The Knight, the Waitress and the Toddler

by Arlene James

  “Oh, in about three hours.”

  His head shot up, pain bouncing off the top of his head. “Three hours!”

  Kate grinned that cold, courtroom smile of hers. “That’s not the best of it. Judge Halstead is sitting.”

  Hal Halstead. Holy cow. Halstead adored Kate, called her his “little darling” in the most obnoxious, sexist, condescending manner possible. She hated it, but she used it to her advantage. Oh, brother, did she use it!

  “And there’s more,” she went on. “Hal’s agreed to arbitrate the inheritance matter.”

  “Arbitrate!” Ed exclaimed, frowning. “We don’t want arbitration!”

  “Yes, we do,” Kate told him smugly, “because Hal’s promised me that if we present incriminating evidence, he’ll convene a grand jury.”

  Edward caught his breath. A grand jury. That meant, not just a civil suit but criminal charges. Completely ignoring the state of his head, he surged to his feet, threw both arms around Kate Ballard and kissed her soundly in the center of her forehead. “Yes!” he fairly crowed. Kennison was going down big-time. And Laurel was going to get everything she had coming to her— Barry, the inheritance, the house, the cars. Everything.

  “Now,” Kate was saying, “all we have to do is get Laurel and the baby there on time. You know the drill—a nice conservative suit, not too much makeup, the baby needs to be clean and neat and, if possible, happy. And you warn her, Ed. No matter what anybody says or does, she’s to keep her cool. And I’d really appreciate it if you could get us there early enough for me to talk to her. I don’t like representing a client I haven’t even met!”

  Ed nodded, remembering that Kate and her husband were to have met Laurel last night. Well, last night was behind them. Today was the key to the future, and nothing was going to keep him from ensuring Laurel’s future. Nothing—not even pride. He was already moving in the direction of the shower. Ripping off the tie someone had loosened, he tossed it over his shoulder. “Someone press this,” he said and began peeling off his shirt, “and this. And find my coat!”

  “There’s a razor in the cabinet above the sink!” Parker called.

  “And an extra toothbrush!” Kendra added, while Kate gathered up the articles of clothing he’d left behind.

  “Someone better get in there and catch his pants,” Kate said wryly.

  Parker started off behind him, muttering, “I draw the line at his underwear,” but he was grinning when he said it.

  Ed walked into the diner like he owned the place, a cool blonde several years older on his heels. He walked right up to Laurel, took out of her hand the coffeepot from which she was about to pour a refill and set it on the table in front of her startled customer. “You’re coming with me.” He clamped a hand on her wrist and began to turn away.

  “Hold on!” She yanked back, trying to divine this strange mood of his and casting a curious look at the blonde. “I can’t just walk out.”

  “You’d better,” the blonde said flatly. “We’re due in court in just over two hours.”

  “We?”

  Edward set his jaw and jerked a thumb in the blond’s direction. “This is my new partner, Kate Ridley Ballard. I told you about her the other day.”

  “No, you didn’t”

  “I did!”

  “You only mentioned that you were turning my case over to another attorney. You didn’t say anything about having a partner.”

  A muscle jumped in the hollow of his jaw. “Evidently I failed to mention quite a few things, so obviously we have a lot to talk about. Of course,” he added sarcastically, “we could have talked about it last night at dinner with Kate and her husband, but you were gone when I got home.”

  “And then you got stinking drunk,” Kate pointed out helpfully, a fingertip imbedded in the top of his shoulder.

  Laurel’s startled gaze flew right back to Edward’s reddening face. “You got drunk?”

  Edward closed his eyes. “Could we discuss this later, perhaps? Right now we have to get you ready for court.”

  Court. Laurel’s hands were shaking as she untied her apron strings. They were going to court and Edward had gotten drunk, stinking drunk, according to…Kate? “I won’t be a minute.”

  She hurried around the end of the counter and through the swinging metal doors into the kitchen, where Fancy had disappeared minutes earlier. “Fancy, I have to go. I’m sorry, but Edward and the new attorney are here, and they say we have to go to court!”

  “Today?” Fancy said, pausing in the act of ladling gravy over an open-faced steak sandwich.

  Laurel nodded and glanced at her wristwatch. “I have two hours to change and get to the courthouse.”

  Fancy’s heavily made-up eyes narrowed dangerously. “You don’t suppose he did this on purpose, do you?”

  “Edward? Why on earth?”

  Fancy considered and apparently rejected the notion. “Yeah, I guess you’re right. It’s just that any guy who’d take advantage of a helpless woman to—”

  Laurel rolled her eyes. “Oh, please! If anyone took advantage it was me. But I don’t have time to argue with you. I have to go.”

  Clucking worriedly, Fancy followed her into the other room. “You let me know how it turns out, hear? I won’t rest easy for a minute until I know.” She stopped and glared up at Edward. “And you just keep your hands to yourself, mister.”

  “Fancy!” Laurel scolded. Shrugging apologetically at Edward, she gave her head a small shake, trying to tell him without words that she hadn’t complained about his treatment of her—quite the opposite, in fact.

  He leaned close and angrily hissed, “I didn’t exactly force myself on you!”

  “I never said you did,” Laurel replied quietly through her teeth.

  “Okay, kiddies,” Kate Ballard interrupted, “this will have to wait. We’ve more immediate problems to discuss.” Elbowing Edward out of the way, she stuck out a hand to Laurel. “It’s nice to meet you, Laurel. May I call you Laurel? Good. Now then, I want you to listen very carefully.” So saying, she took Laurel by the arm and turned her resolutely toward the door.

  Kate talked all through the car trip to Laurel’s apartment, explaining in detail what she expected Laurel to say and what she was not to say or do under any circumstances. Edward drove, silent as stone and seemingly as impervious. Laurel listened and nodded and made copious mental notes—until Kate got to the part about having to take Barry with them.

  “It’s just a formality,” she assured Laurel, seeing her alarm, “but it’s also the law, and we’ve skirted enough of the regulations as it is.”

  “I don’t understand.”

  Kate tamped down her impatience with visible effort. “I’ve convinced Judge Halstead that a home study would be counterproductive as this point. Instead, he’s agreed to judge your fitness as a parent on a report we’ve elicited from David Greenlea and his own personal observation, as well as—” She shot a look in Edward’s direction, and finished, “As well as Edward’s reputa tion.”

  “Edward?”

  “Yeah, go figure,” Edward all but snarled.

  Laurel had the dreadful feeling that she’d missed something, something important, but she didn’t have time to think on it as Kate kept drumming away at what she was to expect and how she was to react. Her head was whirling by the time they reached the apartment complex. Hurrying ahead, she had explained matters to the sitter and had Barry on her hip by the time the others arrived. She watched Edward’s face change from sullen to winsome as Barry put up his little arms and silently begged to be held by him. Edward swung him up into his arms, smacked a kiss between his eyes and smoothed down the hair that seemed to stand on end no matter what Laurel did to it. Barry dug a finger into the knot of Edward’s tie and jabbered as if the sounds themselves were meant only for the two of them. Laurel felt her heart squeeze painfully in her chest and turned away before she was reduced to tears.

  She led the way up the stairs and unlocked the apartment. It was steam
y hot inside, but she couldn’t bring herself to turn on the air-conditioning just yet. The thought of paying those outlandish electric bills made her shudder. Edward, with Barry in tow, and Kate were right on her heels. Edward immediately took over.

  “Let’s find something for the baby first. Kate can dress him while we look through your wardrobe. She can use the practice, seeing as how she’s going to be a grandmother—again.”

  Laurel couldn’t help an exclamation of surprise. She had never seen a less grandmotherly-looking female. “Th-that’s wonderful. You just don’t seem old enough to be anyone’s grandparent.”

  “Well, thank you,” Kate purred. “Actually, I’m a stepgrandmother. I think you know our little Darla.”

  “Darla Sugarman?”

  “Kate is Kendra’s stepmother,” Edward explained.

  The implications became clear immediately. “Is Kendra going to have another baby?”

  “They just told us,” Kate confirmed. “I doubt her father even knows yet.”

  Edward didn’t say anything, just stared at Laurel almost accusingly. She cocked her head to one side, wondering what that was all about. He looked away, moving to Barry’s dresser. Quickly he went through the top drawer, pulling out a navy blue short suit with a lapelless jacket and a white, round-collared shirt. “Can he wear this?”

  “It might be a little big yet. The sitter bought it as a gift for his birthday.”

  Edward held it up to Barry as best he could. “We’ll try it.”

  She went over and dug out socks, shoes and a pair of small red suspenders. Edward found a white sailor cap with an elastic strap to go under the chin. He plopped it on Barry’s head and pronounced it “better than that rooster’s comb you’ve got on top.” Barry’s eyes sparkled with delight. He always thought he was something special in a hat. Delivering all into the unlikely hands of Kate Ballard, Edward then turned his attention to Laurel’s wardrobe. He tore through the hangers, rejecting first one garment then another until his patience rap out.

  “Don’t you have anything conservative?”

  She glared at him, feeling more than a bit on edge herself. “Do I strike you as the conservative type, Edward?”

  “Only if you consider Mae West conservative,” he grumbled, tearing through her clothes again.

  “I resent that! What’s wrong with you anyway? You used to like the way I dress!”

  “That was before I came home, brimming with good news, to find you’d moved out without so much as a word!”

  “I never moved in!” she reminded him. “And you as good as told me—”

  “I never told you anything, damn it, because I didn’t have a chance!”

  “We don’t have time for this!” Kate shouted, startling the baby into sudden cries.

  “Now look what you’ve done!” Edward accused, stomping across the room to sweep up Barry and quiet him, for all the world, just like a…father.

  The fight went right out of Laurel, tears suddenly brimming in her eyes. She whirled around and began digging through her clothes. She jerked out the olive green number she’d worn to his office that first day and held it up for approval. He grimaced.

  “Too short.” In an aside to Kate he said waspishly, “Her whole damned wardrobe’s too short.”

  Just for spite, Laurel pulled out a long black jersey knit with a plunging neckline and overlong sleeves belled at the ends. “Oh, that’s perfect,” Edward snipped. “Have you got fangs to go with it? Or maybe you could hang a funeral wreath around your neck.”

  “Maybe I could hang a noose around yours?”

  “As if you haven’t all ready!”

  “Oh, for Pete’s sake!” Kate said, practically snatching Barry out of Edward’s arms. “Wear pants!”

  That gave Laurel an immediate idea. It just might do, too. Quickly she pulled out a sleek fawn-colored silk suit with a soft shawl collar and loose, wide-legged pants. She put a cream white, cowl-necked, sleeveless blouse with it and unearthed a pair of matching shoes with sturdy platform heels and ankle straps. Adding a wide, leather belt, a long gold chain and a pair of gold oval disk earrings banded with pearls, she held the whole ensemble up for approval. “What do you think?”

  Edward cocked a brow at Kate, who rolled her eyes heavenward. “Thank God. Now do you think we can get you dressed without the two of you drawing blood, or shall I send Edward down to the car?”

  Edward took back Barry and plopped down in the rocker. “I’m not going anywhere.” The look he gave Laurel said, “And neither are you until we settle a few things.”

  A thrill of anticipation skipped up her spine. Had she misread him, after all? Had he really meant for her stay, perhaps permanently? She knew suddenly that if Kate hadn’t been there, she’d have walked across the room and sat herself down on his other knee, staying put until she had a full explanation. As it was, though, she merely turned and went into the bathroom to change.

  When she returned, it was to find Kate packing a diaper bag and Edward cooing to Barry. Kate looked her over and said she’d do. Edward merely glanced her way and said nothing. Laurel changed purses and gave her hair a thorough combing so that it lay softly against her head while Kate dropped the diaper bag in Edward’s lap, picked up Barry and announced they’d wait outside before leaving.

  For a long moment, neither Laurel nor Edward spoke or moved. Then suddenly he got up and cleared his throat, his hands going to his waist. Taking that as her cue, she walked briskly across the apartment and toward the. door. Just as she moved past him, his hand shot out, clamped over her forearm and yanked her back. Groaning, he framed her face with his hands and covered her mouth with his. Tremulously exultant, she threw herself against him, her arms locking around his torso.

  “Oh, Edward!” she gasped when next he let her breathe.

  “I’m an idiot,” he said at the same time. “I thought you understood that—”

  “I love you!”

  “I love you!”

  She laughed, and he kissed her again, his hands roaming possessively over her body. Kate beat on the door, reminding them that they didn’t have the time to indulge in explanations or recriminations just now. Sighing, Edward turned her toward the door and escorted her out.

  Laurel began to shake with nerves on the drive to the courthouse. She kept telling herself that everything was going her way finally, but the very notion itself was so new that she couldn’t quite trust it yet. So she reminded herself that Edward was there, her white knight, and he loved her. He wouldn’t let anything bad happen to her or Barry if he could help it, and there was Kate, too—a veritable tiger. Grandma Tigress. The sheer incongruity of the picture made her smile. Her mood lightened a bit, but that only lasted until they got off the elevator at the courthouse and found Danny Hardacre waiting for them. Laurel physically recoiled.

  “Relax,” Edward said, his arm sliding about her shoulders. “He’s here as our witness.”

  “Our witness?”

  “He won’t testify today,” Kate explained briskly, “but his presence in the courtroom can only add weight to his deposition.”

  Danny stepped up then to add his own clarification. “The whole thing was a setup, Laurel. I’m really sorry. I didn’t want to hurt you, but Kennison convinced me that I didn’t have another option. Edward made me understand that I did.” He clapped Edward on the shoulder, reaching up considerably in order to do so. “You’re getting a good guy,” he went on. “The best”

  As he shambled off, Laurel looked up at Edward in confusion. “What’s that all about?”

  He shrugged uneasily. “Aw, heck, rescue a drunk and you wind up with a new best friend.”

  “Glad to hear it!” Parker exclaimed, appearing at Edward’s elbow. “Maybe I’ll get the respect I’m due now.”

  Edward shook his head and said to Laurel, “Don’t ask.”

  Before she could, David Greenlea appeared. He kissed her cheek and shook Edward’s hand. Laurel looked around for any more new arrivals and spie
d Kendra holding Barry and talking nonsense to him, her eyes skittering back and forth between Laurel and Edward. Every once in a while, she’d point at one or the other of them and whisper something in Barry’s ear. He was absorbing every word.

  “The bailiffs opened the doors, folks,” Kate announced, herding everyone in that direction. “Time to go in.”

  Laurel moved up next to Kendra and held out her arms for Barry. “Mama,” he said decisively, and Kendra whispered something in his ear before handing him over. Edward plunked the sailor cap onto his head and arranged the chin strap. Laurel said to Kendra, “I understand that congratulations are in order.”

  Kendra beamed. “Uh-huh. And I understand that the same thing is in order for you guys.” Before Laurel could make solid sense of that, Kendra leaned forward and kissed her cheek, whispering, “I’m so happy for you. He deserves the best, and I think he’s got it.”

  “Thanks, kid,” Edward rumbled, one hand on Laurel’s shoulder and the other patting the top of Kendra’s head. Laurel rolled her eyes up at him, but he was looking at Barry and grinning.

  Kate led them down the aisle to a small rectangular table at the front of the courtroom. They were barely seated before the bailiff appeared in front of the bench and said, “All rise.” They got up again as he rattled off a pompous-sounding announcement signifying that court was in session with the Honorable Harold Halstead presiding.

  “This guy loves Kate,” Edward whispered as the judge swept in and climbed up to his seat, black robes flying.

  He waved them down into their chairs and signaled the bailiff to read off the docket number of the case before nodding in the direction of what Laurel took to be the defense table. For the first time, she realized that Abelard Kennison and her exhusband were in attendance. Kennison was the picture of lawyerly dignity. Dressed all in cool gray and white, with a black tie and highly polished shoes, he appeared as coolly confident as ever, his sleek white hair swept back to expose the patrician features of a face still handsome despite his years. Bryce, by comparison, looked decidedly uncomfortable in an expensive, well-tailored pin-striped suit of navy blue serge, a pale blue shirt and a red-striped tie. His shoes looked new. She hoped they pinched.