Total pages in book: 103
Estimated words: 99434 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 497(@200wpm)___ 398(@250wpm)___ 331(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 99434 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 497(@200wpm)___ 398(@250wpm)___ 331(@300wpm)
“How long have you been up?” I walked to the kitchen and took a coffee mug from the cabinet.
Gray set the laptop down on the coffee table and shifted in his seat to face the kitchen. “An hour or two?”
I fixed my coffee and leaned against the counter to sip. “Did you sleep at all?”
“I think it was more like a short nap. You?”
“A little longer than that.” I eyed his laptop. “What are you working on? You didn’t look that excited to be reading whatever it was.”
“Some revisions to the offer on that tech firm you reviewed the contract for. My partners want to make an offer today. They think another venture capitalist is interested, and if we extend an offer with a short window of acceptance, they won’t have time to finish their due diligence or make a competing offer.”
I nodded. “Let me know if you need me to do anything.”
Neither of us said anything for a few awkward minutes after that. I hated the feeling of an elephant being in the room and preferred to get things off my chest.
“Are you going to contact her today?”
He patted the couch next to him. “Come sit.”
This was going to be a push and pull. I could already see it. I’d try to put some space between us—physical or mental—and Gray would fight me on it.
“I prefer to stand while I drink my coffee.”
He frowned, then proceeded to get up and walk to the kitchen to stand across from me. My U-shaped kitchen was small, so the distance between us was only a few feet.
Push.
Pull.
He looked down at his feet. “I searched the Internet for her contact information this morning and got an email address and office number that look current. I don’t even have a telephone number for her.”
“What do you mean? How can you not have her number?”
“I tried to call her once after I figured out what she’d done. But she’d changed her cell phone number, and my email came back undeliverable.”
“Oh.” I hesitated for a moment. “I have it. I mean, she gave all her contact information when my paralegal set up the appointment. If you need it…”
Gray’s eyes locked with mine. “She’s already dragged you into whatever game she’s playing enough. But thank you.”
“What are you going to say when you contact her?”
Gray shook his head. “I have no fucking idea. But I guess I should start with ‘Do I have a daughter?’”
***
At two in the afternoon, I’d had the most unproductive day of my entire career. I read a contract four times and sat in a staff meeting where the attorney next to me literally had to kick me under the table when someone had posed a direct question to me, and I hadn’t even heard them speak. I tried to order lunch with my assistant, but couldn’t decide what to eat, so I’d lied and said I remembered I’d brought in some leftovers.
A knock on my door interrupted my lengthy staring-at-the-window session.
Oliver smiled and stayed in the doorway. “Hey. How are things going?”
Even though we worked for the same firm, in the same building, I hadn’t seen him since we had lunch and I’d broken things off.
“Good. Busy.”
He nodded. “Not sure if you heard, but Elizabeth Waring is leaving.”
“Oh? No. I hadn’t heard. Is she going someplace good?” Elizabeth was a good friend of Oliver’s, an attorney in the intellectual property division who he worked with often. We’d had lunch all together a few times.
“She’s retiring.”
“Retiring? She’s what…thirty-five?”
He smiled. “That’s what we call people who leave private practice and go work for the government. She took a job at the U.S. Copyright Office.”
“Oh. Good for her. She’d said she wanted to have kids. That will make her life easier—working a regular nine-to-five and not having to worry about billable hours.”
“Yeah. She’s happy. Not going to get that here at any age. Do you know the difference between Pittman and a leech?”
“No. What?”
“After you die, a leech stops sucking your blood.”
I laughed. “That’s very true.”
“Anyway. Just wanted to say hi and let you know we’re taking her out for her last day if you’d like to join. Next Friday night at The Rodeo Bar around the corner.”
My brow arched. “The place with the mechanical bull?”
“That’s the one.”
“And I thought the family law department had the wild ones.”
He smiled. “You should come. It’ll be fun.”
“Thanks for the invite. I’ll try.”
After Oliver left, I sat back in my chair—because I hadn’t slacked off enough for the day. Such a nice guy. And I’d bet he didn’t have any secret children he didn’t know about. And considering the bar had let him in, I was pretty sure he wasn’t a convicted felon, either. But of course, I couldn’t fall for him. That would’ve been too easy. Apparently, complicated was more my thing.