For now, he was stuck when it came to his own case. And the solution he’d always relied on over the years was to find a different perspective. Approaching the situation from another direction.
Molly could offer a new viewpoint and an alternate approach. Drew held up Milo and looked into the cat’s clear blue eyes. “You’d like her. I like her. That’s why she can’t be involved.”
Milo yawned as if unimpressed by Drew’s argument.
“Molly has a daughter. A reputation she needs to rely on to grow her practice. She can’t afford to have an enemy, especially like mine, whoever that may be.” He returned to the living room and set Milo on the fluffy charcoal throw draped over the back of the sofa. “I have to do this alone.”
That meant he had to leave his flat. Go and search out a new perspective.
But he had no destination in mind. No specific place to go. It was Monday. A workday. His typical workday used to include jury selection, requests for evidentiary hearings, negotiating pleas and rendering decisions on charges.
It wasn’t a typical Monday. He checked his to-do list for inspiration. Only one item was listed: buy cat food.
Thanks to his sister-in-law, Drew was the proud owner of the two senior cats. Sophie owned a popular pet store and never could turn away any animal in need. Brad simply shook his head and called for reinforcements when Sophie’s pet store got too crowded with rescues. Drew was happy to oblige and volunteered at the pet store as often as he could.
He had a destination.
Felix scurried across the coffee table, swiping the last of the paperwork onto the floor. One long stretch and he rolled onto his back, covering the newly cleared table. Drew gathered the paperwork, offered Felix an approving rub under his chin and went into his bedroom for his running shoes.
He’d always lived alone until Milo and Felix had moved in. Now he couldn’t imagine not having the cats in his loft.
Twenty minutes later, Drew opened the front door of The Pampered Pooch. Chimes announced his arrival.
Evie appeared around an end cap in the center aisle and grinned. “Drew! What a nice surprise.”
“Just came for a quick visit. Running low on cat chow.” Drew hugged Evie and walked with her to the checkout counter.
“You look like you could use something sweet.” Evie leaned over and pushed a plastic container toward him. “Peanut butter. Just made this morning.”
Drew adored Evie, always had, ever since he’d been a kid. She was like Drew’s other mom. The mom that baked homemade cookies, remembered important dates and only offered advice when asked. Also, she always encouraged. However Evie’s real gift was listening.
Evie had the ability to pull a confession from Drew like no one else. Once, she’d needed no more than a warm-out-of-the-oven peanut butter cookie and a soft smile for Drew to admit he’d trampled her lilies to claim his baseball from her garden. Three cookies and he’d acknowledged he might have been the one who’d hit the baseball into her garage window and broke it in the first place.
Drew reached inside the container and grabbed a cookie. Sugar rushes might have loosened his tongue as a kid and had him revealing things to Evie he’d never intended to, but he had better control now. “You’re still my favorite lady.”
“Speaking of ladies, Molly McKinney is certainly a lovely woman.” Evie snapped the lid closed and tucked the container away.
He swallowed the bite of his cookie. The amusement in Evie’s gaze evaporated any happy cookie rush inside him. Uncertainty, not the peanut butter, made his words stick together. “Why are you talking about Molly?”
“Why not?” Evie rearranged the quick-sale items on the counter, sorting the plastic balls with bells inside by color. “I’d like to know more about her.”
Drew only knew the Molly from his past. But the Molly he’d run into at the courthouse, the one he’d been with at the gala and the mom he hadn’t known she was, intrigued him. He could want to get to know the woman Molly was now.
Learn why she still tucked her hair behind her left ear only. Why she always looked Hazel in the eyes when she spoke to her daughter. And how she always captured his full focus. As if she were—and had always been—the center of his world.
He blinked, cursed fate and bad timing, then stammered, “You should go to lunch with her. She likes spicy nachos the same as you.” At least he assumed Molly still liked spicy foods.
He knew what college student Molly had liked and disliked. Knew he had enjoyed being with Molly back then. And being with Molly now was both familiar and disorienting. Perhaps if he stopped reminiscing, he’d see Molly for who she had become. Then he’d realize his past, including his former feelings for a classmate, had no place in the present.
“Maybe I will ask Molly to lunch.” Evie chuckled. “What about you?”
Drew located Evie’s small thermos of her specially blended Irish cream coffee under the counter. “I’m off to spend time in the cat room.”
And not spend time with Molly. Nor getting to know Molly. Because spending time with Molly and getting to know her would not win him his freedom. Or help her build her new practice.
“People come into our lives for all different reasons, Drew. Some folks stay. Some leave.” Evie wiped off the counter. Her voice was knowing. “It’s when those people return that we need to
