by Beth Orsoff
Game Changer
By Beth Orsoff
Copyright ©2014 Beth Orsoff
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, transmitted, or stored in a database or retrieval system, using any means or method now known or hereafter devised, without the prior written permission of the copyright holder.
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are the product of the author's imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, businesses, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.
Acknowledgments
A big thank you to my beta readers and proof readers: Al, Allie, Laura, Patti, Steve, Vickie and Win. I couldn’t do it without you guys! And to my readers, YOU are the reason I can call myself an author, so with heartfelt gratitude, a huge thank you to you too.
Other Books by Beth Orsoff
Romantically Challenged
Honeymoon for One
Girl in the Wild
Disengaged
Vlad All Over
Vlad to the Bone
Prologue
Samantha
They say you can’t choose your family, but that’s not true. You can’t choose the family you were born into. You can choose the family you marry into. Although you can’t choose the family your family marries into. Not that my family hasn’t tried.
Chapter 1
Samantha
“It’s not too late,” I said, waving the sheaf of paper in front of my sister’s face. “You’re not getting married for another”—I glanced at my watch—“fifty-six hours. That’s plenty of time to get a pre-nup signed.”
Whitney’s normally pale cheeks turned bright pink. “I swear to God, Samantha, if you bring that up one more time, I’m going to disown you.”
“You can’t disown me,” I said as I followed her through the obstacle course of clothes, shoes, and purses she called a bedroom. “You don’t even have a will. Although you should.” An argument we’d had at least a hundred times.
She spun around so fast we almost collided. “Can you stop being a lawyer for one goddamn second?”
A rhetorical question.
“You know how hard this is for me,” she continued, “and instead of helping, you’re making things worse.” I could already see the tears pooling in her bright green eyes. “Can’t you just be happy for me?” she yelled before the first drop escaped. Then she ran into the bathroom and slammed the door shut.
I refused to feel guilty. I had nothing to feel guilty for. I was only trying to protect her. This was no different than when Whitney was five years old and I was twelve and Kimberly Koslowski, the brat who moved in down the street from us, told Whitney she couldn’t go to the Father’s Day Picnic because she didn’t have a father. I was the one who punched Kimberly in the stomach, then got sentenced to two weeks of detention. And no different than when our mother died when Whitney was fourteen and I had just turned twenty-one. I was the one who went to court so Whitney could live with me instead of our father, who didn’t really want her anyway.
So of course when Whitney had told me she wanted to marry some guy she’d met at a bar ten days earlier, I’d tried everything I could to stop her, including hiring a private investigator to make sure he wasn’t a con artist, rapist, or felon (he wasn’t), insisting he sign a pre-nup (he agreed, it was my sister who’d refused), and feigning a potentially serious illness in an attempt to slow down the process (my sister was really angry when she found out about that one). So I absolutely refused to feel guilty over inciting a few pre-wedding tears.
Yet somehow I still did.
“Whitney, I’m sorry,” I said through the locked bathroom door. “It’s not that I’m not happy for you.”
She flung the door open, granting me full view of her swollen eyes and tear-stained cheeks. “No, you just think I’m making the biggest mistake of my life,” she yelled before slamming the door shut again. But this time she didn’t lock it.
I pushed the door open and found my sister slumped on the toilet seat, so I sat down on the edge of the tub. “I didn’t say it was the biggest mistake of your life. You’re young. You have plenty of time to make even bigger mistakes.”
Whitney glared at me, but I continued to smile at her and she eventually cracked. She almost always did. Just as I almost always relented when she needled me. The fun was in seeing which one of us would cave first—at least according to my best friend, Jenna.
“Thanks for the vote of confidence,” Whitney said. Her voice was still chilly, but I sensed an impending thaw.
I relaxed my smile into a full-faced grin. “Hey, that’s what sisters are for, right?”
“You mean they’re not to annoy the shit out of you?” she retorted.
“No, they’re for that too.”
Even though it wasn’t funny, we both started laughing anyway, and before long we were gasping for breath. You would’ve thought we were little kids again instead of a twenty-five-year-old actress and a thirty-two-year-old divorce attorney.
When the guffaws receded into giggles, I said, “Whit, you know I just want you to be happy, right?”
“Yeah, I know,” she said. “That’s why I’ve forgiven you for being the worst maid of honor ever.”
“Ever? C’mon, there must be worse maids of honor than me. It’s not like I slept with Michael and tried to steal him away from you.”
“No, you’re too smart for that. You think you can stop me with legal maneuvers.”
I waved the papers in front of her face again. “Hey, if your marriage can’t survive a little pre-nup—”
She threw her arms up and screamed. Then we both heard the banging on the front door. I was the one who ran downstairs to answer it.
“Is there blood?” Jenna asked as she stepped inside. “Should I be dialing nine-one-one?”
“No,” Whitney shouted from the top step. “At least not yet,” she added as she bounded down the staircase, her honey-blonde ponytail bouncing behind her.
“Where are you off to?” Jenna asked, although I thought the boxing gloves draped around my sister’s neck were a dead giveaway.
“The gym,” Whitney said. “I’m going to kick the shit out of a defenseless punching bag. And if that doesn’t work, I’ll be returning with a gun, so you might want to keep nine-one-one on speed dial.”
“Sounds serious,” Jenna said, turning to me.
“It’s not,” I replied. “Whitney’s just being her usual dramatic self.”
Whitney gave me an exaggerated eye roll, merely proving my point. “I’ll try to remember that we’re sisters when I’m pummeling your alter ego.”
“Yeah, I’ll try to do the same when I’m throwing all your crap out onto the street.”
“Love you,” she said and graced me with her best smile, the one that had been making everyone, and especially men, fall in love with her since before she could speak. Then she sailed past me toward the front door.
“Love you too,” I replied as she slammed it shut in my face.
“Seriously,” Jenna said, handing me her shopping bag, which was surprisingly heavy. How many linen samples had she brought with her? I was hosting a rehearsal dinner, not a black-tie gala. “Everything okay? I could hear the two of you from the driveway.”
“We’re fine,” I said, leading her into the kitchen. “Whitney’s diving into the shallow end, and I’m trying to ruin her life.”
She dropped her purse on the counter and hopped up onto a barstool. “So same old, same old?”
“Exactly,” I said and we both laughed. Jenna knew our routine. She’d been listening to it for sixteen years. She also knew how I felt about my sister’s impending marriage.
“Ya know,
” Jenna said as I poured two cups of coffee from the still-warm pot, “it’s possible that she really has found true love.”
I snorted. “True love at a nightclub? I don’t think so.”
“It’s love at first sight. What does it matter where that sighting took place?”
I inhaled the rich, dark scent emanating from my mug. My sister was headstrong, impulsive, and a slob, but she made excellent coffee. “Lust is more like it.”
Jenna smiled. “There’s nothing wrong with lust, Sam.”
“I never said there was.” I was a firm believer in lust—in the abstract. It had been almost a year since I’d partaken in any myself, but based on the books all of my friends had been reading lately, lust was alive and well.
“Then maybe you should try it sometime.”
She was goading me. Jenna knew I had no one special in my life. There weren’t even any candidates for the role. “With anyone in particular? Or were you suggesting I place an ad on Craigslist?”
“Not Craigslist,” she said. “But a dating site would work.”
I leaned in. “Never. Going. To. Happen. Eeeever.”
“Why not?”
“Are you done with your coffee?” I asked, grabbing the still-half-full cup from her hand.
“No,” she said as I poured it down the drain.
“Oops. Sorry.”
“No, you’re not. You’re just trying to redirect my attention.”
Of course I was. We’d discussed my refusal to use dating websites aka the cheating man’s (and woman’s) best friend many times. No need to re-litigate the issue. “Did it work?”
“No,” she said and glanced at her watch, “but I need to be in Beverly Hills in half an hour, so I don’t have time to fight with you.” Then she reached into her shopping bag and pulled out six linen napkins in various shades of white. “Pick one.”
I pointed to the napkin with the darkest hue thinking that it would show the least amount of dirt.
“Ecru? Seriously? For a rehearsal dinner?”
“What’s wrong with ecru for a rehearsal dinner?”
Jenna shook her head. “I’m ordering you the porcelain with the inlaid floral pattern.”
“If you were just going to choose for me, why did you even bother showing them to me?”
“That’s a good question,” she said as she tossed all six napkins back into the shopping bag, not even bothering to get my opinion on the tablecloths. “I’ll be sure to discuss that with my shrink.”
I laughed. “Don’t waste your money. I can tell you for free. It’s all about your need to control things.”
“Oh, that’s rich coming from you,” she said as she pawed the interior of her giant purse.
“I don’t try to control things.”
She pulled out her car keys and looked up. “Seriously? You don’t think you have control issues?”
But before I could answer, Jenna’s phone rang and she mouthed, “Gotta run,” as she dealt with what sounded like yet another hysterical bride. The conversations always started the same—“Jenna, help! The most important day of my life is about to be ruined!”
I had to laugh. As if someone’s wedding day was the most important day of their life! Didn’t these women realize more than half of all marriages ended in divorce? Whenever I reminded Jenna of that fact, which was often, she just said, “At least they’re in love, not all bitter and angry like your clients.”
Jenna’s characterization. My own characterization of my clients was wise—especially the ones who sought my advice before the wedding. They knew love didn’t last. Of course those clients were usually on their second or third marriages. The ones on their first marriage generally hired me after they’d said their I do’s—when it was too late for me to save them from their foolish choices. Ah, well, it was a living.
Chapter 2
Jake
“I need a divorce lawyer,” Jake Jensen said to the gorgeous brunette standing before him. He hadn’t hired Caroline for her looks. In fact, her perfect tits and shapely ass had almost prevented him from offering her the job. Work was for work, and her taut body, which she showed to full advantage with tight skirts and plunging necklines, was a distraction. But when she’d managed to soothe an irate client who had burst into Jake’s office during her interview, he’d known she was more than just a potential fuck. Jake had offered her the job immediately and vowed he would never make a move on her, one of the few vows relating to women that he’d kept in his thirty-three years. Los Angeles was overflowing with beautiful women, but great assistants were hard to find.
“You’re not even married,” Caroline replied in her slight southern drawl. “Or is there something you’re not telling me?”
Jake laughed. “You know more about my life than I do!”
In addition to answering his phones, juggling his schedule, and most important, massaging the egos of his high-maintenance clients, Caroline handled every aspect of Jake’s personal life too. From making sure his fish were fed (she’d fired his old housekeeper and hired one who cared for pets as well as cleaned toilets), to confirming that all his bills were paid on time (she’d found him a business manager when she’d discovered a stack of past due notices among his mail), no detail was too small to escape Caroline’s eagle eyes.
“She’s better than a wife,” Jake had told his buddy Mark just last week. It was supposed to have been a boys’ night out, but Mark’s wife, Rita, had tagged along. Jake hadn’t minded. He’d always enjoyed sparring with Rita, much more so now that she was married to his best friend than for the six weeks he and Rita had dated back in college. “She does everything for me and makes zero demands.”
“That’s called a prostitute,” Rita had said.
“No,” Jake had corrected her, “Caroline only performs nonsexual services.”
“And you think that’s why men hire prostitutes?” Rita asked. “For sex?”
“So I’m told.” He had occasionally hired prostitutes for his clients but never for himself—a fact he was proud of. Most of his colleagues at Morris, Mitchell & Jensen, the sports management firm where Jake had worked his way up from gopher to partner, couldn’t say the same. “But you would know better than me, Rita.”
She laughed. “I suppose I would.”
Rita had been a social worker at a women’s shelter before she’d given it up to become a stay-at-home mom. And despite all of Jake’s teasing her for being “one of those annoying bleeding-heart liberals,” he had supported the shelter with generous donations, which he’d prodded his clients to make as well.
“Earth to Jake,” Caroline said, bringing him back to the present. “The divorce lawyer?”
“For Selena Chase.” A tennis player client whose career was on the rise but whose husband was a liability. Not that Jake would ever say that to Selena. He’d made that mistake early on in his career, and it had cost him a client. Now he kept his opinions of his clients’ significant others to himself. “Find a woman. And make sure she’s a ballbuster. I don’t want that lowlife taking her to the cleaners.”
“Will do. Anything else?”
“Yes, I need you to reserve the VIP room at Lux for Friday night.”
“Guest list?” she asked, pen in hand.
“Talk to Mark. It’s his brother-in-law’s bachelor party,” he added in response to her raised eyebrows. “I’m merely the guy with the connections. And you might as well book a stripper while you’re at it.”
“Just one?” she asked.
Jake smiled. The agency usually booked several strippers for client parties. At least for the male clientele. “Yes. My gift to the groom. Everyone else is on their own.”
Caroline allowed a sly grin to break through her otherwise businesslike demeanor. “And for the bride? Should I order a Chippendale dancer?”
Jake let out a laugh. “Something off the registry, please.”
“You boys have all the fun,” she said before turning on her very high heel and sauntering back to her
desk.
Just for today, Jake granted himself permission to admire the view.
Chapter 3
Samantha
I pulled my car into my reserved parking space—one of the perks of making partner—and headed toward the elevator bank. I laughed to myself as I walked the length of two football fields in my uncomfortable shoes. My reserved parking space was actually farther from the elevators than the spot I used to park in when I was still a senior associate. But when Klein, Evans & Keeler, one of the top family law firms in Los Angeles, had offered me a partnership, I wasn’t about to turn it down. Even though Jenna thought I should’ve.
“But you were all set to go out on your own,” she’d cried when I’d told her my good news over celebratory cocktails. “I already picked out furniture for your new office.”
“I’ll let you redecorate my old office.”
“It’s not the same,” she’d said and pouted into her martini.
“Jenna, I’m the youngest person to ever make partner at KEK. The only one who isn’t a Klein, Evans, or Keeler, or related to one by blood or marriage.”
“So?”
“So this is a big deal.”
“They only offered it to you because they knew you were going to leave and take all your rich and famous clients with you.”
“First, not all of my clients are rich and famous.” I’d gotten lucky my second year out of law school by getting a good result for a then-unknown actress client. Six months later my previously unknown actress client shot to stardom, acquiring many famous friends, who then called me when their famous marriages famously imploded. “And second, of course that’s why they offered me a partnership. I’m not stupid.”
“Then why are you acting stupid? If you’re going to work eighty hours a week for someone, it might as well be for yourself. Isn’t that what you told me when I was thinking about starting my own company?”