“Noah . . .”
“Yes?”
“Nothing. You just sounded, I don’t know . . .”
“Semi-desperate?”
“Sort of, yeah.”
“I really want to see you, Jenna.”
“Best if we wait. Okay?”
The engine rumbled more loudly, and a deep male voice shouted something Jenna did not need to understand. Noah said, “The guys out back have discovered I’m in here having too good a time. Got to run.”
She wished him well, cut the connection, and drove south. Enjoying how he was still there with her. Even on a day like this.
* * *
The closer Jenna came to San Luis Obispo, the harder it was to hold on to good feelings of any kind. By the time she worked her way through the morning traffic and pulled into the building’s parking garage, she was looking for the exit. For the first time ever, she approached Sol’s office with a very real dread. There was no choice, not really. Else she would not have made the trip in the first place.
Sol’s office occupied an entire floor in a modern structure built to fit into the city’s old town, with stucco walls and wooden balconies and a barrel-tiled roof. The reception area was done in sunburst tones, the walls holding desert landscapes by local artists. The sitting area was comfortable, with spaces big enough to permit groups to talk unheard. Jenna thought the area suited the man, as did all of the other lawyers and associates she had met. Open, straight-talking, determined, smart. And caring.
She greeted the receptionist, refused the offer of a coffee, and wished she had never agreed to serve as executor of the old man’s estate. Dying request or not. She should have washed her hands of the whole affair.
Shoulda. Woulda. Coulda.
“Jenna. Hi.” Sol was dressed in navy trousers to a fancy suit, striped shirt, nice tie. He held open the little gate and ushered her back. As they started down the side corridor, he murmured, “The vultures are gathering.”
She personally thought snakes was a better way to describe the clan. Every contact she’d had with Dino’s family had been laced with avaricious venom. And now this. Hours trapped in Sol’s largest conference room, surrounded by the clan and their lawyers, listening to them whine and moan and accuse her of everything under the sun . . .
Sol surprised her then. He gripped the handle to the conference room door, looked back at her, and whispered, “This is going to be fun.”
Jenna was so worked up, she could scarcely take in what she just heard. Then she was inside. Doing her best to ignore the angry expressions, the eyes glinting with bitter greed. Eloise, Dino’s older daughter, demanded, “What isshedoing here?”
“Dino Vicenza appointed Ms. Greaves co-executor, as you well know.” Sol directed Jenna into the seat to his right. “Let’s see. We’re still waiting on Ms. Laura Raye, correct?”
“Mom is eternally late,” her son, Auburn, replied. “Let’s get on with it.”
“Sorry. According to the terms of Mr. Vicenza’s will, that’s not—” He was interrupted by a tap on the door. “And here she comes now.”
The crabby woman who had confronted Jenna on Dino’s front steps was dressed in the latest fashion, which might have looked fine on a younger woman. Jenna watched the family shift around, making reluctant room for Laura and her lawyer. She found herself admiring the recently departed, the way he had accepted their natures with quiet resignation. And then dismissed the lot. Refusing to allow their personalities and lifestyles to invade him at his weakest. Even if it meant he was alone at the end. Even if his only friend was a nurse there to monitor his final days.
Laura glared down the table, taking aim at Jenna. “Who is that?”
“You know full well it’s Dino’s nurse,” her son replied.
“I am not sitting atanytable withthatone.”
“That is certainly your right,” Sol replied. His tone was deceptively calm. Even pleasant. “But according to your father’s instructions, the will cannot be read without her being present.”
“Settle down, Mom. Let’s get this over with.”
When she fumed in silence, Sol opened the slender file on the table before him and began, “We are gathered here . . .”
Jenna found it astonishingly easy to shut it all out. She shifted her gaze to the side window and could almost see Dino’s smile shining there in the brilliant sunlight. Like he shared her wish to be elsewhere. Incredible how a man that old, that close to the final door, could have held on to not just his vitality but also his sense of humor. Not to mention his iron-hard refusal to divulge anything about his past. As if he was determined to do what he could and live that one day. Even if it was his last. Even if . . .
Her attention was jolted back to the room when Sol said, “There are three conditions to your receiving anything from the late Mr. Vicenza. These codicils are as follows. First, your attorneys will be barred from participating in any and all proceedings related to the disbursal—”
