know. “You used to be so sweet and meek.”
“That was back in the days when your badass scowl used to do it for me.” Delighted at whatever she saw in his face, she waggled a brow. “Okay, I’ll tell you, but first you have to tell me how you met her, and how it is that you were kissing her on her first night in town, and if you plan to fight Anderson for the rights to her rack.”
“Jeanne,” he said in warning.
“Use that tough-guy voice all you want. I’m not married to you. I don’t have to cave so that you’ll keep my feet-and other parts-warm at night.” With that, she scooped up all the signed checks and sashayed out of his office, humming “We Wish You a Merry Christmas.”
“You know where I’ll be,” she called back. “Sitting at my desk working my fingers to the bone. Oh, and I’m decorating your place for Christmas, so be afraid. Very afraid. Anytime you want to come up with some answers for me, I’ll be happy to do the same.”
Shit. Shaking his head, he turned to something new, drawing up plans for a new client in Portland who wanted a handmade front door with cherry overlay and stained glass. It would take weeks to construct and was the perfect job for when the weather went bad, which it always did for about a month after Christmas. He needed work for when the weather went bad-not for his bank account, which was plenty flush-but so that he wouldn’t be stuck with nothing to do but think.
Though all he could think at the moment was that Anderson had asked Maddie out.
He could hear Jeanne in the front room, talking to her computer. He’d gone to high school with her and had even briefly dated her-if one could really call it dating when all you did was climb the bluffs and make out. When he’d gone off to USC, she’d married Lucky Harbor’s high school quarterback and given him three kids. She was still happily married but bored beyond tears. So when Jax had come back to town five years ago, she’d shown up on his doorstep one day and announced that she was his new, perfect, part-time office assistant. Perfect because she had no interest in his money or his bed.
Which was a lie. She’d been harping on his heart and soul, trying to save him, ever since she’d demanded the assistant position. Not that he had much of a heart and soul left after he’d detonated both in his last job practicing law. He’d talked himself into embracing the lifestyle: the big salary, the corner office, the penthouse condo, the trophy fiancee. And he’d reaped the benefits, plenty of them.
The firm he’d worked for had been the best of the best at getting people acquitted of their white-collar crimes. It was a multibillion-dollar industry, and Jax had been good at it. Good at twisting the facts, good at misdirecting, good at getting their clients off with their crime of choice, even when it meant that innocent people paid the price.
Jax’s discontent over that had started small and slowly grown. And then came to a head when the wife of one of their clients had paid the ultimate price.
With her life.
Her husband had been guilty as hell, and Jax had known it. Hell, everyone had known it. Yet Jax had gotten the man acquitted of embezzling from his wife’s family, a family with known mob connections, so there’d been little sympathy for either side.
Except for the wife. She’d grown up as a pawn, and she’d been married off as a pawn. She’d never known life as anything else. An increasingly disenchanted Jax had known her enough to understand that when this went down, in all likelihood her assets would be confiscated and she’d be left penniless and alone. Unable to live with that, he’d broken attorney-client privilege to warn her, but instead of heeding his advice and taking off for parts unknown, she killed herself.
Forced to face his own part in her self-destruction, not to mention just how ethically indecent he’d become, Jax had quit. His fiancee left him shortly after. Game over. He’d left Seattle without looking back. Alone, unsettled, even angry, he’d somehow ended up back in Lucky Harbor.
The last place he’d been happy.
That had been five years ago. Sawyer had come back to town, as well, and after a wild, misspent youth had become a Lucky Harbor sheriff, of all things. Ford was around, in between sailing ventures that’d included the world-class circuit. The three of them had gravitated together as if they’d never been apart.
His first year back, Jax had lived on Ford’s second sailboat in the marina. He’d practiced a little law here and there, for friends only, and he’d hated it. So he’d gone back to basics, which for him had been building things with his own hands. As he’d worked on getting over himself, he’d designed and built the house he’d always wanted. He did what he could to give back to the community that had welcomed him without question, including somehow, surprisingly, being elected mayor two terms running.
He was jarred out of his musings when his father strode into his office and immediately set Jax on edge with nothing more than his stick-up-his-ass gait and ridiculously expensive suit. They hadn’t spent much time together, mostly because his father was still good and furious over what he saw as Jax’s failure in Seattle.
“Got a case for you.” His father tossed down the file.
This wasn’t surprising. His father often felt the need to manipulate his son’s emotions. Which was ironic, since Jax had been trained by the man himself that emotions and business never mix. Hell, in their little family of two, emotions didn’t even
“He said I should go home,” Jeanne said softly from the doorway. “I’m done for the day anyway,” she said in silent apology, jerking her head toward his father, indicating that they should try to talk.
Fat chance.
Jax didn’t often feel his temper stir. It took a lot, especially these days, but his father could boil his blood like no other. “Still minding your own business, I see,” he said when Jeanne had left.
“Get over yourself, son. This is a simple, open-and-shut case.”
Everything in Jackson Cullen’s world was open-and-shut-as long as he got his way. “If it’s so simple, you take it.”
“No, they want someone young, an up-and-comer.”
“I’ve up and come. And gone,” Jax reminded him. “Now if you could do the same…” He gestured to the door.
“Jesus Christ, Jax. It’s been five years since you let your job go. You let your fiancee go, too. Time to stop feeling sorry for yourself and get back on the horse.”
Jax shoved the file back across his desk and stood up. “Get out.”
“You’re not listening. Elizabeth Weston is thirty, loaded, beautiful, and her daddy’s going to be the next state governor.”
“Which matters why?”
“She’s looking to settle down. You’ll do.”
He choked out a laugh. “Now you’re whoring me out? Not that this surprises me.”
“What, you’re not seeing anyone, are you?”
Was he? He’d like to say hell, yes, but the facts were simple. He was guessing Maddie’s ex had been an attorney, and a real asshole, to boot. When she learned about Jax’s past, she’d run for the hills. Even if he somehow managed to show her that he’d changed, he doubted she’d understand his morally and emotionally bankrupt history. He wouldn’t expect her to.
Hell, just being a man was a strike against him. She wasn’t in a place to trust any person with a Y chromosome.
“A wife like Elizabeth will be an asset when you take over my practice,” his father said.
“I’ve told you, I’m not taking over your practice.”
“You’re a Cullen. You’re my only son. You have to take over the practice. I spent the past thirty-five years building it for you.”
“You built it for you,” Jax corrected. “Come on, Dad, doesn’t this ever get old? You bullying me, me refusing to be bullied. Hire an associate and be done with it.”
“This is asinine.” Jaw tight, his father scooped up the file and moved stiffly to the door. “No one can disappoint me quite the way you can.”
Ditto. “Dismiss Jeanne or interfere with my work again, and you won’t be welcome back.”
