I get into my car and look at myself in the rear-view mirror. This woman has me doing things for her, and she doesn’t even realize it. Grabbing my wallet out of my pocket, I hold out her business card. I stare at it for a few seconds and flick the edge. It’s then that I decide to program her name and number into my phone. Trying to decide if I should text her or not, I slap it against the steering wheel a couple of times.
I can’t resist sending her a text.
Dane:
You’ll be all set for your meeting with the building inspector.
I don’t wait for her to text back; instead, I drive to my office. Traffic is light this morning, which gets me there faster than expected.
Once I’m in the office, I’m bombarded by Logan, tearing me a new one. His dark brown eyes squint at me—does he need glasses or is he really annoyed? I settle on annoyed.
“Dane? You were supposed to be here an hour ago.” He’s running his fingers through his dirty blond hair and down his neck. Stress. He is definitely losing his mind with this case. His family probably hasn’t seen him much this week.
“Have you been home for more than a couple of hours?” I ask, avoiding his interrogation.
“No. We need to get this case in order, or we’ll lose.”
“You need to go home. And I ran an errand this morning. We have…”
He interrupts me. “An errand?”
“I detoured to the town hall,” I say, attempting to shrug it off.
“Why?” He stops what he is doing to watch my every move.
“It was my good deed for the day.”
He drums his fingers on the table with his mouth open. Finally, he says, “If we weren’t so buried with this case, I’d interrogate you. But for now, this conversation is on hold until we go grab lunch or a beer.”
Off the hook easily, thankfully. I can’t wait to hear what he has to say about the Kendall situation.
Logan, my brother, is five years younger than I am and is married to the most amazing woman. They have a two-year-old daughter. He lets things bother him, and they burrow into his skin too easily. We are partners in our father's law firm. Dad was supposed to retire, but hasn’t yet. I don’t think he’ll know what to do with himself if he retires, so he meddles in the cases and the day-to-day business of the firm. Logan and I could run this firm without him, and hope to, sooner rather than later.
“Let’s determine our next steps regarding the Finney case,” says Logan.
“Your head needs to be in the game.”
“It’s in. Let’s get to work.”
As my phone vibrates with a notification, I swipe it off the table before Logan can look.
Kendall:
And how would you know this?
Dane:
I’m just leaving the town hall.
Kendall:
Umm… you didn’t have to do that.
Dane:
It was nothing.
A huge smile crosses my face as I shake my head. I know I didn’t have to do it, but I felt compelled to take care of it for her. She shouldn’t have to deal with that mess.
