“If I say yes, how will this work?” he asked the older man.
Porter outlined the ideas he had about a partnership. “There’s another office in the back here. That’d be yours. Chelsea can probably handle working for both of us, but if that doesn’t pan out, we can always bring in someone else. I’ll start scaling back. I can’t say how much or how fast. Some of my clients may not want to change, and I’m not sure I’m ready to call it a day entirely, either.”
“Are you sure there’s enough work for two of us?” Connor asked.
“I know there’s more than I can handle,” the attorney said. “I say yes to everybody who walks through that door because right now I’m not willing to send them out of town to some stranger. There are plenty of other good lawyers in the area, but most folks like dealing with someone they know.”
What he was describing was a much slower pace than Connor was used to, but maybe having time for other priorities would be a good thing. Taking the job would mean a cut in pay, too, but the cost of living here would be much less. There were a lot of things he needed to weigh and consider.
“Let me think about this over the weekend,” Connor suggested. “Can we talk again on Monday morning before I go back to Baltimore?”
“Works for me,” Porter said, then bellowed in a surprisingly strong voice, “Chelsea, come in here!”
She popped her head in the door. “Yes?”
“Put Connor on my calendar for Monday morning.” He glanced at Connor. “Eight o’clock good for you?”
“I’ll be here,” Connor said.
“You have any questions over the weekend, give me a call. Otherwise, I’ll see you Monday morning first thing.”
Connor took another look around the office, then met Joshua Porter’s gaze. He thought of all the mentors he’d had in Baltimore. The men might be more polished and a whole lot wealthier, but few of them had told it like it was the way this man had. Connor instinctively liked and trusted Porter, and he liked even more the picture Porter had painted of practicing law in Chesapeake Shores.
He already knew what he was going to do, but he also knew he needed the weekend to let the idea percolate. It was a huge decision with lots of ramifications, including the fact that Heather and his son would be in his life on a daily basis.
That could be sweet torment or, if he let it, the best thing that had ever happened to him.
CHAPTER 14
Heather was in the middle of teaching her quilting class on Saturday morning when Megan dropped into the shop, her eyes alight with excitement.
“Do you have a minute?” she asked Heather, after greeting Laila, Connie and the other women in the class.
“We’ll be wrapping up in another hour,” Heather said. “Could it wait?”
“Go ahead, Heather,” Laila said. “We’re all ripping out stitches, anyway. It’ll just make you insane to watch us.”
Heather chuckled. “Who knew I’d wind up with a beginners class filled with perfectionists? Okay, I’ll be back in a minute.”
She joined Megan on the sidewalk outside the store. It was one of those rare spectacular days in June when the air was soft and springlike, rather than oppressive. It felt good to be outside, even for a few minutes. Heather studied Megan, who was barely managing to contain some kind of big news. “Okay, what’s up?”
“Have you spoken to Connor lately?”
Heather shook her head. “It’s been a couple of weeks. In fact, I was about to call and bug him because he hasn’t seen his son.”
“Not to worry. I imagine you’ll be seeing him before the weekend’s over.”
Heather regarded her with surprise. “He’s in town?”
“Came down yesterday. And do you want to know why?”
“To see little Mick, I imagine.”
“That, too, of course, but he was here to meet with Joshua Porter,” Megan announced, clearly brimming over with delight.
Heather shrugged, not getting what the fuss was about. “Who’s that?”
Megan looked disappointed by her reaction. “Oh, wait, I forgot that you weren’t actually here when all that paperwork for the shop and apartment was being signed. Porter’s an attorney, the only one we’ve had in town for years and years.”
“Why was Connor meeting with him? Does he need an attorney?” Unexpected panic suddenly tore through her. “He’s not going after full custody of our son, is he?”
“Heavens, no,” Megan said, looking horrified. “Connor would never do such a thing. He knows you’re a wonderful mother.”
Heather’s pulse slowed at Megan’s reassurance. “Then what’s this all about?”
“Well, Connor hasn’t said a word to me, but I do know that Porter was going to ask him to join his practice,” Megan told her. “They met yesterday afternoon to discuss it.”
Heather’s eyes widened, and her heartbeat accelerated all over again. “Here? Connor might practice law in Chesapeake Shores? I don’t believe it! For as long as I’ve known him, all he’s talked about was making partner in a big-time law practice.”
“Well, apparently he’s reconsidered. At least he seems to be taking Joshua’s offer seriously,” Megan told her, then studied her worriedly. “You’d be okay with that, right? I mean, you do think it would be for the best if he moved back here.”
Heather didn’t know what she thought. It would be great for little Mick to have his dad close by, but for her? It would mean facing, every single day, the fact that she and Connor weren’t going to have the life she’d once dreamed of. And it would be happening before she really had her feet solidly under her and had established a new and totally fulfilling life of her own.
“It’s not a done deal?” she asked eventually, hating that her
