All three of them chuckled, and then Esther leaned forward. “OK. I can tell you this: the Commonwealth’s Attorney’s Office still wants you, Colin Campbell-Abrams. You’re a fine attorney and a good man. That’s a rare combination. What remains to be seen is… do you still wantus?”
“God, boss lady, I do!” Colin insisted. “What Idon’tknow is how much I can handle anymore.”
“All right. Start slow. No big cases. No heavy trauma. Take a few misdemeanors off Adi’s plate––just play lawyer for a while.” She pursed her lips and gave him a searching look. “How about three days a week to start? Easy hours.”
“I want to check with Josh, but,” he grinned, “deal.”
Colin steppedout of his office into the main bullpen, where the low murmur of phones, clicking keyboards, and hushed legal debates created a soft background hum. The same crowded bulletin board sagged with legal notices, birthday cards, and someone’s laminated “Emergency Snack List.” He caught sight of the faint marker scrawl still on the edge of the cork: “Colin owes us donuts—Team Jason.”
Jason was the first to look up. His eyes widened, then his whole face lit up. “Noway.” He stood so fast his chair rolled into a filing cabinet. “Daddy Campbell’s back!” Then he grimaced and shook his head. “Damn! And I was just about to ask Norm to putmein that big, fat, empty office!”
Heads turned. Phones were set down. Someone actually gasped—probably Sheila, though she’d deny it later. A moment of stunned stillness swept through the room, and then?—
Applause. Not raucous, not overdone. Just real. A few people stood. Adylinn was already crossing the room with her arms outstretched.
Colin blinked, throat tightening. “OK, wow. Don’t make me cry in front of Jason.”
“That’s fair,” Jason called. “Because I’d never let you live it down.”
Adylinn reached Colin and wrapped him in a warm, familiar hug. “You look tired,” she whispered. “And gorgeous.”
Colin swallowed hard. “I’ll take it.”
She stepped back, eyes glistening, and said, “We kept your chair warm.”
“Notme!” Jason spouted. “I sat in it. Ate lunch in it. Left crumbs.”
“You’re dead to me,” Colin replied dryly, and the bullpen erupted in laughter. “And stay the helloutof my office, pip-squeak!”
Even Sheila cracked a smile. “About time you came back, hotshot. The energy’s been weird in here without your broody nonsense.”
Colin smirked. “Broody nonsense is my specialty.” He glanced around the room—the messy desks, the scuffed carpet, the leaning stacks of case files. People who worked too hard and cared too much. His people. And for the first time in what felt like forever, something inside him shifted—not all the way to peace, but in that direction.
Adylinn nudged him. “We’ve been covering for you, but it’s getting out of hand. I actually had to do paperwork last week.”
“I’ll make it up to you.”
“Youwill,” she said. “By taking those two dog bite misdemeanors off my docket. I already put your name on them.”
Jason grinned. “Glad you’re home, boss man.”
Colin exhaled and looked around again—this loud, chaotic, relentless place—and nodded. “Yeah,” he said softly. “Me too.”
The house wasdim and calm, lit only by the warm flicker of a single lamp in the living room. Joshua sprawled on the new couch, legs crossed on the coffee table, a blanket over his lap, and a book resting facedown beside him. He looked up the second Colin walked in.
“Well?” he asked, the word carrying more hope than curiosity.
Colin toed off his shoes, loosened his tie, and let out a breath that seemed to take half the day with it. “I didn’t burst into flames if that’s what you’re wondering.”
“Always a good start.”
Colin dropped onto the couch beside him, leaned his head back against the cushion, and closed his eyes for a beat.
“They clapped,” he said quietly.
Joshua’s brow lifted. “Theywhat?”
“In the bullpen. When I walked in, Jason called me ‘Daddy Campbell’ and whined that he wanted to steal my office.”
