety chair, listening to David rake her over the coals about her “lack of loyalty.” She passed her hand over her eyes, fighting a headache. Was she blowing up her career? A highly competitive man with no personal life to speak of, Fontaine liked nothing better than knowing that his nearest competition had just gone down a peg, if not several, in the firm’s pecking order.

  Out of the corner of her eye, she saw Quint watching her. He made no effort to pretend he wasn’t listening. At least he was honest, not like some she knew. She would have really rather made this call in private, but privacy, despite this godforsaken land’s lonely terrain, seemed to be at a high premium in Serendipity.

  She shifted. Fontaine was winding down. She took the opportunity to jump in.

  “If I can get away sooner, I will. I’ll let you know,” she promised. “I just called so that you can relay the message to Mr. Leary. I know this means the second chair on the case and probably a lot of other cases, too.” It took no effort on her part to hear the smug, satisfied note in the voice on the other end. He was practically crowing. She resented what he said next. “No, I’m not letting the team down. I really need to be here, David. I’ll call you soon.” With that, she hung up the phone before he could launch into another round of lectures and recriminations. “As soon as hell freezes over,” she added under her breath.

  Reluctantly, she looked up to meet Quint’s mildly interested gaze.

  “Boyfriend?”

  She shivered at the very thought. Good-looking in a prefabricated sort of way, Fontaine had put the moves on her the first week she’d joined the firm. Uninterested, she’d been quick to put him in his place. She didn’t doubt that that was in part the reason for the antagonism he displayed toward her.

  “Hardly that. He’s a junior partner at the law firm where I work. And an all-round royal pain,” she added unnecessarily. Rocking back in the chair, she sighed as she dragged her hand through her hair. It rained from her fingers, dark brown waves moodily settling about her shoulders. “Don’t worry, I charged the call to my home phone.”

  “I wasn’t worried.” Quint had already figured her the type to do the right thing, no matter what. “So you’ve decided to stay.”

  Restless, she rose. The small office didn’t offer much space for pacing, but she did anyway. “I have no choice, she’s my sister.”

  He leaned back, watching her. She reminded him of a time bomb about to go off. A very attractive, very sensual time bomb. She needed to be defused before it was too late.

  “You always have a choice, Geneva. And I’d say that you just made the right one.”

  She laughed shortly. She could just hear David telling Leary that she’d wantonly disregarded her responsibilities to the firm and gone off on a vacation to some exotic locale in Montana where she couldn’t be reached.

  God, he could use this to ruin her chances of making partner if he wanted to. Then what would she do? “Tell that to my career.”

  Quint rose, putting himself in her direct path. He found it unsettling talking to a moving target. “If you’re as good as you say you are, your career shouldn’t be put in jeopardy just because you took a few days off to handle a family emergency.”

  He didn’t know what he was talking about, Ginny thought. Safe here in this little hamlet, he had no idea what cutthroat conditions existed in that real world just beyond “his” town’s boundaries. There were times, lots of times, when she wished that she didn’t know, either. But she did, and that made all the difference in the world. It robbed her of her optimism.

  “I am as good as I say I am, but being good isn’t enough. Being 110 percent dedicated to the company and ‘the team’ is what counts.”

  The team. Man, did she ever hate that term. It had become synonymous with servitude. If it wasn’t for the fact that she needed money to pay off the loans she’d taken out to fund her education, she’d be strongly tempted to look for another firm. Maybe just a small office where she could devote herself to making her work count for something instead of worrying about how “the team” felt she was measuring up.

  Quint had only heard her side of the conversation, but it was enough. “Seems like they’re asking a little too much in my opinion.”

  Ginny found herself coming to the firm’s defense. Now there was a strange set of circumstances. “Nothing more than most firms.”

  He wasn’t arguing that point. “Still doesn’t make it right.”

  “No,” she agreed, pressing her lips together. Nothing she could do about this now except ride it out. Quint was right, Jenny needed her to be here, even if Jenny didn’t know it. “It doesn’t.”

  Frustrated, Ginny looked around Quint’s office. She saw a pile of papers scattered on what looked to be a long wooden table against the far wall. There was a metal four-drawer filing cabinet beside it. A thought vaguely stirred in her head.

  “Look, I can’t just hang around and do nothing for the next week and a half. Is there anything I can do for you here?”

  Quint would have guessed that she’d feel working in the sheriff’s office to be beneath her. “Like what?”

  She indicated the table. “Do you need your files organized? Provided those are files, of course, and not just mash letters from some frustrated groupie.”

  The idea of her willingly working for him made him laugh, as did the suggestion about the origin of the papers. “Are you applying for office work?”

  Ginny had been an office temp and a waitress among other things to put herself through school. Work was work. “I need to be kept busy.”

  That wasn’t all that she needed in Quint’s estimation. “What I think you need is to learn how to let someone else handle the burdens of the world for a change and just learn to take life slow.”

  Easy for him to say. “If I stop running, I just might lose my balance and fall over.”

  The wording interested him. He studied her face, curbing the desire to complete the task with his fingertips. “What are you running from?”

  Ginny straightened her shoulders like a soldier on the defensive. “Not running from, just running.”

  “I stand corrected.”

  But he had a hunch he was right.

  It was all working out rather well, Quint mused, glancing over toward Ginny.

  Once she’d stopped regarding him as the enemy, Ginny had turned out to be really helpful. She’d bestowed only a few criticisms on the system that was undoubtedly archaic in her estimate. That out of the way, she plowed through the clutter and filed the forms he’d forced himself to fill out but never put away over the course of the past two years. He appreciated the help. Appreciated, too, the enhancement that was being made to his office by her very presence.

  She was a hell of a lot easier on the eye than Carly was.

&n
bsp; Ginny moved by him to put away the final handful of forms. He caught a whiff of that same stirring scent he’d been aware of the past few hours. It seemed to fill every small space around him. He put down his pen, surrendering to it.

  “What is that?”

  She closed the metal drawer and looked at him quizzically. “What?”

  “That perfume you’re wearing.”

  For a second, she had to stop and think. “I’m not wearing any perfume.” She couldn’t smell anything but he obviously could. “Must be my shampoo.”

  Wasn’t like any shampoo he was acquainted with. “You smell like a field of wildflowers in the summer.”

  Was it her imagination, or was he being poetic? Ginny tried not to let the comment affect her. “Is that good?”

  She could almost feel his eyes as they washed over her body, yet there wasn’t anything invasive about it. “I think so.”

  It was happening again, that strange, nervous little tic moving through her in response to the way he looked at her.

  Determined to shake free of it, she pushed the drawer closed and cleared her throat.

  “Well, I’m finished.” Ginny glanced at the nowempty table. “Who would have ever thought such a little town could have generated so much paperwork?”

  Quint thought of all the things he was called upon to do. Granted, there were no random shootings to plague him, but there were a host of other things. Enough to keep a grown man busy every day of his life. Most required some sort of notations made.

  Quint laughed. “You’d be surprised.”

  She’d filed for some time and read some of the reports out of curiosity before putting them away. Ginny shook her head. “Not anymore.”

  She was going to start being restless again, he could sense it. Quint rose from his desk. Time to make the rounds. Carly still hadn’t come back from Taylor’s, but Quint had a pretty good hunch he knew why. There was more than a little interest in his cousin’s blue eyes when he looked at Jenny.

  “Want to see how Jenny’s getting along?” Quint suggested.

  She was sorely tempted, but she knew how Jenny would take that. “Yes, but I didn’t want her to think I’m spying on her.”

  She was right. That might set things back. Quint reached for his hat. “Tell you what, I’ll go check on her for you, then report back.”

  He was being awfully nice. She was beginning to feel guilty about having given him such a hard time yesterday. “You really don’t have to do that.”

  He was already at the door. “I’m a public servant,” he reminded her. “And you’re the public.”

  She crossed to him. “But I’m not part of your public.”

  Gliding a finger down her nose, he smiled into her face. “For now you are.”

  Funny how a simple look could manage to ignite her. “Thank you.”

  “No problem.” He closed the door behind him, leaving her alone.

  But there was, she thought. And there would be until she straightened Jenny out.

  “So, how was your first day?”

  Alerted by the sound of the front door opening, Zoe came out of the kitchen to greet them. Warm, tempting smells followed in her wake. Quint’s mother looked at Jenny, waiting for an answer.

  Jenny lifted one shoulder, then let it drop in a careless response. “It was okay.”

  “Mr. Taylor says that you’re a good worker once you put your mind to it,” Quint told her as he removed his holster and set it on the side table.

  Jenny tried to appear indifferent to the unsolicited compliment. She’d expected no comment from the old man, or, if he did comment, that it would be criticism. To hear that he’d praised her robbed Jenny of her edge and her weapon. There was nothing to flare against, no emotion to hide behind.

  Without anything to hide behind, she felt vulnerable and lost.

  She turned to look at Quint. “He did?”

  “Yes.” He knew that would get to her. “He said it’s too bad you don’t live around here because then he’d offer you the job.”

  Ginny reacted instantly. That’s all she needed, to have Jenny think about dropping out and getting a job. Her sister disliked high school as it was. “She’s still in school.”

  Quint never missed a beat as he smoothed over the bumpy terrain. “Part-time once school started, of course.”

  Ginny saw the tinge of pride in her sister’s face. Her own heart swelled at the sight of it and at the thought that Jenny was finally doing something productive with herself, however temporary.

  She slanted a look toward Quint. He’d been right after all. Maybe a scene or two out of Captains Courageous was what Jenny had needed all along.

  “Got an answer for everything, don’t you?” she asked, amused.

  “Not everything,” he allowed, crossing to her. “But so far, you’re asking the right questions.”

  Zoe watched the exchange between the two. A warm feeling about them began to take shape. She was very intuitive when it came to her sons. She’d known Kent and Will were falling in love even before they did. And now look, her boys were all getting married within a few weeks of each other. This was already shaping up to be a fall to remember. And Quint definitely had the signs that this young woman might be the one to finally send him off to buy a double bed for his house.

  “Hank called,” she told him nonchalantly. “Said he’d try to be here by the weekend to go over what he wants for the wedding.”

  Quint smiled. “Fiona should be enough.”

  Yes, Zoe thought, Quint definitely had the signs.

  Ginny looked at him, curious. Her own family had been completely devoid of any interaction. She hadn’t even known her mother had family until they’d come to the funeral. Without fully realizing she was doing it, she was gravitating toward his, hungry for details.

  “Fiona?”

  “Hank’s fiancée,” Quint told her. He stole an apple from the fruit bowl on the coffee table and took a bite. “They met when he accidentally faxed his résumé to her number.”

  “And a lucky thing that mistake was, too,” Zoe told them with feeling. “I was beginning to think he’d never get married. A different girl every weekend when he was in high school and college. He was the charmer in the family.”

  Ginny glanced over toward the fireplace. There were clusters of framed photographs all across the wide mantel, depicting the Cutler siblings at various stages of their lives. To varying degrees, all the brothers looked alike. All were blond with deep blue eyes, strong chins and heart-melting smiles. If asked, she would have said that the whole lot looked like charmers.

  “Hey,” Quint protested, “I thought I was.” He caught his mother about the waist from behind, giving her a bear hug that reeked of affection.

  Zoe slapped him away. “You were the silver-tongued devil of the lot.” She glanced at Ginny. “Still are, no doubt.”

  He pretended that the remark appeased him. “Same thing.”

  She eyed her son, shaking her head. “Not exactly.” Zoe turned toward Ginny, inspired. Sons still needed their mothers to move things along. “Geneva, would you do me a favor?”

  “Anything.” The unqualified promise, even though it came from her own lips, caught Ginny by surprise again. She was never that free and easy with her words, not even with Jenny. Maybe there was something about this little town that changed people, she mused.

  “Get him out of my hair.” To emphasize her point, Zoe pushed Quint toward Ginny. As an afterthought, she took the half-eaten apple from his hand. “Take him out on the porch until dinner is on the table.”

  Quint spread his hands wide as he stood before Ginny. “You heard the lady. Take me somewhere.”

  Ginny could feel her own mouth widening in a grin to match his. This lighthearted feeling was infectious. “You don’t strike me as someone who could be led around by the nose.”

  “Not by the nose,” he agreed, “but by the hand might not be a bad notion.” He held it out to her. When she didn’t take it, he to
ok hers instead and began drawing her toward the front door.

  She didn’t go unwillingly.

  Ginny paused only long enough to look over her shoulder at Zoe. The older woman had taken charge of Jenny and was taking her into the kitchen. Jenny looked almost happy to go.

  Don’t look now, Ginny thought, but we’ve stumbled into a full-fledged miracle.

  Quint saw where she was looking. “She’s okay,” he assured Ginny softly.

  Ginny raised her eyes to his and realized that maybe she was standing just a tad too close for her own safety. She couldn’t quite get herself to put the right amount of space between them. Or any, for that matter.

  “Yes, I know she is. I just can’t stop being concerned about her, that’s all.”

  Quint eased the door closed behind him. He liked her out here like this, with the moon filtering stardust down around her and a feeling that there was just the two of them in the world. Made a man think about the things that were still missing in his life. He considered himself blessed and his life full, except in one respect. He’d also always felt that when the time was right, he’d know.

  He thought he knew now.

  “Well, you shouldn’t,” he said to her. She looked up at him, slightly puzzled. “Stop, I mean. You shouldn’t stop caring about her or being concerned, that’s only natural. But you don’t have to let it consume you, either. Jenny’ll be all right.” That shampoo of hers was driving him crazy, he thought. Got right in under a man’s skin and made him think about things that he’d like to do with a woman. A very special woman. “Took a bit of doing, she managed to fit right in today. Taylor was very satisfied with her.”

  His voice had lowered and was enveloping her now like the warm evening breeze. Ginny could have sworn that every hair on her body was standing on end. Waiting. She had to swallow before she answered.

  “That was your doing.”

  “I wasn’t there,” he reminded her, his breath rippling along her face.

  She drew in a shaky breath, telling herself she was behaving like a silly schoolgirl, for heaven’s sake. If he knew what was on her mind, he’d laugh at her.