Nick wasn’t fooled at all. He zeroed in on Allison with the military precision of the former Marine he was.
“Tell me more about Allison Kearney.”
I shrugged, acting as if I didn’t want to talk more about her, and then spent the next fifteen minutes doing just that.
When I was finished, he sat back, his expression thoughtful. “So, what are you going to do?”
“I don’t know.” I rubbed at the dull throb that had taken up in my forehead, index finger on one side, thumb on the other. “Got any suggestions?”
His wry grin was back. “I don’t know. Perhaps I could be persuaded if you share some of that.” He pointed at my hoagie.
“Deal.”
I opened the bag and gave him half, keeping the other half for myself. He took a bite and closed his eyes. “Manetti’s makes the best hoagies.”
I heartily concurred.
“So before I say anything, are you asking Nick Cerasino or Nick Penn for advice?”
“Does it matter?” I asked. My quiet brother and the best-selling romance author were one and the same.
“Not really,” he admitted.
That was what I was afraid of. “Give it to me.”
“Okay, first and foremost, you have to hire some help. Someone capable of taking some of the work off your hands, so you can concentrate on the important stuff.”
I nodded. It was on my list of things to do. My very long list.
“Second, you need to nip this thing with Stella in the bud before it goes too far.”
I sighed and nodded again, dreading that conversation even though I suspected it was long overdue. “I know.”
“And third, this thing with Allison Kearney ...”
I leaned forward, because this was the part I was most interested in.
“You need to let it go.”
I blinked, feeling cheated. “Let it go?”
“Let it go,” he repeated. “If you’re not willing to compromise your principles—and I’m not saying you should—then you’ve done what you can.”
He was right, of course. Hearing him affirm my earlier decision didn’t make me feel any better, however. In fact, it rankled me even more.
“Unless there’s a reason why you can’t let it go,” Nick added with a smirk ghosting his lips and a devious twinkle in his dark eyes.
“Like what?”
“Your conscience. The innate white-knight tendencies that drove you into family law services to begin with. Or”—his grin grew—“whatever it is that puts a gleam in your eye when you talk about her.”
I scoffed. “That’s Nick Penn talking.”
“True,” he agreed, “but in this case, it’s not fiction. That’s how I felt when I met Kat. And Vinnie gets that same gleam in his eye whenever he talks about Haven.”
I silenced the knee-jerk denial before it could cross my lips. It would come across as too defensive, a he doth protest too much kind of thing that would only fuel the fire.
Instead, I went with, “Spoken like a man in love.”
“Guilty as charged, Counselor.”
Which reminded me, I needed to get back to the office. I’d already wasted far too much time. “Good talk. I have to head back. Tell Kat I said hi.”
“I will. You can tell me how it works out at Sunday dinner.”
I said nothing, because I wasn’t sure I was going to be able to make it two weeks in a row.
“And don’t even think about skipping again unless you want Ma showing up at your office and dragging you in by your ear.”
I laughed and reflexively rubbed the shell of my ear, remembering our mother’s favorite method of getting our immediate and undivided attention. “Heard.”
I was near the door when I felt it—a strange, tingling sensation at the back of my neck, as if I was in someone’s sights. I slowed and turned toward one of the alcoves, my heart skipping a beat when I saw a pair of familiar sea-green eyes looking my way.
Chapter Five: Allison
I had known Cecilton was a relatively small town, but I hadn’t thought it was that small. If I was the type of person who believed in kismet—which I was not—I might take Paul Cerasino’s appearance in the bookstore as some kind of sign.
I didn’t. It was a random coincidence, a case of nothing more than being in the same place at the same time. It did, however, present an unexpected opportunity, and I wasn’t about to squander it.
He hadn’t seen me when he first arrived. I’d been slunk down in one of the high-backed cushy chairs, catching up on my email and making a prioritized to-do list, while my sister had tapped away on her refurbished laptop.
That didn’t mean I wasn’t paying attention to what was going on around us. I felt compelled to scan everyone who came through the doors. Miriam might believe Caleb had given up and moved on, but I wasn’t as trusting as she was when it came to her ex. Even with everything that had happened, I think part of her still loved him.
Paul—Mr. Cerasino—waved to the owner, the sweet older man Miriam had introduced me to earlier, and then moved toward the back, where he joined the studious-looking guy who’d been there all day. He was wearing the same suit and annoyingly still looked just as devastatingly handsome as he had in the elevator.
Does he still smell as good too? I wondered and then chastised myself for even considering it.
Miriam stopped typing, stretched, and reached for the bottle of water beside her. “Scenic view, right?”
Definitely. “Do you know them?”
“The guy with the glasses is here every day, like me. I think he might be the owner’s grandson—you know, the author one I was telling you about?”
I nodded.
“The other guy, I don’t know. Why?”
I lifted my shoulders in a casual shrug and reached for my cappuccino. “He’s the lawyer I saw this morning.”
After
