“Turn to the business section,” he advised.
It was only a few pages away—we didn’t live in a big city. Top of the fold showed a picture of our new law office opening…next to a photo of me getting in a bar fight the night before. The caption read:“New Law Firm Comes Out Swinging,”and the byline was Jolene’s.
Clark chuckled. “It’s not so bad. I kind of like the optics.”
“Yeah, but wait until she writes the article about the dead body on my porch,” I muttered. “It’s doubtful those optics will be good for us.” Not to mention poor Sasha. Who would’ve killed her like that?
My cell phone rang, and I pulled it out of my purse to read the screen. “It’s my mother.”
Clark laughed and turned back to the hallway. “I’ll do some research on the federal issue.” Then he paused and looked back over his shoulder. “Do notdoanything on this case. No investigating, no calling in favors, no reaching out. Got it?”
I paused. Clark never got bossy, but he was my lawyer now. “Yes. I’ll stay away from the case.”
“Good.” He then disappeared toward his office.
I answered the phone and dealt with my mom and the photograph of her youngest daughter being in a bar fight. Once I got her off the phone, I fielded calls from my sisters, grandmothers, grandfathers, a couple of cousins, and my dad. Finally, I’d finished telling everyone I was fine and not to worry about it.
I reached for my coffee again just as my phone dinged. “Hi, Oliver,” I said after pushing the speaker button.
“Ms. Albertini? There’s a client here for you,” Oliver said, his voice deeper over the phone.
“Please bring them back,” I said, rolling my eyes at the formality. I’d remind him to call me Anna later when there wasn’t somebody in the waiting room. Then I straightened in my chair, anticipation licking through my veins. My first real client as a partner in the law firm. My own law firm. I couldn’t help but stand and meet them at the door, where I masked my surprise at seeing Donald McLerrison ambling behind Oliver.
“Mr. McLerrison,” I said, gesturing him inside and giving Oliver a look.
Oliver shrugged to show his confusion and then hurried back down the hallway when the phone rang loudly in the reception area.
“Come on in,” I said, waving my hand toward one of the two leather chairs facing my desk. “I hope everything is okay.” McLerrison was the farmer Oliver currently lived with, and he’d dropped the trespassing charges against Oliver.
“Sure.” McLerrison settled his hefty bulk into the chair. For his trip to town, he wore clean overalls over a blue checked shirt and newish brown cowboy boots. His thick gray hair was slicked back with what had to be a pound of Brylcreem. “I told Oliver that I needed to speak with you about some mineral rights on the farm.”
Mineral rights? Interesting. “All right. Are you thinking of just selling the mineral rights? What are we talking about here?” It wasn’t usually a good idea to separate the mineral rights from a property, but I needed more facts first.
He shook his head. “No. That’s just what I told Oliver.”
I paused. “Okay?” Was Oliver in trouble again? My heart began to sink.
“Yeah.” McLerrison leaned toward me. “Listen. When Twillie died, I was devastated and didn’t care what would happen to the farm after I started pushing up daisies. Now that Oliver has lived with me, I’ve thought about what’d be best, and I’d like to have one of those Will and Testaments that leaves everything to him. But I don’t want him to know about the inheritance until it’s my turn to ride that pale horse into the sky.”
How many euphemisms could he come up with for dying? My heart warmed. I reached for a legal pad and a pen. “That’s no problem. I can draft up a simple estate, but if you want various trusts and so forth, I’d want to refer you to an estate planning expert.”
“No. I want you. No experts.” He settled his brown spotted hands on his knees.
I grinned. “All right. No expert here.” Then I tapped my pen on the paper. “I’ll need some information from you to draft the document, and we can go over it all afterward.”
“I know.” He reached into his back pocket and pulled out a couple pieces of folded paper. “Here’s the legal description of the farm and my investments, which I haven’t really looked at. They were Twillie’s, to be honest. Oliver can have whatever she had in there.”
I accepted the papers, which looked like they’d been kept in a barn. A piece of hay dropped onto my desk. “Thanks.”
“Yep. The second paper has all of my personal information. I’m gonna need those back from you.” He stood. “How much does a lawyer cost, anyway?”
Thank goodness Clark and I had come up with hourly prices. “Simple estate planning is three hundred dollars an hour,” I said. “However, you get the friend and family discount, so it’s a hundred an hour.”
“That’s a lot,” McLerrison said.
Actually, it was really low for the area, but I also liked him. “Okay. How about fifty an hour?” Clark was going to kill me.
McLerrison waved me off. “No. Stick to your guns, girly. Even if it is highway robbery.” He turned and sauntered back down the hallway.
