“Ah, okay.”It wasn’t uncommon for clients to cancel several times before they actually met with a divorce attorney.“I’m calling because I need a favor.”
“I work for you, Julian.You don’t have to ask me for favors.I’m a sure thing.”
Julian cracked a grin at his brother’s cheekiness.“This is a bit delicate.My friend Denny from the band…”
“You’re representing his sister, right?”
“Yeah, that’s the case I want you to take over.”
“I thought you wanted to handle that one personally.”
“I did.Until I didn’t.”
“Um, okay.You’re being weird.”
“I’m aware, but I need you to take over, starting with some calls to our contacts at the LAPD about what’s going on with her husband, Gabriel Santana.He was detained a second time after he showed up at the apartment where they lived together and raised a ruckus when she and the kids were nowhere to be found.I need you to find out what’s going on with him and then report back to her.You ready for her number?”
“Yeah, go ahead.”
Julian found her number and recited it.
“Got it.”
“Thank you.”
“Are you going to tell her about this change in counsel?”
“I’ll take care of it.Put together the new retainer agreement with you as her counsel.I’ll drop it off to her when I pick up the assets and liability worksheets from her.”
“Okay…”
“Thank you.”
“You’re not going to tell me what’s going on?”
Julian wanted to air it out with someone, and Jackson was good about keeping their professional business private, but this wasn’t professional.This was as personal as it got, and he couldn’t tell anyone why he was handing Isla off to his brother without it blowing up into a big deal.
“That’s an awfully long pause, brother.”
“With the Smithson trial starting next week, I need to stay focused.That’s all it is.”
“Okay, I’m on it.Let me know when you’ve informed her of the handoff.”
“Will do.”
Julian ended the call feeling a little sick over having to tell Isla—and Denny—that he was turning her case over to Jackson.They would think it was because he had more important clients who’d pay him top dollar.He wished that was the reason.
Why her?
Why, after all this time in which he’d gone without a single attachment to any woman, had she appeared to shake up his entire existence?Was it because he’d recently seen Aimee and been reminded of what it’d been like to truly love someone the way he’d loved her?He’d forgotten the breathless ecstasy of it all… And he’d been better off without the reminder.His reaction to Isla had to be tied up in seeing Aimee and all the shit that had resurrected, things he hadn’t thought about—or felt—in ages.
He wanted to go back to before the Godfreys’ anniversary party so he could come down with a cold or something that would keep him from seeing the only woman he’d ever loved.Going into it, he’d understood he would see her and expected it to be nostalgic and maybe a bit amusing.
Instead, it’d been devastating.
Coming face-to-face with the one woman who’d worked her way all the way into his soul, resurfacing emotions he hadn’t experienced since the last time he’d been with her, had left him rattled and off his game for weeks now.It’d been a mistake of epic proportions to go to that party.If he’d had any sense of how upsetting it would be to see Aimee, to talk to her, to remember how insanely in love with her he’d been once upon a time… He would’ve stayed far, far away, despite both his parents telling their adult kids that they expected them all to attend their longtime friends’ party.
And into that strange state of being had walked Isla Santana to remind him he wasn’t immune to the kind of reaction that would thrill a normal person, who’d welcome a connection with a potential partner.He wanted nothing to do with that, which was one of two reasons he’d called in Jackson.The other was that he couldn’t effectively represent her when being in the same room with her sent him into a weird tailspin that he had neither the time nor the patience to deal with.
