Her hair was pulled back away from her face, her brown eyes almost sparkling with an enormous smile showing straight white teeth.
In her hand was a bottle of wine she held up. “I’m celebrating,” she said.
He smiled and moved aside. He’d had to play his contact with her just right.
Two days of looking into her, he knew who her family was and needed to decide how much to say, and how much to hold back.
He felt it in his gut he was going to get more answers this time around and the last thing he needed to do was mess up by being stupid.
“Verdict back already?” he asked.
“It is,” she said. “I’d just pulled into the parking lot of my office when I got the message to return.”
“And by the look on your face and that bottle in your hand, your client’s verdict was not guilty.”
“It was,” she said. “I want to say I had no doubt, but that would be arrogant on my end. I try not to be.”
His head went to the side. “I think you’re cocky. Arrogant rubs people the wrong way and something tells me you know what you’re doing at all times.”
“I do,” she said, strutting past him.
She put the bottle on the small table in the kitchen. It was then he noticed it wasn’t wine but looked to be Ridgeway Hard Cider.
He picked it up. “Cranberry Ginger Cider.”
“Got it from my brother over the holidays. A special brew. There are a few bottles left. It’s my favorite and I thought it’d be good to share.”
“I’ve never had it before.”
She was watching him, probably waiting for him to acknowledge that he knew who she was.
“You’re in for a treat then.”
He moved further and she followed. There was a pizza on the counter that he’d picked up. If she was going to help him, the least he could do was feed her.
“Wine glasses or regular glasses for this?”
“Either works,” she said.
He grabbed the wine glasses. Before he could get the bottle to open it, she was taking care of it for him.
He pictured Gale Ridgeway as the type of woman who didn’t let men do much for her in life.
He put the glasses on the counter, she picked one up and poured, so he got plates and opened the pizza box.
“You were good in court,” he said.
“Why, thank you,” she said. “My family would say I was born to argue. I think it was to get out of working around the farm.”
The smirk on her face when she said that told him she was playing with him. She knew damn well he was aware of who she was and she was almost baiting him to say it.
“Did it work?” he asked. “I mean, your brother doesn’t have you making cider now, does he?”
She laughed. “I did early on when he needed help. When he needed extra hands for events in the refurbished barn, I was there too. Thankfully, he’s got more staff doing those things now.”
“No reason to address the elephant that ran out of the room. Once I got your card, I looked into you.”
“I’m easy to find,” she said. “No secrets.” Her eyebrow was lifted as she sipped her brother’s cider.
