She smirks. “The medium option is just right. If I can sell it.”
He flops into one of the kitchen chairs and kicks another one with his foot. “I’m all ears.”
She sits across from him. “I started thinking. I’m not acting as a lawyer right now. I don’t have to limit myself to legal remedies.”
“Uh, I’m gonna caution against illegal remedies. I don’t want to be a single father while you’re in the clink.”
“Very funny. I expanded my thinking to include creative business solutions to this problem.”
“Such as?”
“Such as pitching Biz an idea to make Caleb the darling of the media in exchange for a brief delay in publishing the book and asking her to run it by the publisher.”
“That sounds promising. What’s the idea?” he asks.
“I’ll let you know when I come up with it.” She flashes him a smile and walks to the French doors to call the twins in to pack up for school.
Once Connelly and the twins have left for school, she turns on some upbeat music and dances around the kitchen to the bemusement of the cat and dog.
As she’s shimmying around the counter, the folder sticking out of her bag catches her eye. Linda put it together for her, a list of ideas for the First Amendment gala.
She skids to a stop. That’s it. She whoops and runs upstairs to get dressed.
Chapter Twenty-Five
Ten minutes before Caleb’s free period, Sasha is hiding behind a tree, watching the street for Biz Linden, who she looked up on the internet.
When she spots the young agent with the platinum blonde pixie cut striding toward campus with a cup of coffee in each hand, she steps out onto the sidewalk with a bright smile.
“Ms. Linden?”
The agent slows her pace and gives Sasha a quizzical look. “Yes.”
Sasha sticks out her hand, then laughs. “Looks like your hands are full. That’s okay. I was wondering if we could talk for a moment about one of your clients. Caleb Rye.”
Biz stops. “What about him?”
Sasha sends up a silent apology for the lie she’s about to tell. But she can’t give Biz her real name. And, as luck would have it, she keeps a handful of Naya’s business cards on hand in case she meets someone who needs a transactional attorney. She also keeps some of Will’s cards handy in case she runs into someone in need of a white collar criminal defense attorney, but she thinks she’d have an hard time convincing this woman her name is Will.
She places Naya’s card on one of the coffee lids.
Biz glances down at it. “Naya Andrews? You’re a transactional attorney?”
“I’m a partner at McCandless, Volmer & Andrews.” Excellent. A lie of omission instead of commission.
“What can I do for you, Ms. Andrews?”
“McCandless, Volmer & Andrews is sponsoring a gala to celebrate the First Amendment later this month.”
“Sure, I think I got an invitation at the office.”
“Well, we were tossing around names to serve as our spotlight author and, of course, Mr. Rye was top of mind. He’s local, he’s a rising star, and I understand he has a new book coming out.”
Biz’s polite smile morphs into a real one. “He does. And I’m on my way to tell him his last book just hit the New York Times bestseller list.”
“That’s perfect. We were thinking, if Mr. Rye were to agree to headline the gala, we could create a nice little publicity storm.”
“I’m intrigued.”
