There was a spare seat a bit further down from them, so I dragged it over and braced myself for the verbal onslaught I figured I was about to receive.
“She’s miserable,” Ava said, accepting the cappuccino placed in front of her. “She’s working all hours again and has just taken on a ridiculous case that Eli says is going to be a nightmare. What are your plans?”
“You need to up your game. None of her previous boyfriends have fought for her. The relationships simply ended and then that was it,” Claire said, Eliza sleeping soundly in her arms.
I asked Katie behind the bar for a coffee and looked from one sister to the other. “I don’t want to push her. She asked for me to give her time.”
“She’s had time,” Ava said. “She’s had a week and a half of moping around and discussing it with usinfinitelybecause all of us are saying we get why you forgot to tell her and it wasn’t a deliberate omission. Now she doesn’t know what to do because she’s proud.”
“Are you still coming to her birthday party?” Claire said. “She’s not said anything about changing the venue or anything like that.”
“I’d like to still be there.” It was on Saturday, three days away, although her actual birthday was Friday. I considered head butting the nearest wall to knock the sense into me that I needed a few weeks ago when I should’ve told her about my very brief marriage.
Ava sipped her coffee while watching me. “What’ve you bought her?”
I felt more nervous now than I had before I took my driving test. Or any other test. I was about to be judged. “Earrings. And a necklace.”
“No ring?”
I sputtered and just about managed to put my cup down before I dropped it. “I think it’s too soon and given she’s only just found out that I’ve been married before. I have a lot more to prove to her before she’d even consider accepting and I don’t want to ask and there be a chance she’d turn me down.”
Claire looked up from Eliza whose eyes were now wide open. “But you’ve not said you don’t want to get married again or you can’t see a long term future with her?”
I shook my head. “I want everything with her, if she’ll have me.”
“Then that’s what you need to tell her,” Claire said.
“But she won’t pick up the phone to me.”
Ava smiled, looking as devious as a small child with plans to raid the cookie jar. “Then you need another way to get her undivided attention.”
Chapter Twenty
Payton
“What his lawyer’sclaimed here is completely unfounded. He’s got absolutely no evidence to suggest this. He’s trying it on.”
“Payton…”
“Why do they resort to this? Instead of fabricating a pile of absolute shit, why not just try to negotiate and use what they’ve got. This is what gives lawyers a bad name for trying to just cash in—”
“Payton. Stop.”
I looked up from the pile of papers on my desk into deep brown eyes set in a tanned face. Elijah was looking at me as if he was about to grab hold of my shoulders and shake.
“What?”
“It’s past four. You’ve been here since before six this morning and you haven’t eaten.” He sighed and stepped back. “We’re all worried about you. Again. You’re working too hard. Again. This is how people burn out. And there’s someone waiting in reception to take you for a late lunch.”
“Who? Is it Owen?” My heart started to pound so fast I figured it was trying to bust its way out through my ears.
Eli shook his head. “It’s his mum. And you’re going to go with her, eat and not come back to work, else Jackson is putting you on leave.”
I gripped my fists tightly and waited for the anger to bubble. It didn’t. Not that I was surprised. I didn’t have the emotion left in me. For the past week and a half, I’d thrown myself into work, my safest place, and spent the nights trying to methodically decide what I wanted to do about my relationship with Owen.
He’d sent me messages and I’d replied, but the thought of seeing him scared me, even speaking to him worried me, because I knew that as soon as I heard his voice or saw him, I’d let his secret he’d kept become history. I didn’t want to take a chance; I wanted a certainty. But nothing was certain. Even the cases I knew I should win were never certain.
“She’s going to persuade me to get back with Owen, isn’t she?” I said to Eli.
